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On the Western Front the Bf 109 had a fairly short career as a fighter bomber, although because it took part in the Battle of Britain it is well known in Britain in that role. Its main use on the west only lasted from the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1941, with a final distaster during Operation Bodenplatte at the start of 1945.
Chapter one looks at the early development of the German fighter bomber, starting with the Heinkel He 51 during the Spanish Civil War. This differed from the later use of the Bf 109 in that the He 51 had been found lacking as a front line fighter, so an alternative use was needed for it. We then move on to look at the development of new variants of the Bf 109. Work to turn it into a capable fighter bomber started rather earlier than one might have expected, in the spring of 1940. This involved fitting weapons racks or pylons under the fuselage, allowing the fighter to carry one 250kg or four 50kg bombs, at the cost of around 20km/ hr of speed while the bombs were being carried.
Chapter two starts with the experimental use of the Bf 109 Jabo. The unit involved, Erprobungsgruppe 210, had been created to evaluate the Messerschmitt Me 210, but after the failure of that aircraft ended up using the Bf 109 and Bf 110 as attack and close support aircraft. This unit entered combat in July 1940, during the early English Channel phase of the Battle of Britain, attacking coastal convoys. Even at this early stage we see the advantage of the fighter bomber over the existing dedicated attack aircraft – the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka was proving to be slow and vulnerable, but the faster Bf 109s caused serious problems for the defenders. However we also see the short range of the Bf 109 causing problems, with even the closest coastal targets in Britain being dangerously close to its extreme range. We also see how many of the fighter pilots disliked being forced to operate in the fighter bomber role – the Jabos needed escorting to their targets, restricting the freedom of the pure fighters, and the small payload delivered didn’t seem to justify the effort (this rather differs from the view often seen in British accounts, where the frequent surprise attacks on coastal aircrafts were seen as a major problem). One surprise for me was that the biggest number of Bf 109 fighter bomber sorties came as early as October 1940. However this was achieved by throwing large numbers of Jabos against London, an easy target to find, but a difficult one to damage with the small number of bombs involved. This does come across as a waste of this potentially very accurate weapon, which did significant damage when used against specific small targets such as airfields, but far less against the big city. We also see how costly these raids could be, with a high proportion of the key unit leaders lost by the end of 1940.
Chapter three moves into 1941, a year that saw the bulk of the Luftwaffe move east to take part in the invasion of the Soviet Union, and the RAF begin to go onto the offensive over occupied Europe, with its own fighter bombers. The remaining Bf 109 units in France continued to raid Britain, although a surprising number of these raids were carried out by normal Bf 109s rather than Jabos. The arrival of the Bf 109F-4, with a more powerful engine and other general improvements allowed the resumption of Jabo raids in the summer of 1941, known as the ‘tip and run’ raids. The author traces the development of effective tactics late in 1941, which were officially introduced with 13./JG 2 early in 1941. This involved a very low level approach to Britain, which greatly reduced the usefulness of radar, and allowed these often very small raids to become a serious nuisense. However this phase was very short, as the Fw 190 soon replaced the Bf 109 in the fighter-bomber role in the west.
The final chapter looks at the final use of the Bf 109 as a fighter bomber in the west, in the very different circumstances of late 1944. This time, instead of operating against Britain, the Jabos were fighting almost on the German border, taking part Operation Bodenplatte, an all out attack on Allied airfields that had been meant to support the battle of the Bulge, but ended up being delayed until 1 January 1945. We also see how the German preparation for this attack was very different – in 1940-41 time had been taken to work out fighter bomber tactics and to all the Bf 109 to carry bombs. This tiem no bombs were carried, and despite being on the defensive many were operating from bases so far into Germany that they needed drop tanks to reach their targets. Bodenplatte was a disaster for the Germans, and we see large numbers of Bf 109s lost, for very little benefit.
A useful look at one of the first examples of a modern front line monoplane fighter being used as a fighter bomber while still at the peak of its powers as a fighter.
Chapters
1 – In the Beginning
2 – Deadly Combat
3 – New Challenges
4 – Grand Finale
Author: Malcolm V. Lowe
Edition: Paperback
Pages:
Publisher: Osprey
Year: