Saw a new episode of dog fights called “death of the Luftwaffe” in season 2 where they recalled the events of operation Bowdenplata a surprise attack of the luftwaffe to destroy allied air superiority on January 1st 1945. Consist of three aircraft formation (about 60 aircraft each) mostly made up of BF 109 and FW 190 (but I sure there were other aircraft as well). Althought the plan was straight forward, the luftwaffe screw up by not informing Flak crew of the attack, 1/4 of the force is destroyed by friendly fire the middle formation reaches there target. The American airbase called Y-29 in northeast Belgium (between the town of Genk and Asch). I’m pretty sure the plan would have work very well, but unfortunately luck was not on the Germans side. The 366 fighter group was just leaving for a bomb run and the 352 Bluenose squadron were ready on the runway, yet intelligent did not warned then of the attack. Just a few seconds after take off, the battle over y-29 began and a fur ball of dog fights began, despite the Americans behind out number, the P-47 and P-51 made quick work of the German fighters, and not much damage was made on the airfield. The battle was fierce, but at the end only one P-47 is shot down, the germans on the other hand lost 24 aircrafts.
I couldn’t believe what happened during this event, it was supposed to be the victory of the Germans, but the allied were victorious. INCREDIBLE!
There just a few things that I don’t understand.
1.Bob Brulle had a very unique P-47 color scheme, it was olive drap, but only the fuselage was in this color, both the top of the wings were aluminum and the underbelly was gray. The cowling and canopy frame was also aluminum. Why do you think it was like this?
Why was the German formation over Y-29 was only BF 109 and FW 190? Why didn’t the Luftwaffe send other most advance aircraft like Me 262 or perhaps Me 110?
3.Why didn’t they do this attack soon? before the allied got deeper in Europe. I mean, I understand why they attack the day after new years but why not during the battle of the bulge.
Love that episode! I’ve got markings for John Meyer’s “Petie 3rd” and Brulle’s “Magic Carpet” in the stash thanks to the brilliant depiction!
To answer your questions…
1 - First, “Magic Carpet” wasn’t Brulle’s plane. It belonged to the 390th’s CO, Lt. Col. Holt. Being a CO’s ride may explain the distinctive markings. Another possibility for the wings - they might have been replaced and just not painted. The Jug I’m building right now, David Schilling’s “Hairless Joe”, had it’s left wing replaced and the underside was left unpainted, while the rest remained Medium Sea Gray. Doesn’t explain the cowl and cowl flaps, but whatever, it’s a cool looking bird!
2 - I don’t know that I’d call the 110 more advanced. It excelled as a night fighter, but wasn’t spectacular in daylight air-to-air. As for the Me-262, I don’t know, except that wasn’t it fielded as an interceptor? I know Bodenplatte was designed to catch the Allied aircraft unprepared and destroy them on the ground, and maybe the 262 wasn’t particularly well-suited to the task. Don’t know enough about the jet one way or the other, though.
3 - Why not sooner? I think desperation, mainly. And range. They actually had planned to launch Bodenplatte during the Battle of the Bulge, but the famously bad weather that kept the Allied tactical airpower grounded also kept much of the Luftwaffe out of the air as well.
That was a good episode. I’ve watched it a couple times.
I’m not sure why the ME-262 wasn’t used, but I suspect it was for a couple of reasons. One, it was better suited as an interceptor against bombers. It really didn’t do as well against fighters. It could hold it’s own, but wasn’t as maneuverable as the prop aircraft and had to make high speed slash attacks. this was much easier to do against a large bomber than a small maneuvering fighter. There was also a lot of politics involved with this aircraft. It was an uphill fight to get Hitler to even OK it’s use as an interceptor, the Luftwaffe may not have wanted to risk the few they had in a fighter sweep. It didn’t have a long range either.
One question I have is why didn’t they use the AR-234 ‘Blitz’ while the '109s and '190s kept the fighters and defenses busy?
So other than the Jets, the FW-190 was the Luftwaffe’s best front line fighter (at least that they had in any numbers). The ME-110 performed pretty dismally. During the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe found they needed ME-109s to escort the ME-110s. It was best used as a night fighter and long range interdiction fighter/bomber, but the JU-88 was even better at those roles.
As far as timing, the weather during the Battle of the Bulge was terrible. Almost all tactical and fighter aircraft of both sides were grounded. If the weather was better, the allies would have taken advantage of it and pummeled the German advance with airstrikes. As it was, the troops on the ground had to slog it out themselves until the weather cleared. Patton gets a lot of credit to taking the pressure off the besieged defenders of Bastogne, but the 9th AF had just as much, if not more to do with it once the weather cleared.
Most likely because they were outta paint… Units possibly being forward-based in France and Belgium after D-Day were painted in England at their bases with dwindling stocks of USAAF OD and RAF stocks, but not all the units with aircraft so painted were selected for cross-channel bases… Aircraft were coming from the States without camoflage paint, due to the AAF’s order. Shipping paint across the Channel wasn’t a priority.
Bf 110s were “meat on the table” for all Allied fighters, and the Luftwaffe knew it. Me 262s were too short-legged and kept back for bomber interception, although some did in fact make some excursions into the Bulge area… Were the jets bogged-down with bombs, they’d be slower than the Allied fighters as well… However, Bf 110s, Ju 88s, and other nightfighters were used as pathfinders for it…
For more about Operation Bodenplatte, check here… I know, I know, It’s Wiki, but this’s pretty accurate info, even for them…
Cool link. never thought about looking that up there.
I think this statement from that article pretty much sums up all the air campaigns against the axis forces. The allies could afford the risks they took. The axis could not.
“A great many Allied aircraft were destroyed on the ground, but the losses of the Allied Air Forces were replaced within a week. The Allies lost few airmen, since their aircraft were destroyed on the ground without pilots. Conversely, the Germans lost fighter pilots they could not afford to lose.”
As mentioned, Operation Bodenplatte was supposed to have been a part of the Ardennes assault. The only reason the Germans had the 900 fighter’s they had for the mission was that Galland had been trying to put together a large force of fighter to some time. His plan was to launch a massive fighter force against US bomber formations to deliver such a blow that it would half daylight attacks for a while, giving the Germans some breathing space. He was, i believe, opposed to Bodenplatte.
You also have to remember that by this stage of the war, many of the erman pilots had little training before getting to front line units. What training they had was often on gliders, there wasn’t enough fuel to give them proper flight training.
No one will ever be able to question the bravery of Luftwaffe pilots… That’s for sure… The USAAF actually considered it murder to send a fighter pilot into combat with less than 200 hours of training in-type before they shipped overseas, the Navy made it’s pilots undergo even more, at 250-300 hours…
That might have actually been fairly effective, at least for a little while. Hitler would have been a lot better off had he listened for Galland more and Goering less.
By then, Goering was a joke, even to Hitler, although he ignored the pleas from Mich, Himmler, and Goebbels to replace Goering… Galland didn’t stand a chance…
However, the blame lies, IMHO, squarely at the feet of Erhard Milch for the Luftwaffe’s failure to maintain air superiority on the Ostfront… Well, his and ol’ “Smiling Albert” Speer, since Goering got even for the critcism of him by Milch by making subordinate to Speer…
