RE: The Nuking of Japan
September 17, 2012 at 12:55 pm
(This post was last modified: September 17, 2012 at 1:01 pm by Anomalocaris.)
In their desparation, the Luftwaffe did resort to extracting oaths from their pilots to the effect of each of them won't come back alive from a sortie if he didn't down an allied bomber during the sortie. So I don't doubt some pilots resorted to ramming.
But Me-163 was little used during WWII because of its operational limitations. It was a straight up and down point defense interceptor. It wasn't meant to establish air superiority over any area. It was meant to defend just a small point target by going almost straight up, use its speed to evade enemy fighters to go directly for the bombers, and then come straight down. Because Me-163's rocket engines had very short fuel range, it generally used up its fuel during an extremely rapid initial climb and a very fast attack, and it had to glide back unpowered. As a result, it was unstoppable on the way up, and totally helpless before allied fighters on the way down. Also the rocket engine was extremely tempermental, and the residual unburned fuel is liable to explode if the landing was too rough. I believe there were actually no confirmed case where an Me-163 actually downed an allied bomber.
But Me-163 was little used during WWII because of its operational limitations. It was a straight up and down point defense interceptor. It wasn't meant to establish air superiority over any area. It was meant to defend just a small point target by going almost straight up, use its speed to evade enemy fighters to go directly for the bombers, and then come straight down. Because Me-163's rocket engines had very short fuel range, it generally used up its fuel during an extremely rapid initial climb and a very fast attack, and it had to glide back unpowered. As a result, it was unstoppable on the way up, and totally helpless before allied fighters on the way down. Also the rocket engine was extremely tempermental, and the residual unburned fuel is liable to explode if the landing was too rough. I believe there were actually no confirmed case where an Me-163 actually downed an allied bomber.
