- 2 weeks ago
For educational purposes
By the end of World War Two, the once mighty Luftwaffe was a pitiful shadow of its former self - a beaten force shattered by the massive superiority of Allied airpower.
This fascinating programme tells how German High Command contributed to its downfall, despite the undoubted skill of German fighter pilots and several innovations in aircraft design.
German Fighters feature archive footage taken from German and Allied sources and the very latest 3D computer generated animation techniques.
By the end of World War Two, the once mighty Luftwaffe was a pitiful shadow of its former self - a beaten force shattered by the massive superiority of Allied airpower.
This fascinating programme tells how German High Command contributed to its downfall, despite the undoubted skill of German fighter pilots and several innovations in aircraft design.
German Fighters feature archive footage taken from German and Allied sources and the very latest 3D computer generated animation techniques.
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LearningTranscript
00:01In June 1945, Hitler's dream of a thousand-year Reich lay in ruins.
00:07His boastful visions were shattered by the massive superiority of Allied airpower.
00:14The once-proud German air force is reduced to the same pitiful state as its cities.
00:30These American airmen are idly amusing themselves with the wreckage of the mighty Luftwaffe.
00:39Abandoned remains of German fighters are cheerfully vandalized.
00:43The man with the baseball bat smashes the tail of a Messerschmitt 109,
00:48a fighter which was almost ten years old by the end of the war.
00:59Nearby lie the remains of one of the last German fighters to enter service,
01:03the rocket-powered Comet, an aircraft that looked forward to the space age.
01:11In this aircraft graveyard are the two ends of a development spectrum
01:16which bridged the propeller age and the dawn of the jet age.
01:26The war-torn skies over Germany had seen the first jet aircraft engaged in combat,
01:32while late in the war saw the first ever use of the air-to-air missile,
01:36a chilling reminder of what might have been.
01:54Once the war should continue to enter your ship.
02:00Take off and you've known me.
02:22After making any important weapons,
02:221936. The first deployment of forces from a new military creation, the German Luftwaffe.
02:28Officially created just one year before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War,
02:33the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion provided devastating support for Franco's nationalist forces.
02:40The Spanish War proved the effectiveness of the new German fighter planes.
02:46In the world war that followed, the Luftwaffe's fighters also had a massive role to play,
02:53The finest of them are among the greatest warplanes of the century.
02:57First among them, the famous Messerschmitt Bf 109.
03:02The Treaty of Versailles made it very difficult for Germany in many respects to develop its air force.
03:07But when they finally came round to breaking that treaty and decided to create the Luftwaffe,
03:13they were actually in quite a good position because they were able to use the very latest technology.
03:18So the first generation of German fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 were actually considerably ahead of the biplanes
03:28which the Allies were using in great numbers right up until 1936.
03:32Some of the German fighters of the Second World War were really state of the art.
03:37Fighters like the Messerschmitt 262 really led the way for post-war fighter design.
03:42Having said that, German fighter procurement and development during the Second World War was riddled with inconsistencies and confusions and
03:50bureaucratic messes, really.
03:52So it meant that German fighter development essentially stuttered through the Second World War rather than developing in a nice,
03:59clear, continuous flow.
04:01Besides testing the new aircraft for the fighter units of the newly born Luftwaffe,
04:05However, the Spanish Civil War proved invaluable in terms of both combat experience and tactical development.
04:13It was over Spanish territory that German fighter planes first entered combat in pairs, or Rotten,
04:20a new tactic that enabled the lead plane's pilot to engage the enemy knowing he was covered by his accompanying
04:27wingman.
04:36It proved a remarkably effective innovation, and the Luftwaffe soon developed the tactic further,
04:42with two Rotten flying together in a four-plane formation known as the Schwarm.
04:49These new four-plane formations formed the building blocks of the Luftwaffe's fighter force in World War II.
05:02In the Luftwaffe organization, three fighter swarms formed a Staffel, the equivalent of an Allied squadron.
05:11This operational unit of 12 aircraft was under the command of a Staffel-Capitan.
05:17The next stage in the tactical hierarchy was the group, consisting of three or occasionally four Staffeln,
05:24giving the group 36 or 48 aircraft.
05:28Equal in status to an RAF wing, and under the command of a Commander of Major or Hauptmann rank,
05:34the group was the smallest self-contained unit in the Luftwaffe structure.
05:38All of the Staffeln making up the group were normally all based at a single airfield,
05:43with administrative support staff and aircraft repair units stationed alongside the aircrews.
05:51The self-contained group were then organized into a larger formation,
05:56the German equivalent of the American combat wing, known as the Geschwader.
06:03The Geschwader had three or four group, making a total of 100 to 150 aircraft, under the command of a
06:11Commodore.
06:12The headquarters of the Geschwader was normally found at an airfield alongside one of the Gruppen.
06:18In the Luftwaffe, the Geschwader were classified according to the role of the aircraft within them.
06:23A Kampfgeschwader was a bombing group.
06:26Dive bombers were formed into Stugageschwader.
06:29The fighters were formed into two specific subgroups.
06:33Most importantly, there were the Jagdgeschwader, which were mainly single-engined fighters,
06:38and the Zerstörergeschwader of heavy twin-engined fighters.
06:48These varied groups were organized into Flieger Corps,
06:52consisting of three or more Geschwader comprising 450 to 500 aircraft,
06:57and ultimately the Luftflotten, which were responsible for a large sector of front
07:02and could call on a total of anything between 1,000 and 1,500 aircraft.
07:08In overall charge of this awesome new force were the Luftwaffe's commander-in-chief,
07:14Hermann Göring, and the Führer himself, Adolf Hitler.
07:19By the time Hitler prepared to unleash his forces in northwest Europe in the spring of 1940,
07:25his fighter forces were already experienced in war in Spain, in Poland, and in Norway.
07:30Now the fighter crews prepared for their forthcoming missions over France and the Low Countries.
07:38It was a strong fighter force, consisting of 1,215 planes,
07:43860 of them light, agile single-seaters,
07:46and 355 of them heavy, twin-engined aircraft.
07:51In the weeks of German military triumph that followed,
07:54both types appeared to have proved themselves in battle once more.
07:59The successes of the light fighter units in particular were greatly assisted by the quality of the aircraft at their
08:05disposal,
08:06one of the most famous planes of the whole Second World War, the Messerschmitt BF-109.
08:15First flown in 1935, the BF-109 first saw operational service in Spain in 1937.
08:23By 1940, the E-Series 109 was amongst the finest pieces of military engineering in the world.
08:32A single-seater fighter, the 109 E-Series was powered by a Daimler-Bend 601 engine,
08:38generating 1,200 horsepower and an impressive speed of 350 miles per hour with excellent acceleration.
08:48Its armament typically consisted of two 7.9mm MG-17 machine guns above the engine,
08:55plus three 20mm MG-FF cannon, two in the wings and one in the propeller.
09:06But the BF-109 was a remarkable aircraft inasmuch as it forked on all fronts throughout the Second World War.
09:13It was the mainstay of the German fighter aircraft industry throughout the course of the war.
09:22A lot of people would say that by the end of the year 1942 that it should have actually been
09:27withdrawn and replaced by the ME-209,
09:31but that never actually got into production and was never seen in the air.
09:35So the BF-109 was very important.
09:37It was a small aircraft, it was very manoeuvrable and it was the lead single-seat fighter in the Luftwaffe.
09:45It did suffer from a number of limitations which were to become apparent later in the campaign,
09:52but certainly in the early days in Poland and in Scandinavia it was found to be second to none.
09:58Certainly in the first part of the Second World War it was a match for virtually any fighter of any
10:03other combatant nation.
10:04Having said that, as the war went on, and despite its great versatility in the development through which it went,
10:10something like 80 different marks of BF-109 were eventually produced,
10:13by 1944, 1945 it was lagging behind both other German fighter aircraft and those of its enemies, in particular the
10:21Americans.
10:23The BF-109 contributed vitally to the success of the German blitzkrieg.
10:29They were engaged on strafing missions in Poland and acted as bomber escorts during the invasion of France.
10:36It was only as the mass evacuation of British and allied forces from Dunkirk was underway
10:42that the BF-109 first encountered an enemy fighter to match it.
10:47The British Supermarine Spitfire.
10:50As 1940 continued, the German 109 and its British rival would become key combatants in the first ever major battle
10:58fought entirely in the air,
11:00the Battle of Britain.
11:04The German defeat in the Battle of Britain has been seen by many as a triumph of the Spitfire over
11:09the BF-109.
11:12The British fighter was marginally the finer combat aircraft, but only by the slimmest of margins.
11:19Its superior agility enabled British pilots to outmanoeuvre their German rivals, but it was a near-run thing.
11:30The BF-109 had notoriously weak landing gear units, which saw many crashes on landing.
11:38Significantly, it also suffered from an alarming lack of range.
11:47The reason that the BF-109 had such a limited range, it was never really intended to take on a
11:54strategic role.
11:55It was always intended to be flown from airfields right behind the ground forces.
12:01As such, the issue of range was never intended to be a large one,
12:05because they were intended to be able to take off, to fly, to refuel, and to keep flying into battle
12:11that way.
12:11Obviously, there's nowhere to refuel over the English Channel,
12:15and that's one of the real reasons, I think, why the Luftwaffe lost the Battle of Britain,
12:19and probably why we're all still here today.
