Drop tank in German?

[A.G. Williams]

Can anyone tell me the official German name for an aircraft drop tank in WW2? The literal translation appears to be Abwurftank.

 

[Crimea_River]

FW190 Manuals call it the "Zusatzkraftstoffbehälter" which translates to Additional Fuel Holder.

 

[CATCH 22]

Another common word is "Zusatztank" with no clarification if it is a belly- or under wing tank. A longer description of the same is "Abwerfbarer Zusatztank" = "Abwurftank".
Cheers!

 

[Prop Duster]

I first thought of "oops-panzer" but then I rethought my idea

 

[A.G. Williams]

Thank you gentlemen!

I have a follow-up question: one web source says that the usual German 300 litre drop tank virtually doubled the range of the Bf 109E, from 650 km for the E-3 to 1,350 km for the E-7 plus tank. Any idea of the effective combat radius of these examples?

I also understand that both the Ju 87 and the Me 110 used drop tanks extensively during the Norway campaign. Were they used much in the BoB?

 

[tomo pauk]

Range is very easy to do (fuel consumed per mile at set engine power setting, multiplied by fuel available, minus fuel allowance - 30 min worth for USAF later in war, for example). Combat radius is very hard to judge unless we know the required cruise speed, number of minutes of combat requirement, and again reserves/allowances (all of this was different for different air forces/services).
After all of these disclaimers - rule of thumb I've often saw was that combat radius is 1/3rd of the range.

The Bf 110C in BoB carried the ugly 'slipper' tank, I'm not sure it was droppable.
The drop-tank outfitted Ju 87 in 1940 was the 'R' version, seems like it's main area of operations was against and from Norway?

 

[Denniss]

Bf 110D carried the large Dackelbauch tank that was not droppable, 110C were without drop tanks.
The small 400l internal tank of the Bf 109 had to cover engine start and warm-up on the ground + take off and climb to alt. One could assume 150l gone for this. Doubling the range with additional 300l sounds reasonable.

 

[stona]

The drop-tank outfitted Ju 87 in 1940 was the 'R' version, seems like it's main area of operations was against and from Norway?

12 of them were used in operations during the Norwegian campaign, 3./St.G.1 was the first to get them in April.

By August 1940 I./St.G.1 (Hozzel) and II./St.G.2 (Enneccerus) had some on strength for the Battle of Britain in Luftflotte 3.

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

Bf 110D carried the large Dackelbauch tank that was not droppable, 110C were without drop tanks.
The small 400l internal tank of the Bf 109 had to cover engine start and warm-up on the ground + take off and climb to alt. One could assume 150l gone for this. Doubling the range with additional 300l sounds reasonable.

Yes, the D version was the long range one, first the Dackelbauch tank.

 

[mozit]

Yes, the D version was the long range one, first the Dackelbauch tank.

View attachment 614967

IIRC the Dackelbauch tanks were only used for a very short time as they found to be the cause of previously inexplicable mid-air explosions.

 

[N4521U]

Oxygen pleeeze.....................
I tried pronouncing any one of them!