Flying Rams and Air to Air Ramming

Read a little while ago that British pilots sometimes used "gentle touches" on the wings of German V1 rockets to knock them off course.


This was used by some when they ran out of ammunition. As a result the V1s' would flip over and drop to the ground.

 

TA152 mentioned that on the first page of this thread IIRC . Im not sure how many ,if any, went down with the V-1s though.

 

"At least two C-47s were rammed by zeros in WW2 and lived to tell the tale. Tough birds. In both cases the fighters went down, and in one case the C-47 got credited with a kill. In almost any case ramming another aircraft is pretty much a last ditch maneuver, and you'll be going down too.

A noteworthy exception are a bunch of air-to-air V-1 (buzz-bomb) kills in Europe. The trick would be to fly alongside the V-1, overlap wingtips, and use your wingtip to tip the V-1, disrupting its autopilot. This did tend to bang up the more fragile wingtips on the fighters, though.

Using The Prop As A Weapon (WWII) — Military Forum | Airliners.net

 

Spitfire vs V1 flying bomb

YouTube - Spitfire vs V1 flying bomb

 

Dunno if anyone mentioned Heirich Erhler, who rammed a B-17 with a 262.

Aces of the Luftwaffe - Heinrich Ehrler

 

I don't think I remember that one. Any other info? Verification? Erich?

 

Looking around I found this about Major Heinrich Ehrler,

"Manfred Jurleit writes in his book: "Strahljäger Me262 im Einsatz" ("Jetfighter Me262 in action") as follows:
"On the 4th of April (1945) 47 "Silver" (German codeword for the Me262) were sent to action....
Two days later (6 April '45 !) the Me262 Turbos downed 2 bombers - this time it were 2-engine bombers from the 9th USAAF, which were attacking targets in the North-Germany area.
But the "Geschwader" (JG7) suffered once more a loss.
Major Heinrich Ehrler from the "Geschwaderstab" (wing staff), an experienced fighter pilot with 204 aerial victories, fell on this day in the aerial combat."

What happened to the B-17 that he was said to have rammed? What unit was it from?

 

An excellent image of a Spitfire in action!

 

I thought so too

 

nt

 

How many V1s brought down by Tempests were brought down by tipping?

"The first squadrons to be equipped with Tempest Vs were Nos. 3 and 486 at Newchurch, Dungeness, the first of these receiving its equipment early in 1944. By May five Tempest Vs had been lost due to engine failure, and this was discovered to be due to an over speeding of the propellers, resulting in an uncontrollable increase in engine revolutions, the failure of the bearings and the collapse of the oil system. In June modified propellers were fitted which solved the problem, and two days after the invasion of the Continent, on June 8, 1944, the Tempests met enemy aircraft in combat for the first time, destroying three Bf 109G fighters without loss to themselves. On June 13 the first V1 flying bombs were launched against England, and the Tempest, being the fastest low-medium altitude fighter in service with the R.A.F., became the mainstay of Britain's fighter defense against the pilotless missiles, destroying 638 of these weapons by the beginning of September. The Tempest V was also employed on the Continent for train-busting and ground-attack duties. "

Hawker Typhoon and Tempest history

 

This thread has served its purpose and will be closed. Thank you!