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I think it is climb and combat power performance.
we need a Deutsch speaking
Yup, thats what it says
That´s some brilliant piece of documentation Herr Crumpp.
I hope my colleagues here do not miss the point as i am not putting the whole blame on the Me 410 for having wasted men and material that could instead have been put to a much much better use against the USAAF.
The Bf 110s still serving in daylight missions, and the unusually high number of bombers produced during 1944 with more than 2,000 bombers made. The number gets dwarfed when put by the side of the USA heavy bomber production figure for 1944 alone with some 15,000 machines.
Knowing the number of heavy bombers produced by the USA alone during 1944 makes German planners look even more unwise. What could ~2,000 bombers achieve for Germany during 1944? So when i say "unusually high" i am referring to the critical situation of Germany during such year.
I will not get tired of saying how come there are people who fail to see how unnecessary the Me 410 was...
"But once the allies pilot training program and P51/P38 deployments began in earnest, there was nothing the LW could do. The arithmatric of attrition was tilted heavily in the Allies favor."
Partially correct. Now, why do i say partially? Simple, USAAF losses remained heavy during the first half of 1944...also not forget that as late as in October 1943, the losses of USAAF pilots and crews at the hands of the Luftwaffe were so high even a nation with a large pool of replacements was confronted with the notion of not being capable to continue accepting such loss ratio.
So if the outnumbered and overstretched Luftwaffe proved capable of pushing them guys of the USAAF to begin wondering whether to continue accepting the death toll, think again of what could have been achieved if Me 210/410-Bf 110 production is cancelled and bomber production gets dramatically cut prior to the end of 1943....at minimum all that fuel the Steinbock raids swallowed during the first months of 1944 goes to the Jagdwaffe that could have had more fighters to face the oncoming aerial onslaught.
Civettone rightfully strikes back and says not every rear gunner or bomber crewman will become a fighter pilot -no one by the way suggested such a thing-; ok, i give him that...but what about the pilots of the ~500 bombers that comprised the force to unleash the Steinbock business?
Convert them to fighter pilots, and if only half of them show the skills to become a decent fighter pilot you have 250 pilots...it is a four gruppen geschwader.
"Big Week" is another dish comprising the mythology menu of the allies; there are others that are not necessarily related to air combat: the Brits and their "triumph" at Arras during Fall Gelb, and the US Army and its fairy tales of the "Siege of Bastogne" that includes a "gallant stand" against overwhelming odds that in reality were everything but overwhelming.
13 May 1944 , One of the most disastrous missions for II./ZG76 was when they was jumped by 20 P-51s and 12 a/c were written of, many aircrews was lost and the US bomber force flew on unhindered to Poznan. Obefelwebel Wolfgang Martin rammed a B-17 with his damaged Me 410 after ordering his crew to bale out.