THE Me 262 AND ‘LOST

OPPORTUNITIES’ IN THE AIR

SUPERIORITY CONTEST

Professor Philip Sabin

King’s College London

LOST OPPORTUNITIES

‘We need quality of performance, if only to restore

in our own force the sense of superiority, even if

our numbers are smaller. At the moment I would

rather have one ME-262 than five ME-109s.’

(Adolf Galland, Apr 1944)

‘Today I still believe that it was not exaggerated

optimism to expect from a mass action of ME-262

fighters a fundamental change in the German air

defence even at that late hour.’ (Adolf Galland,

1953)

LOST OPPORTUNITIES ‘In my opinion the Me 262 was the most

formidable aircraft of World War II. If the Germans

could have produced them in large numbers we

should have been in very serious trouble.’

(Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, 1961)

‘As the situation deteriorated further, Hitler closed

his mind more and more to any word against his

decisions. This had crucial consequences in the

technical area; because of it the most valuable of

our “secret weapons” was made worthless. That

was the Me-262, with a fighting capability far

superior to any plane the enemy had.’ (Albert

Speer, 1969)

LOST OPPORTUNITIES?

‘For all of the great hopes entertained by the

Messerschmitt 262 earlier in the war, during

its nine months of operations it had been

able to achieve little. From a detailed study

of British and American records it appears

that in the fighter role it caused the

destruction of no more than 150 Allied

aircraft – for the loss of about 100 Me 262s

in aerial combat.’ (Jeffrey Ethell & Alfred

Price, 1979)

LOST OPPORTUNITIES?

‘Only a very small proportion of the Me 262s built

ever went into action. After the end of October

1944 the various Messerschmitt plants were

turning out Me 262s in numbers far greater than

the Luftwaffe could usefully employ; and by the

end of the war more than 1,400 had been

delivered. Yet there were never more than about

200 in service with operational units at any one

time; and rarely, if ever, were more than 60 Me

262 sorties of all types mounted on any one day.’

(Jeffrey Ethell & Alfred Price, 1979)

LOST OPPORTUNITIES?

‘Several postwar writers have derided Luftwaffe

leaders for failing to get the Me 262 into large-

scale production early enough. Yet if anything the

production of the aircraft was initiated too early,

and Me 262 airframes started coming off the

assembly line before the engine to power them

was ready for mass production. Nor did Adolf

Hitler’s order regarding the initial use of the Me

262 as a fighter-bomber cause any appreciable

delay in the type’s operational introduction as a

fighter.’ (Alfred Price, 1997)

LOST OPPORTUNITIES? ‘At the beginning of 1944 it had seemed that the

side which was first to bring into service large

numbers of jet aircraft would gain a huge

advantage in the battle for air supremacy.

Certainly the jets had the potential to win that

supremacy for, particularly in the case of the

German aircraft, their performance was far in

advance of anything previously achieved. Yet due

to poor serviceability these aeroplanes went into

action only in relatively small numbers. In a large-

scale conflict a few aeroplanes, no matter how

brilliant their flying performance, cannot and did

not secure decisive results.’ (Alfred Price, 1997)

SIMULATION INSIGHTS

SIMULATION INSIGHTS

MANUAL SIMULATIONS

MANUAL SIMULATIONS

FIGHTER DUEL

FIGHTER DUEL

FIGHTER DUEL

SIMULATION LESSONS

Speed and the ‘bounce’

Energy superiority in defence & offence

Eroding energy margins

Dominance of g limits

Turn & roll rates

Heavy cannon

Pilot inexperience

Rotte vs kette

DOGFIGHT

DOGFIGHT

DOGFIGHT

SIMULATION RESULTS

Chance of an Me 262 being downed: 87%

Chance of a Fw 190 being downed: 60%

Chance of a Tempest being downed: 40%

SIMULATION LESSONS

Concrete runway dependence

Slow speed vulnerability

Bracketing tactics

Cloud cover

Airfield defence flight

Pilot inexperience

Airfield flak

Mutual attrition

SIMULATION INSIGHTS

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