Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe vol. I

“April 10,1945 began under sunny, crystal clear skies, yet it was to end as the darkest day in JG 7 history. In southern England crews of 1 315 B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators from the U.S. Eighth Air Force were preparing for a bombing sortie against the Reich. The four engine bombers would be escorted by a force of 801 P-51 Mustang and P-47 Thunderbolt fighters.

The targets for the day were the Me 262 bases at Rechlin-Lärz, Parchim, Brandenburg-Briest, Burg near Magdeburg, Zerbst and Oranienburg. All that we could muster to counter this massive force of over 2 000 aircraft were 63 jet fighters from JG 7 and KG (J) 54. Preparations for a bombing strike of that size did not go unnoticed by our intelligence services and radar stations: as soon as the enemy bombers crossed the English coastline at the altitude of 3 000 meters, we were immediately placed on alert. We had seven airworthy jets at my flight (3 Staffel) and they were all ready to go. I initially thought that the bombers would use the perfect weather conditions to proceed directly to Berlin. At around 1430 we got word from the local fighter command cell that the enemy bombers formed up over Osnabrück. The bomber crews did not have to worry about AAA threat since the area around Lüneburger Heide had been captured by British and Canadian forces on April 4. Indeed, the Allies had enjoyed air superiority for quite a while now: their fighters and bombers operated over Germany around the clock with virtual impunity.

Over Osnabrück the bomber formation split up into four streams and climbed to 8 000 meters. The first wave headed for Oranienburg, the second set course for Neu-Ruppin, the third pressed on towards Zerbst, Brandenburg-Briest and Burg, while the fourth formation proceeded to Rechlin, Rechlin-Lärz and Parchim. When one of the bomber streams approached Burg at 7 000 meters the jet squadrons were ordered to scramble. Although a handful of Me 262s from the unit commanded by Oberleutnant Fritz Stehle and from KG (J) 54 did manage to knock down a few B-17s, it was not enough to keep the Americans from dropping 400 tons of fragmentation bombs on the airfield. All runways were turned into rubble in a matter of minutes. In the meantime the air raid sirens began to blast away at Rechlin-Lärz, Parchim, Brandenburg-Briest and Oranienburg. When Me 262s from 9. and 10./JG 7 launched to intercept the bombers they were immediately attacked by the U.S. fighters, whose pilots downed two of our jets in quick succession. Minutes later the Liberators released their bombs leaving behind an airfield riddled with huge bomb craters. Oberleutnant Franz Schall, a Knight’s Cross recipient and an ace with 133 kills to his credit, was killed when his aircraft hit one of the craters during a landing attempt, nosed over and exploded.
At the same time, some 60 km south east of Parchim, the U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators pounded the airbases at Rechlin and Rechlin-Lärz putting all available runways out of commission. During the attack the Americans destroyed 29 aircraft parked on the ground and damaged additional 21 machines. The crews of III./JG 7 stood almost no chance of reaching the bombers, since they were almost immediately engaged by enemy fighters in a series of mad dogfights. The jet pilots scored only four kills, including a single B-17, two Mustangs and a Thunderbolt. The fight cost the life of Oberleutnant Walter Wever from the HQ flight who was shot down over Dierberg near Neuruppin.
The ominous contrails of the approaching bomber formations now appeared over Brandemburg-Briest. On the ground the Me 262 pilots were closing their jets’ bubble canopies, while the turbines were spooling up spitting black smoke into clear, spring air. Within seconds the rumble of jet engines at full military power shook the entire airfield signaling the launch of the aircraft from the HQ flight and from 1./JG 7. Shortly thereafter Oberleutnant Hans Grünberg, who had earned the ace status during his service with JG 3, dispatched two B-17s. In the meantime the airfield at Branbenburg-Briest was taking horrendous punishment from the allied bombs, which did not stop our AAA from firing a barrage of shells at the intruders.

