Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe turbojet fighter

In the summer of 1944 there was no doubt that the Germans were far ahead the Allies in the production of turbojet fighters. The 25th July 1944 a British Mosquito aircraft from the 544th Squadron, flying in a reconnaissance mission at an altitude of 9100 meters over Munich, suffered a series of cannon attacks from a very fast aircraft, before managing to narrowly escape by hiding within the clouds, to finally crash when attempting a landing in Fermo, Italy. This was the first attack ever performed by a turbojet fighter and the attacking aircraft was later identified as the Messerschmitt Me 262.

DEVELOPMENT

The work in the project of the Me 262 had started in September 1939, one month after the first turbojet aircraft in the world, the Heinkel He 178, had flown with success. But due to the delays in the development of satisfactory engines, to the massive damage caused by the Allied bombings to the German industry and to the later obsession of using this aircraft as a bomber instead of a fighter, almost four years passed between the first outlines of the Me 262 and its entry into service. Finally, in July 1943 a demonstration of the prototype was made before the High Command of the Luftwaffe, being Hermann Goering among the attendants. Goering talked with enthusiasm to Hitler about the new fighter aircraft, but the Fuhrer refused to give priority to the Me 262, prohibiting its serial production, a decision that would delay the entire program for six months. It was not until November 1943 that Hitler witnessed the Me 262 in flight, when the sixth prototype (named Me 262 V-6) performed a demonstrative flight to Insterburg, in Eastern Prussia. During the demonstration Hitler asked to Goering whether the Me 262 could be adapted to carry bombs and Goering, who some time ago had made the same question to Messerschmitt, replied that it was theoretically possible. Then Hitler showed a sudden enthusiasm about the new aircraft, for this could be the Blitz (Lightning) bomber that he had been waiting for.

Shortly after the Luftministerium (Air Ministry) ordered the entering into production of the Me 262 and in the late 1943 the program of the new turbojet fighter aircraft was given top priority. In December 1943 flew for the first time the Me 262 V-8, the first model which carried the full armament of four MK 108 30-millimeter cannons installed in the nose of the aircraft. The firing trajectories of these cannons, which were to be used in combination with the Revi 16B reflector gunsight, were set to converge at a distance of 500 meters. Each of the two upper cannons had a 100-round magazine whereas each of the two lower cannons had a 80-round magazine. Despite the numerous inconveniences, including the fact that the factories to create the structure and the assembling plants were very dispersed on several locations to minimize the damage caused by the Allied bombings, the production of the Me 262 started to get a good pace in April 1944. The original objective was to achieve a monthly production of 1000 aircraft in May 1945, but it was soon seen that this number would never be reached. Actually, the largest number of monthly production ever reached was 280. This happeded in March 1945 and was a notable production having in mind that the German aeronautical industry had been forced to abandon many of its factories due to the fast Allied advances. At the end of 1944 730 exemplars had been finished and during the first months of 1945 another 564 were completed.

SERVICE LIFE

Despite the obsession of turning the Me 262 into a "lightning" bomber this aircraft entered production as a pure fighter. It entered service in August 1944 in a trials unit known as Erprobungskommando (Test Command) 262 (EK 262), in Lechfeld, near Augsburg. In the beginning the unit was under the command of Captain Werner Thierfelder, who died when his aircraft crashed and set ablaze during one of the first operational missions of the unit. His successor was Commander Walter Nowotny, who being only 23 years old was already one of the best fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe, with a tally of 258 victories, of which 255 had been achieved in the Eastern Front. In the late October the Kommando Nowotny (as the unit was called by then) had reached full operational status and thus it was sent to the airfields at Achmer and Hesepe, near Osnabruck, in the route of approximation of the diurnal bomber aircraft of the USAAF. Due to the scarcity of adequately trained pilots and to technical problems the Kommando Nowotny could effectuate only three or four daily raids against the enemy bomber formations. Still so, in November 1944 their Me 262 managed to shoot down 22 aircraft. However, at the end of the month the unit had only 13 aircraft in operation from a total of 30. This high percentage of attrition was due more to accidents than to the enemy activity.

