you guys are nuts firstly the 262 was introduced so late in the war that it did jack to stop the bombers the ju88 was a very good aircraft at shooting down bombers and lanc i hate to point it out but the lancaster had no bottom turrent and when the ju88 was equiped with slanting music it devestated the english bombers although the bombers had no escort to help them at night either.....
It's interesting how the word 'bomber' evokes different first images.. To a Japanese it would probably bring up a B-29, for which there was no 'night fighter' bomber killer for the mode of attack the B-29 used to burn out demand - but would think Shiden for daylight.
Your first reaction was to dismiss the 262 because your focus was on a.) night, and b.) RAF did night ops to avoid day fighters - and really developed no long range 'night escort' - so Ju88, Me110, He219 come to mind as bomber destroyer - all of which were exterminated against the USAAF Daylight ops.
My first reaction was daylight, where the 110G-2 and 410s and Ju88s were deadly against B-17s and B-24s but became easy prey for 51s, 38s and 47s - so the Fw190A8, Me262, and any Me109 equipped w/30mm were a better solution - but USAAF Mustangs solved all of the bomber destroyer threats except for the exceptionall high performance jets and rockets - couldn't stop a 262 or 163 from attacking
but the only reason the 262 didn't wreak havoc is because it took time to develop effective tactics, were too few in number, and those that existed were in mortal fear of the sweeps before and during takeoff as well as running out of fuel and trying to land. But nothing topped it for sheer performance and devastating anti-bomber firepower
The LW didn't have a 'night destroyer' problem with conventional a/c - it kept inflicting huge losses on RAF ops in 1945 because the RAF had no escort solution.. opposite situation for USAAF who last lost 10% of its striking force on May12, 1944 - and the LW had to have a technological leap to defeat the Escort to get to the bombers.
Regards,
Bill
