German Swept Wing - Rotary Engine

Devildog73

Devildog73

SOH Staff
Staff member
Guys, When the Tuskegee Airmen attacked some of the German aerodromes, they talked about damaging and destroying swept winged, rotary engine aircraft, but not be name. October 1944, could they have been Do 335s? If not, what?
 
Perhaps it could have been Me262s they were talking about, seeing that the jet engines might have appeared to look like round engines to them.
 
Hi DD,
When they say 'rotary', would they really mean propeller driven?
As rotary means either helicopter (unlikely as only a few, such as the one Hanna Reitsch flew in the Deutschland Halle, had stub straight wings) or a WWI style rotary engine, again there was nothing fitted with a true rotary engine then.

Depends which aerodrome they attacked as the Horten V and VII fits the bill. The Hortens were flown at Gottingen and Oranienburg airfields.

Cheers Shessi
 
-we all can be happy about the inability of the German leader and politicians during the war, I think a lot of the modern weapons became ready much earlier if some intelligent people had leading my country during that time, but intelligent people normally don’t start any war !

wolfi
 
Mark, No, they talked about the 262s coming up to meet them.

They talked of Kaposvar aerodrome being a training base for German pilots. On October12, 1944 they saw those swept wing rotary engined prop driven planes, and also Me-111, Bf-109, Ju-88, FW-190, FW-200, and a couple of biplanes.

I have googled Kaposvar and it is in Hungary, not Germany. I have found some inaccuracies in the book. Some are due to memory loss of the Tuskegee Airmen over time, some are due to the racism of the WW II USA and ignoring the 332nd when possible.
 
I'd say do 335, they're the only piston fighter with anything like a swept wing that was constructed in any number.
 
I found that Kaposvar has two airfields, one older, less restored to the NW of the town and one directly east that looks to be a fighter base. Google Earth shows a couple of jet fighters and ammo bunkers on it. The fighter base looks as though it could have survived from WW II and been updated by the Soviets during the cold war.

Also on the 12 of October, 1944 they hit Seregelyes Airfield. This town is NE of Kaposvar and from Google Earth, looks like the airfield from WW II was not rebuilt. You can see it, but it is not functioning. The runways were either dirt or grass, from what I can see from google earth's view.

According to the book, these were hit by the 100th and 301st of the 332nd. The 99th and 302nd escorted B-24s to Blechhammer, Germany. The USAAF history says on the 13th, the book says on the 12th. I think that the book is off one day here for the Blechhammer raid. I already built it and sent it to Rami for mods, so I will have to change the date to the 13th in the mission.

I was not going to build anymore strafing runs for the TA, but maybe 12 October 1944 is one that I will build, since they destroyed so many German aircraft on the ground. What say you all? Another strafing run, or keep the rest of the missions in the air with the heavies?

Also, I am off work today, so I will be building TA missions to send to Rami for his magic.......
We are up to numero 84 today and counting. Rami is tied up with other things like making a living and such, so he will not be editing until later in the week, but it will be well worth the wait.
 
Shessi, according to the USAAF history site I use, we hit Gottingen and Oranienburg airfields in March 1945. I look forward to knocking out some of those Hortens on the ground in March! :icon31:
 
DD,
Uh-oh! there goes the neighbourhood!! :costumes:

I bet there's some gun camera footage out there that would show something...

Trouble is due to age and distant memories it's difficult to know what they meant by 'rotary' and 'swept wing'. As H100 states could be Do335's??

Leave it to your interpretation.......

Cheers Shessi
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top