Me 262 v British Jet Fighters

[Andrewc]

Hello,

First question on the forum.

My main interest of WW2 aircraft has been piston engined aircraft but started to get interested in the jet fighters of the time.

My question is although piston engined aircraft did shot down some Me 262s if the aircraft had been available in enough numbers and the war went on into 1946, would it have changed the course of the airwar that much? As the British had the Gloster Metor in service by then and the De Havilland Vampire was becoming available during 1945, as was the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, so would any advantage the Luftwaffe had, would it have been short lived?

Andrew

 

[Crimea_River]

Even if they had the planes, the lack of trained pilots would have mitigated any impact of having a greater number of these planes in my opinion. At best, it would have delayed a predetermined outcome.

 

[davebender]

Bear in mind that Germany will have improved aircraft during 1946 also. Even if the Ta-183 is delayed there will be improved versions of the Me-262 and He-162. Including a night fighter variant of the Me-262.

The MG213C revolver cannon and R4M FF rockets would be standard equipment on German fighter aircraft during 1946 along with the EZ42 gyro stabilized gunsight. I doubt slow heavy bombers like the B-17, B-24 and Lancaster could survive in that environment as German fighters would have the firepower and accuracy to kill them from distances of 1,000 meters. Outside the effective range of most bomber defensive machineguns.

 

[davparlr]

This item has been discussed on several threads on this forum. My personal opinion is that unless the German jets could stop D-day, little impact would have occurred to the outcome or significantly affect the timing of victory. There was just too many high performing prop jobs for any jets to operate efficiently out of their fields. In my opinion, Germany and England were pretty well even in jet engine development and the US and England were probably 6 mo. to a year behind in aerodynamics but would have caught up fast as they did with other technological deficiencies.

 

[Andrewc]

thanks for all your answers, so at best it may have stopped/slowed the Allied bombing campaign of Germany but with the D-Day landings it wouldn't have made much difference overall.

Thanks
Andrew

 

[davebender]

If Germany is still fighting during 1946 then we've got to make a few assumptions.

- No Nukes. At least not in Europe.
- Germany has not been over run by Allied ground forces.

So the historical D Day landing of June 1944 probably didn't happen. Or else Germany got lucky and defeated it.