I got airborne at around this time, leading the 3. Staffel in my “yellow 1”. We soon got word that the enemy bombers were approaching from the north west at 8 000 m accompanied by escort fighters that hung above the bombers like a swarm of angry bees. Careful to avoid contact with the Mustangs we zigzagged our way up to 10 000 meters and then flew a wide arc to position ourselves above and behind the enemy “heavies”. Once in position we wasted no time to use the altitude advantage and commenced the attack. I worked out a special attack tactics to deal with a huge speed advantage we had against the lumbering four engine heavy bombers. A stream of several hundred bombers, even flying in a tight formation, was spread over a huge distance. The usual tactics of repeated series of hit and run attacks simply did not work, especially if one wanted to conserve fuel and remain clear of the concentrated defensive fire from the bombers. Having an abundance of targets to choose from we employed a “wave riding” tactics: a dive from about 1 000 meters above the bombers, selection of a target flying on the right or left side of the formation, a short burst aimed at one of the bomber’s inboard engines, followed by a recovery from the dive no lower than about 200 meters above the enemy formation and a quick climb back to altitude. At this point another diving attack would commence. The “ride” would cover quite a long distance, but because of the sheer size of the bomber stream one could score several kills during a single pass over the formation. Targeting the inboard engines or the wing sections between the engines proved extremely effective because it inflicted the greatest possible damage to the bomber’s fuel lines. I really found it difficult to understand why other pilots often chose to attack those heavily armed bombers (in their case the word “fortress” was no exaggeration) from below or head on. The only way to avoid the murderous fire barrage laid down by the B-17 gunners was to attack the “heavies” from above while flying in the same direction as the bomber stream. One also has to remember that the U.S. gunners would often open fire at distances over 700 meters, which at times was enough to actually score hits. We, on the other hand, had to drive to within 300 meters of the bombers, since that is where the fire from our MK 108 cannons was set to converge.
Down below the bombs were falling on Oranienburg and watching the multitude of flickering flashes of explosions made me think again of the burning ruins of Hamburg. At that very instant any thought of the pain and suffering I was about to inflict on the bomber crews became completely irrelevant. Revenge, hatred, retaliation? No, those words were all inadequate to express the immeasurable rage caused by the thought of hundreds of thousands of innocent German women and children who perished under the Allied bombs. It was that boundless anger I felt when I opened fire at the first enemy bomber. Within seconds the 3 cm shells from my cannons tore into the B-17’s massive tail and completely cut it off from the fuselage. The severed tail section tumbled to the ground while I recovered from the dive only to jump the next target . I hit the second B-17 between her starboard engines. Before the bomber rolled to the right and went down, I thought I noticed her name painted in big letters under the cockpit: ‘Henn’s Revenge’. I had no time to ponder on this, since the mortally wounded machine was by now filling my entire windshield: I buried the stick in my lap to avoid collision and pointed my aircraft straight up.

In the meantime the other bombers released their bomb loads and pressed on eastwards completely unfazed by AA shells bursting right in front of their glazed noses. Suddenly one of the Fortresses peeled off the formation and, trailing black smoke, turned north. At first I wanted to finish her off, but once I closed up on the “heavy” I noticed that an exploding AA shell ripped off all the skin panels from the starboard side of the fuselage – from the cockpit all the way to the wing’s trailing edge. I knew the bomber’s fate was sealed. Having no intention to fire at the helpless crew, I circled the bomber one more time. The copilot was slung forward still strapped to his seat, while the rest of the crew gathered in the back getting ready to jump. Nobody was manning the gunners’ stations. Flying away from the bomber I saw the crew bail out and counted nine good chutes.
My third victim’s wing seemed to attract the cannon shells like a magnet: 30 mm high explosive and incendiary projectiles drove into one of the B-17’s engines with devastating force. Seconds later the bomber rolled inverted and went straight down in flames. When I maneuvered into position behind another B-17, I noticed a triangle with the letter ‘U’ painted on her tail. After a burst of fire from my cannons ripped apart the Flying Fortress’s inboard engine, huge pieces of skin panels separated from the fuselage and went flying past my aircraft. Moments later the bomber’s wing broke off. I found out later that the doomed B-17 was called ‘Moonlight Mission’ and that most of her crew bailed out safely before the aircraft exploded in mid-air at 5 000 meters.

Out of ammunition, I began to scan the sky in search of my guys. The other Me 262s were nowhere to be seen, so it was time to get out of Dodge: the ‘ride’ on top of the bombers was pretty successful, I thought. Suddenly I felt and heard bullets hitting the port wing and engine of my jet. I instinctively broke right to get out of the line of fire and in that very instant a Mustang swooped right past me, all guns blazing. I took a quick glance at the instruments: I was at 8 200 meters and the port engine was dead. First and foremost – find a cloud. There were none at altitude, so I dropped the nose and went downstairs. Hide in the clouds, but what then? I decided I would try to divert to Jüterbog, although I wasn’t sure if the runway there was still useable. I hit the clouds at 1 500 meters and quickly set a new heading. Although the Mustangs were no longer a threat, the port engine trailed a thick line of black smoke. When I was still considering my chances of landing safely at Jüterbog, part of the cowling of the port engine gave way and separated in flight. It looked as if somebody had opened a can of sardines. Then there was a loud thump and the engine’s exhaust cone broke off. I had to get out immediately, since the engine could explode at any moment taking with it the entire wing.

