Program :start:
The prototype He 219 as drafted by
Heinkel was very similar to the plane that would eventually fly. It
had a narrow fuselage, twin engines now in the conventional places,
and a twin tail. While tail turrets will still mulled over as an
option, most of the firepower was to be directed forward, in the
wings and in a ventral tray beneath the fuselage. While the cockpit
was now arranged in tandem, there was some disagreement as to if
there should be two or three crew, with the third manning the rear
firing guns, much like the night fighter Ju 88. (A prototype flew,
which test pilots commented had even better handling than the plain
Uhu, but nothing came of it.) The fuselage was so narrow, in fact,
this created a slight problem with the tricycle landing gear. The
wheel on the forward strut had to rotate 90 degrees as well as
retract in order to fit in the nose. Four bladed propellers were
planned until it was discovered that four blade props were beyond the
capabilities of the interrupter gear. In early 1942 a captured Soviet
Il-2 Stormavik was examined by the engineering team to see how the
Russians had protected the Il-2's annular radiators, which was
adapted for the He 219. On the basis of pilot suggestions, plans for
slanted music mounts and flame suppressors over the exhausts were
integrated into the design. Flame suppressors at this point in the
war were standard equipment on both Axis and Allied night-flyers. The
giant piston engines that powered aircraft at the time regularly
snorted flame out their exhausts; an obvious visual cue to the enemy
at night. Flame suppressors were simply steel cans over the exhaust
pipes to shield these snorts from view.
Things were going quite well – until
the British unexpectedly decided to drop by and argue that a new
night fighter was needed. Allied Bomber command targeted Heinkel's
plant in Rostock between the 24th and 27th of April, 1942, which over
four raids destroyed the production facilities and a good percentage
of the engineering drawings for the He 219. The prototype He 219 and
the facilities around it escaped damage. To keep this from happening
again, production was moved to the other Heinkel plant, in Vienna,
Austria. (British intelligence services may not have been aware of
the new night fighter under development – but certainly was aware
of the He 177, who's abilities they [along with the Germans,
ironically] overestimated.) Even this air raid barely slowed
development, with Kammhuber requesting at least one gruppe of 20-30
aircraft operational by next April.
In June, another assessment meeting
for Heinkel happened, with Generalfeldmarschall Milch chairing. He
approved of the work being done on the He 219, which he saw as a
replacement for the stillborn Ar 240. He then casually dropped a
bombshell: that what the Reich really needed was a replacement for
the Bf 110, and that the He 219 program would have to compete under
this brand new requirement. Kammhuber, Heinkel, and the Luftwaffe
sharply protested, (possibly pointing out the program had nearly been
terminated by a enemy night bomber raid two months before) and
canceling something already so far along to possibly build a new
fighter to be deployed by 1945 was crazy. Kammhuber did request new
proposals be submitted by the major manufacturers, and Messerschmidt
– submitted a upgraded Bf 110, the Bf 110 G. Milch picked the Bf
110 G as the winner. This accepted proposal suggests that Milnich and
Messerschmidt worked out this arrangement beforehand, and went
through the shadow play of the proposal to justify it formally. This
is how the Bf 110 remained Germany's main night fighter until the
start of 1944, and would serve on to the end of the war. (To be fair,
the Bf 110 did prove deadly against British Halifax IIIs and
Lancasters during this period. )
A early He 219 being tested. |
Now that the prototype was nearing a
flyable condition, more thought was put into production.
Interestingly, the main constraint was not cost, but man-hours for
construction. Among other effects, the invasion of the USSR was
sapping industry, even the aircraft industry, of skilled workers as
they were called up into the army. Heinkel had to move quickly to
keep a good slice of his skilled tradesmen from being drafted just as
series pre-production was starting. He then had to protest when the
Reich tried to draft half his experienced line workers, and replace
them with eastern European “guest workers”, IE slaves.
In November 1942, the He 219 V1 took
its first flight, with no major problems. Some stability issues were
discovered and Heinkel offered his engineers cash bonuses to fix them
– until he was legally restrained from doing so. (I have no idea if
this was a corporate charter or Third Reich thing, but apparently
cash incentives of this type were illegal.) Undeterred, Heinkel
offered incentives in alcohol instead. The initial prototypes started
racking up flight hours, and in early 1943 it was decided that NJG 1,
Germany's premier night fighter outfit, would begin operational
testing.
The Logo of NJG 1. The lightning bolt would prove to be an apt symbol, as night fighting became more reliant on electronic devices. |
Meanwhile, Milch was taking another swing at killing the He 219 program, saying that the Ju 88 (which had a night fighter variant) or the Ju 188 (which didn't) would be 'good enough' in night fighter defense. Kammhuber countered, getting Heinkel to send prototypes V7 and V8 to NJG 1 based at Venlo in the Netherlands. Milch countered this counter by saying that what was really needed was a fly-off between the respective planes, so the question could be settled “objectively.”
The big day for this objective test
was March 25th, 1943, at the testing grounds at Peenemunde. A Ju 188
bomber had its defensive armament and bomb racks removed, and was
christened a night fighter (the only 'night fighter' ever to be made
of the Ju 188.) First flying mock combat against the Ju 188 and then
in performance trials, the He 219 scored consistently higher than the
Ju 188, with pilots commenting that this initial prototype was
already well sorted aerodynamically, with good stability. In
contrast, the Ju 188 was not nearly as nimble as the He 219. And,
Heinkel had done an excellent job of rationalizing its construction:
the unit cost was less than a He 111 medium bomber, and quite
considerably cheaper than the Ju 188. Milch remained unmoved, saying
that producing just 50 aircraft per month (the initial production
target) was too low to make it really efficient to make. But blocked
on this line of attack, he let the matter lie.
Prototype work continued that spring of 1943.
Various weapon combinations were tried on the He 219 during the
spring of 1943. Four 30 mm cannons were attempted in the ventral
tray, but the He 219 collected expended brass casings to save them
for recycling instead of just ejecting them. The gas pressure from
firing was thus not vented, and the pressure buildup from twin 30mm
cannons actually deformed the prototype's ventral gun tray. 20 mm
cannons were the standard armament, supplemented as needed with
machine guns. Heinkel also tested the compressed air ejection seat
fairly extensively. The first pilot ejection system ever deployed had
a few oddities compared to what is used today, as you might expect.
First, obviously, the use of compressed air. The pilot's seat was
launched with 90 PSI of force, and the radar operator with 60. (Why
compressed air is a interesting question – Heinkel was well
familiar with rockets, having built the first rocket powered fighter
in 1938. Possibly finding the right propellant for a rocket ejection
seat was too big a task for Heinkel, who settled on a mechanical
solution instead.) The ejection method was also somewhat complex –
first, a crewman ejecting would place his feet in special stirrups on
the sides of the seat. Then, he would have to unplug his radio
headset. (This step was rather important, as if it was still plugged
in when being shot out of the aircraft, the cable would crush your
throat, killing you. This was discovered in early operations.) Then,
the canopy had to be ejected, and only then could you hit the large
red lever to eject yourself. If all went well, you'd be shot into the
darkness, and the braking chute attacked to the ejection chair would
open. The harness you were strapped to the chair with had a quick
release, and once separated from the chair, a crewman could deploy
his regular parachute. It strikes me as a bit complected - since in
similar circumstances (IE bailing out of a crashing airplane during
combat) I'd be panic vomiting - but the men of the NJGs were made of
sterner stuff.
An operational He 219 of NJG 1 during a test flight, 1944 . The uneven black is to let AA gunners guarding German airbases know this is in fact a German plane. |
In May 1943, Kammhuber had another
meeting with Hitler. With Goering in attendance, he was not the
bringer of glad tidings. Kammhuber had prepared an analysis with the
OKW on the seriousness of the risk of the Allied strategic bombing
campaign to Germany. This analysis had convinced Goering, who decided
a face to face meeting with Hitler was the only option. At the time
Kammhuber had only 500 aircraft in night defenses, and that was
divided between three fronts. In the first half of 1943, the flak
defenses were taking out more night bombers than the NJGs were.
Kammhuber argued that to fend off the strategic bombing campaign and
the allies vastly superior aircraft production, the Night Fighter
command alone would need 2160 aircraft in the west. Hitler of course,
would have none of it, and ridiculed Kammhuber's estimates of Allied
production, despite the fact that all the numbers came from German
intelligence. “It's absolute nonsense,” Hitler shouted. “If the
figures of 5000 a month were right, you would be right too. In that
case, I would have to withdraw from Eastern Front forthwith, and
apply all resources to air defense. But they are not right! I will
not stand for such nonsense.” Goering in light of all this would
switch sides, and later attacked Kammhuber as well: “You are a
megalomaniac. You want to have the whole Luftwaffe. Why don't you sit
down in my chair?” Goering's response was typical of his post USSR
invasion leadership. Before the fateful invasion, Goering was
uncharacteristicly brave, objecting, in the most respectful way
possible, to Hitler's plan to attack
the Soviet Union while already in a war on two fronts. This (once
again, very respectful) degreaded Goering's stock more than the
failure of the battle of Britain did, and Goering's response was to
be even more slavish in obeying der Fuhrer's wishes from then on.
