Infamous Aircraft: Dangerous designs and their vices by Robert Jackson

Author:Robert Jackson [Jackson, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027140
ISBN: 9781844687534
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2012-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

A Messerschmitt Me 163 pilot of JG 400 getting ready for a sortie. The Germans nicknamed the Me 163 Kraft Ei (Power Egg).

In the late summer the Staffel was elevated to Gruppe status (I/JG 400). Meanwhile, EK 16 had reached initial operational capability and had deployed to Brandis, where it was later joined by JG 400. The air defence task was to defend the Leuna oil refineries, which lay 56 miles to the south, from the American daylight bombers. A second Gruppe was formed later at Stargard, near Stettin, to defend the oil refineries at Pölitz, but this never became fully operational.

In December 1944 Wolfgang Späte returned to Germany to take command of JG 400. He was doubtless disappointed that his original plan to position flights of Me 163s on the US bombers’ approach routes had not been implemented, and never would be. His intention had been to use the rocket fighters in slashing hit-and-run attacks, dislocating the bomber formations and their fighter escorts so that the conventional German fighter force might have some chance of success against much greater odds.

The Me 163’s tactics were simple enough. Taking off on its jettisonable trolley, the Komet would climb initially at 11,811 feet per minute, this rate rising to 33,465 feet per minute at 32,000 feet. The time taken to reach the Me 163’s operational ceiling of 39,698 feet was a mere 3.35 minutes; the maximum powered endurance was eight minutes. With its fuel exhausted, the Me 163 would make high-speed gliding attacks on its targets, using its two MK 108 30 mm cannon and Revi 16B gunsight. With its 120 rounds of ammunition used up and its speed starting to drop, the Me 163 would then dive steeply away from the combat area and glide back to base, landing on its retractable skid.

This in itself was a hazardous procedure, as there was always a risk of explosion if any unburnt rocket fuel remained in the aircraft’s tanks. About 300 Me 163s were built, but JG 400 remained the only operational unit. The rocket fighter recorded only sixteen kills during its brief career, nine gained by JG 400 and the rest by EK 16. The Me 163C, the last version to be built for operational use, had a pressurised cockpit, an improved Walter 109–509C motor, and featured a bubble canopy on a slightly lengthened fuselage. Only a few examples were produced, and these were not issued to units. The Me 163C was to have been fitted with a novel armament arrangement developed by Dr Langwiler (inventor of the Panzerfaust one-man anti-tank weapon) comprising five vertically mounted tubes in each wing, each tube containing a 50 mm shell. The equipment was activated by a photo-electric cell as the rocket fighter passed under an enemy bomber. This armament was tested by Leutnant Hachtel of EK 16, using first a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and then an Me 163B-1a. It was shown that it was possible for the rocket fighter to score a hit simply by flying under a bomber at full speed, the bomber’s shadow activating the photo-electric cell.

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