Luftwaffe Ramming attacks

[Blitz_KG200]

Anyone have information about the rammingkommando elber in april 1945? what modifications were made to te airplanes?

[Njaco]

This best source I have found on Schulungslehrgang Elbe is "The Last Flight of the Luftwaffe" by Adrian Weir. Does a pretty good job of covering the aspects of this group including what modifications were done to the aircraft. I know that radios were taken out leaving just recievers, weapons were removed or reduced to just one firing. One of our Mods, Erich, knows a lot about this unit.

[TheMustangRider]

As far as I know they took out most of the ammunition in the BF-109s to improve their maneaverability and rate of climb.

[Erich]

yes I know one of the ex-members personally

what would you like to know ?

this was a real odd-ball suicide mission, fully armed and many un-armed Bf 109G's were flying this date, the un-armed ones did have the upper cowling mg 131's fitted though, the cannon and any armor plating removed if possible. other JG units supplied more a/c in the attack and JG 7's Me 262's were to provide high cover if you can believe that...........in reality they mounted their own attack(s) on different B-17 boxes so really were not even in the area of the attacking 109's.

Clearly one of the most stupid defense operations during the war

[lesofprimus]

Heres links to the Dogfights Episode that goes into great detail about the Luftwaffes Most Dangerous Mission....

YouTube - DOGFIGHTS (LUFTWAFFE'S DEADLIEST MISSION 1/5)
YouTube - DOGFIGHTS (LUFTWAFFE'S DEADLIEST MISSION 2/5)
YouTube - DOGFIGHTS (LUFTWAFFE'S DEADLIEST MISSION 3/5)
YouTube - DOGFIGHTS (LUFTWAFFE'S DEADLIEST MISSION 4/5)
YouTube - DOGFIGHTS (LUFTWAFFE'S DEADLIEST MISSION 5/5)

[Maximowitz]

Originally Posted by Erich

yes I know one of the ex-members personally

what would you like to know ?

this was a real odd-ball suicide mission, fully armed and many un-armed Bf 109G's were flying this date, the un-armed ones did have the upper cowling mg 131's fitted though, the cannon and any armor plating removed if possible. other JG units supplied more a/c in the attack and JG 7's Me 262's were to provide high cover if you can believe that...........in reality they mounted their own attack(s) on different B-17 boxes so really were not even in the area of the attacking 109's.

Clearly one of the most stupid defense operations during the war

One of Hajo Hermann's ideas wasn't it Erich? I seem to remember "Mr Wilde Sau" planned it.

[FlexiBull]

Well that was very interesting. How the airmen on both sides survived those attacks is amazing. Was the claim by the LW of 20+ attacks ever verified by the USAAF?

[Blitz_KG200]

Thanks for the answers.

I would be interested to know if in the airplanes with a single MG-131 had taken off the aim (the Revi), since the aim are whit the MG (as far i know, they were armed alone with 50 bullets).

- Sorry for my bad english, i´m still learning -

[Seawitch]

Originally Posted by Erich

yes I know one of the ex-members personally

what would you like to know ?

this was a real odd-ball suicide mission,

Sounds like he failed Erich, ok, I was watching one of the you tube videos linked here, within one it say they were not Kamikazies
Survival was catered for and achieved by some.
What I do remember reading about many years ago within an article about end of war wonder weapons though was a dedicated German suicide plane much like the Japanese suicide Rocket plane that could also be carried in a bomber.....anybody know More?

[Blitz_KG200]

Originally Posted by Seawitch

Sounds like he failed Erich, ok, I was watching one of the you tube videos linked here, within one it say they were not Kamikazies
Survival was catered for and achieved by some.
What I do remember reading about many years ago within an article about end of war wonder weapons though was a dedicated German suicide plane much like the Japanese suicide Rocket plane that could also be carried in a bomber.....anybody know More?

As far I know, they were attacks against ships with the manned V-1, the project was called Reichenberg IV. They were not kamikaze attacks, since the pilot should rush in parachute after having pointed to the ship.

[Seawitch]

Hi Blitz
Thanks for that, the Reichenberg keyword soon found me a familiar looking picture on google!
Reichenberg IV picctures...
BTW It seems the project never took of (No pun intended) as it says it was shelved in favour of the equally curious Mistal project.
The Reichenberg aircraft looks as if the pilot would have to switch the engine off......otherwise he'd look like the shredded result of a bird strike, I don't think it was a very good project![

[Erich]

first it was two mg 131's not a single one.

the manned V-1 was to be used against the Oder bridges that the Soviets were using to reinforce their advancing armies and as spoken was never used in combat, the LW-Germans found the idea of sacrificing oneself in such a manner as horrid

[TheMustangRider]

The idea behind the manned V-1 was that the pilot was intended to bail out before the impact but it would had been extremely difficult due to the cramped cockpit and that it was located just below the pulsejet intake; even Hitler was persuaded that it wasn't part of German fighting tradition.

[TenGunTerror]

I thought the Soviets did it too (they are just the kind of people to do it), a Soviet P-39 ace yapped 3 Bf-109's and ran out of ammo so he chopped the last 109 to bits with a ramming tactic.

[vikingBerserker]

There were stories about P-40 pilots in the Aluetions doing the same thing.