Opinions of the He 219

A cheeky little pic to keep the discussion going...



OK - I know the aerials are wildly out-of-scale and Erich will tear the markings to pieces but is a pretty little model !

 

Thanks for all the information on tactics and strategy fellows.

 

Martin: is that a He 219 in 1/72nd ? boy those bad boy aerials are huge

actually the Wilde Sau tactics on anightly basis were nowhere close to 50% attrition per mission, read Lorant/Goyats latest effort on JG 300, bigest problem overall was the weather for these type of single engine nightie missions, but also bear in mind that the NJG's as a whole were dupped into using this medieval fashion of operations until new FuG developments came into being.

naxos was quite successful one reason why NJG's equipped with a fourth crewmember were installed, oen to be another pair of eyes for confirmation of a kill, lookout for potential Mossie nf's and the useage of another crewman to operated the naxos seperately from the FuG 220d or FuG 218 Neptun. flensburg as well was still used into 1945 and used with effect from some very experienced crews. More often than not in my many nf interviews the crews were dependent on the overwhelming "window" blips cast upon the scopes where the Bordfünker could place his pilot in the area of the heaviest density and the German crew would be amongst RAF bombers.

A fickle world of one on one or one on two, my feelings is from all the many years of interest the RAF and German crews fighting in this nightly sphere to be the most advanced and probably overall the best crews in the Air during the war.......just my two cents

E ~

 

And here's the rest of it - it's 1/72 scale diecast metal. Not the world's finest model, that's for sure - but it does capture the overall look of one of WWII's more exotic aircraft...

 

Martin although the Uhu is close to the bottom of my nf listing that is a fine looking model. ah what could of been had the Luftwaffe had thought all of this through, but alas for them, throwing up an experiment and instead of working the bugs out committed itself to producing more and more variants with so-called improvements never really getting to the simple heart of the matter and losing the battle with tried and true Bf 110G-4 and Ju 88G's.

I do wish friend Marcel Hogenhuis would put his materials on I./NJG 1 into print as it would answer a host of questions regarding the Uhu and it's crews, knowing Otto Fries personally has helped him put together a vast array of matter and NJG 1 contacts.

good stuff keep it coming

 

I've just been reassessing my 'nighfighter library', bigiceman, and if you're really interested I can recommend a book which will answer many of your questions from the Luftwaffe POV.

This is 'Fighting The Bombers' edited by David C Isby and published by Greenhill Books in 2003 ( and Stackpole in the US also ).

It consists of extracts from the US interrogation of senior Luftwaffe figures ( eg Galland, Kammhuber, Schnaufer, Messerschmitt etc ) in 1945/46 and contains some very clear descriptions of Luftwaffe tactics ( day- and night-fighting ) , given while these things were clear in their memories.

 

along with that although I find Isby a little awkward, but Peter Spodens first hand account book in the English which I beleive that Martin has a personally signed copy yes.........Peter sent me the Deutsche beautifuly inscribed to the Mrs. and myself after he first had it printed. Wonderful guy !

"Du bist nicht am Ende wenn du verlierst, du bist am Ende wenn du aufgibst!"

 

...this is probably an opportune moment to give the man himself a promotional opportunity...

http://www.nachtjaegerspoden.de/

 

since we have a militaria experte new to the forums maybe Bob would be so kind to post a pic of a short range Night Fighter Clasp ~ Germany ?

Erich ~

"Du bist nicht am Ende wenn du verlierst, du bist am Ende wenn du aufgibst!"

 

another item for bigiceman's bag of evening tricks ...... from friend C.P. in Denmark, NJG 3 experte. this was actually one of the first things I studied back in the early 1960's.

Orgelpfeife was the German codeword for spoof radio traffic from a small number of nightfighters to ground station (morse and voice), where the nightfighteres simulated a large number of airplanes.
Luftwaffe started with Orgelpfeife missions in November 1944 and by the winter of 1945 it was common to have one Orgelpfeife crew in each Staffel. One crew could simulate up to 12 nightfighters. The Orgelpfiefe aircraft also used Düppel (chaff) to fool British nightfighters that was hunting them near the radiobeacons.

 

Thanks for the recommendation Martin. I will check the on-line books sales and see if I can get a copy. Maybe after I read it I will do better at the Microsoft flight simulator missions.

 

Erich, I am not sure that I understand what the point of having the impression that there were more Luftwaffe planes then there really were.