During the last weeks of 1944 the Me 262 was the prime threat for the Allied air superiority. In that time two versions were being developed parallely: the Me 262A-1a Schwalbe (Swallow), which was the fighter variant, and the Me 262A-2a Sturmvogel (Storm Bird), which was the fighter-bomber variant. In September 1944 this latter was assigned to the Kampfgeschwader (Bomber Squadron) 51 "Edelweiss". Another bomber squadrons provided with this model in that date were the KG 6, the KG 27 and the KG 54. The entering into combat was delayed by problems which emerged during the operational training but still in the autumn of 1944 the Me 262 started to appear in increasing numbers, performing low-altitude attacks against enemy targets, mainly moving columns. There were also two reconnaissance versions, the Me 262A-1a/U3 and the Me 262A-5a. These aircraft flew almost undisturbed during weeks over the battlefront, photographing facilities and movements of troops in the enemy rearguard, allowing the German High Command to have a full intelligence report of the Allied order of battle in northern France, Netherlands and Belgium. Sliding at low altitude above the frontline and following the contour of the terrain, the Me 262 used to achieve a full surprise, ending their missions before the enemy defenses could react. The high speed of the turbojet engines made difficult for the anti-aircraft artillery to successfully track them and the piston-engine fighter aircraft could only hope to reach them by performing a fast dive from high altitude. In an attempt to neutralize the threat of the Me 262, the Allies organized patrols (familiarly known as "rat scrambles") with their most modern fighter aircraft (such as the Hawker Tempest from the RAF) operating in pairs over the frontline, with a second pair waiting in the ground ready for taking off, with the hope of chasing any incoming Me 262. But most of the times the very well camouflaged Me 262 managed to avoid these patrols. Then the Allies resorted to performing attacks with their fighter aircraft upon the bases of the Me 262, but this was a very dangerous approach for the Germans had organized anti-aircraft corridors of three kilometers in length, with 20-millimeter quadruple batteries guarding the accesses to the runways of their airfields. Besides, a group of Fw 190 fighter aircraft from the Jagdgeschwader (Fighter Squadron) 54 had been assigned to the defense of the two main bases at Achmer and Hesepe.

At the end of 1944 the Russians enjoyed an overwhelming air superiority in the Eastern Front, for the Luftwaffe had withdrawn the largest part of its fighter aircraft from there to be sent to the defense of the Reich. The Me 262 were frequently seen, but the attacks upon their bases were costing them an increasing price. The 8th November 1944, during one of those attacks, Walter Nowotny was killed when his Me 262 was shot down by a Mustang fighter aircraft while he was landing in Achmer. Shortly after his death, one of the groups of the Kommando Novotny was used to form the core of a new turbojet fighter unit, the Jagdgeschwader (Fighter Squadron) 7 "Hindenburg", under the command of Commander Johannes Steinhoff. Albeit the JG 7 comprised three groups, only one of them, the III/JG 7, which was transferred to the bases at Brandenburg-Briest, Oranienburg and Parchim, ever had contact with the enemy. In the mid February 1945, the III/JG 7 received the first delivery of R4M 55-millimeter air-to-air rockets. The Me 262 could carry 24 of these rockets attached to simple wooden pylons under the wings. When a salvo was fired against a formation of enemy bomber aircraft the rockets scattered like shotgun pellets do, which increased the chances of hitting one or more aircraft. During the first series of operations, in February 1945, by using R4M rockets along with the 30-millimeter cannons in combination with the Revi 16B gunsight, the pilots from the III/JG 7 managed to destroy 45 American four-engined bomber aircraft and 15 of their escorting fighter aircraft while losing only four of their Me 262.


Messerschmitt Me 262-1a from Gruppen-Adfutant, Stab III/JG 7 Nowotny, Parchim, March 1945. Note the unusual camouflage scheme, the Geschwader ensign, the indicative of Adfutant of the pilot, the colored bands in the rear fuselage and the swastika in the vertical tail.


Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a from the 9th Squadron of the 7th Fighter Wing (Jagdgeschwader) based at Parchim in the early 1945, belonging to the 1st Fighter Division (Jagddivision) of the 1st Fighter Corps (Jagdkorps) for the defense of the Reich. After having been captured at the end of the war, this particular aircraft was designated as FE-111 and sent to United States for evaluation. In 1979 the aircraft was dismantled, cleaned and rebuilt in a process of about 6000 hours of work, to be thereafter placed for exhibition in the National Air and Space Museum at Washington DC.

In the meantime the creation of a second turbojet fighter squadron had been authorized. Known as the Jagdverband (Fighting Association) 44, this unit was under the command of Lieutenant General Adolf Galland and integrated by 45 very expert pilots, many of whom were aces with the highest number of victories. Their main base of operations was Munich-Riem, where the bomber aircraft from the Air Force of the 15th Army were their main targets, whereas the JG 7 continued operating in central and northern Germany. The 7th April 1945 the JG 7 made a demonstration of the potential of the Me 262 by destroying 28 American fighter aircraft of the models P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang, which were escorting the bomber aircraft of the USAAF, but it was impossible to ignore the fact that in that same day, which was another episode of the last series of important aerial combats over Germany, the Luftwaffe had lost 183 fighter aircraft of the models Me 109 and Fw 190. Three days later, about 1000 American bomber aircraft effectuated massive bombings over the bases from where the turbojet fighter aircraft operated. The Me 262 shot down ten bomber aircraft but, having their bases devastated, they were forced to withdraw to places as far away as Prague, and their units became disorganized. In the last days of April whatever remained of the JV 44 was moved further to the south, to Salzburg, but the fighter aircraft had to remain in the ground due to the lack of fuel. The largest part of the precious turbojet aircraft were destroyed by their own crews shortly before the 3rd May, when their base was taken by the American forces. From a total of almost 1500 aircraft Me 262 produced during the war less than the fourth part entered combat. If this number would have been greater, the turbojet fighter aircraft would have inflicted a severe punishment to both the American diurnal bomber aircraft and the British nocturnal bomber aircraft, for the potential of the Me-262 as a night fighter aircraft was seen too late. As the Allies advanced towards the interior of Germany they realized how devastating the Me 262 could have been.