Everything that happened next could not have lasted more that a couple of seconds, although it all seemed like eternity to me. At 1 200 meters I jettisoned the canopy, climbed out of the seat and tried to bail out. The jet was still going way too fast, so I was immediately slammed back into the seat. Then I remembered a piece of advice from a friend, who had previously bailed out of the Me 262: ‘Make sure you throttle all the way back and kick the stick forward as soon as you start climbing out of the seat. The aircraft will drop the nose, which will throw you out of the cockpit and keep you clear of the tail.’ Following my friend’s advice, I climbed slightly, then kicked the stick with my right foot as soon as I was ready to get out of the seat. In a blink of an eye I was tumbling through the air in a freefall. Unfortunately, I did not assume the proper position on exit from the cockpit and I was now falling with my right arm outstretched, unable to reach the ripcord on the left side of the parachute harness. With my right hand sticking straight out I must have looked like a policeman directing traffic. Using superhuman force that can only be generated by fear of death, I managed to grab my right arm with the left hand and pull it towards the torso just enough to reach for the lifesaving ripcord.”
Jet Propulsion
The idea of an air vehicle propelled by thrust of hot exhaust gases was first proposed by a French engineer Jean Delouvrier (also known as Charles de Lauvrié). In 1863 Delouvrier presented to the French Academy of Science in Paris a system of jet propulsion based on a steam engine, which he called Aeronave. In the 1870s a Swedish scientist Patrick de Laval performed a series of successful experiments testing the thrust generated by steam engines. Drawing from the results of Laval’s tests brothers Armengaud built an experimental gas turbine at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In 1908 another Frenchman, Caravodine, built an experimental device to test the feasibility of pulse jet propulsion. A year later Georges Marconnet improved Caravodine’s engine by replacing the compressor with a valve assembly closing off the combustion chamber.
In 1913, before the outbreak of the Great War, a French magazine Le Aérophile published an article by René Lorin, in which the author discussed a hypothetical aircraft propulsion system using the energy of exhaust gases. The powerplant described by Lorin consisted of an intake cone (diffuser) with a combustion chamber placed directly behind it and an exhaust nozzle. This basic idea is still used today in the design of ramjets and thrust augmentation systems of modern turbojets.
A real breakthrough in the jet engine history came in 1921 when yet another Frenchman, Maxime Guillaume, patented a powerplant which had all features of a modern jet engine. Guillaume’s engine consisted of an air intake, a compressor, a combustion chamber with fuel injectors, a turbine, an exhaust nozzle and a drive shaft.

In the meantime German engineers also took interest in jet propulsion systems. In 1908 Hans Holzwarth built a gas turbine featuring a system of valves, which allowed to control the pressure inside the combustion chamber. In the fall of 1933 a 22-year-old student of physics and aerodynamics at Göttingen University took a keen interest in the development of jet propulsion. His name was Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain and he patented his first jet engine design on November 9, 1935. Von Ohain was a prolific engineer: one of his inventions (a method of recording a soundtrack directly onto cinematographic film) was purchased by Siemens, which gave the young scientist the financial independence to continue the development of his jet engine design.
Von Ohain’s powerplant consisted of a two-stage compressor, an annular combustor and a centrifugal turbine. Max Hahn, a master machinist working for Bartels und Becker in Göttingen was commissioned by von Ohain to build the first working model of his engine. This is how von Ohaim remembers the early days of testing the new design: “I knew from the start that I would have to take a very close look at the combustion process. I was also aware of the fact that the basic design would have to be continuously improved, which required time and money – and I had neither. Fortunately, professor Robert Pohl from the University of Göttingen came to my rescue. We had a very friendly chat and he told me he was absolutely convinced the jet propulsion was the way of the future. He also encouraged me to seek assistance within the industry and offered to provide me with a personal letter of recommendation. I intuitively felt that engine manufacturers would not show much interest in gas turbines, so I decided to go to Heinkel.”
In March 1936 von Ohain met with Ernst Heinkel and signed two documents: one was for the sale of rights to his patented jet engine design, the other a full-time employment contract. The first project that von Ohain completed for Heinkel was the HeS 1 hydrogen-burning powerplant developing 250 KG of thrust. The modified and improved version of the engine, the HeS 2, was ready in March 1937. Von Ohain now focused his efforts on designing a new combustion chamber, which would use liquid fuel in place of hydrogen. After it had been successfully tested the new combustor was incorporated into von Ohain’s new engine – the HeS 3b. The engine, weighing in at 360 kg,  produced 500 KG of thrust at 13 000 rpm. The new design was then flight tested slung under the fuselage of a Heinkel He 118.
Now that a working jet engine had been successfully tested, work could begin on designing an aircraft that would be powered by the new design. The Heinkel He 178 was a shoulder wing monoplane with the cockpit placed well ahead of the wing’s leading edge. The HeS 3b powerplant was installed inside the duralumin fuselage with the air intake placed in the aircraft’s nose. The fuel tanks were installed behind the pilot’s seat. The conventional type landing gear featured narrow track main wheels, which were designed to retract into the fuselage wells.