12:22The failure of the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF was of crucial significance.
12:29On the 17th of September, 1940, Hitler postponed indefinitely his planned invasion of Britain,
12:36and the battle was effectively over.
12:40Despite the German defeat, there can be no doubt that the Messerschmitt BF-109 acquitted itself extremely well.
12:48Its contribution was certainly far more effective than many other components of the Luftwaffe,
12:53which now began to show glaring inefficiencies.
12:58The previously feared Junker's 87 Stuka dive bomber had to be withdrawn after catastrophic losses.
13:06The twin-engine Zastora heavy fighters also performed poorly.
13:12Ironically, the best known of them was another Messerschmitt design, the BF-110.
13:19The thinking behind the twin-engine fighter was logical enough.
13:23The Luftwaffe were amongst the first to commission a twin-engine fighter,
13:27which, in theory, offered the speed and firepower of a single-seat fighter
13:31with the added advantage of extra protection and longer range.
13:40First flown in 1936, the BF-110 entered operational service in April 1939
13:48and appeared to offer everything expected of it.
13:53Powered by two Daimler-Benz engines,
13:55the BF-110 could attain a maximum speed similar to the 109,
14:00around 350 miles per hour,
14:02but with a range up to 150 miles further.
14:06Its armament was also impressive,
14:09consisting of one 7.9mm MG-15 machine gun,
14:13four MG-17s of the same calibre,
14:15and two 20mm MG-FF cannon.
14:21In its early combat use, this firepower was deployed decisively.
14:26In Poland, Scandinavia, and Northwest Europe,
14:30the BF-110 carried out its primary role
14:32of escorting bombers with little in the way of opposition.
14:36But against a stronger enemy, the outcome would be different.
14:43In the Battle of Britain,
14:44the weakness of the 1-1-0 was cruelly exposed.
14:48Against the single-engined fighters of the RAF,
14:51the BF-110 was very vulnerable.
14:55A difficult plane to manoeuvre easily,
14:57the twin-engined fighter was relatively easy prey
15:00for the agile Spitfires and Hurricanes,
15:03which could turn inside the cumbersome turning circle of the 1-1-0.
15:09Embarrassingly for the Luftwaffe,
15:11the BF-110 originally designed as an escort,
15:14a pilot plane,
15:15soon found itself needing its own escort of 1-0-9s.
15:20The Battle of Britain was undeniably a disaster
15:23for this previously highly regarded type.
15:27The great German air-ace Adolf Galland noted its weakness.
15:32The Zestora must perform as well as a fighter.
15:35Since this was not the case,
15:37it could not achieve its goal in the operations intended for it.
15:46Further disappointments followed its deployment in North Africa,
15:49and by 1941 the BF-110 was no longer considered a front-line fighting aircraft.
15:57But the events of 1940 did not mean the end for the BF-110.
16:02Later in the war, the Luftwaffe needed to combat the growing menace of British night bombers.
16:08They needed a fighter which was sufficiently large to accommodate the new technology of radar.
16:14With the cover of night to compensate for its technical shortcomings,
16:18the BF-110 fitted the task perfectly.
16:23Until the end of the war, it remained in service as a night fighter.
16:29The BF-110 was also successfully modified for use as a long-range reconnaissance plane,
16:35and one version proved effective as a fighter-bomber.
16:41Although the BF-110 proved ineffective in its originally intended role,
16:45its later versions remained in production almost to the very end of the Second World War.
16:55Another aircraft which saw service right to the end of the war was the BF-109.
17:02Its longevity was the result of the G series introduced in 1942.
17:08This new, improved version boasted an increased armament and a new engine, the DB605,
17:16some versions of which generated 1,800 horsepower.
17:24This powerful version constituted 70% of the entire delivery of 109s to the Luftwaffe.
17:33In total, over 30,000 Meshesmith 109s were produced.
17:38Its place in 20th century military history is secure.
17:48Ironically, this apparent success may have masked a real dilemma for the Luftwaffe.
17:57When it came to the modifications that were made post-1942, the lack of manoeuvrability due to the weight of
18:05the engine
18:05and the more heavy armaments meant that a once very good, manoeuvrable, speedy aircraft,
18:11that probably was better at over 20,000 feet than under 20,000 feet,
18:16was becoming increasingly disadvantageous in dogfights and aerial combat.
18:22Both the Supermarine Spitfire and the Meshesmith BF-109
18:26went through a long and relatively complex development process during the Second World War.
18:31Dozens of variants of both aircraft were produced as the war went on.
18:35The Meshesmith BF-109 did suffer from a number of deficiencies when compared to the Spitfire.
18:41First, its rate of turn was somewhat slower than that of the Supermarine Spitfire.
18:46And in close-quarter dogfights such as those that occurred in 1940 over Britain,
18:50this was a significant deficiency.