Kammhuber would eventually be dismissed as General of night
fighters in November 1943, and sent to Norway to command the tiny
Luftflotte 5.
In order to fend off further schemes
of Milch (to say nothing of Bomber command,) Kammhuber and Heinkel
decided that the later prototypes V7 and V8, would actually be sent
into combat. The night of June 11th 1943, 783 bombers took off from
Britain to attack Dusseldorf, and Major Streib and Uffz. Fisher of
NJG 1 in a He 219 A-0 rose to meet them. Guided by ground controllers
to the bomber stream, they then used their portable radar set to
engage. Shooting down five heavy bombers, Major Streib returned to
base only when he ran out of ammo. On approach, there were several
malfunctions in the prototype, including condensation on the
windscreen, and the flaps stowing themselves without letting Major.
Streib know. As a result, the landing was extremely fast and hard,
and the He 219 broke up on the runway. As emergency crews rushed to
the scene, Streib and Fisher extracted themselves from the cockpit
section uninjured. With that amazing performance, it's safe to say
NJG 1 was sold on the He 219 from then on. In fact, by September,
Major Streib was contacting Heinkel directly, to get prototypes in
testing released to his squadron early. Series production started in
August, with A-0s being released to NJG 1 as soon as the engineers
finished their prototype testing.
NJG 1 soon found other things to like
about the Owl. With the engines offset from the fuselage, the Owl
was really three large tubes with wings and a tail. The large tubes
had been fitted with many removable sections and access hatches,
which oddly for a high tech weapon, made maintenance a snap. While
Velno was the only place that could properly service the new fighter,
(in fact, wounded Owls often took the risk of flying back to Velno
rather than land at a closer airfield for that reason) it was no
maintenance pig. And of course, it's durability and ejection seats
meant that the Owl took better care of its crews, as well. Teething
problems, of course, still had to be worked out. For example, the
windscreen had fogging problems into 1944. Still, the view at the
pointy end of things was “we need squadrons of these things, right
now”. Milch's response to the Owl's first combat was, ah, typical:
“The He 219 is good, it shot down five in one mission. We can't ask
more than that. But perhaps Streib would have had just as much
success with another machine.”
As June
turned into July, raids on the Ruhr industrial valley caused Hitler
to reverse his former orders, and more resources started to flow
toward bomber defenses. This proved too little, too late. Starting on
the 24th/25th of July, the RAF/RCAF/RAAF and the USAAF began their
week of round the clock fire raids on Hamburg. The destruction to
Germany's second largest city were immense. 42,000 civilians were
killed, almost the same losses that Britain would suffer due to air
raids throughout the entire war. 61% of all housing was destroyed,
and half the large factories were burned, along with nearly half of
the smaller ones. This was soon followed up by the Schweinfurt–Regensburg raids by the USAAF. While the daytime Luftwaffe
savaged the attacking bombers, inflicting unsustainable losses, the
USAAF did severely disrupt ball bearing production at Schweinfurt,
and leveled the large Messerschmidt plant at Regensburg.
This double catastrophe caused the leadership of the RLM to pull together for once: it was clear that the production priority for aircraft had to be defensive fighters, day and night. This long needed strategy change lasted until Goering brought this new direction to Hitler. Goering returned in tears, saying that Hitler had 1) lost faith in him; 2) rejected all defensive measures out of hand; and 3)said that the only way for the Luftwaffe to redeem itself was to begin a offensive bombing campaign against Britain immediately, to create such a terrorizing reprisal that raids like Hamburg would be seen as too risky. This had a negative effect on the He 219 program, as it made resources going to Heinkel's 177 all but inviolable; any delays from that program would have to come out of other Heinkel projects.
RAF photo during the attack on Hamburg. |
Aerial shots of Hamburg after the firestorm. |
This double catastrophe caused the leadership of the RLM to pull together for once: it was clear that the production priority for aircraft had to be defensive fighters, day and night. This long needed strategy change lasted until Goering brought this new direction to Hitler. Goering returned in tears, saying that Hitler had 1) lost faith in him; 2) rejected all defensive measures out of hand; and 3)said that the only way for the Luftwaffe to redeem itself was to begin a offensive bombing campaign against Britain immediately, to create such a terrorizing reprisal that raids like Hamburg would be seen as too risky. This had a negative effect on the He 219 program, as it made resources going to Heinkel's 177 all but inviolable; any delays from that program would have to come out of other Heinkel projects.
The worsening situation in the air
drove another top RLM staffer to suicide. Hans Jenschonneck, Chief of
staff at the RLM, would kill himself in later 1943. Jenschonneck
would leave a suicide note, like Udet, blaming Goering for his death
and the state of the Luftwaffe. Goering had certainly not done his
chief of staff any favors. After the Battle of Britain, Goering began
ignoring his advisers in Milch, Udet, and Jenschonneck, (because they
were always saying negative and stressful stuff) and formed a kitchen
cabinet (to use the Anglo phrase) at the RLM, which consisted of his
Luftwaffe friends. He listened to his friends over his own senior
staff, with good ideas getting through essentially at random. He also
formed a shadow senior staff, made up of young decorated Luftwaffe
flyers, who were much more the worshipful acolytes Goering preferred
in his underlings. This boy band of advisers Goering, at least,
treated with much more respect than the actual senior staff, who he
treated like hired help, and not especially smart hired help at that.
Jenschonneck in particular was dicked around quite a bit in this
time, often having to wait outside doors for hours, while Goering was
in high powered meetings with the other Nazi playas. The fact that
his directions were often being interfered with the Nazi One
Direction (who had no experience and frequently no idea what they
were doing) and yet still getting all the blame for the Luftwaffe's
failures must have been terrible for Jenschonneck, especially as this
blame was often doled out by his former idol, Adolph Hitler, in the
form of megomaniacal tirades as to how terrible the Luftwaffe was.
Jenschonneck lost faith in everything he built his life on: Nazisim,
the Luftwaffe, and his own abilities, and quietly locked a door
behind him one day and shot himself.
It was also around this time Milch
went off the reservation, having telephone conversations with
prominent Nazis that Goering should be replaced as head of the RLM.
This was a risky move, and Milch knew these words would get back to
Goering, and Goering might just have Milch killed for them. Goering
instead choose to strip Milch of his remaining responsibilities and
then fire him. (Goering actually fired Milch by letter, but before
the letter was received, Milch showed up at Goering's birthday party.
Goering couldn't understand why Milch had decided to attend his party
after Goering had send him a “you're fired and fuck you” letter, and
was rude to him. Milch, for his part, didn't understand why Goering
was being a extra-large douche to him in front of all the other Nazi
cheerleaders top Reich officials, until he got Goering's letter a few
days later. Awkward! I mean, hello!) Milch was immediately rehired by
Goering's rival Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments, to do more or
less the same job he had been doing before.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Throughout the rest of 1943, NJG 1
made use of Heinkel's creation. Because Heinkel was sending the
squadron what in another air force would be termed initial
prototypes, he started an innovative program to fix problems as
quickly as possible. The engineers at the factory were put in direct
contact with the mechanics and pilots at Velno to hear suggestions
and fix problems at the front line. While
readiness rates were initially 20%, thanks to this program this
climbed to 80% by early 1944. It should also be mentioned this
strategy was highly unusual for the Nazis; who unlike the Allies,
usually kept the scientists and engineers at arms length from
operations. This innovation was perhaps also a necessity, as only the
wheels and tires of the He 219 could be obtained through the usual
Luftwaffe supply channels; all other parts had to come directly from
the factory. Still, only a dozen or so He 219s were operational
during this period. Hpt. Frank, Gruppenkommandeur of I./NJG 1,
was killed when his Heinkel He 219A-0 collided with a Bf 110 on 27
September 1943. He was to be the first of several night-fighter
commanders killed while flying He 219s. He was replaced by Hauptmann
Meurer, an ace night-fighter pilot who would eventually have 65
victories. Major Streib was promoted to the post of inspector-general
of night fighters, which he would hold for the rest of the war.
One more thing: about the name 'Uhu'
which I've been translating as Owl: once production started, Heinkel
asked the RLM if the He 219 shouldn't have a name or something. While
the RLM was dreaming up a naming system involving birds of prey, they
never got back to Heinkel about it. Meanwhile, crews had nicknamed
the new plane the 'Uhu', and the name stuck.