Was this to make the British planes waste time looking for the fake ones or to scare them into believing they would be outnumbered?

 

Bigice :

ok am taking cancer treatments so this may come ut all wrong ... ?

the idea was to confuse Mossie NF's as they circled around the beacon-lights that operated to act as a return or general focusing point for German nf's. The idea included giving out false readings to the target -cities to be bombed or false reports of the RAF bomber streams course in and away from the target, also to encourage the Mossie nf's to go carrying off to other destinations. the "fake" operated Ju 88G-6's as mentioned dropped window to confuse Mossie AI trying to intercept prowling German nfs toward the bomber streams. yes it is all confusing but hopeful I have broken through the muck with this ... ? anyone else with sense of today can clear this up please feel free to do so. The RAF of course had their own jamming and translation fouling bombers in 100th group

 

Thanks for the effort Erich, especially in light of your treatments. I think I have the idea.

Sorry to hear about you needing cancer treatments. I hope that all goes well with them and we have you well and contributing for a long time.

 

Don't worry, bigiceman - I have just about every book that's published on this subject, and I've been reading about it for years, and I still find it incredibly confusing.

The night-air-war over NW Europe is virtually a war-within-a-war ; a subject all of its own. Nightfighting went very quickly from aircraft roaming around looking for shadows, to an incredibly complex and demanding electronic battlefield. The story of the 'boffins' ( scientists ) frantically developing measure and counter-measure is extraordinary. And all this in an era before micro-technology.

The whole thing can appear so inhuman, with thousands of tons of bombs being dropped on cities, bombers vapourising in sudden huge explosions, thousands of casualties on both sides....

Which is one reason it's been so important to me to meet just a small number of survivors from both Bomber Command and the Nachtjagd to appreciate the very human side of this often very cruel and sad story.

Just my two penn'orth....but be warned, if you start to read the right books about this, you can get hooked.....

 

The world of Flight Sims is totally alien to me, I'm afraid, but even so this is quite fun to look at : -

http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/store/he219/

 

I will have to say that I agree that it is indeed fun to look at. Some of those cockpit pictures had me straining to see if it was a real photograph. I have not heard of this particular sim before but they sure look as though they went to a lot of trouble trying to get it right.

 

A paragraph from my new book, "Gunner"
According to The German Night Fighter and The RAF NIght Bomber Report RAF and GAF Aircrew Compare Notes A.D.I. (K) Report No.337/1945, which relied on informantion from German night fighter pilots Major Schnaufer,Kommordore of NJG-4 and two of his Gruppe-kommandeure: "Of the bombers shot down by NJG-4 pilots approx. 40% did not fire or manoeuvre, 50% fired or manoeuvred after the fighter had opened fire, and 10 to 20 % fired or manoeuvred first".

 

well here are the impressions of a Uhu experten

Hello Erich, hello Peter,

Just recovering from the 'safe landing' of our lovely daughter Juliëtte on March 2nd. I saw your messages:

He217 A-7
There are some primary sources mentioning that the I.NJG 1 had A-7's in their inventory: Microfilm Reel no.12 (Gen Qm. Abt. 6 Luftwaffe losses) says that on February 3rd 1945 two He219 A-7 from the I.NJG 1 were damaged by fighter bombers on Fliegerhorst Ludwigslust, the Wnr. 310205 and 310190. Further: the listings from the Flugzeugbestand und Bewegungsmeldungen I.NJG 1 do mention also that the I.NJG 1 had some He219 A-7's.
Even if we should not have these primary evidence, the fact that the I.NJG 1 was the only unit in the nightfighter force, that converted completely to the He219 during the first months of 1944, makes it very unlikely that they never used the A-7 subtype.

Now the ejection seats in the He219. Despite the life saving capabilities of these chairs, the fysical sensations for the crew were quite unpleasant. The description 'Katapult Anlage' needs no further explanation... The first documented use of the He219 ejection seats 'im Einsatz' was in the night of 11/12th April 1944 when the crew of Uffz.Herter/Gfr.Perbix, 2/NJG 1 saved their lives. The He219 crashed near Weert/Netherlands and its remaining wreck parts were salvaged in March 1979.

All the best, Marcel

 

an oldie but not a moldie............

Martin did you ever find out how many kills Otto Fries had while flying the UHU ? I know he was an ace.....

he lives somewhere in Berlin as well I'd sure like to make contact

E ~