18:52In addition, it had a relatively limited range and endurance.
18:56And in addition, during the Battle of Britain at least, due to some rather faulty tactics,
19:00it was required to form a sort of close escort role for German bombers.
19:04It couldn't be used to its maximum advantage.
19:07In 1941, the Luftwaffe unveiled a fighter which was even better than the legendary Meshesmith BF-109.
19:15This was the Focke-Wulf 190.
19:18A single-seater like the 109,
19:20the original FW-190 was powered by an air-cooled BMW 801 radial engine,
19:26which was housed in a large nose cone.
19:31The 1700 horsepower engine produced a top speed of 382 miles per hour,
19:37a performance that could be boosted in most models by an emergency boost power system.
19:42The top speed of the D9 version was an impressive 440 miles per hour.
19:51Unfortunately for the Luftwaffe, technical problems with the 190's engine production
19:56meant that it could not be produced in large numbers until later in the war.
20:01It was a serious misfortune, for in 1941, the 190 was the best of all the German fighters.
20:12In firepower, the 190 was a force to be reckoned with.
20:16When it first entered combat, its armament consisted of two 7.9mm machine guns
20:22and four 20mm MG151 cannon, more than a match for the Spitfires of the time.
20:36The 190 was also a superb aircraft to fly.
20:40Highly manoeuvrable, it was perfectly designed for the art of air combat.
20:47Although some later versions were modified for use as fighter bombers,
20:50it is as a conventional fighter aircraft that the 190 is remembered today.
20:56Whereas the BF 109 was needing to be phased out by 1942,
21:02the FW 190 continued to a very high degree of serviceability,
21:08right to the end of the war.
21:09It was easy to modernise, it was easy to service,
21:14it was an aircraft that Luftwaffe pilots loved to fly
21:19because it had very good handling ability
21:21and was generally an aircraft that could be relied upon throughout the war.
21:28With the advent of the 190, the Luftwaffe was again able to take back superiority in the air
21:36in terms of single seat fighters.
21:38And it became such a successful machine that during 1943,
21:44the Allied losses, particularly in the American Air Force,
21:48became so high that at certain times later on in that year
21:51they were forced to suspend the bombing campaign over Germany.
21:57The 190 was the fighter that contributed to those losses
22:01and it caused the American Air Force in particular
22:03to have to completely review their own tactics
22:06and develop their own fighters so they could compete.
22:09The FW 190 was a superb aircraft, absolutely brilliant aircraft,
22:15very well-conceived, well-thought-out aircraft.
22:18When it first appeared in the skies of France over 1941,
22:22the principal RAF fighter, or the main opponent of it, was a Spitfire Mark V.
22:27The FW 190 was able to outstrip the aircraft in virtually every aspect of combat.
22:36It was very well-made, very solid, very sturdy, yet streamlined, elegant little aircraft.
22:43Virtually 360-degree visibility out the cockpit.
22:46Cockpit was a nice layout, so it was a fighter pilot's dream
22:50and many have said that the aircraft was close to being as perfect an aircraft design as it was.
22:55And the Germans certainly exploited this aircraft,
22:58was almost taking over completely the dive-bomber role or the ground-attack role from the Ju-87 by 1943.
23:04So, a very excellent aircraft.
23:07When first used in action in July 1941, the FW 190 caused a sensation.
23:14In engagements with the British Mark V Spitfire, it proved to be by far the superior warplane.
23:21This incredible footage of the Diab Raid in 1942 includes rare film of FW 190s engaging Spitfires and hurricanes.
23:33Fatally, production difficulties meant that it was less of a threat to the British than it might have been.
23:40Had the FW 190 been available in numbers a year earlier, the course of the Battle of Britain may have
23:46been very different.
23:49In any event, by July 1941, Hitler had chosen to open a new front to the war, with his invasion
23:57of the Soviet Union.
24:01In the terrible fighting that followed on the Eastern Front, the FW 190 proved to be a fighter without equal
24:07in that theater.
24:09On the Western Front, as the German Reich faced the might of the huge American bombers, it became an unrivalled
24:16defensive fighter.
24:18By 1944, production of the 190 had reached 1,000 per month, and the aircraft was still evolving.
24:28Late that year, the souped-up D9 model was introduced, known as the Long Nose series.
24:36In its final, fastest version, the 190's top speed was a remarkable 472 miles per hour.
24:45In total, over 20,000 aircraft were delivered to the Luftwaffe.
24:50The quality of its design meant that after the war, the 190 continued to see service, as part of the
24:57Air Force of France.
25:00The quality of the 190 as a combat aircraft was never in doubt from the moment it first astonished the
25:06British in the summer of 1941.
25:10But the following year, an experiment took place involving a 190, which clearly indicated the future direction of fighter design.
