Mistletoe drag
Mistletoe is a method of towing cargo gliders in which a smaller powered aircraft is piggybacked onto a larger glider via a mostly detachable connection. In the course of the development of the mistletoe tow , the cargo glider was replaced as the lower part of this combination by converted bombers with their own propulsion.
development
A first attempt was made in Great Britain during the First World War to counteract the German airship attacks. In 1916, John Cyrill Porte redesigned a Porte Baby biplane flying boat so that it could carry a Scout-C fighter on the upper wing . The mother plane had the task of quickly moving the fighter to the height of the attacking airships. The team's maiden flight took place on May 17, 1916. However, the idea was not pursued any further.
In 1935, the United Kingdom began developing a mistletoe team, which resulted in the Short Mayo Composite , which successfully completed its maiden flight in 1937.
In Germany, on September 1, 1942, under the direction of Fritz Stamer, a DFS working group began to examine and test all possibilities for combining a cargo glider with a motorized airplane. A cargo glider DFS 230 served as a test object. The first unit tested in the Bavarian town of Ainring consisted of this glider and a clamp Kl 35 that was jacked up and rigidly connected to the glider and steered by the test pilot Karl Schieferstein. Since the engine of the Kl 35 was not sufficient to start the entire unit and keep it in the air, it was towed to altitude with a Ju 52 . There were no problems with the flight characteristics or the controls (both pilots were able to communicate using the on-board radio). The next aircraft that was put on the DFS 230 was a Focke-Wulf Fw 56 "Stößer" . The team was able to keep it at the same height due to its more powerful engine, but it was still not possible to launch itself without a towing machine. At the end of the test series, a combination of DFS 230 and Messerschmitt Bf 109 showed that the unit could take off, fly and land - both as a whole and separately - without assistance. In autumn 1943 the tests were completed and the mistletoe was judged to be quite usable. Fritz Stamer even thought it possible to launch a combination of Bf 109 and Ju 52 individually and first couple them together in the air.
With the idea of turning this transport combination into an operational weapon in the form of a large bomb, which was to be used against ship targets in particular, further development work was transferred from DFS to the Junkers factories in mid-1943 . In a short time it was possible to develop a separable connection between the control apparatus of the Bf 109 and the lower engine. The main task now consisted of the fact that the pilot of the jacked up machine had to be able to bring the entire unit to the destination, then fall on the target in orbit flight and return home after disconnecting the connection with the upper machine.
A Bf 109 G-6 was used as the lead machine and a Ju 88 A-4 as the sub machine for testing . The weight of the mistletoe starting for combat use was 20 to 21 t, close to the load limit of the Ju 88 tires used. In order to avoid burst tires, the mistletoe could only take off from completely intact concrete slopes. Even smaller holes in the runway could lead to disaster. The range of a mistletoe combination loaded with 3.5 t explosive charge was approx. 1500 km, at an altitude of 3000 to 5000 m. The fuel required by the lead engine for the outward flight was taken from the supply of the Ju 88 so that the lead engine could start the return flight with full tanks.
In Merseburg and Nordhausen , the first Ju 88 A-4s were converted for use with mistletoe. Nordhausen expanded the pulpit and instead installed a spherical shaped charge of 3.6 t with a distance fuse known as the "elephant trunk" . 75 Ju 88 G-1 machines were planned for the first mistletoe program . These were to be obtained from repair machines. The machines were repaired and rebuilt in day and night shifts and delivered to Nordhausen for the installation of the explosive charges and the control apparatus. Both Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 were used as lead aircraft . Not all possible combinations showed all conceivable synergistic advantages, since the BMW engine of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 required a different fuel than the Jumo engines of the Junkers Ju 88G. As a result, the fighter could not be supplied from the fuel tank of the carrier aircraft, which reduced the range of the mistletoe and made additional tanks necessary. In addition, the air base had to stockpile both fuels. Nothing is known about a combination of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190-D9 as the lead aircraft of a mistletoe team (in which a Jumo engine was installed), this was probably due to the structural-related additional 500 kg curb weight, which was solely due to the engine and the reinforced airframe were, and the limited range (without additional tanks) not suitable.
Most of the mistletoes were flown into Nordhausen.
commitment
The first enemy operation took place from the Einsatzstaffel of Kampfgeschwader 101 from St. Dizier on June 14, 1944 with an attack on the invasion fleet . The first loss of a mistletoe combination (Bf 109 F / Ju 88) was flown by Lieutenant Albert Rheker, who was shot down by the crew of a Mosquito MK.XIII-0 of the RCAF and hit southeast of Caen behind the German lines at 23:40 ; further attacks followed with more or less success.
However, notable successes were no longer achieved. The clumsiness of the mistletoe required strong hunting protection. In the autumn of 1944, 60 mistletoes were gathered at the Danish airfields Grove, Tilstrup and Aalborg- West for an attack on the British Home Fleet in Scapa Flow . However, bad weather repeatedly prevented the long sea flight. After the sinking of the battleship Tirpitz on November 12, 1944, the British fleet left the base and the mistletoe attack was discontinued because the target no longer existed. Another planned long-range attack against industrial plants in the Soviet hinterland ( Eisenhammer company ) was no longer carried out due to the great distance to the target. Overloading the mistletoe teams by taking additional fuel containers with them would have risen into the impossible.
The last missions were flown against Oderbrücken in the spring of 1945 .
Many mistletoes were lost in the bombing of their parking spaces, but the Soviets and Western Allies also captured numerous complete mistletoe and mistletoe parts Ju 88, which were no longer used due to lack of fuel or the rapidly approaching front.
In total, more than 200 mistletoes were built.
Similar projects
- Italy: Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 (as a large bomb)
- United States: Operation Aphrodite
literature
- Hans-Peter Dabrowski: Mistletoe. The air force's piggyback aircraft until 1945. Podzun-Pallas, Friedberg / H. 1993, ISBN 3-7909-0447-3 ( Waffen-Arsenal special issue 27).
- Robert Forsyth: MISTULA. German Composite Aircraft and Operations 1942–1945. Classic, Crowborough 2001, ISBN 1-903223-09-1 (Classic publications) , (English).
- Robert Forsyth: Luftwaffe MISTEL Composite Bomber Units . ( 112 Combat Aircraft ), Osprey Publishing Ltd. Great Britain 2015, ISBN 978-1-4728-0846-2 , PDF ebook ISBN 978-1-4728-0847-9 (English).
- Horst Lommel: From altitude reconnaissance to space glider 1935–1945. DFS secret projects. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-613-02072-6 .
- Arno Rose: "Mistletoe". The history of the piggyback aircraft. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-87943-421-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ DFS Report No. 740 Schleppverfahren , Ainring, October 20, 1943
- ^ Service book OLt. Albert Rheker
- ↑ Canadas Air Force History (English)