What if Rommel got what he wanted?

Fried one more thought. In 1945 parts of the Me 262 were being sent by any means possible by land; horse drawn carts being an example. The parts and components were drawn from all over the existing Reich with many underground manufacturers from Czechslovakia, southern Bayern. Using forced labor, high end quality was on the low end and several pilots in JG 7 thought that their Schwalbe's had been tampered with at the factory. Losse bolts, vibrations and nosies coming from who knws where. Buckling at critical joints as engine to wing and wing to fuselage. Fuels in 45 were hard to come by as well and we will cover the NF jet kommando's hard earned luck finding fuel sources in our book........
When JG 7 was created some of the finest pilots and not neccessarily RK holders were drawn. many thought their ops days were over and this would be just a unit to test drive the jet but not really jump into the air. They were mistaken. As Adolf Galland said several times " It felt like Angles were pushing me ". for the competent pilots the jet was rather easy to fly although the loudness of the engines was real and the take-offs were so quick it scared many.
Walter Schuck of JG 5 days when becoming Staffelkapitän of 3./JG 7 had a real problem lining up on the rear of his target as he would overcompensate and fly over without getting a shot in.

 

Thanks for the information, Erich!

I see your point about building flaws, due to low quality production standards, because of the Allied air offensive.

Now, for a man like Galland, who had been flying his whole life and guys like Schuck or Lützow who had shot down a big number of enemies it may have been relatively easy to fly the 262, but I don't think that applies to 18-year-old boys with 10 flying hours experience... Which - correct me if I'm wrong - were the majority of Luftwaffe pilots at that time.

Another question. The first German jet flew in 1939. If the Luftwaffe High Command would have decided to speed instead of stopping the jet programme, when do you think it could have been the earliest time in which a fully-tested combat reaction aircraft could have entered into mass production and srvice? I'm very curious of it. Maybe 1942?

 

there were many old hands in the fighter units JG 7 and JV 44 and yes you are right except that am not sure if anyone was 18 in JG 7. Would think that most were around 22-23 yrs as younger replacements were used in the piston engined Geschwader. One of the biggest problems was the re-training of KG 51 and 54 bomber crews to Jäger units where they had to perform both duties in 1945 from bases in Czechslovakia. Harrasing US, British and Soviet forces

 

Yes, you're right. But I suposse that JG-7 and JV-44 had a great deal of veterans because they were meant to be élite units. And because of the aircraft types, experienced pilots were needed.

The rest of the young lads flew piston aircraft in apawling and inferior situations. Those young pilots were still unexperienced enough to fight the British and American pilots, who, most of the time were largely experienced and flew in batter machines. In words of 'Johnnie' Johnson: "You couldn't compare a German fighter pilot of 1940 with another of 1944. They were completely different people!"