Propellers as Buzzsaws
The Last Flight of the Luftwaffe
By Adrian Weir
London: Arms & Armour Press
1997, 192 pages, $27.95
The Luftwaffe Album
By Joachim Dressel and Manfred Greihl
London: Arms & Armour Press
1997, 192 pages, $34.95
Reviewed by Sid
Perkins
Special to The Stars and Stripes
It has been said that desperate times call for desperate measures. And
surely no time is more desperate than when you're on the losing end of
a world war. Defeat seems inevitable because the resources needed to
fight effectively are drying up as your cities, bridges, industries and
airfields suffer nearly ceaseless attacks from the air.
What's a beleaguered country to do ??? Such was the situation in
Germany during the waning months of WWII.
If only the intruding aircraft could be repelled for a desperately needed
respite, then production facilities and supply networks could be rebuilt.
Just as important, the Luftwaffe, which was just beginning to receive a
few Messerschmitt-262 jet aircraft, could have a little breathing room to
train its pilots.
As Allied forces exerted what was to prove irresistible pressure against
the remnants of Adolf Hitler's Reich, Germany needed a bold stroke, a
highly visible success against the heretofore virtually unchallenged
bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force. It was hoped that a single operation
inflicting sudden and significant losses would cause the Allies to take
pause, if not to reassess their entire strategy, then at least to make
slight adjustments.
The Last Flight of the Luftwaffe tells the story of a plan that
German strategists hoped would provide a little breathing room. The
architect of the plan originally thought of using up to 1,500 aircraft,
but early hopes for an operation of this scale gradually fell victim to
the realities of the situation. Options became limited a small-scale
operation requiring little fuel, few weapons and relatively inexperienced
pilots.
The tactics that evolved were simple, yet extremely unconventional. The
Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt-262 jets, which were few in number but had
earned a fearsome reputation, would serve as a diversion for the Allied
bombers' fighter escorts. Meanwhile, propeller-driven Messerschmitt
Bf-109 aircraft would approach the bombers from above and astern, dive
toward their target, and -- here's the unconventional part -- use their
propellers as buzz saws to rip apart the trailing edges of the bombers'
tails or the control surfaces of their wings. The bombers would either
become uncontrollable and drop from the sky, or become separated from
their companions and fall victim to other Luftwaffe pilots
nearby.
German pilots had on occasion successfully used the propeller-as-buzzsaw
tactic before. And although seemingly suicidal, unlike the Japanese
kamikaze half a world away the German pilots actually hoped to survive
their missions. If their planes proved unflyable after their encounters
with the Allied bombers and their escorts, they would just parachute away
to fly again another day in another aircraft.
Aircraft were specially modified. Armor and other equipment, including one
of the Bf-109's two machine guns, were removed to make the aircraft as
maneuverable as possible. To save even more weight, pilots carried only
50 rounds of ammunition for the remaining gun, an amount useless against
the bombers or their escorts but which provided at least some measure of
self-protection against a bomber's tailgunner, as well as perhaps a slight
morale boost.
On the morning of April 7, 1945, about 200 Bf-109s were ready to go, but
fate would quickly take its toll. The Allied bombers chose a more
northerly route that day, placing about 60 of the aircraft flying from the
Luftwaffe bases near Prague too far south; they were recalled to base less
than 25 minutes into their flight. The weather over central Europe, as
well as mechanical problems and roving enemy fighters, would also whittle
away the number of Luftwaffe that would actually meet up with the
bombers.
In the end, the Luftwaffe pilots who made it through were simply
overwhelmed. The Allies had launched more than 1,300 bombers and almost
850 fighter escorts that day, and although the Luftwaffe claimed as many
as 13 bombers in the operation, it lost 30 to 40 pilots.
Neither side considered the operation to be a success. For the Germans,
the confirmation of fallen bombers, no matter how good the news, didn't
convince the higher-ups to follow up with similar attacks. And although
the aggressive tactics of the Luftwaffe pilots were noted in the US Army
Air Force post-flight reports of April 7, they did not have their desired
effect. More than 1,100 bombers returned to Germany the next day to
continue the Allies' assault on Hitler's heartland.
Actions taken in war are too often viewed from the perspective of the
victors. What appears to have been stupid or fanatical from their point of
view would have been seen as heroic if the loser's desperate action had
instead turned the tide of battle. Or, as The Last Flight's author
suggests, consider the lengths that American pilots would have gone to
defend our homeland if Japanese or German bombers roamed at will in the
skies above New York, Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles.
The Luftwaffe Album is a lavishly illustrated coffee table book
that comprehensively details the aircraft flown by the Luftwaffe. They're
all here, from the single-engine fighters first flown when the Luftwaffe
first came out of hiding in 1935, to the jet aircraft developed and flown
just prior to the end of WWII.
High-altitude bombers, long-range bombers, even experimental aircraft
that were under development when the war ended get a mention and a
picture or two. More than 600 photos illustrate the many variants of
each aircraft, their markings, weaponry, engines and other design
elements, and pictures of aircraft during their fabrication,
prototype and in action are included.
Through photos from personal and government archives, The Luftwaffe
Album puts the reader right in the thick of things, at the side of the
engineers who developed and the pilots who flew the aircraft that
terrorized the skies over Europe in the 1930s and early 1940s.
This review appeared on page 14
of the Nov. 3,
1997, edition of The Stars and Stripes.
Copyright 1997 by The National Tribune Corporation.
All rights reserved.