How about a Heinkel Grief produced in 1943 with four DB-605 engines instead? Shuttle Fw190A for escorts. This DB-610 business was just silly and later in 1944 you could swap the 605 for four 603.
The big change in the war climate from independent air operations to strictly army support was due to the Stalingrad debarcle and subsequent turnarounds on the Eastern Front. If that was put aside so that you still had a Luftwaffe functioning as it did in 1942 then the heavy bomber arm is the notable lacking for the Luftwaffe.
But the way I understand it was the change in the war climate reduced the effective potential of the heavy fighters used as fast bombers because only something like an Fw190 fighter-bomber could survive the battlefield. Even in a vanilla example like the pin prick raids against England it was only the Fw190 which had a decent survivability (unless the Me410 were actually following bombers home so didn't set off the interception protocols), typically say two staffeln of Luftwaffe raiders would be intercepted by at least as many RAF interceptors on point, like a mix of Typhoons, MkIX Spits and whatever experimental squadrons were handy like Griffon Spits, it seems much of the time the FW's were lucky to get away with it, I dare say extended raids by things like Me210C would find themselves suffering terrible attrition by 1944.
And that doesn't deal with the Eastern Front where typical Luftwaffe operations faced 4 to 1 odds or worse of models often equivalent to their very best types, La5FN, Yak-9 and P-39N say during 1943. I often read that following June 1943 the Luftwaffe was completely incapable of winning even local air superiority on the Eastern Front. That's gotta spell disaster for any attack model short of the current Fw190A/F models which served to largely replace the Ju87D in the newly formed schlachtgeschwader. The war climate is probably why the emphasis on the Fw190A became the development of the Fw190F and G, the fact it was better suited to carrying heavy stores for combat worthy distances than the Me109.
I'd say the RLM was interested in the Me210/410 by 1944 only as a bomber destroyer, and when the toll was taken on them by escort fighters is when they were pulled from service and production stopped.
The Me210C was really competing with the Fw190A here, and the main consideration was the climate of war and no chance of achieving any air superiority over the battlefield. The heavy fighter didn't stand a chance.
And if you changed those circumstances, then I suggest the heavy bomber program would've been a better use of surplus DB-605 engines. I think the Me210/410 was a luxury by 1943 and like the Me110 in 1941 had no real place. But given a small environment where local air superiority could be maintained, like the Me110E/F had some success tank busting with the Mk101 in Africa, the Me210C might've been a nice luxury for specialised attack and fast bomber work. Luxury I think. The Ju88 could do it well, and there were many other areas lacking.
What do you think?
The big change in the war climate from independent air operations to strictly army support was due to the Stalingrad debarcle and subsequent turnarounds on the Eastern Front. If that was put aside so that you still had a Luftwaffe functioning as it did in 1942 then the heavy bomber arm is the notable lacking for the Luftwaffe.
But the way I understand it was the change in the war climate reduced the effective potential of the heavy fighters used as fast bombers because only something like an Fw190 fighter-bomber could survive the battlefield. Even in a vanilla example like the pin prick raids against England it was only the Fw190 which had a decent survivability (unless the Me410 were actually following bombers home so didn't set off the interception protocols), typically say two staffeln of Luftwaffe raiders would be intercepted by at least as many RAF interceptors on point, like a mix of Typhoons, MkIX Spits and whatever experimental squadrons were handy like Griffon Spits, it seems much of the time the FW's were lucky to get away with it, I dare say extended raids by things like Me210C would find themselves suffering terrible attrition by 1944.
And that doesn't deal with the Eastern Front where typical Luftwaffe operations faced 4 to 1 odds or worse of models often equivalent to their very best types, La5FN, Yak-9 and P-39N say during 1943. I often read that following June 1943 the Luftwaffe was completely incapable of winning even local air superiority on the Eastern Front. That's gotta spell disaster for any attack model short of the current Fw190A/F models which served to largely replace the Ju87D in the newly formed schlachtgeschwader. The war climate is probably why the emphasis on the Fw190A became the development of the Fw190F and G, the fact it was better suited to carrying heavy stores for combat worthy distances than the Me109.
I'd say the RLM was interested in the Me210/410 by 1944 only as a bomber destroyer, and when the toll was taken on them by escort fighters is when they were pulled from service and production stopped.
The Me210C was really competing with the Fw190A here, and the main consideration was the climate of war and no chance of achieving any air superiority over the battlefield. The heavy fighter didn't stand a chance.
And if you changed those circumstances, then I suggest the heavy bomber program would've been a better use of surplus DB-605 engines. I think the Me210/410 was a luxury by 1943 and like the Me110 in 1941 had no real place. But given a small environment where local air superiority could be maintained, like the Me110E/F had some success tank busting with the Mk101 in Africa, the Me210C might've been a nice luxury for specialised attack and fast bomber work. Luxury I think. The Ju88 could do it well, and there were many other areas lacking.
What do you think?
