Read Online Hitler's Jet Plane by Mano Ziegler - Free Book Online
Authors: Mano Ziegler
Tags: History, World War II, Military, Military Science, Aviation, Engineering, Engineering & Transportation
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Irving’s version (the notes in square parentheses clarifying Messerschmitt’s remarks are the author’s).
Messerschmitt: The 262 was not built to be a fighter. When Hitler asked me in East Prussia if the 262 could also carry bombs I said, ‘Of course.’ Firstly I fitted [probably he means here ‘I was the first to fit’] bomb retention gear to a fighter [Me 109]. From the very beginning the 262 was always thought of as suitable for modification into a fighter bomber. During the Polish campaign I had the idea of hanging a couple of bombs [to the Me 109] and went with Voigt [Chief of Projects Office] to Berlin and visited Udet, who was then chief of the Technical Office, Lucht [General Staff Engineer at the Reich Air Ministry] and Reichenbach [General-Engineer in charge of Development at the Ministry of Aircraft Production]. When I suggested what I had in mind they thought I was joking. On the way home I said to Voigt, ‘We will just make a little something, it won’t cost much and we’ll hang a 50-kg bomb below an Me 109.’ We did it and a few weeks later tried it out and it was a complete success. Then we rang Berlin and said we wanted to demonstrate it. Suddenly we got the contract to fit bombs to all Me 109s. With the 262 we envisaged it from the very beginning, it was included in the design sketches. I thought of putting the bombs in front of the retraction mechanism [the undercarriage shaft] for the wheels a little forward of the centre of gravity.
Madelung: Where was Hitler’s error? Messerschmitt: I don’t know. It was purely an operational question. I didn’t convert the machine and if anyone says I did that is a distortion and a lie. Where the machines we built went to I have no idea.
Madelung: Up to now it has always been said that Hitler prevented the proper use of the 262 because he ordered it to be converted to a bomber.
Messerschmitt: One can’t speak of conversion because the fighter was planned as a fighter bomber from the outset. My 200 [Ha 200, a light fighter and trainer developed by Messerschmitt in Spain after the war] and the 300 [Ha 300, a modern fighter aircraft developed by Messerschmitt in Spain, the prototypes of which were sold by Franco to Nasser in Egypt; further work was carried out on the type under Messerschmitt’s supervision] were also designed as such.
This account by Professor Messerschmitt contains many true statements but also errors and lapses of memory. That there were early trials of the Me 109 as a fighter bomber is a fact. That the Me 262 could also have been used as such in the ground-attack role is proved by the later addition of the R4M rockets beneath the wings as is mentioned later. But in the opinion of all pilots and engineers involved, the Me 262 was definitely never designed nor fitted to be a bomber capable of carrying even a medium load. Messerschmitt’s response to Hitler that the 262 could carry a payload of between 500kg and a tonne can only be understood as the claim of an industrialist scenting an additional order. That was his right, of course, for operational matters were never his business. Had Hitler perhaps posed the question in the form ‘how long it would take to equip the Me 262 to carry a one-tonne bomb’, Messerschmitt would have had to say at least a year. Seen from that perspective, the Me 262 would have been a different, almost a new aircraft. Building the prototype, testing the machine and the bomb gear and sights in flight and preparing it for operational readiness would have taken at least another twelve months after the conversion to a two-seater. Galland, Petersen and, of course, Goering knew that. It will remain an unsolved mystery why – with the exception of Milch – nobody attempted to make Hitler aware of the fact. As Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief and Reichsmarschall it was unquestionably Goering’s duty to do so, for there were no ‘proper channels’ for him to go through. But it is obvious that we have here an
Messerschmitt: The 262 was not built to be a fighter. When Hitler asked me in East Prussia if the 262 could also carry bombs I said, ‘Of course.’ Firstly I fitted [probably he means here ‘I was the first to fit’] bomb retention gear to a fighter [Me 109]. From the very beginning the 262 was always thought of as suitable for modification into a fighter bomber. During the Polish campaign I had the idea of hanging a couple of bombs [to the Me 109] and went with Voigt [Chief of Projects Office] to Berlin and visited Udet, who was then chief of the Technical Office, Lucht [General Staff Engineer at the Reich Air Ministry] and Reichenbach [General-Engineer in charge of Development at the Ministry of Aircraft Production]. When I suggested what I had in mind they thought I was joking. On the way home I said to Voigt, ‘We will just make a little something, it won’t cost much and we’ll hang a 50-kg bomb below an Me 109.’ We did it and a few weeks later tried it out and it was a complete success. Then we rang Berlin and said we wanted to demonstrate it. Suddenly we got the contract to fit bombs to all Me 109s. With the 262 we envisaged it from the very beginning, it was included in the design sketches. I thought of putting the bombs in front of the retraction mechanism [the undercarriage shaft] for the wheels a little forward of the centre of gravity.
Madelung: Where was Hitler’s error? Messerschmitt: I don’t know. It was purely an operational question. I didn’t convert the machine and if anyone says I did that is a distortion and a lie. Where the machines we built went to I have no idea.
Madelung: Up to now it has always been said that Hitler prevented the proper use of the 262 because he ordered it to be converted to a bomber.
Messerschmitt: One can’t speak of conversion because the fighter was planned as a fighter bomber from the outset. My 200 [Ha 200, a light fighter and trainer developed by Messerschmitt in Spain after the war] and the 300 [Ha 300, a modern fighter aircraft developed by Messerschmitt in Spain, the prototypes of which were sold by Franco to Nasser in Egypt; further work was carried out on the type under Messerschmitt’s supervision] were also designed as such.
This account by Professor Messerschmitt contains many true statements but also errors and lapses of memory. That there were early trials of the Me 109 as a fighter bomber is a fact. That the Me 262 could also have been used as such in the ground-attack role is proved by the later addition of the R4M rockets beneath the wings as is mentioned later. But in the opinion of all pilots and engineers involved, the Me 262 was definitely never designed nor fitted to be a bomber capable of carrying even a medium load. Messerschmitt’s response to Hitler that the 262 could carry a payload of between 500kg and a tonne can only be understood as the claim of an industrialist scenting an additional order. That was his right, of course, for operational matters were never his business. Had Hitler perhaps posed the question in the form ‘how long it would take to equip the Me 262 to carry a one-tonne bomb’, Messerschmitt would have had to say at least a year. Seen from that perspective, the Me 262 would have been a different, almost a new aircraft. Building the prototype, testing the machine and the bomb gear and sights in flight and preparing it for operational readiness would have taken at least another twelve months after the conversion to a two-seater. Galland, Petersen and, of course, Goering knew that. It will remain an unsolved mystery why – with the exception of Milch – nobody attempted to make Hitler aware of the fact. As Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief and Reichsmarschall it was unquestionably Goering’s duty to do so, for there were no ‘proper channels’ for him to go through. But it is obvious that we have here an
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