25:20The experiment was a staged air battle between the highly regarded 190 and a new experimental fighter, the Heinkel 280.
25:31The results of the demonstration were clear.
25:36Despite the proven qualities of the FW 190, the Heinkel emerged as the winner.
25:43The difference between them lay in their engines.
25:47The new Heinkel was the first combat aircraft to be fitted with the latest in engine technology, the jet engine.
25:56Long before the war began, aircraft designers had realised that the performance of propeller-driven aircraft was ultimately limited.
26:06The laws of physics governing drag, efficiency and the weight of the aircraft meant that a speed of 500 miles
26:13per hour was the best that could ever be obtained by a conventionally powered aircraft.
26:19The attainment of speeds above this figure would require a completely new system of propulsion.
26:27The invention of the jet engine offered a solution to the problem.
26:32Pioneered in England by Sir Frank Whittle and in Germany by Hans Joachim van Ohehen, the world's first jet-powered
26:39flight took place in Germany in August 1939, just days before the start of the war.
26:45What was the case?
26:48Though the flight was successful, it attracted little in the way of interest.
26:53But the Heinkel company continued to work with the new technology.
26:57And in 1941 they produced the world's first jet-powered military aircraft.
27:04This was the HE280, that would later prove itself against the FW 190.
27:16Powered by twin YUMO 004 turbojets, the HE280 had a top speed of 508 miles per hour, well in excess
27:25of any conventional combat aircraft.
27:33Despite this, the German leadership again gave the project little more than passing interest.
27:41Only eight of these remarkable aircraft were ever built.
27:45Eventually, however, the Nazi leadership realized the potential of a jet-powered fighter.
27:50But the Messerschmitt company, not Heinkel, was chosen to build it.
28:08What they produced was one of the most celebrated aircraft of World War II, the ME262.
28:15The ME262 was an outstanding weapon of war.
28:20It was a state-of-the-art aircraft that the general of the German fighters said he would rather have
28:28one ME262 than five BF 109s.
28:32It looked like a shark, it was aerodynamic, it was incredibly fast, a very powerful engine.
28:40And it was also something that packed a very heavy punch. Its armaments were extremely good.
28:46By virtue of the fact that it took a long time to produce large numbers of them, partly because German
28:52aircraft industry had to be dispersed across Germany in the face of Allied bombing.
28:56Because there was a deficiency of trained, skilled personnel to work on the engines and the airframes, a lack of
29:03fuel, and that obviously had significant impacts on pilot training,
29:06it meant that the Messerschmitt 262 effectively dribbled into combat.
29:10Certainly, it was never faced in the air in numbers of more than maybe a dozen on any single occasion.
29:15In the longer term, of course, the Messerschmitt 262 was enormously important, and it provided post-war American, British and
29:23Russian aeronautical engineers with an enormous amount of inspiration for post-war jet fighter design.
29:29In actual fact, the war had already been lost by the time the 262 took to the air, in any
29:36kind of significant numbers.
29:37The real turning points of World War II really came in June 1944, when Army Group Centre in Russia were
29:45completely destroyed by Operation Begration,
29:49and the Allied landings, of course, took place in Normandy after that.
29:53The end was really in sight, so no matter what technology had been introduced or how successful or how radical
30:01that technology was,
30:02the Second World War was really already lost by that point.
30:06The development of the 262 was dogged with difficulties.
30:10Though it flew for the first time under jet power in July 1942, it was two years later before it
30:17began to be used operationally.
30:20There were production problems with the engine, the Junkers' YUMO-004B turbojet.
30:27There also were political problems, both within the Messerschmitt company and externally.
30:35Most importantly, the development of a potentially world-beating fighter aircraft was hampered by Hitler's belief in its power as
30:43a fighter bomber.
30:45Even as the war began to turn against him, the German leader obsessively clung to the concept of offensive air
30:52warfare that had served him so well in his early triumphs.
30:56He insisted the 262 be used as a fighter bomber.
31:05Eventually, Hitler relented and allowed a small percentage of 262s to be exclusively fighters.
31:13Aware of the potential of the new aircraft to turn the course of the war, Messerschmitt simply decided to make
31:19available far more fighters than the Führer had ordered.
31:23For Germany, Hitler's delays and interferences proved vital.
31:30It was only after Allied troops had landed in continental Europe that the 262 was able to enter operational service.
31:38Theoretically, the Me 262 could have made a difference to air combat over Germany in 1943.
31:44But in 1944, it was unrealistic to expect enough of them to arrive to actually make a difference to the
31:52strategic bombing scenario at that time.
31:54There were 55 Me 262 sorties against 1,100 American bombers and their escorts on 10 April 1945.
32:03They managed to only shoot down 10 enemy aircraft, but they lost 27 jet aircraft themselves.
