Me-410 abilities as a bomber destroyer-Two Opinions

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by George Hopp

the Me 410, at maximum take-off weight for the A-2 Zerstorer (11030 kg) couldn't reach the B17's critical altitude.

I think that Haberlen' comments have to be read in the context of airmen's memoirs in general and Luftwaffe ones in particular. I've read several of those where the writer was keen to stress that his comrades fought bravely in the face of overwhelming odds and Allied technical superiority. That's a human reaction that we're all prone to, a more palatable memory than, for example, "man-for-man and plane-for-plane they beat us fair and square."

But memoirs also show something else, that individual aircraft were thought by their pilots to be good or bad examples of the type. The same was true of aircraft they met in combat: regardless of the performance data, people write of being unable to catch or turn with a particular Bf 109 or Typhoon or whatever. The explanation probably lay in the individuals at the controls but we'll never know for certain.