|
|
This book looks at the performance of the heavily armed Sturmjager, Fw 190 carrying more cannon and other heavy weapons than was normal, and organised into units dedicated to making heavy assaults on American bomber formations.
We start with an account of one example clash between the Fw 190s and a US bomber force, during an attack on 28 May 1944. This demonstrates several elements of the air war at this point – first, that the Germans could still be dangerous, second that this came at heavy cost to their own units and third that overclaiming was still rife. The USAAF acknowledged eight B-17s lost, 97 suffering minor damage and five suffering major damage during the part of the raid we are concerned with. The German unit we are following claiming nine victories, one more than the entire total lost in that area (and they weren’t the only German unit involved). Overall the Americans lost 32 bombers (from around 800 deployed that day) and 12 escort fighters, the Germans 39 aircraft with 22 pilots killed. In the spring of 1944 the Luftwaffe’s day fighters were still clearly dangerous, but not as dangerous as they had been before the escort fighters entered the battle.
We then move onto the main narrative. We start with a look at the development of the two sides, from the arrival of the USAAF Eighth Air Force and the heavy losses suffered on unescorted raids, through the arrival of the long range escorts. On the Germans side we see the strain imposed by constant defensive battles, made worse by interference from above.
The Path to Combat chapter looks at the training on the German side. On the German side we follow Willi Unger, who had been in the Luftwaffe since 1939 but didn’t enter pilot training until 1942, despite being a pre-war glider pilot. This makes him rather more experienced than many of the new pilots entering Luftwaffe service in the last years of the war. He went through an impressively detailed training scheme, and got his pilot’s badge after 140 hours of instruction. Only at the next stage, of dedicated fighter training, do we start to see the length of training being reduced, down by about a month between 1942 and 1943. The most ominous element at this point was that the Fighter Schools were redesignated as full fighter units during 1943, becoming Jagdgeschwader. Unger benefited from a long training regime, joining an operational unit in March 1944, well over a year after starting training.
Weapon of War focuses on the dedicated bomber attack versions of the Fw 190, starting with the Fw 190A-6, armed with foure 20mm MG 151/20 cannon and two machine guns. This was the start of a series of ‘Sturm’ versions of the Fw 190, heavily armed to take out bombers. The Art of War chapter looks at how these heavily armed fighters were meant to be used, in concentrated attacks designed to break up enemy bomber missions. The less manevuerable heavy fighters were supported by lighter more agile escorts of their own to keep the American escorts away.
The final chapter, ‘Combat’, is far longer than the others, filling almost half the book. The focus here is on the fighting in 1944-45. At the start of this period the Luftwaffe was still capable of responding to American attacks with large numbers of fighters, inflicting heavy losses on the bombers, although at an unsustainable rate of loss. This produced some massive battles – on 11 April 1944 the US put up 917 bombers and 800 fighters, the Gemrans 432 fighters. Both sides suffered heavy losses, with the nature of the battle meaning the Americans lost far more men, while many of the Germans who were shot down were able to bail out and return to combat.
This type of fighter attack came to an end towards the end of 1944, partly because the improved Allied escorts made the close range attacks increasingly dangerous and partly because of a general lack of aviation fuel in Germany. Nevertheless, the book shows that even in 1944 the Luftwaffe was still capable of innovating, and still capable of inflicting heavy losses on Allied bombers.
Chapters
1 – In Battle
2 – Setting the Scene
3 – Path to Combat
4 – Weapon of War
5 – Art of War
6 – Combat
Author: Robert Forsyth
Edition: Paperback
Pages:
Publisher: Osprey
Year: