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When B-17 and B-24 bombers were converted into flying bombs against Luftwaffe’s V-1 sites

by Till Daisd December 6, 2022

The Special Weapons Branch of the Equipment Lab at Wright Field, Ohio, came up with the concept of turning existing airplanes into power-driven controlled bombs in January 1944

At Wright Field, Ohio’s Special Weapons Branch of the Equipment Lab, the concept of transforming existing airplanes into power-driven, controlled bombs first surfaced in January 1944.

The original plan was to employ C-47 transport planes or attack gliders, carrying 10 tons of high explosives, according to Steven J. Zaloga in his book American Guided Missiles of World War II. The USAAF Engineering Division’s Materiel Command expanded the idea to cover a range of bombers, such as the B-24 and B-17. On March 25, 1944, the program was fully launched with the creation of twelve conversion kits. The guidance system was based on the aircraft’s autopilot.

A two-man crew would pilot the aircraft during the initial phase, and once cruising altitude was reached, activate the autopilot and bailout. Then, using a radio-control system, a supporting control aircraft would direct the aircraft toward the target. Any unnecessary weight, such as gun turrets, would be removed from the aircraft. The combat theater enthusiastically supported the program. The commander of the 8th Air Force, Lt. Gen. James Doolittle, proposed using old “Weary Willie” bombers that were available in Britain as the basis for flying bombs in May 1944.

The B-17F and B-24J, now known as the RB-17F and RB-24J, were chosen as the first missile aircraft on June 9, 1944. Two B-17s, one B-24, and one P-38J “Droopsnoot” were chosen as the control aircraft in addition to the dozen missile planes. The project was given the codename MX-541 Castor on June 19.

Project Castor: the story of B-17 and B-24 bombers converted into flying bombs and aimed to destroy Luftwaffe’s V-1 sites — *After completing 80 missions with the 323rd Bombardment Squadron, Aphrodite B-17F (The Careful Virgin) was used against Mimoyecques but impacted short of target due to controller error.*

The priority for Project Castor increased dramatically on Jun. 20, 1944, when Maj. Gen. Alfred Maxwell, Director of Operations of the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSTAFE), telegraphed an urgent request that the Materiel Command dispatch any available experimental guided weapons to Britain with the highest air priority. Operation Eisbär (Polar Bear), launched by the Luftwaffe against London in early June, involved the new V-1 cruise missile. Strong political pressure was put on the USSTAFE commander, Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz, to destroy the launch sites, particularly the massive “Heavy Crossbow” bunker launch facilities that were resistant to conventional bomber attacks. It was necessary to launch an explosive strike on the bunkers between ten and twenty feet from the target.

Some preliminary studies had suggested that the radio-control system in use with the Azon-guided bombs could be adapted for this requirement. Two systems—one to control altitude and one to control direction—were integrated because the Azon could only move the bomb along one axis. The 8th Air Force Operational Engineering Section at Bovingdon oversaw a crash program that started under the codename Aphrodite. Maj. Henry “Jim” Rand, the primary Azon expert for the 8th Air Force, developed the Double Azon. The AN/ARW-18 transmitter on the control plane and the AN/ARW-1 receiver on the missile made up the radio link between the “Mother” and the “Baby.”

On June 23, an experimental B-17F “robot” and “mother” ship were completed, and on June 24 in the evening, the first test flight was carried out. The conversion program was given to the USSTAFE Base Air Depot 1 at RAF Burtonwood, and from B1 to B10, a total of ten “Babies” were converted through the end of June. On July 8, Spaatz placed a conversion order for 65 Aphrodite aircraft, with the remaining 15 being filled with jellied gasoline and the remaining 75 with 10 tons of nitrostarch high-explosive (napalm).

On August 4, 1944, the first Aphrodite mission was carried out employing four Babies. Robot B1, which was intended to reach the Watten missile bunker, aborted its first pass due to cloud cover but succeeded on its second. Robot B1 was flown back out toward the English Channel because the B-24 Mother was unable to activate the “Down” control. Before it could be reoriented for another pass, it was hit by flak and went off in an explosion. Robot B4’s aim at Wizernes was successful, but during the final approach, cloud cover briefly obscured the target, and the B-17 crashed about 700 yards past the bunker.

The B-17 Mother crew thought Robot B5 was flying too high as it approached the Mimoyecques bunker and attempted to bring it down to the normal 300 feet. The relatively rudimentary controls caused them to crash around 1,500 feet short of the target. The altimeter on Robot B8, which was destined for Siracourt, failed above England. The aircraft experienced a number of uncontrollable climbs before finally stalling and crashing close to Woodbridge in Suffolk, with one crew member safely parachuting out.

On August 6, Mission 2 was carried out using the B-17F “Franklin Yellow” and B-17G “Franklin White,” which were each loaded with 830 gallons of jellied gasoline and a dozen 100lb bombs. Over the English Channel, the Franklin Yellow group came upon a formation of B-24 bombers, which caused the Mother to overshoot the Baby and experience control issues. Franklin Yellow lost control, made a sudden left turn, flipped over on its back, and crashed into the water. When the crew got out, Franklin White appeared to be flying normally, but a little while later the Mother saw that the B-17G was drifting to the right.

As the Baby began to perform complete turns, the situation increasingly got worse. The B-17 was purposefully crashed into the ocean following failed attempts to control Franklin White using the second Mother rather than risk it unintentionally returning to England.

By modifying its remote-control technology for the PB4Y-1 Privateer, the maritime patrol bomber variant of the B-24 Liberator bomber, the US Navy offered to assist Aphrodite. Compared to the basic Double Azon, this remote-control system was substantially more advanced. Two television cameras were installed on the Anvil, one in the nose to aim the robot at the target and the other in the cockpit to monitor the flight instruments. The Naval Air Factory in Philadelphia carried out the Project Anvil adaptations, and on July 7, 1944, the first Anvil PB4Y-1 and two modified PV-1 Ventura motherships left the US.

On August 12, the Anvil PB4Y-1 was sent on its Aphrodite mission, with the Mimoyecques bunker as its target. The formation took off as expected, but before the crew could bail out, the 10 1/2 ton load of Torpex exploded before its time, destroying the Anvil PB4Y-1 south of Halesworth and seriously damaging the surrounding terrain. Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy, the elder brother of the future US president John F. Kennedy and the son of the former US ambassador to Britain, was the plane’s pilot. In order to ascertain what caused the accident, more Aphrodite missions were suspended. The most likely cause, as determined by more recent studies, was a flawed safe-and-arming mechanism.

By the end of August 1944, the Allied forces had taken control of the missile launch sites in France and Belgium, bringing an end to Operation Crossbow, the campaign against the German V-1 sites. The remaining missiles’ targets changed to other valuable, well-defended targets as a result. Missions into Germany at great depth were deemed too risky. On September 3, 1944, a second Anvil Privateer was used at the Kriegsmarine base in Heligoland, attacking a location with fuel dumps and barracks on Dune Island. The Aphrodite program’s first successful mission was this one.

The Castor Project persisted in the US while the makeshift Aphrodite program was running in Britain. Plans to convert 500 missiles and 100 control aircraft were approved on July 5. On July 12, the first RB-17G and RB-24J were sent to be transformed into Castor aircraft. On August 5, 1944, the Castor designations were changed to BQB-17F and BQB-24J for the missiles and CQB-17G, CQB-24J, and CPQ-38 for the control planes. On August 25, this was changed once more when the BQ-7 for B-17 conversions and BQ-8 for B-24 conversions attack drone designations were given to the missiles.

The flight control system employed by the Castor aircraft was more akin to the Navy’s Anvil than the Aphrodite’s Double Azon. Two SCR-549A Block III television cameras, one in the cockpit to monitor the flight instruments and one in the nose to assist with aircraft aiming during the terminal phase, were part of the Castor system. The triple AN-117-A antenna array on the Azon aircraft was replaced with a tiny AN-145 or AN-146 antenna on the Castor Baby aircraft. A set of remote-controlled servos were installed in the aircraft to manage the different flight controls, such as the throttle, propellers, landing gear, and cowl flaps.

In order to track the drone even in overcast situations, the Castor conversions also contained an AN/TPN-1 Eureka navigation beacon that could be tracked by the AN/APN-2 Rebecca navigation aid on the control aircraft. The BQ-7 was equipped with a smoke generator pod under the fuselage that produced a white smoke trail to help the control aircraft even more.

On August 2, 1944, the first Castor BQ-7 detachment from Wright Field reached Britain. Twelve B-17 bombers were modified into BQ-7 drones at RAF Burtonwood, together with five CQB-17G motherships. On August 20, the first drone modification was finished, and on September 11 against the Heligoland submarine pens, the first Castor operation was carried out. Only one of the ten Castor flights that were carried out through January 1945 was barely successful. Flak, equipment failure, and poor weather impacted the program.

One special Castor mission was a plan to attack the German battleship, Tirpitz, in the Alten Fjord in Norway. British munition experts advised using a large hydrostatic bomb that could be detonated underwater because regular high explosives would not be adequate. Boeing engineers developed a technique to remove the fairing behind the B-17 cockpit since these large weapons could not be placed into the bomb bay of the B-17. As a result, a space was made large enough for the weapons to be lowered into the fuselage from above.

This conversion only applied to one aircraft, the Aphrodite B3 “Gremlin Gus II.” After the payload was secured into the fuselage, the opening was faired over with sheet metal, leading to the drone’s new nickname “The Roadster.” In the end, on November 12, 1944, the Tirpitz was sunk by RAF Lancaster bombers with Tallboy penetrating bombs.

The final Castor mission in Europe took place on January 1st, 1945, in Oldenburg. By this time, the 8th Air Force believed that the system was ineffective against targets that were well-defended by flak and in terrible winter weather.

American Guided Missiles of World War II is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

Photo by U.S. Air Force and www.fold3.com

December 6, 2022 0 comment

History

The Piper L-4H Grasshopper crew that shot down a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch

by Till Daisd December 4, 2022

written by Till Daisd

“The two planes were so close I could see the Germans’ eyeballs, as big as eggs, as we peppered them,” Merritt Duane Francies, L-4H Grasshopper pilot.

By April 11, 1945, American tanks from the 5th Armored Division were advancing across central Germany in the direction of Berlin, with the 71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion taking the lead. The unit crossed the Weser river at Hamlin and continued to advance east while armed with M7 self-propelled 105mm howitzers and M4 Sherman tanks.

According to the battalion’s official history, Fire Mission: The Story of the 71st: “The old familiar tactics of bypassing heavy resistance by using secondary roads and passing through only small villages were put to use again.

“Sixty and 70-mile marches were standard operations during the passing of those lightning-fast days. The deeper we drove into the Reich the longer our supply lines were stretched and the more difficult the job of service battery became.”

And on Apr. 11: “That day German air activity increased over the column. All sizes and types either roared or limped past. Our ack-ack would pull off to the side of the road at the slightest pause.”

The story of the Piper L-4H Grasshopper crew that used their Colt. 45 Pistols to shoot down a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch — *Piper L-4H Grasshopper*

The 71st’s progress had been directed by spotter pilots flying ahead over the enemy territory since landing at Utah beach on July 28, 52 days after D-Day, as described by Dan Sharp in his book Spitfires Over Berlin. The spotters flew long hours in frequently hazardous weather while outfitted with tiny two-seat 65hp Piper L-4 Grasshoppers.

Merritt Duane Francies, a 24-year-old Grasshopper pilot from Wenatchee, Washington, was one of the most skilled in the 71st. Duane Francies, often known as “Doc,” had been with the 71st from the beginning of the European war. He had taken some pre-med college courses and was frequently asked to provide first aid for minor injuries.

He flew an L-4H called ‘Miss Me!?’ He said: I named my plane ‘Miss Me!?’ Because I wanted the Germans to do that, the reason for the exclamation point, but I also wanted someone back home to ‘miss me’, so there was the question mark.”

On April 11, Francies and Lieutenant William Martin, his observer, were seen flying ahead of the 5th Armored about 100 miles to the west of Berlin. They saw a German motorcycle and sidecar speeding along a side road not far from the 5th’s approaching vehicles. They moved closer to get a better look and discovered a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch observation plane flying 700 feet over some trees.

Francies and Martin gave up on the motorcycle outfit after realizing they had to act quickly to stop the Storch from informing them of their 5th position.

Afterward, Francies wrote: “The Storch had an inverted eight Argus engine. It was also a fabric Job and faster and larger than ‘Miss Me!?’. It spotted us and we radioed: ‘We are about to give combat.’

Piper L-4H Grasshopper — *Pilot Lieutenant Duane Francies left and observer Lieutenant William Martin right*

‘But we had the advantage of altitude and dove blasting away with our Colt. 45s trying to force the German plane into the fire of waiting tanks of the 5th. Instead, the German began circling.”

Francies and Martin had opened their aircraft’s side doors and fired their pistols at the Storch while hovering just above and over the German aircraft. They observed damage to its right wing, fuel tank, and windscreen. Francies then reloaded while holding the Grasshopper’s control column between his knees. He wrote: “The two planes were so close I could see the Germans’ eyeballs, as big as eggs, as we peppered them.”

The Storch made a low turn that was too low in an attempt to dodge the American aircraft that followed it everywhere, and the tip of its right-wing hit the ground as a result. Before ultimately coming to rest right side up, it spins around and cartwheels while losing control of its right-wing and undercarriage.

Francies landed nearby, and he and Martin immediately went to the crash. The German crew had abandoned their machine stumbling and confused. The pilot hid behind a mound of sugar beet when they spotted the Americans coming, and the defeated observer fell to the ground.

Francies rushed over and went to aid the observer after noticing that they had been struck in the foot. When he removed the man’s boot, a.45 bullet was found inside. The pilot emerged with his hands raised after Martin, who had now also reloaded his gun, fired a warning shot.

A German flag they discovered inside the Storch was taken by Francies, along with the pilot’s uniform insignia. He wrote: “I never found out their names. They could have been important, for all I know. We turned them over to our tankers about 15 minutes later, after the injured man thanked me many times for bandaging his foot. I think they thought we would shoot them.”

Francies and Martin were scouting in advance of the 5th when some of the division’s components arrived at the Elbe not long after their aerial victory. A group of Soviet soldiers riding steppe horses approached them after they had flown across the river and landed on the other side. The soldiers were dressed in grey greatcoats.

The Russians moved back when they noticed the white star insignia on the Grasshopper, but they were unfriendly, and later the Americans boarded their aircraft and went back to the 71st. They had not realized that they were supposed to remain on the ‘American’ side of the Elbe.

Francies had twice been recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross but had not been awarded it by the conclusion of the war. The recommendations were forgotten as the years went by. Francies was a Korean War veteran before beginning his career as a commercial pilot. In his book The Last Battle from 1966, historian Cornelius Ryan writes about his exploits. Harry Jackson, a US senator, pushed for the recognition of Francies’ accomplishments, and the following year, Francies finally received his DFC.

Spitfires Over Berlin is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here.

Photo by ERIC SALARD from PARIS, FRANCE, and Marie-Lan Nguyen via Wikipedia and Mark Felton Productions via YouTube

December 4, 2022 0 comment

History

Comparing the Vought F4U Corsair and Hawker Sea Fury with the Seafire

by Till Daisd December 2, 2022

written by Till Daisd

“We had several interesting dogfights with the much larger and more powerful F4U Corsair. In turning dogfights, the Corsairs were unable to get a bead on us if we saw them first,” Commander R ‘Mike’ Crosley, former CO of 880 and 887 NAS.

The front-line Fleet Air Arm Squadrons were there when the naval version of the legendary Spitfire finally entered service after a long and occasionally challenging voyage. The Seafire was far from ideal as a naval fighter since it lacked endurance and was challenging to land on a carrier, but it provided the Royal Navy access to an interceptor with exceptional air performance, which helped the Allies turn the tables on the Germans as they went on the offensive.

The Seafire saw action in Malaya and Korea while serving in the Second World War from the North Atlantic to Japan and into the 1950s. There is a remarkable degree of agreement among pilots regarding how the Spitfire flew, which can be summed up as beautifully responsive and maneuverable in the air, but challenging to handle and land, especially on an aircraft carrier, according to Naval aviation historian Matthew Willis in his book Supermarine Seafire. Any criticisms usually focus on the excessively light elevators or the heavy ailerons. The following remarks from two pilots, one from the past and the other from the present, provide some context as well as a comparison with some of the Seafire’s rivals from the war and its immediate aftermath, the Vought Corsair and Hawker Sea Fury.

Commander R ‘Mike’ Crosley DSC (former CO of 880 and 887 NAS)

“Once the tail was raised – by prop slipstream over the tail and a small push on the stick – and the pilot could see where he was going, the true enjoyment began. The acceleration was like a racing car. Once airborne, the Seafire responded with the sensitivity of a polo pony to nearly all our ignorant demands upon it. It behaved in its normal habitat with such unselfish grace and with such rapid response and power, that we knew we were being allowed to fly a thoroughbred.

“We had several interesting dogfights with the much larger and more powerful F4U Corsair. In turning dogfights, the Corsairs were unable to get a bead on us if we saw them first. However, they could, like an Fw 190, out-dive us … Also, above 15,000 feet they were faster than Seafire L IIIs. However, the F III with its two-speed, uncropped supercharger, could easily keep up with the Corsair at 20,000 feet and above.

“The Corsair could not out-turn a Seafire I, II, or III as has been claimed. However, if the Corsair slowed down to about 90 knots and then the pilot selected half-flap —provided it was down to its last 50 gallons of fuel — it could hold a Seafire LIII at this speed and configuration at heights above 10,000 feet.”‘

Flying the Seafire: a comparison with the Vought F4U Corsair and Hawker Sea Fury — *Sea Fury, F4U Corsair, F6F Hellcat*

Lieutenant-Commander Chris Götke AFM (former CO Royal Navy Historic Flight)

“You can see the progression from a Seafire versus a Sea Fury. The Seafire [F 17] has got a short-block Griffon VI with about 2,000 hp. When you’re in the Seafire it’s incredibly noisy compared with a Centaurus, because you have all the exhausts and they come out down by your feet, pointing at you. The Centaurus engine is very good at lower rpm, so when we go cruising on it we’re down at 1,500 rpm which gives you about 220, 230 knots. The Griffon is complaining by the time you get it down to 1,800. For the pilot, one of the things you don’t want is to over-boost an engine. The Sea Fury was one of the first that you can’t over-boost. In a Sea Fury, as you go up on the boost, the rpm automatically rises. So, if you’re in combat and you’re just holding on, and then you get bounced, you can just slam the Centaurus open and it will go up to 2,700 and plus nine boosts. You can’t do that with the Griffon in the Seafire.

“Regarding the handling and maneuvering, if you were doing 300-plus knots in the Seafire you’d be getting very heavy ailerons, but in the Sea Fury you could do 100 knots or 400 knots and it’s the same feel. It’s a very well-harmonized system in that aircraft. The Seafire is very, very light in pitch, so is quite maneuver-unstable. You can get maneuvering very quickly, but if you hit turbulence as you’re pulling up, you almost have to unload, it’s so light in maneuver. The Sea Fury has 183 gallons internally, plus it had another tank which took it to about two hundred. That’s almost twice what you could get inside a Seafire, and the Seafire uses fuel at about the same rate. Actually, with the Centaurus, you can happily get down to 40 gallons an hour. In display, though, both are lovely aircraft.”

Supermarine Seafire is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here.

Photo by Imperial War Museum via Wikipedia

December 2, 2022 0 comment

History

Hans-Guido Mutke, a Me 262 pilot who may have achieved supersonic flight before Chuck Yeager

by Till Daisd November 29, 2022

written by Till Daisd

“The airspeed indicator was stuck in the red danger zone, which is over 1100kph. I noticed that rivets began popping out of the tops of the wings. The aircraft began vibrating and shaking wildly, banging my head against the sides of the cockpit,” Hans-Guido Mutke, Me 262 pilot.

There are a dozen more pilots who flew the Me 262 in the final days of the war who history has all but forgotten for every well-known one. Fahnrich Hans-Guido Mutke appeared to have every chance of becoming just such an unknown and uncelebrated pilot.

He was called up to serve in the war effort despite being a medical student. He was born on March 25, 1921, in Neisse, Germany. He joined Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 in 1942 after completing his pilot training, flying Messerschmitt Bf 110s and Dornier 217s against British bombers.

His experience with twin-engine aircraft made him the perfect candidate, so in March 1945, he was transferred to 10./EJG 2 (Erganzungsjagdgeschwader 2, or “Operational Fighter Training Group 2”) in Lechfeld for retraining on the Me 262.

According to Dan Sharp’s story in Spitfires Over Berlin, Mutke was instructed to conduct a training trip at a high altitude on April 9. As a result, he climbed to a height of a little over 36,000 feet, which is nearly as high as the Me 262’s ceiling of 37,565 feet. He was at this near-maximum altitude when he overheard a flight controller warning that a P-51 Mustang was about to intercept one of his fellow trainees and decided to fly down to help.

With both engines running at full power, he drove his Me 262 “White 9” over into a steep 40–50° left bank and started to descend. In just a few seconds, the plane started to tremble violently.

Mutke himself recalled: “The airspeed indicator was stuck in the red danger zone, which is over 1100kph. I noticed that rivets began popping out of the tops of the wings. The aircraft began vibrating and shaking wildly, banging my head against the sides of the cockpit.

“I moved the stick wildly around the cockpit. For a brief moment, the aircraft responded to controls again, then went back out of control. The aircraft still did not respond to pressure on the stick so I changed the incidence of the tailplane.

“The speed dropped to 500kph, the aircraft stopped shaking and I regained control. After diving about three miles I was able to return to base. On the runway, the mechanics were very surprised by the appearance of the aircraft, which looks as though it had been shaken by the hand of a giant.”

The story of Hans-Guido Mutke, the Me 262 pilot who might have gone supersonic two years earlier than Chuck Yeager — *Hans-Guido Mutke*

In another interview, Mutke stated: “What happened had never happened to another pilot as I entered a very dangerous realm without knowing it. I had no idea what was happening. I thought there was something wrong with the aircraft.”

The condition of Mutke’s jet fighter may have confused the mechanics, but his bosses were unimpressed.

He said: “When I landed, the commander was furious and demanded to know if I had gone above the red fork mark of 950km.

“I said, ‘Of course not. You know, this might be a Monday production’. That means it was made the day after the workers had been drinking.”

Mutke soon learned that the colleague he had been trying to save had been shot down despite his efforts to save him, but had been able to parachute to safety. And the story may have come to an end there.

In 1989, at a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of jet-powered light, Mutke spoke with some of the experts in attendance about his experiences on April 9, 1945, and they speculated with him about the possibility that he may have actually broken the sound barrier two years earlier than Chuck Yeager, who achieved supersonic flight on October 14, 1947.

Since then, Me 262 enthusiasts and critics of the aircraft have debated the specifics of Mutke’s flight, the Me 262’s suitability or lack thereof for breaking the sound barrier, the accuracy of its in-flight instruments, and the technical challenges of conclusively proving or disproving the pilot’s account.

His supporters mention a handbook on Me 262 published by the USAAF in January 1946 based on tests of captured aircraft. He died on April 8, 2004, and donated his body to anatomist Gunther von Hagens.

This states: “At speeds of 950 to 1000kph the airflow around the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, and it is reported that the control surfaces no longer affect the direction of flight. It is also reported that once the speed of sound is exceeded, this condition disappears and normal control is restored.”

The Me 262 may have had the ability to reach supersonic speeds, according to computer simulations conducted in 1999 at Munich Technical University.

Professor Otto Wagner told Reuters, which was reporting on Mutke’s claims in 2001: “I don’t want to exclude the possibility but I can imagine he may also have been just below the speed of sound and felt the buffeting, but did not go above Mach 1.”

Additionally, engineers at the time in the US who were building a replica Me 262 with contemporary engines said they thought Mutke might have been right.

Jim Byron of the Me 262 Project said: “We met with Herr Mutke and having listened to his story, we believe he could have accomplished this in the severe dive and engine flameout.”

The Me 262 would become unmanageable after Mach 0.86, according to flight tests conducted during the war by Messerschmitt engineers, resulting in an ever-steepening dive that the pilot would be unable to prevent. Then, as a result of high G loads, speeds would increase until the airframe broke apart.

Some people think Mutke was able to resist the steepening dive and level out to momentarily regain control at just before supersonic speed because he changed the tailplane incidence.

The German measuring equipment’ later-war unreliability and the compressibility of pitot tubes, which led to incorrect readings close to the speed of sound, have been cited as reasons for skepticism.

The Me 262’s fuselage’s area rule design, which would have produced extremely high drag at transonic speeds, also worked against it. However, it is acknowledged that the Me 262 would have been able to break past the sound barrier and enter supersonic flight if the force of gravity and engine thrust combined during a steep descent.

While the air traveling over Mutke’s aircraft may have exceeded Mach 1, it is highly unlikely that his jet did. However, the exact speed at which he traveled will never be known.

Spitfires Over Berlin is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here.

Photo by U.S. Air Force and Noop1958 via Wikipedia

November 29, 2022 0 comment

History

Crossbows, Big Bens and Divers: a quick look at Allied Operations against Hitler’s V-Weapons

by Till Daisd November 27, 2022

written by Till Daisd

In July and August 1944 approximately 30 percent of RAF Bomber Command sorties and tonnage was directed against V-1 and V-2 sites, as was about 20 percent of US Eighth Air Force sorties and tonnage.

The following article contains excerpts from Adam Lunney’s book We Together, 451 and 453 Squadrons at War.

Before the Second World War, rocketry was a novel form of weapon, and the British made an effort to monitor German advances. The German Army first asked for specific rocket designs that could carry warheads in 1931, and by 1939 a program was in place and active. Hitler didn’t show much interest in the project until it was suggested to launch 5,000 V-2 rockets (also known as A-4 rockets) in England in April 1942. As rocketry could not be left to the army (because of ongoing inter-service rivalry), the Luftwaffe developed their own designs and named their weapon the FZG76, which later came to be known as the V-1.

Until Albert Speer became Minister for War Production in March 1943, the 451 and 453 Squadrons at War projects were in direct competition with one another, according to Adam Lunney in We Together, 451 and 453 Squadrons at War. After Speer assumed this position, the two projects’ efforts were combined while additional material and human resources were added. However, in order to learn as much as they could about the projects, the Allies employed spies and interrogation of prisoners.

Continuous aerial photography supported this intelligence, and between March 1943 and March 1944, almost 40% of Allied photo-reconnaissance sorties were focused on locating V-1 and V-2 sites. To find the locations of these weapons’ production, storage, and launch facilities, more than a million pictures were taken.

In March 1944, it was believed that the sites would be fixed and that heavy bombers would be needed to destroy them. However, later information, such as that acquired from photographic sorties, revealed that V-2 sites were actually relatively simple squares of concrete where the transporter unit would park its portable equipment prior to the launch. Around 20% of the US Eighth Air Force’s sorties and tonnage in July and August 1944 and 30% of the RAF Bomber Command’s were both targeted at V-1 and V-2 sites. Standing instructions set out the code words to be used in reference to the V-weapons:

Crossbow: All general references to long-range weapons.
Big Ben: For use in reference to long-range rockets.
Diver: For use in reference to pilotless aircraft.

Crossbows, Big Bens and Divers: a quick look at Allied Operations against Hitler’s V-Weapons — *This V-1 made it through air defenses and fell on London. (U.S. Air Force photo)*

Operation Hydra, a raid on Peenemunde in August 1943 by 596 RAF bombers (crewed by men from all across the Commonwealth), alerted the Germans to Allied knowledge of their actions and caused the facilities to be dispersed, making following raids less successful. 40 bombers were lost that night, along with 243 aircrew members and 45 detainees. Compare this to Fighter Commands losing roughly 537 pilots throughout the Battle of Britain, which lasted over four months, to show the severity of Bomber Commands’ operations.

One person’s loss is not greater than another’s, and one person’s sacrifice is not less than another’s, but the rate of loss in Bomber Command is frequently disregarded. On the night of June 12/13, 1944, the V-1 assaults started, and the Allies launched a series of countermeasures to go along with the bombing raids. The fastest fighters, whose job it was to track and fire down the rockets, were taken out of action over Normandy, and a belt of anti-aircraft guns was built up along the coast on expected approaches.

