Without doubt, the worst twin-engined combat aircraft to
emerge from Germany’s wartime industry was the Messerschmitt Me 210, which
started life as a 1937 project for a multi-purpose aircraft to replace the Bf
110. Even at this early stage of its development, the latter aircraft, which
had flown in 1936, was showing ominous signs that it would not reach its
projected performance expectations and would probably not be wholly adequate
for the long-range heavy fighter role for which it had been designed. A
Reichsluftministerium (RLM) specification was issued to cover the new design
and three companies – Ago, Arado and Messerschmitt – submitted proposals.
However, the Ago design, the Ao 225, was technically too complex and the
company was experiencing financial problems, which led to its early
abandonment. The other two designs, the Arado Ar 240 and the Me 210, were
approved while still on the drawing board. The Ar 240 first flew in May 1940;
the first four prototypes were fighters, the next four reconnaissance aircraft,
and the final one a night fighter. The initial production model, the Ar 240A-0,
was a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, while the Ar 240B-0 was built in
both fighter-bomber and reconnaissance versions. The Ar 240C was a projected
multi-role model, while the Ar 240E and F were respectively bomber and fighter
developments. During operational trials, Ar 240A-0s made reconnaissance sorties
over England and Russia. However, the type suffered from continual handling
problems, and after limited use in the reconnaissance role it disappeared from
operational service, plans for large-scale production having been cancelled in
1942.
The Me 210V-1 prototype flew for the first time on 2
September 1939, powered by two 1100 hp Daimler-Benz DB 601A engines. This
aircraft, and the two subsequent prototypes, were originally fitted with twin
fins and rudders. However, early test flights revealed marked longitudinal
instability and these features were replaced by a large single fin. The V2 and
V3 prototypes also had a redesigned cockpit. They were fitted with mock-ups of
the Rheinmetall-Borsig FDL 131 remotely controlled defensive gun barbettes on
either side of the fuselage aft of the wing trailing edge, the cockpit canopy
being bulged so that the gunner could see downwards and to the rear. It had a
large bomb bay in the nose, which could accommodate up to 2200 lb of bombs or
alternatively six 20 mm cannon. For the dive-bombing role, the aircraft was
fitted with a Stuvi 5B bomb sight.
Although the single fin and rudder arrangement improved the
Me 210’s flight characteristics somewhat, it still continued to display some
seriously bad habits, including a tendency to stall at the slightest
provocation. At high angles of attack, or in a turn, a stall would develop into
a vicious spin.
One thousand examples of the Me 210 had been ordered
straight off the drawing board. The wisdom of this decision was soon
questioned. In the opinion of Messerschmitt test pilot Fritz Wendel, fresh from
his unhappy experiences with the record-breaking Me 209, the Me 210:
… was nearly as bad as
Heinkel’s He 177, surely the worst plane we produced in Germany throughout the
war years. I was never happy about the Me 210. I have only been forced to bale
out of an aircraft twice, and the first time was from this twin-engined fighter-bomber.
It was on 5 September
1940, that I took off from Augsburg-Haunstetten in the Me 210V-2. We had more
than a suspicion that the tail assembly was weak, and that there was a strong
possibility that it would part company with the rest of the airfame in a dive.
I was flying solo, the mechanic who usually occupied the radio operator’s seat
on test flights being left on the ground as this flight was likely to be more
than usually dangerous.
During the climb I
recall the thought flashing through my mind: ‘If something goes wrong, remember
to avoid baling out over the forest.’ At 9000 feet I checked my instruments and
started the planned series of dives, my unpleasant thoughts temporarily
forgotten. Stick forward … down went the nose and the needle began to creep
round the airspeed indicator. Stick back, and the nose lifted. Stick forward …
back … forward, and so on. One more shallow dive and back to the airfield. A
thousand feet showed on the altimeter and I began to level off. Then it
happened, and right over that blasted Siebentischwald again! The plane
shuddered, the tail fluttered, and bang, the starboard elevator broke off!
Immediately the plane went into a half-loop downwards. Before I could gather my
wits I was flying on my back in the direction from which I had just come. I
knew exactly what would happen now, as I had seen the same thing happen to the
first prototype some weeks before. The plane would fly inverted for several
seconds and then dive straight into the ground.
Hanging on my seat
straps, head downwards, I automatically grabbed the release pin, but I hadn’t
jettisoned the canopy. In that split second I fumbled for the roof’s emergency
release lever, pulled it, and the canopy flew off with a bang. I pulled the
release pin … the chute opened with a glorious crack. I looked down, and there
were those damned trees almost touching my feet. But I was in luck, for the
wind blew me towards the only clearing that I could see, and I escaped with
nothing worse than a sprained ankle. I had lost a prototype, but at least I had
proved its unstatisfactory characteristics and had lived to tell the tale. But
there are few things in the world harder than proving to an aircraft designer
that his latest pet creation in simply not good enough.