Ein Menchen und Uhu. |
The year ended for the He 219
program with frustration, but hope for 1944. While the new fighter
was slowly trickling in, it still had not equipped a full wing of
fighters. In the midst of all this, Milch tried again to have the He
219 program killed. This time, he tried money: in December 1943,
Milch offered Heinkel a particular deal.
- Wind down production of the He 219. The Rostock Heinkel works would produce Ju 88 Gs (the night fighter specialist Ju 88.) The Vienna works would produce the night-fighter variant of Do 335;
- Reduce production of the He 219 from 100 to 50 machines per month, at the Vienna works. The Rostock works would produce the Ju 88G instead;
- or, no more than 100 He 219s to be built per month.
Couple things to note about these
offers: the Ju 88G was still in the experimental stage, and no
prototype of the Do 335 had even flown by December 1943. Meanwhile,
the Owl had not only entered series production, but was in demand by
the squadron that flew them. Heinkel, naturally, took the third
option – though a production rate of 100 per month turned out to be
wildly optimistic.
A nice shot of a He 219 with low visibility markings. It looks like the paint job on the upper surfaces is the opposite of the Owl at Udvar-Hazy: a coat of grey-violet with light grey stripes. |
An Udvar-Hazesque He 219. Sources disagree if the dark undersides was a camouflage standard or something only added in 1945, when the He 219 was used as a night ground attack aircraft. |
While the situation was grim for German Night Fighters, it was not yet desperate. In 1943 the Luftwaffe retained day air superiority over the Reich, and had one a large victory at night. Emboldened after their victory at Hamburg, RAF bomber command had systemically bombed Berlin, literally in an attempt to force the Germans to surrender via aerial attack. (The USAAF was unable to participate, as the Schweinfurt raid had damaged their numbers too badly, and time was needed to rebuild them.) The NJGs – using Bf 110Gs and Ju 88s, – had managed to inflict crippling losses on the attackers. The aerial battle of Berlin cost Bomber Command 1047 heavy bombers, and nearly 7,000 men. These losses were such that the RAF were forced to give up night area bombing for a time. Despite this, the RAF retained a considerable advantage in electronic warfare. The night fighters got a new radar to compensate: the SN-2, which had a range of 10 KM, and was resistant to RAF jamming. Nearly all He 219s were equipped with this new radar set.
He 219 under a wooden camoflauge roof. |
So entering into 1944, the Luftwaffe
was not without reason optimistic that it was getting on top of the
air war, at least at night. Not only had they scored a real victory
in the battle of Berlin, 1944 was the year the Owl population was to
expand with proper production. Attrition and the training of night
fighter pilots would prove to be the bottleneck. If a fighter pilot
is a valuable specialist, then a night-fighter pilot is a sub-set of
that, and hence, even more valuable. Night and bad weather flying
require additional training on instrument flying among other things,
and training was always weak in the Luftwaffe during the war, thanks
to training units being consonantly raided for men and aircraft. And
Night-Fighter operations were becoming more hazardous. This was
underlined in the Owl's case by the death of Hauptmann Meurer. On
January 22nd, his He 219 slammed into a Lancaster, killing the crews
of both planes. Meurer was replaced by Major Forster, a 42 year old
pilot who had been a reservist in pre-war Germany before being
retrained as a pilot. Wounded in combat early in the war, Forster had
been a pilot instructor before being reassigned to NJG 1 six months
before.
Tactics by 1944 had changed as well.
The Kammhuber line had cracked by mid-1943, with Bomber command
concentrating its force into a single stream to lessen exposure to
patrolling night fighters. The response by the Reich defenders were
some surprisingly fluid improvisations. Now, night fighters were
classified as “tame sow” and “wild sow.” Tame sow fighters
were simply controlled by ground radar, while 'wild sow' were free
agents, engaging more or less at will. German fighter command also
gave up assigning night fighters in Kammhuber's grid, and instead
would broadcast a play-by-play commentary on the bomber stream,
allowing the night fighters to figure out their own deployments. In
addition to being more flexible, this new approach also allowed
single engine fighters to serve effectively in the night-fighter
role. After all, who needs radar when burning cities illuminate your
targets? In this new environment, the He 219 shone. Its higher speed
allowed for more engagements, and it's firepower and stability made
for more kills.
February saw NJG 1 completely
re-equipping with the He 219, becoming the first (and as it turns
out, only) squadron to have a entire wing of the new night fighter.