Before Operation Market Garden, the V-1 attacks against England halted because the Allies had taken over most of the coastal areas where they were based. However, with the end of one menace came the beginning of a new one, and on September 8, the first V-2 landed in London. The warhead of this new weapon was only as massive as the V-1, despite its size and speed. Although England was targeted less frequently, other targets like Antwerp and Allied airfields were still within range as the front line changed, as did the launch sites. Operations against the V-1 installations and the facilities connected to them cost the Allies 443 aircraft and 2,924 aircrews by the time the war was over.

Electronic countermeasures, which involved RAF forces stationed in coastal areas with signaling equipment trying to detect the signals connected with a V-2 rocket launch and then trying to jam that signal, were one strategy that was intended to be used to combat the V-2 rockets. Any movement had to be almost instantaneous because it was thought that radio control was only available for the first 40 to 70 seconds of the V-2’s flight.

These presumptions were based on how the Luftwaffe used its radio-controlled HS 293 bomb, which was fired from an aircraft and subsequently guided to its target by the bomb aimer. The Luftwaffe employed radio-controlled bombs of various kinds against Allied ships during the landings at Anzio, where radio-guided bombs sank the LCT35, the liberty ship Elihu Yale, and the HMS Inglefield.

While the electronic countermeasures were thought to be of use, one proven piece of technology was radar, which had been used so successfully during the Battle of Britain in 1940. A number of procedures were put in place, including the shouting of the code word “Big Ben” when a launch was detected, to start the chain of events and communications for the countermeasures to begin. Radar sites along the areas where the rockets were expected to pass were alerted to the potential new threat. The code word “Fireworks” was used to alert the Scientific Observers Office, and the code word “Pop Gun” was to be used by army forces on the continent if they saw rockets being fired.

In August 1944, anti-Big Ben drills were conducted in preparation for the use of these long-range weapons. The actual actions comprised regular “Jim Crow” coastal patrols to look for V-2 launches and escorts to the specially adapted bombers of the RAF 100 Group who would also monitor the area of the Dutch coast to look for any electronic signals connected to the operation of V-2s. The rockets proved to be less lethal than expected and the attacks on England happened at a lesser rate than expected, therefore several countermeasures (such outfitting trawlers to aid spot launches) were scaled back or abandoned after the strikes began.

Together, the 451 and 453 Squadrons of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) conducted sorties against V2 sites.

Other Australians, such as the 456 RAAF Squadron, participated in operations against the V-weapons while the 451 and 453 Squadrons launched dive-bombing flights against the German targets stationed in and around The Hague. They conducted night-interception patrols in their Mosquitos in an effort to locate the sporadic Heinkel He-111 aircraft that dropped V-1 missiles. Squadrons performing Big Ben operations were given the following instructions:

not abandoning any escorted bombers for the purpose of attacking a Big Ben site
not carrying out strafing attacks below 1,000 ft in case the target vehicle being strafed caused a large explosion
flying patrols at a height out of effective range of light flak, and
patrolling aircraft to attack other targets of opportunity only after being relieved by the next patrol, ensuring that ammunition was not wasted on targets of little value, since a launch may occur at any time and the patrol should always be ready to attack.

Sqn Ldr Ernest Esau of 453 Squadron and his station commander, Group Captain Arthur Donaldson DSO, DFC, AFC, came up with the idea of using Spitfires as dive-bombers against the V-2 sites together. They then presented the idea to Air Marshal Sir Roderic Hill, Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command, who gave them the go-ahead.

We Together, 451 and 453 Squadrons at War is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here along with many other beautiful aviation books.

Photo by U.S. Air Force, Crown Copyright and Bild 146-1978-Anh.026-01 via Wikipedia

November 27, 2022 0 comment

History

B-26 pilot James P. Muri buzzed the flight deck of Akagi to save his crew

by Till Daisd November 27, 2022

written by Till Daisd

Muri’s bomber was hit, injuring three crew members, but he continued on, firing a torpedo onto the aircraft carrier Akagi before trying to flee the barrage of fire unleashed by the enemy surface fleet and swarming Zero fighters

At 7:10 in the morning on June 4, 1942, 150 miles from Midway Atoll… The B-26 Marauder “Susie-Q” thunders down the carrier’s flight deck after launching a torpedo at the Japanese carrier Akagi, narrowly missing the bridge. Lt. James P. Muri, a member of the 22nd Bomb Group of the Army Air Force, piloted one of the four B-26 bombers that departed from Midway Island on that day in order to engage a Japanese fleet preparing to invade the American outpost roughly 1,100 miles northwest of Hawaii.

Japanese fighter aircraft fired machine guns and cannons at the bombers. Although Muri’s bomber was hit and three crew members were hurt, he still launched a torpedo at the aircraft carrier Akagi and then, as depicted in the stunning illustration (titled “A Shot Across the Bow” and created by aviation artist Roy Grinnell) in this article, he attempted to flee the hail of shots fired by the enemy surface fleet and swarming Zero fighters by flying his craft across the ship.

Fox News reported that Muri believed that skimming the flight deck would give him the best chance of surviving, so he flew lower than treetop level above the deck of the huge ship. More than 500 bullet holes were found in the bomber when the jet made a crash landing on Midway Island, according to reports in the Billings Gazette.

The stunning American victory at the Battle of Midway was made possible by the dramatic torpedo attack by Army B-26 Marauders of the 22nd and 38th Bomb Groups and the Navy TBF Avengers of Torpedo Squadron 8. This action forced Japanese Admiral Nagumo to change his battle strategy.

The Distinguished Service Cross was given to Muri and his crew, and singer and radio host Lonnie Bell honored the achievement in his 1976 song “Midway.” At a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Muri was presented with the Jimmy Doolittle Award in 2003 for his exceptional service to the U.S. Army Air Corps. On February 3, 2013, Muri passed away. He had buzzed the flight deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi to save his crew and crippled B-26 bomber.

Muri retired from the military in 1959 and came home to Montana in 1969. Before relocating to Billings in 1999, he and his wife, Alice, lived on Bridger Creek east of Big Timber for 30 years. In 2001, he lost his wife. Muri piloted the Martin B-26 Marauder, a twin-engine light bomber that was first used by the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1941, during his valiant mission.

In the spring of 1942, the B-26 started flying combat missions over the Southwest Pacific, although most of them were later sent to Europe and the Mediterranean. The Marauder, an Allied bomber that operated at middle altitudes of 10,000 to 15,000 feet, had the lowest loss rate of any Allied bomber at less than 0.5 percent. Aircrews from the United States, Britain, Free France, Australia, South Africa, and Canada all piloted the B-26 during battle. B-26 crews flew more than 110,000 missions and dropped 150,000 tons of bombs by the conclusion of World War II. 5,266 B-26s had been produced by the time it was stopped in 1945.

Prints of this painting, and other fine military artworks and collectibles, can be viewed online and purchased at the Valor Studios website.