At around 0500 on August 27, 1939 Erich Warsitz made history when he took off from Rostock-Marienehe airfield in the world’s first turbojet powered aircraft. The first flight did not last very long: after just one circuit over the field Warsitz had to bring the aircraft in following the landing gear malfunction and engine flameout.
The work on the HeS 3b continued and soon its successor was ready for testing. The HeS 8 (designated 109-001 in RLM documents) would be used as the powerplant in Heinkel’s new fighter design – the He 280.
In the meantime the executives at Junkers Flugzeugwerke AG also took interest in the design and development of turbojets. To that end Prof.Dr.-Ing. Herbert Wagner put together a small research team headed by his former assistant Dipl.-Ing. Max Adolf Müller. The team’s task was to design and build a turbojet powerplant at Magdeburger Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik, one of Junkers’ subsidiaries. The small team grew quickly and by the summer of 1936 over thirty engineers were directly involved in the project. When the design work on the new engine had been completed Müller and a group of his closest associates were approached by Ernst Heinkel and persuaded to “defect”. Indeed, in May 1939 Müller tendered his resignation and began to work for Heinkel the following month. The research that Müller’s team had carried out in Magdeburg was now used in the design of Heinkel’s HeS 30 turbojet (109-006 in official RLM documents), which featured an axial flow compressor.
In 1936 Dipl.-Ing. Anselm Franz, a 36-year-old graduate of Higher Technical School at Graz, was hired by Junkers-Motorenwerke to head their department of piston engine compressor systems and jet propulsion. In 1938 Prof.Dr.-Ing. Otto Mader, one of Junkers senior executives, approached Franz to produce a comprehensive survey of all research into gas turbine propulsion. Having studied the results of Müller’s work, Franz concluded that further development of the powerplants he had developed was pointless. “In 1939 the RLM wanted us to take over the development of Wagner’s engine, but I firmly rejected that option. In the fall we received an official government contract to develop our own turbojet design – the T 1, which later became known as Jumo 004 A. That engine could be considered the world’s first successful turbojet featuring an axial flow compressor. Its main design characteristics would become standard for all future turbojet powerplants. Jumo 004 was also the first mass produced turbojet and the first jet engine to be used in combat.
Unlike Ohain’s and Whittle’s centrifugal designs, the Jumo 004 was a pure axial turbojet, which was better suited for high speed flight thanks to its smaller frontal area. The engine’s main design features closely resembled those used in today’s turbojet powerplants.
Although the government requirements called for the new engine to produce 5.8 kN (600 kG) of thrust, we based our initial design work on a significant power reserve. The fact that we managed to obtain such good results in a relatively short period of time was quite a spectacular achievement, especially given that our work was truly pioneering and involved technology that was completely new and untested. Two key decisions that we made in the early planning stages clearly contributed to our final success. First of all, from the outset we rejected the idea of going for maximum performance numbers in order to build a working device as quickly as possible. This would allow us to run the necessary tests and to fine tune the engine’s development process based on the experimental results. The second key decision was to perform all compressor blade tests outside of Junkers, which greatly facilitated the test program and minimized risk level.”
The initial design work on the new engine began at Junkers in October 1939. One of the members of a thirty-strong team involved in the project was Fritz Böttger, who reported directly to Franz. The Jumo T 1 was ready by the spring of 1940 and the engine first test run was performed on October 11, 1940. By December 1940 the engine was first run at its maximum speed of 9 000 rpm. Another milestone was achieved in January 1941 when the T 1 delivered 430 kG of thrust. One of the recurring problems at that stage was excessive compressor blade vibrations, which almost led to a catastrophic failure of the engine. It took the project team six months of intense work to rectify the problem by replacing the light metal blades with heavier machined steel units. Another experimental version of the engine demonstrated the required thrust output of 600 kG on August 6, 1941. On December 22, 1941 the fifth T 1 prototype (004A) produced 1 000 kG of thrust during a ten-hour, continuous test run. However, the maximum thrust was achieved only momentarily when the engine was run at temperatures impossible to sustain under normal operating conditions. [...]

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