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Old 08-04-2014, 09:21 PM
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Originally Posted by italiansport View Post
BTW: The ME262,the 1st production jet fighter, while a great technical advance was no match for the P51s in manueverability and became somewhat easy targets once the Allied fighter discovered this. Additionally it wasn't very reliable and a real chore to keep in flying condition.
Jim
The ME262 was not very reliable, true the life of the jet engine was only about 15 to 20 hours. As for maneuverability maybe at first the P51 could take it on in the air but once the Luftwaffe pilots learned how to fly it the ME262 held a big advantage in the air. The Americans learned to take on the ME262 only when it was landing, taking off or sitting on the ground. Luftwaffe ace Franz Schall had ten confirmed P51 kills flying the ME262, Georg-Peter Eder had nine confirmed P51 kills. Not a bad ratio considering there were only 200 ME262s operational at a single time.

With no eastern front we would have been in sad shape with all the manpower wasted in Russia put into the Atlantic wall, development of the V-1, V-2, atomic weapons and the ME262. According to some the Germans had a bomb at the end of the war, just no way to deliver it. If you ever get the chance, watch Mission from Mussolini on the Military Channel or whatever it's called. Maybe the person the show was about was just talking but he said he saw an atomic explosion in late 1944 on some island in the Baltic Sea. The area he claimed he saw the flash was tested for radiation tested positive 65 years later.
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Last edited by sheepdawg; 08-04-2014 at 09:23 PM.
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