Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

50 unpowered versions were built before the war's
end), but the aircraft was only a very limited success,
accounting, it is believed, for little more than 12
American B-17s. An improved version, known originally
as the Ju 248, was produced at Junkers and then
taken over by Messerschmitt as the Me 263. It was
somewhat larger, had a wheeled undercarriage rather
than skids, and was powered by a Walter 509C motor.
It was produced in prototype form only.
THE SELBSTOPFERMÄNNER FIGHTERS
In fact, like the Me 262, the 'Komet' was too little, too
late. So desperate was the situation in Germany by the
summer of 1944 that individual fighter pilots had
taken to ramming Allied bombers, and units such as
IV/JG3 and TI/JG300 were formed as Sturmgruppen
(assault groups) with that as an accepted fall-back tactic
using Fw 190A-8/R2s fitted with frontal armour.
They had a measure of success: between 7 July 1944
and the end of March 1945, when they ceased to operate,
they accounted for around 500 Allied bombers,
but only 10 of them by ramming. In April 1945, Sonderkommando
Elbe was formed from volunteers; they
trained for 10 days in ramming tactics, and then went
into action. In all, they rammed and downed eight, but
at a high cost to themselves: a total of 77 Bf 109s and
Fw 190s. If such potentially self-sacrificial Selb-
Stopfermänner tactics were to be employed, then
clearly a much less sophisticated aircraft, using little
in the way of strategic materials, could be employed
instead of some of the best piston-engined fighters of
the entire period.
At this point we need to take a very short diversion
to consider the nature of Selbstopfermänner tactics. It
was never the stated intention to require or even ask
aircrew to commit suicide in Germany in the way that
it was in Japan, and great pains were taken to maintain
that the very reverse was actually the case. The
Selbstopfermänner were expected only to employ
their aircraft as weapons in the last resort (though
recruits to the Sturmgruppen were required to take an
oath that they would indeed do this if necessary), and
to make every effort to ensure that the attack left them
with the possibility of escape. As will be noted when
discussing the manned Fi 103s, the possibilities of
this happening were remote, and it must be concluded
that there was a secret agenda, and that the men
Right: The launch of the Ba 349 was so violent that the
pilot was expected to black out; the climb to operational
altitude was under a simple automatic guidance system.
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT
(and women; Hanna Reitsch was an advocate of such
tactics) concerned knew exactly what they were being
called upon to do, and that the disclaimers were there
only for public relations purposes.
THE Ba 349'NATTER'
The 'Komet' was hardly a sophisticated aircraft.
However, according to Dr Erich Bachern the 'Komet'
was over-sophisticated. Bachern was an experienced
glider pilot and one-time Technical Director of Fieseler
AG, which was latterly a manufacturer of wings for
Henschel missiles and control surfaces for the A4 and
where Bachem had designed the Fi 156 'Storch'
('Stork') observation and light utility aircraft. He
claimed that a wooden glider, simple enough to have
been built in a carpentry workshop and propelled by a
similar rocket motor to that used in the 'Komet',
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