The Ar 234B Schnellbomber, or `fast bomber’
introduced a widened fuselage which permitted conventional landing gear.
Although it had a very narrow track the aircraft performed well when
taxiing, taking off and landing and was not unduly vulnerable to
crosswinds. The B model – first flown March 10, 1944 piloted by civilian
test pilot Joachim Carl – was slightly heavier than
the reconnaissance versions at 21,720lb. Because the Ar 234 was slender
and entirely filled with fuel, it had no room for a bomb bay; its bomb
load had to be carried on external racks. The added weight and drag of a
full bomb load reduced the speed, so on the B model two 20mm MG 151
cannons with 200 rounds each were added in a remotely-controlled tail
mounting to give some measure of defense. Since the cockpit was directly
in front of the fuselage, the pilot had no direct view to the rear, so
the guns were aimed through the periscope. There is no record of anyone
ever hitting anything with these guns and many pilots removed them to
save weight.
It was not until June 1944 that 20 Ar 234Bs were
produced and delivered, with some of these being diverted to the
Luftwaffe test centre at Rechlin. From October 1944 Kampfgeschwader 76
(KG 76) began to convert to the type, with the group flying missions
during heavy fighting in the Ardennes region. By the time of the intense
flurry of fighting around Remagen, which saw the most combat sorties by
the Ar 234, many Allied pilots had run up against the wunderwaffen and
had tested their propeller-driven aircraft against the jets. One of
them, Capt Don Bryan, a P-51D Mustang ace of the 352nd Fighter Group,
dubbed the `Blue- Nosed Bastards of Bodney,’ spoke about his experience.
Close Encounter
At high altitude, east of the Rhine bridgehead on
March 14, 1945, Bryan was on his way home from a bomber-escort mission
when he spotted an Ar 234 (one of eleven from flying unit KG 76, as it
would later transpire) making a bombing run on the newly constructed
pontoon bridge at Remagen.
Initially, Bryan thought the aircraft was an
American A-26 Invader. But the A-26 had a wingspan of 71ft and was
intended for a crew of three. In contrast, the Ar 234 had a wingspan of
just over 46ft. Bryan had previously seen Ar 234s in flight and had been
briefed on them by Intelligence, but he hadn’t realised the aircraft
was smaller.
In fact, despite gaps in his knowledge, Bryan may
have known more about the Ar 234 than anyone else on the Allied side.
While most Allied pilots never even glimpsed one, this was Bryan’s
fourth encounter with an Arado. In December 1944, he became the first
Allied pilot ever to see one in the air. After studying drawings of the
jet in a Group Intelligence document, Bryan spotted Ar 234s on two more
occasions later that month. During his third sighting, the Luftwaffe
warplane crossed beneath his flight path, from left to right. Bryan went
after the Arado but it pulled away. That’s when he realised that while
his P-51 was fast, the Ar 234 was almost 87kts faster.
“I’m not letting one get away from me again,” Bryan thought out loud.
Bryan saw the Arado pulling away from the bridge
and manoeuvring into a tight turn to evade a formation of USAAF Republic
P-47 Thunderbolts. This manoeuvere compromised the jet bomber’s
strongest asset – its superior speed – and Bryan was able to position
himself so the German would have to fly toward him.
Bryan dived at the bomber and fired a burst of
.50-caliber gunfire that disabled its right engine. Now, Bryan was able
to stay behind him and continue firing. “I don’t know what the hell was
on his mind,” said Bryan, “but he should have gotten out of that
airplane while he was high enough. I think he was afraid I would shoot
at him in his parachute, which I would never do.” The Arado pilot,
Hauptman Hans Hirshberger, waited too long to jettison his roof hatch
and attempt to escape from his cockpit. He went down with the aircraft.
It was his first and only combat mission.
Variants
The Ar 234 always retained its definitive,
twin-engined layout in service, but two different configurations of a
four-engined version were built and flown. The sixth and eighth planes
in the series were powered by four 1,764lb/thrust BMW 003A-1 turbojet
engines instead of two Jumo 004s. The sixth (Ar 234 V6), first flown on
April 8, 1944, had four engines housed in individual nacelles whereas
the eighth (Ar 234 V8) made its initial flight on May 13, 1944 with two
pairs of BMW 003s installed within twin nacelles underneath either wing.
These were the world’s first four-engined jets but offered no performance advantage over the twin-engined version.
An improved Ar 234C was the final production
version. This model introduced an improved pressurised cockpit and
larger main wheels. A `crescent-wing’ Ar 234 – foretelling the Handley
Page Victor bomber of the 1950s – was under construction but never
flown.
Pilot’s Perspective
“I liked the Arado very much,” noted Kriessmannn in
an interview. “It was a wonderful aeroplane. I thought it was designed
better than the Me 262. It was a single seater so we didn’t have time to
practise much so we had some `dry classes.’ Landing and taking off was
very different from a prop’ `plane.” Kriessmannn also noted that the
RATO units often didn’t work properly.
Kriessmann remembered taking the Ar 234 up to
36,000ft while on oxygen. Here the aircraft was significantly faster and
he said he reached 487kts in level flight.
Kriessmannn was assigned to ferry Ar 234s from the
factory “to different places where they installed optical equipment and
bombing equipment. I flew the first one on December 12, 1944, from
Hamburg to Kampfgeschwader 76 and the last on May 1, 1945.” KG 76 flew
the final Ar 234 sortie of the war against advancing Red Army troops
near Berlin.
Dashed Hopes
Plans existed for the manufacture of 2,500 Ar 234
Blitz bombers but they were cut short by the war’s end. Total production
was 224 examples of all versions of the Ar 234. Today, the only
surviving aircraft in this series is an Ar 234B-2 on display at the
Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian
Institution, at Dulles, Virginia, replete with RATO units. It is one of
the aircraft Kriessmann flew.
Some aviation experts believe that the Jumo 004’s
technical problems could have been overcome earlier, that other reasons
never fully explained were responsible for delays with this aircraft and
that hundreds of Ar 234Bs could have been in service by the time of the
fighting in the Ardennes. The Arado jet bomber, they say, could have
substantially delayed the Allies’ victory. Others insist that, while the
Ar 234 was a technical marvel, the Allies had the enormous advantage of
sheer numbers of men and machines. By this reasoning, the Ar 234,
despite its high-tech qualities, could not have delayed the war’s
inevitable outcome.
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