Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: amoss%BATATA.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Amos Shapira)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Luftwaffe, comments, etc.
Message-ID: <10574@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 25 Oct 89 04:04:22 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Lines: 47
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: Amos Shapira <amoss%BATATA.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

  One of the advantages of the German fighters was the fuel injection. The
Brits lacked it, and if a negative-G was applied to the plane (start of
dive), the engine would stutter or stop. This caused the British to develop
the invert/roll and dive technique.

  A problem that confronted all of the Luftwaffe was continuous political
interference. Erhard Milch was one of the main backers of the Me-110.
In fact another fighter of a similar type (FW-187 Falke) was MUCH preferred
by the pilots of the squadron to which 7 planes of this type were given for
testing. Milch, upon hearing of the 'heresy', had the planes returned to
the plant.

  The German offensive on Britain was badly conducted. Again, because of
political interference. In addition, some very peculiar decisions were
taken from time to time by the more immediate command echelons. A number
of British aircraft factories were bombed. However, they were not destroyed
completely, and often the higher command marked the plants as 'destroyed'
after only a single bombing sortie against them.

  In fact, the Luftwaffe was NOT the proper tool for strategic bombing. It
lacked the planes to do the jobs. He-177 Grief and FW-200 Condor were either
not very reliable (He-177 was a flying torch cum casket) or too few.

  As for the other side- for a very long time the Fighter Command (British)
demanded of its pilot to fly in close formations. The Germans used tactics
developed in the fighting in the Spanish civil war, and caused mayhem in the
British formations. Especially vulnerable were the 'Tail-end Charlies'.

  Question: does anyone have access to the _claim_ and _credit_lists of both
sides? Every book I have access to states that the German PUBLIC claims were
high (for propaganda purposes), but the actual credits were extremely
accurate. On the other hand, the British, French and (especially) Italians
overclaimed both publicly and in the lists. The Brits in the Battle for
Britain overclaimed actual German losses by 100%.


    Marc A. Volovic, Sgt (res.)       amoss@batata.huji.ac.il

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The opinions contained herein are mine. The data contained herein is either
public knowledge or hearsay. Nothing I say is condoned by anyone. It is not
my fault. I wasn't here. IBM was.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+