The Story of James P. Muri, the B-26 pilot who buzzed the flight deck of Japanese Aircraft Carrier Akagi during the Battle of Midway to save his crew — *The crew of the U.S. Army Air Forces Martin B-26 Marauder (s/n 40-1391, “Susie-Q”) from the 18th Reconnaissance Squadron (Medium), 22nd Bomb Group, which made a torpedo attack* on the Japanese carriers in the early morning of Jun. 4, 1942, during the Battle of Midway: Pilot Lt. James P. Muri (second from left, front row), co-pilot Lt. Pren L. Moore, navigator Lt. William W. Moore, bombardier Lt. Russell Johnson, gunners S/Sgt. John J. Gogoj, Cpl. Frank L. Melo Jr, and Pfc. Earl D. Ashley 1st. The plane had more than 500 bullet holes when it landed at Midway and was written off. The crew was allowed to cut out the nose-art “Susie-Q” before the plane was dumped at sea.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

November 27, 2022 0 comment

History

The Blohm & Voss BV 155

by Till Daisd November 26, 2022

written by Till Daisd

However, if it had been put into production more quickly, the BV 155 might have proven valuable in battling the most modern, high-flying Allied reconnaissance aircraft

Through the pages of American magazines and newspapers, which seem to have had no qualms about printing sensitive details that other countries may have tried very hard to keep secret, German intelligence was able to closely monitor advances within the US aircraft industry throughout 1941.

The Consolidated B-24D Liberator was to be fitted with a pressure cabin for high-altitude operations, as reported in Model Airplane News of August 1941, according to Dan Sharp’s account in his book Blohm & Voss BV 155. This information was included in the Auslandsnachrichten des General-Luftzeugmeisters Dienst Nr. 3/41/1 (Reichsluftfahrtministerium, RLM, intelligence briefing on other countries’ aircraft developments) for September 1, 1941. In a similar vein, a July 1941 article from Aviation, which was mentioned in the same document, openly described Boeing’s efforts to develop a three-man pressurized cabin for use over 12 km, the service ceiling of the most recent Bf 109 variants.

Since the Luftwaffe would soon face enemy bombers it had no chance of stopping, there was apparent anxiety when America joined the Second World War on the side of Britain and the Allies in December 1941. The RLM began looking for a new high-altitude fighter in the spring of 1942 as a result of these worries. A higher peak altitude provides a natural advantage in air-to-air combat, so Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf had already been working to increase the service ceiling of their standard fighters. However, the RLM wanted them to go beyond simply modifying their existing designs with a pressure cabin and longer wings.

Focke-Wulf is another story. Messerschmitt concentrated on preliminary work being done with Daimler-Benz on the new DB 628 engine, which is a DB 605 with a two-stage supercharger for enhanced performance at high altitude. DB appears to have been responsible for the majority of the work, employing a Bf 109F airframe with the manufacturing code “Me 409.”

The Bf 109’s narrow track undercarriage, which was sometimes considered to be its major fault, was also being worked on at the same time. The improved Bf 109G airframe and new wings with gear that folded inwards were included into the Me 409 design, and it was given the official RLM designation Me 155. (8-155). Three new aircraft were planned to be built on it: a normal fighter to compete with the Me 309, a high-altitude fighter to take on those American bombers, and a carrier-based fighter to take the place of the Graf Zeppelin’s outdated Bf 109E-based Bf 109T.

The Me 409/Me 155 project was assigned to the French subcontractor SNCAN since Messerschmitt was already operating at full capacity on other projects. However, it appears that SNCAN was short on time and the Me 155 was placed to the back of the line.

The story of the Blohm & Voss BV 155, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 on Steroids that Never Was

It appears that Messerschmitt was equally and unsurprisingly uninterested in the type. After the initial fear of American bombers subsided, there was little continued interest in a high-altitude interceptor. However, there was some profit in the carrier-based version, or so it seemed until the Graf Zeppelin was canceled. Re-engineering the Bf 109G, giving it straightforward rectangular inserts to enlarge its wingspan, and leaving its undercarriage in place as the Bf 109H made it simpler to complete the same task. Early in 1943, production on the Me 155 in all its forms was stopped.

It was required to offer a high-altitude option in the form of the Me 209H when the Me 309 was scrapped and the Me 209 was chosen as the intended replacement to the Bf 109. By January 1943, a fundamental component of Messerschmitt’s design philosophy (and that of the majority of other German aircraft manufacturers) was to specify the highest percentage of existing components for new types in order to prevent supply chain disruptions and production output. As a result, the Me 209 was mainly based on the Bf 109G but had a redesigned tail, wings with inward-retracting landing gear similar to the Me 155, and a new engine in the shape of the Jumo 213.

When the RLM judged that a normal fighter modified to fly at 12 km with a ceiling of about 13 km was insufficient, the situation altered in May 1943. Despite the fact that the Bf 109H and Fw 190H (Ta 152H after August 1943) were both high-altitude fighters, the RLM required something with a 16km range.

Early in 1943, the British began equipping their newest reconnaissance aircraft, including the Spitfire PR Mk. XI and Mosquito IX, with the two-stage supercharged Merlin 61, making them inaccessible to most German interceptors. In addition, a Spitfire (likely a Mk. VI modified with a pressure cabin) had been found in Dieppe after the disastrous Operation Jubilee raid on the French coast on August 19, 1942, according to information presented at a meeting of the RLM’s GL-Besprechung on September 1, 1942.

Apart from the fact that the Americans had yet to have any significant influence in the European theater, it was obvious that the British were also now developing a worrisome high-altitude capability. Therefore, the RLM asked Messerschmitt to look into the viability of a machine with a 16 kilometer peak altitude. In response, the company developed the three-stage P 1091 project, the first step of which was the most recent Bf 109H version.

The two concepts that survived were promptly added to the increasing list of projects that Messerschmitt still lacked the genuine capacity to work on. The RLM liked the first and third stages but saw no need for the second. Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch took the unconventional step of stopping the production of Blohm & Voss’s trio of seaplanes, the BV 138, 222, and 238, and giving that company’s design and production capacity to Messerschmitt because the company needed more resources but none could be obtained through conventional channels. This was perhaps a wise decision given that Blohm & Voss’ excellent staff was squandered on maintaining equipment that, by this stage, was mostly unnecessary for the Luftwaffe.

Messerschmitt could have chosen to give B&V any of its work — aspects of the Me 262, work on the Me 410, further development of the Me 163, the still-viable Me 209, or even the Me 264 bomber but instead, the company handed Blohm & Voss the P 1091 Stage 3. On September 9, 1943, the contract was finalized and the project was given the official name Me 155B; there was never a ‘A’.

This was consistent with Messerschmitt, where the “A” did not exist until the “B” did. Before the Me 163B and Me 328B gained their official names, the Me 163A and Me 328A were only projects and prototypes. The Me 163B and Me 328B are now known as the Me 163A and Me 328A, respectively.

Even though the partnership between Messerschmitt and Blohm & Voss got off to a good start, the B&V team doesn’t seem to have realized what a massive operation Messerschmitt AG was or how little time the firm had to watch over them during the project’s early phases. The Blohm & Voss team was outraged and upset when the location of a conference was changed at the last minute, and they went to the wrong place. Hermann Pohlmann recounted this incident vividly in Thomas H. Hitchcock’s Monogram Close-Up 20 Blohm & Voss 155, Monogram 1990.