Despite the dangerous shortcomings that became apparent
during the testing of the Me 210 prototypes, the RLM ordered a batch of
pre-production Me 210A-0 aircraft. They were intended for Erprobungsgruppe 210
(EGr 210), the special Luftwaffe unit that had been formed at Köln-Ostheim
under the command of Hauptmann Walter Rubensdörffer on 7 July 1940 for the
specific purpose of pioneering the Me 210’s entry into full operational
service. One of the unit’s Staffeln, I/EGr 210, was equipped with the
Messerschmitt Bf 110C, and was activated by simply renumbering
I/Zerstörergeschwader 1 (I/ZG 1); similarly, III/Stukageschwader 77, which was
armed with the Messerschmitt Bf 110D, became II/EGr 210. The group’s third
Staffel, equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109Es, was previously IV/Trägergruppe
186, which had been designated as the fighter element of the air group intended
for the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, on which work had been halted. EGr 210
had been operationally active during the Battle of Britain, carrying out
precision attacks on targets such as radar stations and RAF airfields, and the
losses sustained by its Bf 110 fighter-bombers had served to underline the fact
that the type was outmoded.
EGr 210 received its first Me 210A-0s at the end of 1940,
but although the unit was still based in the English Channel area, the new
aircraft were not used operationally against the British Isles. In April 1941
the unit was redesignated Schnellkampfgeschwader 210 (SKG 210), and a month
later it moved to Poland under Major Walter Storp for the start of the campaign
in Russia. In April 1942 it was absorbed into Zerstörergeschwader 1, disbanding
in July 1944.
The first unit to use the Me 210 operationally, in fact, was
Zerstörergeschwader 1, whose II Gruppe equipped with the type late in 1941 and
served on the Eastern Front. The Me 210 was also operated by 10/ZG 26 in
Tunisia and III/ZG 1 on the Italian front. There were two major production
sub-types, the Me 210A-1 heavily armed ‘destroyer’ and the Me 210A-2
fighter-bomber; four examples of a photo-reconnaissance variant, the Me 210B-1,
were also built, and these served with 2(F)/122. The Me 210 was also built
under licence in Hungary, and was used by the 102nd Fast Attack Bomber group of
the Royal Hungarian Air Force. Most of the Me 210s built in Hungary were the Me
210C variant, which was basically an A or B model with 1475 hp DB 605B engines.
About two-thirds of the Hungarian production went to the Luftwaffe.
In April 1942, production of the Me 210 in Germany was
halted after only ninety aircraft had been delivered to operational units, a
decision dictated by the aircraft’s phenomenal accident rate. Production was
resumed in July, after the aircraft had been fitted with leading-edge slots, a
modification that substantially improved its flight characteristics.
In the summer of 1942 an experimental unit designated
Versuchstaffel (Trials Squadron) 210 formed at Soesterberg, Holland, for
operations against the British Isles. This unit became operational as 16
Staffel/KG 6 in August. On 13 August 1942, the first Me 210 to be shot down
over England was destroyed by Flight Lieutenant A.C. Johnston, flying a Hawker
Typhoon of No. 266 Squadron; the combat took place east of Cromer. Two more Me
210s were shot down by Typhoons of the same squadron on 6 September, off the
Yorkshire coastal resorts of Robin Hood’s Bay and Redcar. It was the end of the
Me 210’s brief and unspectacular combat career against Britain.
Late in 1942, after 352 examples had been built, production
of the Me 210 switched to an improved version, the Me 410 Hornisse (Hornet).
This aircraft was essentially an Me 210 incorporating all the latter’s
hard-earned modifications and equipped with two Daimler-Benz DB 603A engines.
As well as being used in the fast bomber role, the Me 410 was used as a night
fighter and a bomber destroyer, being armed with a 50 mm cannon in the latter
case. We can see a measure of what they might have achieved, had these aircraft
been committed in greater numbers, in one attack on American air bases in East
Anglia on 2 April 1944. Me 410s destroyed thirteen B-24 Liberators and, in the
panic, two more were shot down by their own airfield defences. The Germans lost
a single Me 410.
By the beginning of 1944, however, further improvements in
the British air defences had made it hard for the Luftwaffe to penetrate UK air
space at medium and low level. Increased numbers of antiaircraft guns of all
calibres, rocket batteries capable of firing salvoes of 128 missiles, and
radar-directed searchlights able to illuminate targets up to 35,000 feet all
contributed to frustrating the attackers. The fast enemy bombers now began to
penetrate at altitudes up to 30,000 feet before diving on their objectives and
making a high-speed exit. These new tactics caused problems for the British
night fighters, since following an enemy aircraft in a dive meant that radar
contact was often lost because of ground returns. The answer was to extend the
night-fighter patrol lines well out to sea; many intruders were trapped and
destroyed in this way. Between 13 July 1943 and 5 June 1944, forty-three Me
410s were shot down by Mosquito night fighters during night operations against
England; many more were to be destroyed during subsequent operations over the
Continent.
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