Me 262 should have been used as a bomber?

[Roger Gaemperle]

Originally Posted by Graham Boak

Roger: can you identify Ar 234 flights over England? I know of none.

Graham, on September 9, 1944, Erich Sommer received orders to fly a reconnaissance sortie over the Thames Estuary. He carried this out the next day, extending the flight to cover London.

Yes, you are right, the 1:1 is only valid if you disregard the imbalance in numbers of aircraft employed (as I wrote in my last post as well).

Originally Posted by Six Nifty .50s

All this was well known to Me 262 pilots and their superiors. After a flyer from JG 7 claimed three Mosquitos (flying at heights not identified by the unit historian) Hermann Goering was apparently sceptical when he joked that it was a phenomenal achievement for a plane with engines that stop above 6,000 meters and self-destruct at speeds above 750 km/hr.

Hermann Goering was not sceptical, he just ironically referred to the Allied propaganda that the engines would stop above 6'000meters and self-destruct above 750 km/hr as the achievement demonstrated that this was not true.

Again, to summarize:
the Spitfire had a speed of 718 km/h at 7,9 km (source: Franek).
the Me 262 had a speed of 859 km/h at 8,0 km (source: Mtt Versuchsbericht 29 L 44)

The bombs made a difference of 35km/hr at 6km. Without bombs it was certainly possible to fly higher, Franek. While drag dictated speed, weight together with speed dictated the rate of climb (simplified). If it was less heavy, then less speed was required to produce the upward thrust to keep it at level flight. So, less weight, higher service ceiling.

Formation flight at 14'000m would not have been necessary if you attack single recon airplanes. Formation flight was much more important when attacking bomber formations.

Therefore, IMHO the reason for the few high altitude sorties were less due to poor performance but much more due to:

1) lacking pressurized cabin which prevented pilots to fly above 12'000meters

2) only few occasions where an interception would have been possible due to the time it took to rise to 14'000m. The interception would have required a well organized guidance via radio, which was often a problem.

3) The main focus for the Me 262 were the bombers. On 5 January, Hitler ordered on advice of Speer the Me 262 to be used primarily against bombers. It was estimated that in the long run the US could produce only one bomber as opposed to three fighters for the equivalent of one German fighter due to the increased demand on aluminum.

Regards
Roger Gaemperle