A flight into history

THE MESSERSCHMITT Me 262B-1a/U1: Wnr 110 305

`Red 8'
at the South African National Museum of Military
History
Capt Tony Speir
The German Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first operational jet aircraft to enter
front line service on either side during the Second World War (1939 - 1945).
The design work was initiated in 1939 with the first airframes being produced
in 1941. At that time the development of jet engines was still in progress.
Therefore, when the initial flight took place in April 1941, a single Junkers Jumo
210 G 12 cylinder piston engine, centrally fitted into the
nose of the aircraft driving a propeller, was utilized.
The first flight using jet engines produced at Bayerische
Motornwerke (BMW) was undertaken in March 1942.
Fortunately, the nose-mounted piston engine was retained
as the thrust from the wing-mounted turbo jets proved
inadequate for take-off and only the use of the piston
engine enabled the test pilot to return the aircraft safely
to the airfield. The Jumo 004 engines were then installed
and the next test flight took place in July 1942 without the
piston engine.
The aircraft was originally designed as a fighter. However,
in January 1944, Adolf Hitler, Furher of Germany, took the
decision to turn it into a fast intruder bomber with the
specific object of attacking the Allied landing forces when the inevitable
invasion of Europe was attempted. Aircraft production only commenced in June
1944 as a result of the extremely slow development of the engines. Even when
the aircraft were delivered, the engines' development problems had only been
partially resolved. (Initial small quantities of aircraft were delivered to the
Luftwaffe in July 1944 for flight testing and training purposes and a number of
experimental armament variations were designed and tested.)
It was soon discovered that a trainer aircraft for the conversion of pilots to this
unusual and difficult type of aircraft was required. Therefore, the first twoseater trainer versions in which the rear fuel tank was removed to make room

for seating for the second pilot, equipped with a full set of controls were
produced. One such aircraft, further modified as a night-fighter, is on display at
the SA National Museum of Military History while a two-seater trainer aircraft is
located at the Naval Air Station at Willow Grove in the United States of
America.
The first fighter sorties using the Me 262 commenced towards the end of July
1944. These were followed by those of the bomber versions in August 1944.
The bomber versions, however, proved unsuccessful due to the limited bomb
load carried and the difficulties of accurate bombing from a fast moving
aircraft. The bomber version was soon abandoned in favour of further
developments in the role of night fighter interception. This role saw the aircraft
at its most successful in combat operations against Allied aircraft with the
hitherto inviolate British Mosquito fighter/ bomber being frequently intercepted
and shot down. The heaviest losses suffered by Me 262s derived from technical
failures and pilot error as opposed to enemy action. Flying the Me 262 proved
very difficult. A major factor in this regard was the lack of any previous
experience on the part of the pilots in flying jet aircraft. The engines, rushed
into service well before all problems had been resolved, were also unreliable
and had a practical life - between overhauls - of about ten to twelve hours, as
opposed to the anticipated 25 to 30 hours. The theoretical time required for an
engine change was three hours. However, with inexperienced crews and poor
workmanship, the process usually took up to eight hours to complete. The
engines were very prone to `flame-out' (loss of ingition) in flight during
manoeuvres or changes in throttle settings, and were very difficult to re-start in
the air. Formation flying was difficult and often impossible at high altitudes as
the result of poor response to throttle changes. It was found best to adjust the
throttle as little as possible during flight.
The Me 262 was, nevertheless, a fine engineering achievement but severely
hampered by interference from Hitler and the urgency of the situation which
Germany found herself in at the time the aircraft came into service. It heralded
the advent of jet-propelled flight and the gradual demise of the piston-engined
combat aircraft.
General der Jagdflieger (Chief of Fighter Pilots) Generalleutenant (LieutenantGeneral) Adolf Gallant, a veteran of the Battle of Britain and who gained over
100 victories by the end of the war, disagreed violently with both Hitler and
Reichmarschal Herman Gring over the decision to deploy the Me 262 as a
bomber. In January 1945 their differences reached a climax when Hitler
dismissed Gallant from his position. Gallant immediately sought permission to
return to active combat duty and was, surprisingly, allowed to form his own
unit, Jagdverband 44, equipped with Me 262 fighters.

