Nachtjagd fitted with Me 262 / November 1944

[Henofred]

Hello/Bonjour,

The diary of the 1st escadrille of Free French No. 347 Squadron "Tunisie" reports that Lieutenant Courvalin's crew shot down a jet aircraft on 2 November 1944 during a mission over Düsseldorf. The account is quite detailed and gives the impression of actual contact rather than just a fleeting sighting by an isolated man. Was the Me 262 deployed on a mission that night? Perhaps aircraft from Erprobungskommando 262? As Kommando Welter had not yet entered into operations, right?

Best regards,
Frederic

[Nick Beale]

At the moment I can only think of I./KG 51 (Rheine) and Kommando Nowotny (Achmer) as active Me 262 units on 2 November. Düsseldorf would have been in range for either but I don't know of evidence for them flying at night.

[Henofred]

Hello Nick,

Thank you for the reply. The 10./NJG 1 later flew on Me 262s, and in my opinion, the two units you mentioned were only supposed to fly during the day. In any case, there is no evidence of night flights for both.

Best regards,
Frederic

[Kaczmarek]

Bonjour Fredéric,

the only units which flown on this date were Kdo. Nowotny and K.G.(J) 51. No known losses regarding combats with bombers.
The bomber crews reports shows a lot of sightings of "jet propelled aircraft" or other exotic aircrafts and combats with it.

À bientôt
René

[Henofred]

Hello René,

Merci beaucoup for this clarification, and it seems to me that Kommando Nowotny and K.G.(J) 51 only flew during day, right?

Best regards,
Frederic

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Henofred

Hello René,

Merci beaucoup for this clarification, and it seems to me that Kommando Nowotny and K.G.(J) 51 only flew during day, right?

Best regards,
Frederic

As far as i know, neither flew at night — Kommando Nowotny seemed to have quite enough problems learning to operated the Me 262 in daylight.

Also, KG 51 was not designated KG(J) — it was not on the 23 November 1944 list of bomber units designated for conversion to the fighter role:

Stab/KG 6 I./KG 6 II./KG 6 III./KG 6

Stab/KG 27 I./KG 27 II./KG 27 III./KG 27

Stab/KG 30 I./KG 30 II./KG 30

Stab/KG 55 I./KG 55 II./KG 55 III./KG 55

All of those had been withdrawn from bomber operations in September, KG 51 remained operational on the Me 262 all the way through.

[mig2830]

Hi, By November 2, 1945 there were no night fighting ME262s. Only day fighting. The convertion of the ME262 to fly single seated by night were starting at test facility Rechlin and there is a entry in the KTB from Rechlin, that the tests were conducted and marked as succes (ready for night fighting missions) on November 22, 1945.

So there were NO night fighting over Düsseldorf by early November 1945 or at any other time for that matter.

The later night fighting with ME262s were done over Berlin and were carried out by 10./NJG11, first known as Kommando Welter.

[Kaczmarek]

I did not write that these units flew at night.

Yes of course the K.G. 51 don't receive the additional designation "(J)". My mistake.

The K.G. 54 is missing from the enumeration.

Rgds,

[Henofred]

Hello/Bonjour,

Many thanks, gentlemen, for these discussions. So, to return to my initial question, we can safely say that on 2 November 1944, no Me 262s were used in night missions. BTW mig2830, typing error(?), as I believe it should read 1944 rather than 1945.

Best regards,
Frederic

[mig2830]

Yes, typing error, 1944 it is