Me 262 should have been used as a bomber?

[tcolvin]

Originally Posted by John Vasco

Go get a copy of some guy's book on the Luftwaffe's fighter-bomber unit in 1940 and see what they did to a lot of targets in 1940...

Please recommend a good book concerning the LW's fighter bombers in 1940. I must read it.
Nothing I've seen so far, apart from the destruction of the Polish army in 1939 which lacked Flak, about the early years of WWII fighter-bombers showed them as any more effective than the Typhoons of 2-TAF in 1944/1945. Their activity was curtailed in March 1945 due to high losses from Flak.
My reading is that the Me262 would have been a faster Typhoon, ineffective and unable to survive over the battlefield.

[RT]

To add; concerning the unused of fighter-bomber due to Flak, the fact that when the SG4 first use the Pz-blitz in dec.44 in Elsass, they concluded that their use was impossible due to the density of the Flak they found

"Pz-blitz + M8 zwecklos ist, da das Verhältnis v. erfolg z. Verlust zu ungesund "

rémi

[leonventer]

Originally Posted by tcolvin

Please recommend a good book concerning the LW's fighter bombers in 1940. I must read it.

Hi tcolvin,

It appears you didn't pick up on it, but John Vasco's message above contains a self-effacing reference to his own fine book, "Messerschmitt Bf 110 Bombsights over England: Erprobungsgruppe 210 in the Battle of Britain", published by Schiffer in 2002, ISBN 0764314459. (An earlier edition was published by JAC in 1990.)

The revised edition is available from Amazon and Schiffer for about $50.

Leon Venter

[tcolvin]

Originally Posted by leonventer

Hi tcolvin,

It appears you didn't pick up on it, but John Vasco's message above contains a self-effacing reference to his own fine book, "Messerschmitt Bf 110 Bombsights over England: Erprobungsgruppe 210 in the Battle of Britain", published by Schiffer in 2002, ISBN 0764314459. (An earlier edition was published by JAC in 1990.)

The revised edition is available from Amazon and Schiffer for about $50.

Leon Venter

Thanks for that, Leon.
I have Chris Goss' book published in 2003, "LW Fighter-bombers Over Britain". He described the experience of Erprobungsgruppe 210. And Chris quotes Galland's conclusion that, "apart from their nuisance value, (the Jabos) achieved very little of any military value". The same conclusion applies IMHO to the subject of Chris' book, the tip-and-run attacks in 1942/3 developed by Frank Liesendahl who, by the way and IIRC, developed his appetite for ground attack after killing Poles on the Bzura.
It is Galland's judgment that needs detailed analysis if the subject is to be advanced. I gather this has not occurred, either because the data does not exist, or it would take too long to assemble, or no one believes it would add much to our knowledge.
It has always seemed to me that because British Flak was so undeveloped in 1940, that conditions for fighter-bombers were as ideal as they would ever be after the Polish campaign. This did not apply to Russia; LW pilots who overflew Moscow said they got a far hotter reception than they ever did over London. But even with little Flak the fighter-bombers achieved little over Britain. And as for 2-TAF, who flattered the LW by imitating it in 1944/45, they were done for by the lethal German Flak.

Tony