COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
Both occupants were provided with ejection seats, the first we had
ever seen, and the crew compartment was heavily armoured. The
straight control column, seen on earlier German designs, had given
way to one which was more like the split stick on our own fighters,
except that it was topped by a two horned yoke instead of a spade grip.
The instruments were well up to the standard of our Me 109G at
Antwerp with additional features such as an autopilot and radio
altimeter. The He 219 may have been ugly but it was a formidable
beast.
Tucked away in a corner, amongst all the radar antennaed night
fighters, I found two gliders, a Grunau Baby and a Meise. In no time
at all the squadron sent a Queen Mary up to Cuxhaven and the gliders
were derigged and brought back to base. A local gliding site, which
was marked on the map, had obviously been used for bungey
launching and yielded nothing except an empty barn. We needed a
winch, a Tiger Moth, or a Jungmeister. As we cast around for one or
other of these 84 Group Gliding School at Salzgitter heard about our
gliders and they were 'officially' removed. We never saw them again.
Another sad blow, the result of a clamp down on ex enemy
transport, was the loss of our treasured BMW Sports roadster. We got
wind of this when someone flying near Bremen spotted a check point,
with a long queue of vehicles leading up to it, and a field alongside
into which almost every one was being diverted and parked. In the
weeks that followed they became a major hazard and any German car
or truck not carrying an official permit was confiscated on the spot.
The unfortunate occupants were returned to unit, regardless of rank,
in the back of a 30cwt or 3 tonner. For transport around Germany,
from then on, it was back to the ubiquitous jeep.
Hildesheim had one fascinating relic. A rare, and until then
unknown to us, Dornier 335 single seat fighter. Tucked safely away in
a small building under cover and out of sight, it seemed virtually
complete.
The usual bunch of enthusiasts looked it over, noted the push-pull
configuration, and tried to visualise ground angles and rear propeller
clearances. We thought that it was a prototype and wisely decided that
it was not for us. Although it was a decision which we took with some
regret.
Apart from its unusual layout the Do 335 was an aircraft with
many advanced features. Like the He 219 it had an ejection seat, very
necessary with the rear propeller, an autopilot and radio navigation
104