32:11There is no question that the 262 was a far, far better aircraft than any Allied fighter in the sky.
32:19But it was outnumbered by such a massive amount that they couldn't really press home their attacks
32:26and they were destroyed as they took off from airfields or as they landed on airfields.
32:30So for that reason, Hitler's insistence that it be equipped as a fighter-bomber isn't really a significant factor in
32:40the debate.
32:43The performance of the 262 was all that the Germans had wished for.
32:48Its twin YUMO engines provided 1,980 pounds of thrust and gave a top speed of 540 miles per hour,
32:56over 100 miles per hour faster than any Allied plane.
33:04Its armament varied during its brief operational life.
33:09Some later models were fitted with radical experimental weapons,
33:13but its standard firepower consisted of four 30mm MK-108 cannon,
33:19and the fighter-bomber versions that were made carried two 1,100-pound bombs.
33:26In action, the 262 proved itself a magnificent warplane.
33:33In the first month of operations, 25 of the Messerschmitt jets succeeded in destroying 50 Allied bombers.
33:42In total, the small force of operational ME 262s destroyed over 100 Allied aircraft.
33:54The only British jet of the war, the Gloucester Meteor, was totally outclassed by the 262.
34:02Right up to the end of the war, it proved a menace to the Allies.
34:07In total, 1433 of these magnificent fighter planes were built.
34:12Adolf Galland noted with delight that the ratio of German aircraft shot down for each Allied bomber
34:18changed from five to one, to one to five, almost overnight.
34:26Unfortunately for the Germans, even this spectacular achievement was too little, too late.
34:34Most of the 262s that were built often failed to take to the air.
34:38In the last months of the war, there were chronic shortages of fuel,
34:42combined with the lack of pilots trained to fly the new jet.
34:48The 262 may have been superior to any of its enemies,
34:51but the sheer numbers of Allied aircraft involved in the final assault on Germany
34:56proved more decisive in the end.
34:59The situation that would have resulted if the 262 had been deployed more quickly
35:04remains one of the great unanswered questions of World War II.
35:08Hitler's desire to convert the 262 into a bomber may have been one of his more costly mistakes.
35:16If there was indecision about whether the 262 should be used in an interceptor role,
35:21there was no such doubt concerning another Messerschmitt plane that entered service in 1944.
35:28The remarkable ME-163 Comet.
35:33The Comet was one of the most unusual planes ever to take to the air during World War II.
35:39Virtually every feature of its design was innovative.
35:42It was tail-less. It had no landing gear.
35:45It could travel under its own power for just seven minutes.
35:48Yet when it was introduced in 1944,
35:52the Comet represented a serious attempt to combat the Allied bombing,
35:55which was devastating Germany's heartline.
35:59The specifications of the Comet are intimately connected with the job it was designed to do.
36:05Most importantly, it was powered by a rocket engine burning not one, but two propellants.
36:11A mixture of hydrogen peroxide, or T-STOF, and a hydrazine-methanol mixture known as C-STOF.
36:20The plane took off from a wheeled trolley, which dropped away once the plane was airborne.
36:26The Comet would then enter a remarkable climb.
36:30In just two and a half minutes, it attained an altitude of 30,000 feet.
36:35It was then in a position to engage enemy bombers with its two 30mm MK-108 cannon before gliding back
36:43to ground.
36:45It was a remarkably simple and original concept.
36:49Nothing like the Comet was ever produced elsewhere during World War II.
36:58The most remarkable feature of the Comet was its speed.
37:01At 30,000 feet, it could attain nearly 600 miles per hour.
37:07Some test models were faster still.
37:10In October 1941, a Comet set a world speed record flying at 623 miles per hour.
37:18A record that would survive until 1947.
37:22But the development of the Comet was troubled by technical difficulties.
37:27Only in July 1944 were the pilots of the Jagdgeschwader 400 able to engage the enemy with their unique new
37:35warplane.
37:37The Comet achieved some success in battle.
37:40On the 24th of August 1944, Comet pilots succeeded in destroying four American bombers, an achievement that would not be
37:49surpassed.
37:51Again, fuel shortages would be a problem.
37:55The small force of operational Comet was able to take to the air only sporadically.
38:02In addition, there were problems with the basic design of the plane.
38:06Most significant was the lack of landing gear.
38:10Landing on a skid called for skilled airmanship.
38:14The slightest error could mean that the plane could fall over on landing.
38:19If this happened, the danger was that any rocket propellants left in the aircraft would be disturbed, and a catastrophic
38:26explosion was the likely result.
38:30Throughout the aircraft's life, more comets were lost in accidents than enemy planes destroyed by them in combat.
38:40The Messerschmitt 163 Comet was an astonishing aircraft, way ahead of its time in many respects.
