Oh, please cancel the Ju87 in 1940, yesyes.
The Admiralty will send you a Xmas card.
The Admiralty will send you a Xmas card.
That sounds like a way in which LW could increase flying hours per pilot substantially.
I've read that the Luftwaffe frequently had to borrow aircraft and instructors from its equivalent of the RAF's operational training units to bring the front-line up to strength for major operations such as the invasions of Poland and France.
Is that true? If it was:
- In the short term that part of the Luftwaffe's training programme was stopped for the duration of the campaign.
- Some of the instructors did not return to the training schools when the campaign was over because they had become casualties. This meant the training organisation could produce fewer new aircrew to replace losses and for expansion in the longer term.
Every thing I've read suggest STUKA dive bomber was a critical aspect to blitzkrieg through Barbarossa. Is unsuccessful role in BoB, has much to do with the role it was asked to fill. It was designed to support panzer columns rampaging behind enemy lines. If KM ever developed escort carriers probably the only plane they could count on from the start would be the STUKA.Oh, please cancel the Ju87 in 1940, yesyes.
The Admiralty will send you a Xmas card.![]()
Primary obstacle was lack of fuel. Germanys petrol supplies were ok for 1939 - 41 levels of warfare, but from 1942 there was a rapid & steady expansion of war operations against a very slowly growing petroleum supply. Boosting training hours reduces air combat operations by that number of hours.
A second problem was the number of qualified instructors. The system in general through 1942 was suitable for peacetime, but not for wartime.
I fully agree. However, how much room for manoeuvre did the Luftwaffe really have in the matter?
To be fair Bomber Command did the same thing for the thousand bomber raids.I've read that the Luftwaffe frequently had to borrow aircraft and instructors from its equivalent of the RAF's operational training units to bring the front-line up to strength for major operations such as the invasions of Poland and France.
To be fair Bomber Command did the same thing for the thousand bomber raids.
People come out with good suggestions, mostly re. training.
I'll toss some cancellations at 1st. Like the Jumo 222, all aero diesels from Jumo, any radial after the 801 from BMW, coupled engines by Daimler Benz. Leaves Jumo working on 211, and shortly after that the 213 and jet engines. BMW need to refine the 801, plus they can also go with jet engines. DB goes with 601/605/603. Both Jumo and DB need to develop 2-stage superchaged engines - Jumo was making experimental 2- and even 3-stage S/Ced engines in the 1930s. More emphasis to the Heinkel jet engines.
The Me 210 also need to be cancelled, Ju-288 gets the BMW 801 initially, later either DB 603 or Jumo 213; Ju 88 and Bf 110 will fill the slots for night fighters (that need radars, as noted before). Fw 190 needs more examples produced ASAP, mening it will get the DB 601/605/Jumo 211 engines. Fast twin engined aircraft is needed for next-gen NF and Schnellbomber jobs, I'm looking something along the size of Ta-154, but produced in metal, featuring a decent bomb bay that will hold cannons & ammo in NF variant.
More later.
It's often suggested that the Luftwaffe needed a long-range patrol bomber, and the He277 is the favoured design to fulfill this role, but I disagree: any successes achieved by such aircraft were only going to be in the short term, as once the merchantmen and escorts got enough AA guns, low-level attacks would become prohibitively expensive in terms of losses. If the intention was just to locate convoys and home-in U-boats then the FW200 would have been perfectly adequate if the Luftwaffe hadn't insisted on loading it down with guns and bombs. Logic might have suggested that, if enemy fighters were present then the FW200 was a sitting-duck and guns would do it little good, while if there were no fighters then the guns were unnecessary.
.
Do-26 had the range to spot and stay away from convoys:Agree with the first part but not the second. The U-Boat war needed a maritime patrol aircraft and the FW-200 attacks worked well through in direct attacks through 1941. From late 1941 the role was more surveillance - with B-Dienst targeting convoys through code cracking from late 41-late 1943 . During this time they detected 1/2 of all the north Atlantic convoys, but were only able to attack 1/6 of the convoys -mostly by directing numerous wolf packs- through copious radio communications....which were intercepted & ultimately lead to their defeat.
The numbers of maritime bombers were woefully inadequate , with production runs of only 50-90 in the early years. Luftwaffe further restricted KM use to 1/2 of these FW-200 patrol planes. This meant maybe 1/2 dozen sortie a day- but on average only one would be FW-200, while the rest would be seaplanes like the BV-138 or DO-18/24. By late war most missions were HE-177 except ASM bombers that were Do-217 in 1943 and HE-177 in 1944. Trouble was these bombers were all short range , barely able to reach Iceland.... so mid Atlantic was out of reach.
Something more was needed with transatlantic range, that way B-Dienst detected convoys could be located and shadowed by patrol bombers -broadcasting the convoy location. Wolf packs need only minimum coms -reducing risk of HF/DF interception and attack. That could double the number of convoys attacked and MV sunk.
Have the Germans not abandon it in 1942 and you could get an engine more fuel efficient than the Deltic and more powerful for bomber type flight (i.e. avoiding rapid speed changes like in fighters)The Junkers Jumo 223 was an experimental 24-cylinder aircraft engine based on the Junkers Jumo 205. Like the Jumo 205, it was an opposed piston two-stroke diesel engine. It had four banks of six cylinders in a rhomboid configuration, with four crankshafts one at each vertex of the rhombus, and 48 pistons. It was designed for a power of 2,500 horsepower at 4,400 rpm, and weighed around 2,370 kg.[1]
In 1942 the 223 was abandoned in favour of an even larger engine, the Jumo 224 with an intended output power of 4,500 horsepower.[1]
The Jumo 223 series was influential to the successful three-crankshaft Napier Deltic engine.
The Ju288 with a BMW 801 isn't going to work. The airframe needed a minimum of 4000hp, on larger, later versions raised to 4500. 3600 isn't going to cut it. The Fw191 (a larger airframe) was designed for two Jumo 222s, but the final revision would have had no fewer than 4 BMW 801s.
Of course, same with not building as many tanks and having a large number unserviceable.If that is true would it be better to produce more spare parts rather than build more aircraft?