Due to this mix-up, B&V complained quite petulantly to the RLM, who then complained to Messerschmitt, and the relationship between the two businesses was soon in ruins. After Blohm & Voss’s cooperation ended in February 1944, the aircraft type was given their initials: BV 155B. The five BV 155B prototypes that B&V had purchased were difficult to manufacture because the type’s RLM priority rating was set too low. But it did find time to alter its radiators, making the prototypes obsolete even before they were constructed.

As 1944 went on, the Allied bombing of Germany reached a fever pitch, and the Luftwaffe’s principal concern changed to preventing the bomber streams. This seems to have once again turned the spotlight on the 8-155 and its priority was evidently increased, with an order being placed for 30 examples of the new BV 155C. With a Luftwaffe pilot at the controls, the first prototype BV 155B completed just a few flights before colliding with the ground. Of course, the second prototype was taken.

There is no getting around the fact that those dreaded high-altitude American bombers never materialized in the skies over Germany. It was an extraordinary feat for the small and under-resourced Blohm & Voss team to develop and build a new and complicated fighter in around 18 months. However, if it had been put into production more quickly, the BV 155 might have proven valuable in battling the most modern, high-flying Allied reconnaissance aircraft.

With a ceiling of just over 15 km, the Griffon-engined Spitfire PR Mk.XIX was virtually untouchable from the time it reached active units in May 1944 until the conclusion of the war. The unarmed PR Mk.XIX would have been extremely vulnerable with BV 155Cs in use by the Luftwaffe.

Blohm & Voss BV 155 is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here along with many other beautiful aviation books.

Photo by GoodFon.com and Reddit

November 26, 2022 0 comment

History

The events leading up to the horrifying photograph of the B-17 Flying Fortress with one wing severed

by Till Daisd November 24, 2022

written by Till Daisd

One of the most iconic images of the American daytime bombing campaign over Germany was taken on April 8, 1945, and it serves as the post’s primary image

One of the most well-known images of the American daytime bombing campaign over Germany, the horrifying primary image of this post was taken on April 8, 1945. The image depicts a B-17 Flying Fortress from the USAAF 322nd Bombardment Squadron, one wing severed, falling to its death.

This horrifying image is part of a photo sequence captured by a B-17’s automated bomb strike camera, as described by author Dan Sharp in his book Spitfires over Berlin. The photo sequence captures the last 18 seconds of B-17G 42-31333 “Wee Willie” above Stendal, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany after it was damaged by an 88mm flak burst. This aircraft was the 302nd Boeing B-17G to roll off the production line at Boeing Plant 2, King County Washington.

The port wing of Willie has already sheared off in the first image, and it is spinning over its tail while engulfed in flames.

The story behind the horrific photo of the B-17 Flying Fortress with one wing blown off, plummeting to its doom

The second image, which depicts the aircraft in the final seconds of its death dive, is widely used to illustrate the atrocities experienced by American air crews during the daytime bombing campaign over Germany. There are still all nine crew members inside.

The character “Wee Willie” has blown up in the previous image. Wings, a tail, and pieces of the fuselage fall to the ground burning.

‘Wee Willie’ was part of a 73-bomber raid on the locomotive repair shops at Stendal and was flown by Lt Robert E Fuller for this sortie.

The official report from the 322nd noted that the operation was a remarkable success: “The high squadron was furnished by the 322nd, led by Lt Johnson. Strike photographs for the high squadron’s bombs show an excellent concentration of hits covering the aiming point.

“Almost the entire concentration lies within a 1000ft circle over the MPI. Meagre to moderate tracking AA fire on the bomb run which was extremely accurate resulted in minor damage to 13 aircraft and major damage to four in the group. The high and lead squadrons each lost one aircraft in the target area from flak damage.”

Lt. Peter Pastras was the pilot of the B-17G-50-B0 42-102504 Times A-Wastin’, which was lost from the 401st, the lead squadron. Lt Mike Fodroci, a navigator on another B-17, saw it burn to death. He observed the four gun batteries on the ground following bursts of flak through the lead formation as they got ever-closer to Times A-Wastin’ until the fourth one shot straight into the bomb bay of the aircraft, which was still open.

He writes in his report that: “The pilot must have been killed instantly; for the ship pulled up and veered to the right, climbing directly over our ship. Captain Shelby put our ship into a dive so steep that I was thrown up against the astro hatch of the ceiling in the nose — seems I hung there for a brief second or two.

“I also observed that a bad fire was burning on the aircraft’s forward bomb bay area and that the co-pilot was trying to climb out of the small window with his backpack on. Somehow, we saw three chutes emerge from #504 as she spun toward the earth.”

Times A-Wastin’s co-pilot, Bob Morris, was killed when the B-17 exploded in mid-air, along with all but two of its crew, engineer Lyle Jones and radio operator Bob A Smith, who were taken prisoner on the ground.

42-31333 “Wee Willie,” an aircraft from the high squadron, was lost.

S/Sgt. George Little, a gunner on board a 401st B-17, states in the Missing Air Crew Report: “I observed 42-31333 receive a direct flak hit approximately between the bomb bay and the number two engine. The aircraft immediately started a vertical dive. The aircraft fuselage was on fire and when it had dropped approximately 5000ft the left wing fell off.

“It continued down and when the fuselage was about 3000ft from the ground it exploded, and then exploded again when it hit the ground. I saw no crew members leave the aircraft or parachutes.”

Another person who saw ‘Wee Willie’s demise was able to provide an even more precise account of what transpired. On any given flight, a third of the B-17 aircraft were outfitted with bomb strike cameras. These were fitted under the floor in the radio room and the lens cone was exposed to the elements.

The cameras were set to run automatically from “bombs away” until the film ran out or until a predefined number of exposures had been made. Every six seconds, they took an exposure, and then the system wound the film onto the camera in preparation for the next picture.

In this manner, it was sometimes possible to assess the images to determine whether a mission was successful or unsuccessful. The three images above were taken during the final 18 seconds of “Wee Willie” by the automated camera on another B-17 that was flying alongside or below it.

Willie was destroyed by an explosion that tore straight through the fuselage and blasted Lt Robert E. Fuller out of the cockpit just before the final of the three. He opened his parachute and made it through the descent somehow. The rest of his crew perished in the incident.

Fuller’s ultimate fate is unknown, despite the fact that it is recorded that he was taken prisoner; in some sources, he is simply listed as “killed in action” along with his crew. After completing 127 missions, “Wee Willie” was destroyed on mission 128.

Spitfires over Berlin is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here along with many other beautiful aviation books.

Photo by U.S. Air Force via American Air Museum in Britain

November 24, 2022 0 comment

History

Bruce Carr, the P-51D pilot who took off in a Mustang and RTB in a Luftwaffe FW 190

by Till Daisd November 21, 2022

written by Till Daisd

Col. Carr rushed across a corner of the field, passing between two hangars, before taking off since he didn’t really have time to line up on the runway

Bruce Carr received the Distinguished Service Cross and was a lieutenant at the end of World War II. Despite all of this, he makes no claim to heroism—a dubious assertion—but he is unable to deny his involvement in a risky incident that is unlike any other in that war’s history.