38:47It was incredibly fast, at a truly astonishing rate of climb.
38:51But it suffered from a number of fairly crippling problems.
38:54First of all, there were never enough of them.
38:56Only about 350 were actually delivered towards the end of the war.
39:00Second, its combat endurance was relatively limited.
39:05Third, and perhaps most lethal of all, to pilot the thing required an element of courage verging on the suicidal,
39:12because essentially you were sitting on top of a large bomb.
39:15Either on taking off or on landing, any impact would almost spontaneously cause the aircraft to explode.
39:23It was also extremely difficult to fly in the air.
39:27So it was an extremely dangerous aircraft, and indeed more were lost to spontaneous combustion than were lost to allied
39:35fire.
39:36Even if the fuel didn't explode, it had an appallingly corrosive capacity, and it tended to burn spontaneously on contact
39:45with any organic material.
39:47And that included, of course, the pilot.
39:48The comet included some remarkable technology.
39:53It was the technology, ultimately, that would be used to push the space shuttle into orbit.
39:59It was a rocket fighter.
40:01But some of the technology had some quite alarming and frightening limitations.
40:06Once the aircraft was in the air, it only had enough fuel for seven minutes of powered flight, after which
40:14the theory was that the thing had picked up so much speed that it could glide into action, and it
40:19would be travelling so much faster than any allied fighters that no one could touch it.
40:24In practice, it actually worked. They did manage to shoot down a large number of bombers, but of course, the
40:29aircraft was completely vulnerable on its descent in a sky that was full of Mustangs and the next generations of
40:36allied fighters who naturally had a field day.
40:41The chief limitation of the comet was its limited range. It carried enough fuel for a mere seven minutes of
40:47powered flight. The sheer speed of the plane also made engaging the enemy difficult.
40:54Once a pilot had an enemy plane in range, his plane was moving so quickly that there was a real
40:59danger of crashing into the target.
41:03In an attempt to solve this problem, the last weeks of the war saw the introduction of a completely new
41:09firing system on the comet.
41:11It was known as the Jagerfaust, or Fighting Fist.
41:16Nothing like it had ever been seen before.
41:22Firstly, the comet's firepower was increased. It was fitted with ten massive 50mm cannons.
41:29The idea behind the vertical mounting was simple.
41:33The comet would now engage the enemy from below.
41:37In action, the pilot would attempt to fly directly below an enemy plane.
41:41Photoelectric cells would then automatically activate the Jagerfaust and fire 2.2 pounds of explosive shells upwards in quick succession.
41:58With the end of the war now imminent, it was the only time the system was ever used.
42:06Innovations such as Jagerfaust are typical of the last months of the war, as German designers desperately pursued any option
42:14that might make an impression against Allied air power.
42:18In weaponry, these options included ever larger calibers of gun.
42:23Many of these new guns were incorporated into the great Messerschmitt jet, the 262.
42:29The 50mm BK5 cannon was fitted to some later models, an enormous gun originally designed for ground use against tanks.
42:39This was eventually surpassed with a weapon of 55mm caliber, while some late test models were equipped with the new
42:48MG213 revolver cannon.
42:51In the post-war world, this innovation in particular would be taken up by the world's air powers.
42:59Of all the new weapons fitted to the ME262, perhaps the most remarkable was one actually used in combat.
43:08This was the R4M, a 55mm rocket and the world's first air-to-air missile.
43:17In March 1945, six 262s of Jagdgeschwader 7 were fitted with a new weapon.
43:24Each aircraft was armed with 24 of the missiles, 12 under each wing.
43:30On the 18th of March, these 262s engaged an American bomber formation, and three B-17s were destroyed by the
43:39new missiles.
43:42Although there were subsequent problems with the R4M, notably a tendency for the firing mechanism to jam,
43:48it is likely that it could have made a valuable contribution to the German fighter force had it been introduced
43:54earlier.
43:58In terms of aircraft design, the Luftwaffe were desperately making innovations right up to the end of the war.
44:05November 1944 saw the first flight of the amazing Dornier 335A1.
44:14A single-seat fighter, the 335 was remarkable for its engine arrangement.
44:20Two Daimler-Ben 603Gs, one behind the other.
44:28This highly unusual layout utilized not one, but two propellers, one at each end of the aircraft.
44:37This resulted in a potentially tough combat aircraft with a top speed of 477 miles per hour.
44:46But once again, it was too late to make any meaningful impact on the Allies.
44:55Despite its undoubted qualities, the 335 never flew an operational combat mission.
45:03Nevertheless, it represented the very limits of propeller-driven propulsion.
45:15Developed from the Dornier Dio 17 was the 215, which is an effective night fighter.
45:20A little bit slow, but still effective in its role.