The main fault of the Me 262 was not in its design but in the wrong employment which was made of it. It is said that Hitler (but most probably Messerschmitt himself, motivated by self-interest and prestige) insisted in using this aircraft, which had been conceived as a pure fighter, as a ground-strike aircraft. This fatal mistake caused the loss of a considerable number of aircraft, which were forced to decrease their speed for being able to drop their bombs with enough precision, becoming so vulnerable to the enemy fighter aircraft, and a waste of fuel and materials on which Germany should not have indulged. When the authorities became aware of their mistake and wanted to reconvert the fighter-bomber into a pure fighter it was too late. The aircraft which could have stopped the Allied bomber aircraft would be only another lost opportunity for the Third Reich.

CHARACTERISTICS

The Messerschmitt Me 262 was a twin-engine low-wing turbojet aircraft whose engines were placed in wing nacelles. The landing gear was of tricycle type with the central wheel placed in forward position (unlike the prototype, which had the central wheel placed in rear position). The fuselage had a nearly triangle shaped section with curved angles and an entirely metallic structure, which was made of steel in the fore section, because this one was destined to endure a much higher pressure, and of aluminum and light alloys in the rest of the aircraft. The turbojet engines were two Junkers-Jumo 109-004 with axial compressor, monophase turbine and six combustion chambers, each of which was able of developing a maximum thrust of 900 kilograms. They were started by a small Diesel engine placed inside an ogive shaped fairing in the center of the air intake. The armament usually comprised four Rheinmetall Borsig MK 108 30-millimeter fast-firing cannons concentrated in the fore section of the fuselage, in whose tip there was a gun camera. The electronic equipment was rich and complex. It included, among other elements, a radio emitter/receiver and devices for radio navegation and blind flying. The aircraft destined to night fighting had as well radio localization devices and automatic direction finders of great precision. Unfortunately, in this case the awkward antennas installed in the foremost section of the fuselage reduced their speed in at least 60 kilometers/hour, but the Me 262 was always a superb night fighter.





IMPORTANT VERSIONS

Me 262 V-1 to V-5: Prototypes, unarmed, with landing gear in rear tricycle layout, fitted with two Jumo 004A turbojet engines each developing 840 kilograms of thrust (the V-1 initially with one Jumo 210G 1200 HP piston engine).

Me 262A-0: Pre-series model and prototypes with pressurized cockpit and modified canopy.

Me 262A-1a: Initial series model fitted with four MK 108 30-millimeter cannons and two Jumo 004B-1 engines each developing 900 kilograms of thrust.

Me 262A-1a/U1: Modified A-1a fitted with two MK 108 30-millimeter cannons, two MK 103 30-millimeter cannons and two MG 151 20-millimeter cannons.

Me 262A-1a/U3: Reconnaissance version with two photographic cameras in the nose and armament reduced to two Mk 108 30-millimeter cannons.

Me 262A-1b: Modified A-1a with capability for carrying 12 R4M 55-millimeter rockets under each wing.

Me 262A-2a: Fighter-bomber version which was a modified A-1a with two pylons for 250-kilogram bombs.

Me 262A-5a: Long-range variant of the A-1a/U3 fitted with two droppable fuel tanks.

Me 262B-1a: Training version with two seats and dual control.

Me 262B-1a/U1: Night fighter version derived from the B-1a, fitted with a FuG 218 Neptun radar with antennas in the nose and a FuG 350 Naxos radar, and with armament reduced to two MK 108 30-millimeter cannons.

Me 262B-2a: Night fighter version derived from the B-1a, with increased lenght and fuel capacity, and with two additional MK 108 30-millimeter cannons installed in an oblique dorsal mounting (Schrage Musik).


Fighter-bomber version Me 262A-2a "Sturmvogel".

SPECIFICATIONS FOR ME 262A-1a



SPECIFICATIONS FOR ME 262A-2a

Categories: Aircraft - World War Two - 20th Century - [General] - [General]

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Website: Military History

Article submitted: 2014-04-05

Article updated: 2024-01-27