Air Battle For Moscow, 1941–1942 by Dmitry Degtev and Dmitry Zubov

Author:Dmitry Degtev and Dmitry Zubov
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / Military / World War II
Publisher: Air World
Published: 2021-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

Luftwaffe Phantoms: the ‘He-113’ and ‘Me-115’

Soviet reports and documents often mention German ‘Messerschmitt Me 115’ and ‘Heinkel He 113’ fighters. Where did these phantoms come from?

In 1940 Soviet Russia was actively monitoring the aviation production of potential enemies (Britain and the Third Reich). In March 1941, the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army reported secret information: ‘Aircraft in prototype construction … single-seat fighter Messerschmitt Me 115, with the Daimler-Benz DV-603 engine capacity 1500-1700 HP.’

On 29 August 1941 there was a dogfight in the Leningrad area. Afterwards, Russian pilots reported encountering Luftwaffe fighters which differed from the Bf 109 E. They had a longer fuselage, more powerful armament and higher speed. These aircraft were identified as ‘Me 115s’. The first official victory over it was won by Lieutenant P.T. Tarasov of the 15th IAP. After that, reports of the appearance of ‘Me115s’ appeared for over a year.

An even more durable phantom, which never existed (even in the form of an experienced machine!), was the ‘Heinkel He 113’. They were ‘seen’ and ‘shot down’ in large quantities between 1941 and 1944! For all this time no ‘He 113’ made an emergency landing in Soviet territory or was found abandoned on an airfield. These fighters only appeared in the air. Drawings, silhouettes and scale models of the mythical ‘He 113’ were widely distributed to the Russian aircraft regiments and the aviation schools. The reason that this fighter was never captured was explained by Russian experts as follows: the machine was very secret and equipped with a self-destruct mechanism …

In fact, the Bf 109 F was mistakenly identified as the ‘Me 115’ and the ‘He 113’. When the Russians captured several samples of this fighter and tested them, they identified ‘Friedrich’ as ‘Me 109 F’. But after this the ‘Me 115’ and ‘He 113’ still continued to figure in the reports of Russian pilots.

The ‘Me 115’ didn’t have a real prototype. The prototype ‘He 113’ was the He 100 D fighter, which had not gone into production. On the orders of Göring, in the spring of 1940 a disinformation campaign was launched. Photographs of nine experimental He 100 Ds were printed in magazines and newspapers. They were painted with various emblems and serial numbers and then repainted, creating the illusion of ‘mass production’. Then came the misinformation: the new fighter was called the He 113. The British did not believe this ‘leak of information’, but in Russia they took it seriously.

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