45:23There were many versions that were on the drawing board for this aircraft.
45:26Two-seat night fighters, heavy bombers, high-altitude fighters.
45:30There was even one that was designed as half-jet-powered and half-piston-engine-powered.
45:34So, a very unusual aircraft.
45:41Another remarkable design concept was the Bachem BA 349 Nata.
45:47An SS-sponsored design produced so late on in the war that it never engaged a single Allied aircraft.
45:55It provides a fascinating reminder of the desperation of the Nazi regime during those final months.
46:03Like the comet, the Nata was a small interceptor plane powered by a rocket.
46:08The story grows even more bizarre when we discover the rocket-powered Nata was built from wood.
46:15But it could fly.
46:18Unlike the comet, it was launched vertically from the ground to an altitude in excess of 30,000 feet.
46:24The Nata was designed to attack an enemy plane in two ways.
46:28Firstly, with its armament of missiles, which included the R4M rockets.
46:33And then with a ramming procedure.
46:37The pilot was to aim his plane at the enemy and then split his craft into two.
46:43The front half descending with the pilot to the ground.
46:46The rear half crashing into the enemy plane.
46:51We will never know if this semi-expendable plane would ever have succeeded in its radical intentions.
46:59Only seven manned test flights ever took place before Germany surrendered.
47:08The impending collapse of the Third Reich also resulted in one of the most bizarre operational warplanes ever to see
47:14service.
47:15The Heinkel He 162 Salamander.
47:20In September 1944, the Aviation Ministry announced its desire for a small, mass-produced single-seat jet fighter known as
47:29the Volksjager.
47:31The People's Fighter.
47:34Just three months later, on the 6th of December, the Salamander flew for the first time.
47:42The dream of a mass-produced people's fighter did not, however, become reality.
47:49Just one unit was eventually deployed in combat, and although it did claim one kill, the war ended before its
47:56effectiveness could be confirmed.
47:59The Salamander is interesting, not only in itself, but for the insight its creation gives us into the minds of
48:06the German leadership at the time.
48:09Goering and others seriously wanted the plane to be piloted by half-trained members of the Hitler Youth.
48:17Though the plan came to nothing, it demonstrates the loss of reason affecting the Nazi leadership as the inevitability of
48:25their defeat began to sink in.
48:28For all the skill and innovation shown by aircraft designers in the great German aircraft firms, the Luftwaffe's fighters were
48:36no longer in a position to influence the war's outcome.
48:40With the benefit of hindsight, it is possible to identify errors in Hitler's overall strategy that led to the defeat
48:48of his Nazi regime.
48:51Interviewed as a prisoner of war, the great air-race and fighter leader Adolf Galland identified what he considered the
48:58reasons for the ultimate failure of the German fighters.
49:02For Galland and others, the Nazi leadership failed to take the concept of the fighter seriously enough.
49:09Before the war, the Luftwaffe comprised 30 bomber-gruppen, 9 Stuka-gruppen, and 13 fighter-gruppen.
49:19The high command, personified by Hitler, favoured the bomber disproportionately, and it was difficult for senior figures from within the
49:28fighter force to influence high command decisions.
49:34The absence of a single fighter command structure, like that of the RAF, was a major factor.
49:43The failure to replace the Bf 109 with the Fw 190 early enough was also identified as a major factor
49:51by Galland, as was the further failure to replace the 190 with the 262 as soon as it was available.
50:00In addition to the neglect of new technology in fighter design, the fighters already in service were not produced in
50:08sufficient numbers quickly enough.
50:11In 1941, when Germany was already fighting on three separate fronts, she produced a total of just 250 fighters a
50:20month.
50:22By 1944, production of some individual planes exceeded 1,000 in the same time period.
50:31But by then, the tide of the war had turned.
50:38Galland was also highly critical of Goeing, whom he held in the utmost contempt.
50:47After the war, he gave his captors a forceful statement of his views.
50:57Goeing, as commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, had from the moment of the loss of air superiority on the
51:02various fronts, committed no realistic reflection, argument or decision to prevail.
51:08Instead, he squandered time and energy in the most disgusting, insulting of the fighter force.
51:15By this, he achieved in the fighter force itself, as well as in the other branches and among the people
51:21themselves, exactly the opposite effect of that he sought.
51:26Everyone spoke in general terms about the failure of the fighter force.
51:34Ultimately, the failure of the Luftwaffe's fighter force cannot be explained without reference to the failure of Hitler's overall strategy
51:41for the war.
51:44Despite the often brilliant innovations of their fighter plane designers, and the undeniable skill of their airmen, it was the
51:51German leadership that led to the ultimate failure of their fighter force in the Second World War.
52:24To be continued...
52:26To be continued...
52:29To be continued...
52:44Transcription by CastingWords
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