‘In October 1944 Colonel Bruce Carr of the USAAF took off on a mission in a 354th Fighter Group P-51D, and was shot down by flak while strafing ground targets over Czechoslovakia,’ remembers Jay Thompson, a pilot and aviation expert on Quora. ‘He landed near a Luftwaffe field with the intent of surrendering to the Luftwaffe troops since they were generally much more friendly to U.S. aircrew than were the soldiers of the German army, but it was becoming dark just as he got there, and from the trees, he watched two mechanics fuel up and then run up an FW 190A-8 and shut it back down again.

‘He decided well, that seemed to be a perfectly good airplane; why not give it a try? Near dawn, he snuck out and jumped in the cockpit, and having no knowledge of it, he went with the theory that if he kept flipping switches and moving controls to the opposite position of where they currently were, he’d find the starter somehow. And damned if he didn’t, and luckily the FW 190A series included the most advanced throttle system for a WW2 aircraft called the Kommandogerat, where boost pressure, fuel flow, mixture setting, and prop were all controlled with a single lever, making it about the only plane in WW2 that an enemy pilot could steal and manage to get going down a runway with less than 30 minutes of experimentation.

‘Luftwaffe personnel were already coming out to see what was going on, so Col. Carr didn’t really have time to line up on the runway; he just gunned it across a corner of the field on a path that had him pass between two hangars before he was airborne. He was very pleased with himself when he managed to get the gear up.’

Thompson continues:

‘He then later said that he decided to fly back at treetop height in hopes of not drawing any Allied fighter attention, but said that the choice wasn’t great, because he was convinced that every .50cal M2 machine gun in existence in the 200 miles between that German airport and his home field had taken shots at him.

‘When he got close to his squadron’s base in France, he decided not to mess around at all and line up with the runway some distance out and fly straight in before anyone could man the AA defenses – at this point in the war the Allies had pretty much total air control and there was almost no threat of German attack.

‘The only problem was that he couldn’t get the landing gear back down. Rather than make himself a target while trying to figure out what the problem was, he decided to just belly-land it. And that’s what he did, as American soldiers ran for the quad .50cal guns.

The Story of Bruce Carr, the P-51D Pilot who left on a mission flying a Mustang and RTB flying a Luftwaffe FW 190 — *Colonel Bruce Carr*

‘Needless to say, everyone was very confused when they found (then) Captain Carr sitting in the cockpit. It was an awesome opportunity for a one-liner, like “yeah, I never liked the P-51 anyway”, or maybe “you wouldn’t believe what happened in that fight yesterday, but some German is flying my P-51”, but unfortunately he was too exhausted from the adrenalin and just said something to the effect of “**** you, I’m Captain Carrnof this goddamned squadron” when the first soldiers arrived and pointed lots of guns at him.

‘Col. Carr later earned the DistinguishednService Cross when he and three other P-51s climbed (very bad idea) into a formation of 60 German fighters, and shot down seven, with Col. Carr being credited with five.’

Thompson concludes:

‘I had the honor of meeting Col. Carr, I think it was 1997 down at Kermit Week’s air museum called Fantasy of Flight in Florida, and he arrived at aged 70 something, flying a P-51D that blew over our heads at about 300kts and 50 feet before breaking into a perfect entry to a final on the runway. We got to then listen to him tell this entire story, and ask him questions afterward.’

Photo by U.S. Air Force

November 21, 2022 0 comment

Military

Su-47 Berkut: Russia’s fifth generation stealth fighter

by Till Daisd November 20, 2022

written by Till Daisd

The Su-57 next-generation air superiority fighter entered frontline service in 2020, making Russia the third nation in the world to do so after the United States and China. The United States introduced the F-22 Raptor into service in 2005, and China introduced the J-20 “Mighty Dragon” in 2017. The Su-57 made its first voyage in 2010, and the program appears to be largely focused on building an aircraft with sixth-generation capabilities. Future variants of the jet are anticipated to get orders far larger than those for the current fifth-generation variant.

The fighter underwent its first combat tests in February 2018 when cutting-edge combat-capable prototypes were deployed to Syria. The fighter is planned to integrate a variety of next-generation technologies, including hypersonic ballistic missiles, stealth coatings, laser defenses, laser weapons, artificial intelligence, and more. Although the Su-57 program seems to have a lot of potentials, it is only the most recent of several Russian next-generation fighter programs designed to replace the fourth-generation Su-27 Flanker. The Su-57 is the only one to have advanced past the early prototype stages and entered serial production. The Su-47 Berkut stealth platform was one unique project to create a fifth-generation fighter, which saw its first flight thirteen years before the Su-57 in the same month as America’s F-22 Raptor.

Uncertainty still exists regarding the Su-47’s potential for active duty in the Russian Air Force. There are hints that the Western Bloc did think about it as a possibility and anticipated the platform competing with the F-22 Raptor for air superiority in future conflicts. The Su-47 was only ever built as a single prototype, but it made its first flight in September 1997. The platform served as an invaluable testbed for a variety of cutting-edge technologies, including fly-by-wire and advanced composite materials, which later benefited both the Su-35 and Su-57 programs.

The Sukhoi design bureau started working on the plane in the 1980s, along with Mikoyan Buraeu’s MiG 1.44 fifth-generation fighter program and plans for an improved Su-27 that would eventually become the Su-30, Su-34, and Su-35. The Su-47’s prototype used the non-stealthy fuselage from the Su-27 due to budget constraints after the fall of the Soviet Union but recently obtained pictures show that the fighter was intended to be developed around a much stealthier airframe.

The Su-47 was renowned for having forward-swept wings, which set it apart from all other fifth-generation fighter designs. These wings gave the fighter an almost unmatched turn rate, and when coupled with thrust vectoring technologies, they made the Su-47 one of the best dogfighters in the world. A higher lift/drag ratio, superior stability at high angles of attack, a lower minimum flight speed, improved stall resistance, and anti-spin characteristics were all provided by the fighter’s wing design.

The fighter’s wing configuration also increased its subsonic range significantly and, thanks to the increased lift it produced, allowed it to take off and land on far shorter runways. The forward-swept wing design’s disadvantage was that it limited the fighter’s speed to just Mach 1.6, making it the slowest Russian fighter in service even if it was powerful for visual range battles and lighter than the American F-35A fifth-generation version.

However, this was not the only factor in the program’s abandonment, and it might have been justified in view of the significant benefits to flight performance. But the forward-swept wing design also caused wing twisting, which bent the wings under the weight of the aircraft and put them under a lot of stress. As a result, about 90% of the materials used to make the fighter’s wing panels had to be sturdy composites; nonetheless, even these would wear out far more quickly than the wings of normal aircraft.

To cut expenses, the Su-47 prototype borrowed the forward fuselage, vertical tails, and landing gear from the Su-27 together with the DF-30 engines from the MiG-31 interceptor. The Su-27, at the time Russia’s premier air superiority fighter, shared dimensions with the fighter, making it possible to reuse some design elements. The Su-47 was primarily built to perform well in visible-range combat, but it was also capable of firing sophisticated long-range air-to-air missiles, which when coupled with contemporary radar systems may have made it a successful platform for fighting beyond visual range.

It is still unclear whether the design would have entered production in the 2000s if the Soviet Union hadn’t disintegrated because funding for performance problems was much easier to come by during that time, and the Soviet defense industry was in much better shape than that of its Russian successor.

November 20, 2022 0 comment

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