muddyboots wrote:
Too bad it didn't fare well against the opposition. It is one of my favorite looking WWII aircraft, but sadly it didn't do too well.
Hey, Muddy, don't fall for what's essentially Allied propaganda. Unlike many more 'successful' types it had a remarkable record of achievement throughout W.W.II on the Western and Eastern fronts and was used by day and by night as well - for instance something few other fighters achieved.
The idea of
Zerstörer's sweeping the skies of
all enemy aircraft indeed proved flawed, however when it came to destroying bombers, it was
very, very effective, from 1939 to 1945, and even when obsolete. As a heavy attack type, it was effective in N Africa, the Med and Eastern fronts.
Like the oft-repeated comment that the Junkers Ju 87 was a 'failure' after the Battle of Britain, a momentary review of the records shows claims of 'failure' to be utter rubbish.
All air forces require air superiority to enable every other air task to be undertaken. The fact the
Luftwaffe failed to achieve air superiority over southern England in 1940, and it's aircraft and crews paid the price is not a failure of type or role, but of strategic requirement.
It was Bf 110s that knocked down enough turret armed VA Wellingtons in one raid in 1939 that made the RAF switch to long-range night bombing.
Though an old, overloaded and underpowered design, highly vulnerable to single seat fighters by day, Bf 110s were knocking down B-17s and B-24s is significant numbers to mid 1944, and it was only the arrival of that famous long range P-51 that caused attrition rates that required the Bf 110's withdrawal from the role. At night, it was the Bf 110 crews who were blunting Bomber Command's attack, for instance in the Battle of Berlin, though at a painful attrition rate.
It was no super aircraft, but it was far from a failure as is often presented.
Regards,
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