OldSkeptic
Senior Airman
- 509
- May 17, 2010
I did this analysis years ago, examining the V1 shot down.
It was an interesting exercise and when I did the numbers some surprises came up.
Anyway the master table is:
But that is only part of the story. Though a total of 33 squadrons were involved against the V1s in that June - Sept 44 period only 15 served throughout the entire time.
Many reasons for that, for example Tempest production was just ramping up and new squadrons of them were added as they were equipped.
If we look at the squadrons that served through the whole period we get:
The Tempest numbers include the FIU a flight of which also worked at night. All the Mossies (inc the VIs) worked at night.
The raw data is:
The amazing thing is how well the Mossies did, despite their slower speed compared to the Mustangs, Spit XIVs and Tempests.
Part of that was the tactical situations. At night a V1 was very easy to see so they typically flew higher, saw one and dived down.
On the other hand, flying flat out low down at night was fraught with danger and the pilots were blinded by the light from the V1, very tricky stuff indeed. So by no means did they have an easier job than the day fighters. 418 squadron with ancient Mossie Mk IIs did amazingly well considering how old and clapped out their planes were.
The Mustang's relatively poor performance (despite their incredible low level speed) was caused by several factors:
The Mustang squadrons also did escort work (for day British bombers) so were not involved every day. The pilots were a bit cagy about hammering their engines (the Packard Merlins were more lumpy than the Merlins at 25lb boost) since the next day they might be going on a long range escort job, can't really blame them. The Mustang guns were not as good against V1s (remember they were Mustangs IIIs = P51Bs with only 4x0.5") as the heavier cannons of the Spits, Mossies and Tempests. V1s were quite tough, with very few moving parts and of course hard to hit because they were so small.
The Spit IXs did surprisingly well too, but they must have been hammering them real hard, at that altitude they were not in the class of the Tempests, Mustangs and Spit XIVs. The Spit XII squadron did well too, considering that their planes were also getting pretty long in the tooth by then and the version of the Griffon they had couldn't be extra boosted, so their performance was just base original.
Tempests were cleared to 9lb boost (11lb boost came much later), Merlins (RR and Packard) to 25lb and the Griffon in the Spit XIV to 21lb boost. The later mark Mossies used Merlin 25s cleared to 25lb boost too (though the older ones were still limited to the 14-18lb boost range depending on the engine model). All the planes were cleaned up as much as possible and many weight reduced as far as practical.
It was an interesting exercise and when I did the numbers some surprises came up.
Anyway the master table is:
But that is only part of the story. Though a total of 33 squadrons were involved against the V1s in that June - Sept 44 period only 15 served throughout the entire time.
Many reasons for that, for example Tempest production was just ramping up and new squadrons of them were added as they were equipped.
If we look at the squadrons that served through the whole period we get:
The Tempest numbers include the FIU a flight of which also worked at night. All the Mossies (inc the VIs) worked at night.
The raw data is:
The amazing thing is how well the Mossies did, despite their slower speed compared to the Mustangs, Spit XIVs and Tempests.
Part of that was the tactical situations. At night a V1 was very easy to see so they typically flew higher, saw one and dived down.
On the other hand, flying flat out low down at night was fraught with danger and the pilots were blinded by the light from the V1, very tricky stuff indeed. So by no means did they have an easier job than the day fighters. 418 squadron with ancient Mossie Mk IIs did amazingly well considering how old and clapped out their planes were.
The Mustang's relatively poor performance (despite their incredible low level speed) was caused by several factors:
The Mustang squadrons also did escort work (for day British bombers) so were not involved every day. The pilots were a bit cagy about hammering their engines (the Packard Merlins were more lumpy than the Merlins at 25lb boost) since the next day they might be going on a long range escort job, can't really blame them. The Mustang guns were not as good against V1s (remember they were Mustangs IIIs = P51Bs with only 4x0.5") as the heavier cannons of the Spits, Mossies and Tempests. V1s were quite tough, with very few moving parts and of course hard to hit because they were so small.
The Spit IXs did surprisingly well too, but they must have been hammering them real hard, at that altitude they were not in the class of the Tempests, Mustangs and Spit XIVs. The Spit XII squadron did well too, considering that their planes were also getting pretty long in the tooth by then and the version of the Griffon they had couldn't be extra boosted, so their performance was just base original.
Tempests were cleared to 9lb boost (11lb boost came much later), Merlins (RR and Packard) to 25lb and the Griffon in the Spit XIV to 21lb boost. The later mark Mossies used Merlin 25s cleared to 25lb boost too (though the older ones were still limited to the 14-18lb boost range depending on the engine model). All the planes were cleaned up as much as possible and many weight reduced as far as practical.