From that moment he began gathering a number of Germany's `ace' pilots,

many of whom had seen active service since the outbreak of the war, and all of
whom were holders of the Ritterkreutz (Knight's Cross) one of Germany's
highest awards for valor. JV 88 was a unique airforce unit in that it included one
Generalleutenant
(Lieutenant-General),
two
Obersts
(Colonels),
one
Oberstleutenant (Lieutenant-Colonel) and three Majoors (Majors). The glittering
array of talented pilots who served with this unit during the closing days of the
Me 262's combat service included: Majoor (Major) Barkhorn (301 victories);
Oberst (Colonel) Steinhoff (176 victories); Oberst (Colonel) Louw (108 victories)
and Hauptmann (Captain) Krupinski (197 victories). On 31 March 1945 Gallant
led his new formation on a flight to Munich-Riem, where JV 44 established its
headquarters and commenced operations against the mass formation of United
States heavy daylight bombers which were pulverizing Germany at the time.
During its one month of operations, JV 44 was credited with the destruction of
45 enemy aircraft before being overtaken by the advancing Allied forces at
Salzburg on 3 May 1945.
The picture to the right shows the Messerschmitt Me 262 B-1a/U1 on display at
the SA National Museum of
Military History.
It has been established that the
Me 262 on display at the
Museum is the only surviving
night fighter version in the
world. This particular type,
designated Me 262 B-1a/U1,
was converted from a twoseater trainer built by Blohm &
Voss. The aircraft was a temprarytemporary expedient, catering to the urgent
need for an aircraft capable of combating the night-raiding Mosquito of the
Royal Air Force, until the re-designated night fighter version with a lengthened
fuselage could be produced.
The Me 262 on display at the Museum bears the identification number `Red 8',
and was deployed operationally in the defence of Berlin early in 1945 by the
Kommando Stamp, later renamed Kommando Welter in honour of the unit's
top-scoring pilot, Oberleutenant (Lieutenant)Karl Weler. In April 1945 the unit
was re-designated Staffel 10 of Nachjagdeschwader 11 and was stationed at
Burg-bei-Magdeburg to the south-west of Berlin. In April 1945, with Allies
threatening Berlin, the decision was taken to abandon Burg and the defence of
Berlin and to join units fighting in northern Germany. The unit first moved to
Lubek before finally transferring to Schleswig in Denmark. The aircraft was
surrendered to the RAF on 6 May 1945 and flown to Britain for evaluation by

the Central Fighter Establishment. A certain amount of the aircraft's original

electronic equipment and instruments were removed for study. British flying
instruments have replaced some of their original counterparts, which were
presumably removed at the same time, and English wording has been crudely
painted above many of the instruments and controls.
Early in 1946, Capt Jack Meaker of the SAAF was sent to Britain on a course.
During this time, he went on a visit to some of the RAF storage airfields where
he and other course members from the commonwealth countries were invited
to select some of the German aircraft for shipment to their own countries.
Meaker selected five aircraft, of which Red 8 was one, and, assuming the
correct authorities in Pretoria would be informed, completed his course and
returned home. The aircraft was shipped to Cape Town at the beginning of 1947
and, shortly after that, Meaker was summoned to his superior's office to be
presented with an account of 6 000,00 from the Union Castle Steamship
Company. He was informed that `his' aircraft were sitting in boxes on the quay
side in Cape Town awaiting payment and documentation. The horrified Meaker
explained the circumstances of his bequest and was relieved when the air force
treasury agreed to take over the responsibility of the payment. The aircraft
then became the property of the SAAF and was located at AFB Dunottar until
the early 1970s when it went on temporary display at Fort Klapperkop in
Pretoria. In 1972 the aircraft was donated to the Museum by the SAAF.
The Me 262 B was equipped with a variety of radios and radio equipment::

FuG and FuG 10P interconnected sets for air to ground and air to air
communication

EiV for intercommunication between crew;

FuGa Erstling IFF (identification Friend/Foe). This transmitted identifying

impulses to ground control radar stations, in order to distinguish
between the radar `blips' emitted by friendly and hostile aircraft.

FuG 125 Hermine blind landing receiver for homing on radio beacons.

FuG 120a Bernhardine. This equipment received coded information on a

miniature teleprinter set, providing a print-out of information relayed by
the Bernhard ground station, stating the relative position of the fighter
and the enemy bomber stream.

FuG 218 Neptun airborne radar. This equipment was used to locate
enemy bombers and to provide a tail-warning device to warn of the

approach of hostile aircraft from the rear where visibility was very
restricted.

FuG 50 Naxos Zc radio set; which detected the transmission of the H2S
radar equipment used by RAF bombers and enabled the aircraft to home
in on them.

