nt (Gordon) wrote in message ...

Uh, haven't you heard of the famous "Galland Circus"?

Gee, Rob, why don't you educate me about it?

No need, just puzzled why you found it so hard to believe a handful of
Doras couldn't fend away prowling Allied fighter/bombers???

Of the 4
primary craft, two pilots were aces with 104 and 15 kills
respectively.

Yes, I know - I have their autographed photos and letters from Mr. 104.
Tracking down and interviewing these guys is what I do. Yesterday, it was four
pilots and a bombardier from the 461st (in town to visit the air museum and
check in on the massive scale B-24 model), but usually, I stick to LW and RAF
guys, including the airfield protection Papagai Staffel.

They were never officially called that except that it is believed
their callsign was "parrot".

Apparently, none of the aircraft were lost during operations and no
record of a 262 lost when the "Platzschutzstaffel" was operating.

That had far more to do with Galland's procedures for approaching the field
than superiority of the defending prop fighters, again, only a handful. JG 7
and KG 51 lost literally dozens of aircraft attempting to land or just after
takeoff. Galland learned from their mistakes and did things differently -
resulting in far fewer losses per sortie than either of the earlier units. You
can thank D and the other pilots in the Doras; I think credit goes to Galland
and his combat leadership.

And the fact the aircraft were painted red underneath to alert the
flak gunners that these were indeed German aircraft. At many other
bases the German flak gunners shot at anything approaching the base
and downed scores of German aircraft!

Don't have that info as far as Luftwaffe pilots were concerned;
however, Russian NII VVS tested the Ta 152 up to that height. For
simplicity sake let's just say "above 35,000 ft"...

Don't know of any Abschusse reports claiming a victory at that height for the
Ta. It would be interesting to see one.

Agreed. The Ta 152 really came to life above 35,000 ft.

Hmmmm. Most flights by this point in the war were not that long and the
K22
and K23 notations I have seen in conjunction with single engine fighters is
to
enhance their foul weather performance, as I see this autopilot included in
the
"Schlechtwetterjäger" variants of various late war fighters.

Most WW2 aircraft reference manuals I have on the Ta 152 feature the
K23 with no special notations.

The actual wartime documents state clearly that the inclusion of the autopilot
was one aspect of the change over to the "Schlectwetterjäger" standard.
Regular FW 190s and Bf 109s had the same upgraded electronics in a 'foul
weather' late war variant. The RLM recognized that they were facing an enemy
that could bomb through overcasts, so the LW couldn't sit on the ground in a
drizzle and wait for clear weather to respond. To make up for this, a
percentage of each "day fighter" production was to be augmented with a nominal
array of electronics and other navaids to allow for a crude all-weather fighter
to be fielded without requiring an all new version to be built.

The Germans had several autopilots in production in 1945 meaning that
this type of device was becoming a standard feature in late-war
aircraft.

Gordon

Rob