he 162 salamander

[me262]

some time ago i saw a tv program about the german planes and in it they said that the salamander managed to shot down one plane at war's end, a typhoon, the only one downed by this little plane, it is posible to confirm this

[delcyros]

There are at least 5-6 claims of aerial victories for the He-162 Salamander in ww2:

1----feb. 45----Lechfeld-----OT Ihlefeld------(P51?)-----eyewitness: Fw. Sell*
2----19.4.45---north.germ.-Fw. G. Kirchner-(P47)------only confirmed posthum.
3----26.4.45---north.germ-Uffz. Rechenberg-(Tempest/Typhoon)--eyewitness: Ol. Demuth, StInt. Siegfried**
4----2.5.45----north.germ.-?----------------(Tempest/Typhoon)----(probably identical with #3)
5----4.5.45----north.germ.-Lt. Schmitt-----(Tempest)---***also claimed by AA
6----21.4.45----central germ-Dickfeld -----(P47)----------136th kill of A. Dickfeld
7----22.4.45----central germ-W.Batz-------(P47)----------no data avaiable

*) while practicing training flights
**) entry in flightlog: "effectively shot" this leaves questions open
***) british sources rate it as loss due to jet fighter
Official confirmation procedure wasn´t possible in april and may 45, so we do have claims only. In depth research revealed that a lot more allied planes got lost in these regions but in most cases there are no circumstances known. The JG1 was declared operational in the last week of april 45 and continued for some fighter sweeps in May 45. Most of these have been unseccessful due to the lack of ground control and proper deployment tactics (they often missed the targets or were redirected) like disengage enemy fighter. As far as I know no claim so far has been confirmed independently

[me262]

thanks for the info.
also i heard that one claim was given to a flak unit.do you know anything about this?

[FLYBOYJ]

Interesting Del, wonder if these claims matched allied looses for the same days...

[Jabberwocky]

Relevant RAF losses for 26.4.1945

5 Typhoons lost to Flak, 1 Typhoon unaccounted for.

1 Tempest lost to Flak

So it could of been the unaccounted for Typhoon that was lost to a He-162

Relevant RAF losses for 2.5.1945

1 Typhoon lost to Flak (Wing Cdr G.F.H. Webb shot down and killed by flak while straffing a train)
1 Tempest lost to Flak (pilot force landed, evaded and and returned to Allied lines)

Both planes were probably lost to flak, no reports that I can find of any jet contacts.

Relevant RAF losses for 4.5.1945

2 Typhoons lost, both forced landings after sustaining FLak damage.
1 Tempest lost, credited in RAF sources to a 1/JG1 He162 flown by Leutnant R. Schmitt. Flying Officer M. Austin force landed west of Barsinghausen and was captured.


On the other side of the ledger, I can find one Allied claim for a He162, though there may well be more. On the 19th of April Flying Officer G. Walkington from 222 Sqn, in Tempest V SN185, made a low level claim for a He 162 around Husum, confirmed by other pilots in his flight.

[Erich]

none of the He 162 claims are confirmed noted in JG 1 war logbuchs...........still trying to confirm.

what a waste of a/c parts ........

[delcyros]

Thanks for the info, J.!
Would be interesting to know about the records at 19th of april as well. Walkington probably got Kirchner down (according to guncam footage a low level flying single engined jet), according to german sources during landing attempt. He had no chance to use the ejection seat.
I also contributed the dates for A. Dickfeld and W. Batz (#7). For me it seems difficult to deal with Dickfeld, his book states it but it has so many wrong points...
Maybe someone can check it with the losses.
The may 2nd claim is dubious, I read that it was credited to Rechenberger, but he died on 26th of april. I seems probable that this is mixed up with Rechenbergers claim on 26th of april.
By the way it was Lt. R. Schmitts claim which also was claimed by a nearby 2cm Vierlingsflak.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I too have heard of about 5 to 6 claims for the He-162 but as Erich said none of them I can confirm or have been confirmed.

[Henk]

I like the He-162 because it was a fighter with very little technology and it looked very nice. It's design and building time was very quick to take how long it took to design and build the Me-262.

I once read that a He-162 got shot down over the Autobahn when it tried to land on it but could not pull up in time to avoid getting shot down.


Henk

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I think the He-162 was a sexy looking plane and overall was not bad, just as I stated before I dont like having the engine right behind my head.

[Henk]

Yes can can be a mess when you bail out, except if you do something so that the engine break away so that you can bail out.

I wish there was a game I could fly it. I wonder how the handling were like in the He-162?

Henk

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i believe if you have IL2 Forgotten Battles and get the Aces Expansion pack you can fly her then.........

[delcyros]

The handling of this plane in IL2 is not simulated as one might wish, but it´s ok.
According to testpilots, the He-162 had a faster roll rate than anything in the skies (including Fw-190), british pilots confirmed this later (as did the one US flight, who refers that onlyx the X-1 came close to the He-162´s roll rate at high speeds). The longitudinal stiffness was ok, the rudder effectifeness excellent but the plane suffered from some horizontal instability, esspeccially during the prototype phase. It also had a very light stick with unreasonably light rudder forces at 620 mp/h. All in all highly agil but not a beginners plane.

[Twitch]

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/vie...=157719#157719
here is an article I wrote a few years ago that may help answer some questions.....

[Henk]

The problem is I need grafic card to play that game and a joystick and I do not have one of them. I have PCI slots and gravic cards for them are not cheap here. I think for a good one it is R5000.

Thanks Twitch.

Henk