Most Me 262 pilots never saw an EZ 42; some that did insisted the gyro be
locked as it was too radical a departure from their earlier method of
gunnery.
A lack of training opportunity? I recall an interview with Galland.
He said that what made the Mustang effective was its Gyro sight. They
had more attack options than the Luftwaffe pilots and he regarded this
as decisive. Presumably the experten were ambush predators and this
allowed for more effective ambushes.
Oddly, it seemed the other way - nachwuchs adapted to the EZ rather quickly -
it was the old hands that seemed to feel the gyro was unnecessary and at times
even confusing. I thought it was funny the way they introduced the EZ 42 into
Me 262 service: one day, the jet bomber pilots of KG 51 at Neuberg heard an
old familiar sound - over the trees comes a tiny Bü 181. After it lands, the
pilots are assembled and given a class on the new gunsite (ooohs and aaahs all
around), then the instructor, a non-Luftwaffe pilot, took them out one by one
in the Bücker, with this incongruous gunsite set in the dash. After a couple
days teaching the pilots, the first EZ 42s were mounted in their Me 262 Jabos,
leaving a lot of these former Ju 88 bomber pilots scratching their heads! It
was very common within the Gruppe to 'play' with it for a while, then lock it
down to act as a normal Revi gunsite. Old habits die hard, I guess!
They Germans also had a larger missile under developement that had a
shaped charge that scattered a forward focused fragmentation charge
that was activated by a timer fuse set be Elfe.
The X-4 can be properly seen as the grandfather of modern Air to Air
missiles. As usual, the LW waited too long...
I refer to another missile the R100 BS.
I about fell off my chair when I saw one of these for sale on Ebay three years
ago. Same guy sold a Föhn, and later and R4M. The Föhn sold for $22 - I just
slapped my head over missing that one. The R4M and R100 went for astronomical
prices; I assumed they came out of some museum somewhere.
Developed by Rheinmetall
Borsig. It was a 100mm x 67 inch (thats the mkixed data I have) that
was to be fired by the oberon radar ranging system. It had a timed
proximity fuse with 460 pellets that were blasted in a forward cone.
They weighed 125kg and were fired from AG 140 racks. Intended for the
Ar 234 with the Ez 42 gun sight and perhaps other aircraft.
That Oberon was a mess - it completely filled the nose (i.e., no guns!) of the
Me 262 it was fitted to - not much good in that, but then it was only a
prototype.
The Germans should have been able to develop such a modest sized
missile with a radar proximity fuse.
Prolly so, but prox fuses were never given the priority they should have had -
it would have made the difference in the night war against the teiffliegers.
It was not so oversized and the
acceleration was not so excessive as to present insupperable shock
hardening problems. It seems easier than all those complicated
guidence systems for attacking a lumbering bomber flying formation.
I think the optical cell-fired rockets were a good idea too. Fly under a
bomber and your fighter takes its own shot, leaving you to concentrate on those
little black dots diving from above.
The timer activated 21cm Wgr 21 rockets that was launched in pairs
from FW190s and Me109s were very effective untill escorts began
harrasing the heavily laden aircraft.
That was almost immediately after they were placed into service.
And it was P38s Lightning not P51 Mustangs that saved the bombers from
heavily armed rocket had heavy caliber armed German fighters that were
unopposed. Even Stukas were having a go at the B17s.
Must have been interesting to watch those pitiful old creatures trying to reach
20K!
Popular,
the Wgr 21 was not.
Intersting story; the Wgr 21 however was unusual in having been
developed by the troops themselves. Clearly to heavy.
In the right hands - say, a Knoke or Glunz-type pilot, the Wgr 21 was an
effective and terrifying tool, but most LW pilots felt the tubes and rockets
were "going to get us killed!"
v/r
Gordon
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