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Anyone got a figure for how many Luftwaffe night fighters Mosquitoes actually shot down? I read a lot about how effective they were but don't seem to see any figures.
Cheers
Steve
Are this confirmed or claimed shot downs.
Had anyone checked german sources for losses at this timeline?
If this are only claims then there are perhaps 30-50 kills, that are the normal overestimation.
Steve, what's the source that breaks out the losses to flak and fighters? I had it in my head that there was one, but quite what, I don't know.
Let's ignore Welter,many of his claims are proveably untrue. You can't shoot down a Mosquito when none are within 300 miles of you!
The Nachtjagd,including zerstorer and on all operations,including day time,had 4,800 destroyed or damaged (less than 60%) in action.
That figure for non-operational causes is 6,200 for a total lost and damaged of 10,000.
The total destroyed,all causes,was 6,700.
Those totals are from Boiten,I don't think anyone has come up with any better.
That should put the Mosquito claims/victories into perspective.
Cheers
Steve
Anyway I have my personal opinion about the FW 187 compare to the Moussie and I have delivered substained facts for this opinion.
Let's ignore Welter,many of his claims are proveably untrue. You can't shoot down a Mosquito when none are within 300 miles of you!
The Nachtjagd,including zerstorer and on all operations,including day time,had 4,800 destroyed or damaged (less than 60%) in action.
That figure for non-operational causes is 6,200 for a total lost and damaged of 10,000.
The total destroyed,all causes,was 6,700.
Those totals are from Boiten,I don't think anyone has come up with any better.
That should put the Mosquito claims/victories into perspective.
Cheers
Steve
Does your NF victory list run into 1945? (Not from Foreman, is it...?) Looking for a couple on 7/8 February '45, 14/15 April '45, though the latter is probably flak or misadventure.
Cue long rambling discussion about how the Fw187 was the Luftwaffe's missed opportunity to dominate the skies over Britain, the Soviet Union, America, anywhere....
Well,Foreman and others.
There are several claims in the Foreman/Matthews/Parry book from 2004,but they are impossible to tally with Bomber Command's losses for that night. 10 aircraft were lost,4 Lancasters,4 Mosquitoes and 2 Halifaxes.
Of note is Hptm.Gerhard Raht's six claims. Always possible but suspicious when they comprise numbers 46-51. This sort of cluster around landmark numbers always makes my antennae twitch. He got his "Oak Leaves" on 15th April.
On 14/15th April (Potsdam) I assume you are looking for the one Lancaster shot down by a night fighter,according to the RAF. There's no surviving claim to match that,just one of Welter's Mosquito claims. Almost certainly one of the thirtyish that don't match any RAF loss rather than the three that do!
Cheers
Steve
What did the Fw 187 do to contribute? Kill one? Now there's a keeper ... at least it was a Spitfire ... respectable if nothing else.
The Fw 187 first flew in 1937 (designed about the time of the Westland Whirlwind and XP-38 Lightning) and the de Havilland Mosquito first flew in 1940. Did the Germans have some magic that allowed them to design a Mosquito killer before it ever flew? That was asked above but ignored. Perhaps the occult? No, it was just in development first and wasn't close to being as good as the real Mosquito (actually it was named the Falke ... Falcon).
It was a failure as a design and was scrapped. The glue issue could have been corrected ... I don't see why not. Everyone else had good glue and the plane had potential. But the people in command didn't elect to spend any more time or resources on it, so they cancelled it. It became another "might have been," like so many other promising airframes. We certainly had our share of them. All countries did as far as I can tell. No sense crying over an obscure failed prototype. The He 100 was probably a better failure as a fighter.