The RLM, once again, took this latest benchmark as an excuse to
terminate the He 219 program, saying this time that “the crews did
not want the He 219.” Heinkel and NJG 1 were now used to such
bureaucratic dickatry, and fired back with a series of testimonials
from NJG 1. Choice among these include “those crews that have flown
the He 219 no longer want to fly any other night fighter” and “the
Bf 110 is too slow...and in six months will not be able to shoot down
anything.”
April 1944 saw new developments on the
edge of the night sky. First, a crew successfully used the ejection
system to bail out of a falling He 219, netting 1000 dm each to the
pilot and the radio operator from Heinkel. Second, the RAF decided
enough was enough with casualties from night-fighters. Re-equipping
with De Havilland Mosquito mk. XIX night-fighters, operations
against the NJGs began in earnest. The Mosquito mk. XIX was, like all
'Mossie' fighter- bombers, a formidable airplane. Equipped with four
20mm cannons and radar superior to the He 219, the Mosquitoes were
also had a significant edge in speed, thanks to their light wooden
construction. The British also employed a tactic that the Germans had
initially used against them: the Mosquito Mk. XIX would loiter near
German air bases, intercepting German night-fighters as they took off
and landed. This was aided by British intelligence, who had
established secret FAO (forward air control) posts near Velno and
other night fighter bases, who could broadcast their intel directly
to Allied night-fighters. Patroling from FAO point to FAO point, lone
Allied night fighters would hopefully pick up the scent of German
night fighters.
The appearance of the radar equipped Mosquitoes ended the fledgling Owl's 'happy time' if such a thing
could be said to exist. Now He 219s had to spend much of their energy
simply avoiding the hunters in their own airspace. One tactic that
spread quickly as a defense was a kind of 'crazy Ivan' maneuver,
where Owls would make random, sudden course changes to look for
pursuers. (The ability to turn one's head 180 degrees would have been
quite useful here.) Another was climbing quickly to the ceiling
height of 30,000 ft upon takeoff, as the Mosquito (in intruder kit)
remained at the night bomber's operational altitude of 10-20,000 ft.
This tactic was useful in finding the bomber stream, and the
occasional pouncing attack on a unlucky Mosquito. The He 219 scored
several confirmed kills against the Mosquito, the only Luftwaffe
piston engined fighter that could (somewhat reliably) be used against
them. The unfortunate truth, however, is that the Mosquito was just
flat out faster in level flight, and once the Owl had lost the
element of surprise, the Mosquito could disengage essentially at
will. The men of NJG 1 tried lightening their Owls to compensate,
removing most of their cannon and even going unpainted to save
weight, but these solutions only helped a little. (Interesting fact I
discovered: veteran Uhu aircrews preferred a light weapon loadout,
taking two 20mm cannons in the ventral tray and two 20mm cannons in
the wing roots. Against an enemy with superior speed, I guess every
bit helps.) The Mosquito in its recon form, high flying and even
faster than the fighter variants, was still untouchable, even by the
Owl. Despite all these problems, NJG 1 remained successful in the
first half of 1944, one of the very few Luftwaffe units that could
claim this.
April also saw further attacks to bomb
the Heinkel factory in Vienna. While the He 219 was still a rare
encounter for the Allies, they considered it the most dangerous night
fighter by far. Thanks to some of Heinkel's workers being of the
'unpaid conscript' variety, it was easy for Allied intelligence to
keep tabs on He 219 production. Flying from Italy, the USAAF had made
three attempts to raid Heinkel's Vienna night fighter plant. The
first raid of B-24s had missed the factory, hitting a nearby suburb.
The second raid found the target overcast. The third attempt on April
23rd hit the bull's eye. 956 USAAF bombers dropped 292 tons of bombs
on the Heidfeld factory, destroying it and killing 94 workers.
Heinkel was forced to shift production in his plants around, the
first of several times new capacity that was going to go to He 219
production was consumed by other Heinkel plants being blown up. A few
days later Heinkel's other plant in Vienna at Zwolfaxing was
similarly hit.
This Period USAAF chart explains things pretty well. |
Another Lancaster night attack picture. |
The Luftwaffe reacted to this setback
predictably. During a symposium (presumably about 'why shit is
getting worse') at the Berchtesgaden, Goering ordered production and
further development of the He 219 halted. It would be replaced
operationally by the Ju 388 – a model not yet in production, and
one that, incidentally, would never see combat. This decision was almost immediately
reversed after some sharp debate. At one meeting the chief of the
Luftwaffe fighter staff asked why the He 219 should be replaced,
given its continuing success. An RLM flunkie responded that night
fighter crews preferred the Ju 388, to which the Chief responded 'uh,
the Ju 388 isn't even in production yet.' (Research note: while reading what the Smithsonian had to say about the He 219 on their web site, I noted the Smithsonian said that the He 219 program was - officially, anyway - terminated at this point. Other sources say that this decision was reversed, as I've written here. Production did continue, regardless if the order was cancelled or not. This confusion about if the He 219 was cancelled seems to me a good example of how chaotic Germany had become at this point. What would be worse: cancelling a useful defense fighter at a time of crisis to replace it with a model that would never see service, or having that order just ignored by the manufacturer?)
On the 8th of July 1944, the Heinkel
plant at Zwolfaxing was bombed again by the USAAF, where it was all
but annihilated. Heinkel's lone remaining (somewhat reconstructed)
plant at Heidfeld was the night fighter plant, so production of the
Owl could continue, but this dashed any hopes of expanding Owl
production. Heinkel's energies henceforth were directed by the RLM into the
He 162 Salamander, the “people's jet fighter” that was dreamed as
a desperate counter to the now crushing Allied air supremacy. By day,
the Allies could launch a 1000 heavy bombers, escorted by 1000 long
range fighters. The Night bombers had fewer escorts, but could
similarly launch 1000 bomber raids at will. The Allied bombers could
now use targeting radar to hit targets with the same accuracy the
daytime raiders could.
After the Normandy invasion, the air
base at Velno was increasingly vulnerable to air raids, and NJG 1was
transferred to the Munster region. The Munster base was forced to keep its aircraft
dispersed thanks to the danger from air attack, camouflaged under
trees and exposed to all weathers. Crews now found frequent
electrical problems in their He 219s, both due to condensation
forming inside their airplanes and the rather precipitous decline in
Reich manufacturing quality. Worse, their radar had been compromised
again. In July, a Ju 88 carrying SN-2 radar landed in error at a
British air base, and it was not long before the British had found
good jamming frequencies for the German radar. As most Mosquito night
fighters now carried air radar detectors, German night fighter radar
was now something like using a flashlight on the African Savannah at night.
You might find what you are looking for, but the hungry lions out
there in the tall grass could see you all the easier.
Training new crews became more
difficult as well, as training flights in the daytime could be
intercepted by enemy fighters. Shortly after NJG 1 moved back to
Germany, two Owls on a training flight during the day over the Rhine
were intercepted by (I'm guessing here) USAAF fighters, and were shot
down. One crew managed to crash land at a nearby airbase, the
airbase's flak defenses driving the attackers off. A month after the
move, Gruppe Major Foster and his radio man were killed. They had
been testing out a new instrument landing system and crashed while on
short final. For that matter, the StaffelKaptian of 3./NJG 1 was
killed in November when his vehicle was strafed by British Typhoons.
Another training flight of two Uhus was jumped in the day by a armed
recon flight of RAF Tempests. This was of course on top of losses
suffered elsewhere; in December alone 1./NJG 1 lost six He 219s.
This is not to say that successes were
not scored. From the time of introduction to the first of November
1944 He 219s shot down 133 enemy planes, nearly all of these heavy
bombers. Eight of this number were confirmed Mosquito kills. An
impressive performance, especially in the context of the
disintegration of the Luftwaffe. In November, one He 219 crew scored
6 victories and another probable kill in just 12 minutes. The next
night, the crew was shot down by a RAF Mosquito, with only the radio
operator surviving. This is perhaps the story of the He 219's combat
career in a nutshell: a good airframe scores some amazing victories
but is too badly outnumbered to effect a real change in the tide of
war.
He 219s idle at the end of the war. |
Ju 88 and Bf 110 night fighters await disposal in Denmark post war. |
The Roost of the Owl's Story
The NJGs were still somewhat
operational in 1945. For example, on a raid
in Duselberg in February 1945, Reich defenders managed to claim 62
victories over the attacking force of 450. In fact, the start of 1945 saw the number of
Luftwaffe night fighters peak at over 1000 machines. Unfortunately,
most of the skilled crews were now dead, and the curb-stomping of Axis oil
production left very little fuel to fly them. The end was now no
longer in doubt. On the 25 of March, NJG 1's base of operations was
thumped by B-17s and B-24s of the USAAF, and the next day the remains
of the base were strafed for some 8 hours. The survivors of NJG 1 moved
to the Island of Sylt, a German Island in the North Sea. By April
the entire squadron (which nominally had four sections) had been
reduced to the strength of a single wing. He 219s were the weird
birds in units flying Bf 110 Gs and Ju 88 night-fighters. The last
six He 219s constructed were made in a “forest factory” (IE a
forest) from spare parts, two with the regular power plants, and four
with the Jumo 213E engine. It is unclear if they were used
operationally. The last Owl shot down had a even more exotic power
plant: a jet engine underslung the fuselage. In the early morning of
the 15th of April, 1945, a Mosquito mk. XXX detected a
aircraft at 7000 meters. Diving and attacking, it set this unusual
Owl ablaze. It apparently was a prototype of Heinkel's that had been
pressed into service. The Jet engine gave the He 219 a big boost in
climbing and acceleration – but did nothing to improve the Owl's
top speed, and was a significant drag when not on.
As everything else fell apart, so did
the RLM. Because of Allied aerial supremacy, the factory for the He
162 was built in a disused salt mine. In the final months of the War,
Hitler's disgust at the Luftwaffe's failures was so complete that when
he needed air advice, he sought it from his personal pilot. Goering
would end the war under arrest, rather improbably accused of treason.
Milch after Hitler's suicide and the fall of Berlin attempted to flee
Germany, but on
May 4th, 1945 was captured by British Commandos near the Baltic coast . When Milch surrendered, he presented his
Field Marshall's baton to the officer in command, Brigadier Derek
Mills-Roberts. The Brigider had recently been involved in the
liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and returned the
honor by breaking the baton over Milch's head.
Both Milch and Goering would be tried for war crimes. Goering was eventually sentenced to death, and would kill himself on the morning of his execution. Milch was found guilty of war crimes as well, mostly stemming from the forced labor of POWs and slaves in Aviation factories. Sentenced to life in prison, this sentence was commuted in the early 50s, and Milch was released to write his memoirs and live the rest of his life in Dusseldorf. General Kammhuber would be drawn back to the West German Luftwaffe to serve as its inspector-general. Major Streib with 66 confirmed victories worked in the grocery business for about a decade before returning to the air force as the head of a Luftwaffe pilot school. Ernst Heinkel, a aviation engineer in a nation forbidden a aircraft industry, used his company to build bicycles, scooters, and eventually a minicar. Heinkel lived to see his company return to aviation – building under license the F-104 Starfighter for the German Air Force – but would die in 1956. His company would after several mergers and buyouts to form part of the modern-day Airbus consortium.
It looks good, but it still couldn't do what various Packard and Merlin equipped Mossies could. |
A He 219 being scrapped. Regular dot camouflage. |
Dead Owls at the Munster base. |
Both Milch and Goering would be tried for war crimes. Goering was eventually sentenced to death, and would kill himself on the morning of his execution. Milch was found guilty of war crimes as well, mostly stemming from the forced labor of POWs and slaves in Aviation factories. Sentenced to life in prison, this sentence was commuted in the early 50s, and Milch was released to write his memoirs and live the rest of his life in Dusseldorf. General Kammhuber would be drawn back to the West German Luftwaffe to serve as its inspector-general. Major Streib with 66 confirmed victories worked in the grocery business for about a decade before returning to the air force as the head of a Luftwaffe pilot school. Ernst Heinkel, a aviation engineer in a nation forbidden a aircraft industry, used his company to build bicycles, scooters, and eventually a minicar. Heinkel lived to see his company return to aviation – building under license the F-104 Starfighter for the German Air Force – but would die in 1956. His company would after several mergers and buyouts to form part of the modern-day Airbus consortium.
As for the Owl itself: by the war's
end, some 54 He 219s were captured in flyable condition. There was
not a great deal of interest in Heinkel's night-fighter, rather
understandably, since it was a fairly plain bird in the menagerie of
Nazi late war aviation projects. With jet fighters, jet bombers, and
some sort of jet fighter flying wing, it was
difficult to get excited about a twin prop night fighter. The Soviets
flight tested two He 219s, and after gave them to Czechoslovikia,
who used them as jet engine test beds in the 1950s. The British
similarly flight tested five Uhus before scrapping them.
Escort carrier USS Reaper carries a trove of Nazi aircraft to the US. The He 219s are in the back. |
A captured Owl at the Farnborough Air Show, 1946 or 47. |
When the Nazis dreamed of their fighters next to atomic bombers, I doubt this is what they had in mind. |
The He 219 today in Washington, D.C. |