Best Bomber Killing Aircraft......

[loomaluftwaffe]

if u read my article, your question should be answered

[Twitch]

While this very long thread gets into many aspects of the topic I would agree that the 262 was the ultimate bomber knocker-downer. But armourers cobbled up lots of outlaw armament sets not of official origin. I'd have to give consideration to Me 110/210/410s with 8-10 cannon and 4 2cm rockets as pretty potent customers.

[Henk]

Twitch mate you forgot about the Henkel 219 UHU, now that baby also was a great bomber downer.

Henk

[Erich]

suggest you and others go back to see how much of a dog the Uhu was. ` in the older threads in archives...........developed to late and no Reich backing to keep the heinkel in perspective, too much time wasted in test pieces, over armed, weak wings, ejection seats did not work half the time, the cockpit was too forward of the twin engines which was another fatal flaw. No rearward armament. Nothing developed operationaly beyond the A-2's. thus rear warning Rückswart was not standard equipment like on Ju 88G-6's. Books stating a-5', a-6 and a-7's used on ops are sadly misktaken.

ok rant over. I./NJG 1 is the only gruppe using the Uhu in action. I./NJG 3 had them on hand but did not fly them preferring the truley excellent Ju 88G-6 to attack RAF heavies on Gardening ops. Also just to make it clear now there were only 12 Mossies shot down by the I./NJG 1's Uhu's not a very good track record for all the claim they get in books

[Henk]

Later versions did have rearward firing guns and was pretty successfull against bombers though.

The Ju-88 was the god of night fighters and bomber destroyers when it came to prop driven aircraft.

Henk

[Erich]

Hendrik check the variants that were operational out again please, no UHU's on ops ever had a rearward gun fitting. Schrägwaffen was another thing altogether and was used for downing bombers from underneath as was the Bf 110G's and Ju 88c's and G's.

Because of the Mossie nf situation further variants were to have a third pair of eys plus a single MG 131 13mm mg in the rear position but it never evolved.

the Uhu in its interception role the A-6 anti-Mossie machine will be covered in our book although just a prototype unit.

[Henk]

Oh, sorry mate I meant that. I feel so stuped now. It is quite sad that id did not have great success.

They say that the Junkers 88 are actualy the best WW2 aircraft becuase it could do so much and be good in it.

Henk

[loomaluftwaffe]

but want as successful, it did its job though

[plan_D]

People who state that, Henk, must be forgetting the 'Wooden Wonder' ...

[Gnomey]

They are, Henk you should have a look here: http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2966

[Twitch]

Rear armament was not a required element of success as even Wilde Sau aircraft were mostly single seat fighters. The Mosquito had no rear armament either.

[Erich]

The Mossie in its bombed up versions and night fighter - intruder did not have rear armament to be certain as the crewmen thought they were impervious to rear guard attacks by German nf's. Too bad for many they went down thinking they were safe by Fw 190A's, Bf 109G-6's, Bf 110G-4's and Ju 88G-6's. inclusion of the pitiful he 219 Uhu and their 12 mossie kills; the ultimate was falling before me 262 single seaters, the mossie crews never knew what hit them.

my point was this, even in 1943 the Mossie intruder was being felt in the skies and on the strafing runs at night on German AF. My cousin and his crew piloting a Do 217N-1 nearly bit the bullet when they were taxing out towards RAF heavies in August of 43 when a Canadian 418 Mossie shot the crap out of their Dornier wounding all three crewmen.

A rear gunner was a necessity in the air for defence and lesser extent offense for German nf's. Friend Karl Johanssen shot down 2 Lancs and 1 B-17 of 100th group on a mission where the crew shot down a total of 9 RAF heavies in March of 45. Karl was operating the Naxos and then when his pilot ran out of forward 2cm ammo he unleased the mg 131 in the bottom of the 3 RAF bombers. Their Ju 88G-6 did not have Schrägwaffen

[elmilitaro]

nice point Erich.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

For nightfighter I have to go with the Ju-88G-6. Also a bomber killer I think you have to throw in the Fw-190's, they packed a good punch an could tangle with any fighter that was escorting the bombers.

[saltlakespitfire]

You guys are quite rigt on voting the Me 262. But I would like to point out that compared to the hawker hurricane It was in service for Like 2 minutes
Anyway, during BoB the hurricane was far better at downing Heinkels and droniers than during the allied air offensive over Germany so even though the 262 was a far Better interceptor , It did;nt stand the test of time(could have passed or failed?)