The crew consisted of a pilot and a radio/ radar operator. The operator would
receive information of a bomber stream location by means of the Bernhardine
set and provide the pilot with a course to intercept. As the Me 262 drew closer
to the enemy bombers, the operator would use the Neptun radar to guide the
pilot towards the target aircraft. The final approach and attack had to be
executed visually as the Neptun set was not effective within 350m of the
target.
As has been stated above one of the main fuel tanks was removed from the
fuselage in order to adapt the aircraft from its original single-seater design. To
compensate, two auxiliary drop tanks were fitted below the centre section.
These tanks would then be jettisoned after
use and prior to engaging in combat.
Sixteen signal flare tubes are fitted in the
port side of the rear fuselage. These were
used to fire coloured recognition lights.
These tubes were fitted to the side because
it was impossible to open the cockpit hood in
flight to fire signal flares in the more
conventional manner. They were fired
electronically from the cockpit.
There were two main purposes for these flares. Firstly, they were used for airto-ground communication with friendly anti-aircraft gunners to indicate that the
Me 262's attack was imminent and to warn them to withhold their fire.
Secondly, they were used to signal the control tower at the aircraft's home
base to switch on the flare-path for night landings. Airfields were normally kept
as dark as possible until a friendly aircraft approached to avoid attracting Allied
intruder aircraft which maintained constant patrols in the vicinity of German
airfields. Their object was to attack the jet aircraft at their most vulnerable
times during take off and landing. The slower propeller-driven aircraft were
then able to attack the Me 262s when their speed was reduced.
Allied intruder pilots would observe the colour sequence fired by an
approaching aircraft, approach and fire identical colours themselves. The
specific aim was to deceive the German airfield controllers into illuminating the

airfield and thus facilitate a successful attack on both the runways and parked
aircraft. Endeavoring to avoid falling into this trap, the Germans chose to
change their colour sequence at frequent intervals in the course of a night's
operations to a pre-arranged cycle, therefore ensuring that a particular signal
was valid for only a short period. It was for this reason that the Me 262 was
equipped with so many signal tubes, enabling a number of different colours to
be carried.
During the final few weeks of the Second World War, 10/NJG11, in common with
many other Lufwaffe units, was forced to operate from improvised airfields and
found itself using part of an autobahn as a runway, dispersing itself between
the trees extending along the road. This situation resulted in the aircraft of the
unit being painted in locally-designed camouflage patterns to suite their
temporary surroundings and they were often at variance with the officially
prescribed colour-schemes. The colours and patterns used on the Museum's
aircraft have been carefully reproduced on the basis of original photographs
and research undertaken by one of the leading authorities on Second World
War aircraft painting and camouflage.
Specifications

Maximum speed: 810 km/h at 6 000m (503mph at 19685ft).

Operational service ceiling: 9 250m (30 000ft).

Armament: Four Mk 108 30mm cannon mounted in the nose.

Engines: Two Junkers Jumo 004 B axial-flow turbojets using J2 diesel fuel
and developing 900kg (1 984 lb) of thrust at 9 000rpm.

Starting: Each Jumo 004 B engine was fitted with a small two cylinder
Reidel 2-stroke piston engine for starting purposes. The Jumo engines
were started on 87 octane aviation gasoline and automatically changed
to J2 diesel fuel as the engines reached 3 000rpm and the throttles were
opened.

Article Edited by Dr Stan Monick, revised by Allan Sinclair, 2003

More Information:
Published sources:

Boyne, W. Messerschmitt Me 262 - arrow to the future, (Washington,

Smithsonian Instiutute, 1980).
Brown, Capt E. Wings of the Luftwaffe, (London, Macdonald & Jane's, 1977).
Green, W. Warplanes of the Third Reich, (London, Macdonald, 1970).
Jane's all the world's aircraft, (London, Jane's, 1944, 1945/46).
Master, D. German jet genesis, (London, Jane's, 1982).
Pritchard, A. Messerschmitt, (New York, Putnam, 1975).
Smith, J R & Kay, A. German aircraft of the Second World War, (London, Putnam,
1972).
West, K. The captive Luftwaffe, (London, Putnam, 1978).
Unpublished sources:

Arnold, A. Me262 B-1a/U1, Wnr 110 305 `Red 8', (Supplementary notes
compiled for study day at the SA National Museum of Military History, 1997).
Library file 623.7464(43) Mes,(located in the archives of the SA National
Museum of Military History)