Greif.

Yes, but we were discussing east front.

 

Yes, I know about the Poltava raid (it would be interesting to see Erich's take on this, especially an order of battle and composition of force), it's another one off like Op. Bodenplatte, the difference is this time it worked.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/andrews.pdf , page 6.

Doesn't it strike you as strange that the Germans had to scrape the barrel to do a decent sized raid while the 8th Air Force and Bomber Command were pounding the Reich to oblivion every day and every night as a matter of routine? I see no reason to do a sing and dance about this.

 

By 1943 Hitler should have realized that Germany needed fighters to protect itself. But somehow he always amused himself with the thought of bombing Britain no matter how much the Luftwaffe had to pay for that in planes and pilots.

 

"Doesn't it strike you as strange that the Germans had to scrape the barrel to do a decent sized raid while the 8th Air Force and Bomber Command were pounding the Reich to oblivion every day and every night as a matter of routine? I see no reason to do a sing and dance about this."

No it doesn't. They didn't focus on 4 engined bombers, if they had, they would be able to do more than one offs, which is the point of the thread.

 

Given the HUGE industry and manpower needed to field a decent strategical bombers fleet, I doubt Germans could have build such a 4 motors bomber fleet, or it would have been at the cost of part of their fighter or tactical/support/attack bomber fleet.

And we all know that Germany needed all the fighters they had and also that the tactical/support/attack bought vital time to the Wermacht on Eastern front.

On tyhe other hand, we all know that the success of strategical bombings during WWII was questionnable.

To sum it up, I don't think that Germany would have fared better in WWII, if they'd sacrified a part of their vital fighters and attack/medium bombers airorce, to build a strategic bomber force, whose impact on the course of the war is very doubtfull.

 

I found this interesting picture of a He-177 towing a glider. The picture is mislabeled as a He-111.

http://www.mr-jan.dk/stories/others/dsf3.htm

 

Strange pictures on this link also. I have never seen this before;

http://www.mr-jan.dk/stories/others/dsf4.htm

 

I can not read German but I think this is a He-177 towing it's own fuel tank.
Can anyone verify this ?

http://www.mr-jan.dk/stories/others/dsf9.htm

 

Both pilots ought to be wetting their pants as the glider is grossly misaligned with the tractor. This short boom technique had good reasons to be dropped.

 

@Ta : one of your link is about the Mistel concept : in most of the cases a medium bomber (Ju-88)loaded with explosives, attached underneath a manned fighter (bf 109 or FW190 later on).

The fighter flew the whole thing to target area, aimed and released the bomber, it was some kind of a self propelled bomb, or flying torpedo.

IIRC it was seldom used, with questionable success.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpAQ1d48Dzg

 

Heinkel He 177 Bomber - 1942 Aircraft Recognition Training Film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgd-mq-PdNo