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Battle of Britain & German 'Drop Tanks'


Jessie The Jeep

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The Luftwaffe didn't use auxillary fuel tanks during the Battle of Britain, and I don't understand the reasons why. I believe they had the technology to do so. Their fighters had a duration of 10 minutes over London which doesn't give much combat time.

 

Drop tanks would have allowed the fighters to escort the bombers longer, and also further, allowing them to attack 10 and 12 Group areas. Remember that while range may have been increased, ammunition wasn't, so longer over the UK wouldn't mean more killing time, just more killing range.

 

How do you think the battle would have gone if the Luftwaffe had used drop tanks? Would the Luftwaffe have suffered more spending longer time over the UK, perhaps allowing the RAF squadrons to land, refuel and attack again? or would the longer ranging German fighters have shot more RAF aircraft down, and the bombers destroyed more airfields?

 

Steve

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I'd guess they were simply treating the Channel as a wide river (as they did) and didn't expect in the short term to need to carry the war beyond the beachhead. By the time the medium term came around Hitler had given up with GB and turned eastward.

 

How would the battle have gone had the fighters used drop tanks? They'd have spent more time over the battlefield and suffered greater losses. Every Luftwaffe aircraft downed was a pilot lost for the duration even if he got out. Only Franz von Werra ever escaped British captivity long enough to fly again. An RAF aircarft downed on the other hand didn't automatically mean a pilot lost, so long as he walked away.

 

However, Luftwaffe fighters were tied to bomber protection. Unless they saved enough bombers to remove Fighter Command from the battle entirely, I don't believe it would have made much difference (though I accept they came perilously close). Once the Luftwaffe turned their attention from the airfields to London, the battle was lost and would have remained lost. There'd simply have been more Luftwaffe fighters over London during the day. (I don't see the use of drop tanks adding anything to Luftwaffe night-fighter defence of their bombers over London. It'd simply make more targets for the triple-A batteries.)

 

But it's an excellent What-if? question I have never heard asked before, I think the thread could run and I look forward to the thoughts of others.

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My thoughts are pretty much the same as yours, that once London was a target, and the RAF knew where to mass large amounts of fighters, it wouldn't have made a difference.

 

What however would have been the result if the Luftwaffe hadn't received orders to stay with the bombers. With their increased range through the use of drop tanks, they could have continued bombing airfields, keeping the pressure on the RAF, but could have also started fighter-bomber attacks, straffing airfields as the RAF & USAAF did later in the war.

 

Fighter Command was almost at its knees when the bombing switched to London. If the pressure had been maintained, and airfields further afield had been targeted, the RAF pilot and aircraft shortages could have resulted in the loss of an effective RAF fighter force. Whether the Germans could have still launched an invasion is unknown, as we still had a Navy which could have swamped the invasion barges just by sailing the channel.

 

Steve

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Maybe the reason the Luftwaffe fighters did not use drop tanks, was a case of geography. When RAF or USAAF fighters escorted bombers deep in to Germany, they needed extended range. But on the other hand, German fighters could be based in Belgium, France, etc, close to the channel and therefore reducing their flight duration for a raid, as even for targets in the North of England, distance would not be so great as flying to Berlin, for example, for our boys.

 

Not sure whether this is the correct assumption but it is feasable.

 

Richard

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True they didn't have far to go, but you would think with only 10 minutes over London, they would have rapidly thought of the idea to increase loiter time in the target area??? :dunno:

 

Would drop tanks have also allowed fighters from Norway to escort bombers over Northern England?

 

Steve

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Wasn't much of German Fighter command based on ground based radio control? In order to send and receive orders and information from German radar's from their fighter command and the types of radio's they used weren't the fighters then limited in their range from the nearest radio transmitters on the French coast ? as was stated in earlier posts above, the greater risk already was the permanent loss of any pilot shot down over the British Isles , no friendly resistance group to help or hide any down enemy air crew's .

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True they didn't have far to go, but you would think with only 10 minutes over London, they would have rapidly thought of the idea to increase loiter time in the target area??? :dunno:

 

I am sure they would have thought of it rapidly, but let's face in in June 1940 we were still (barely) in Europe, the Germans spent the next weeks tidying up France and only then started seriously on England. But they only had a couple of months before Hitler's magpie- or butterfly- (take your pick) like mind had switched elsewhere.

 

Maybe if the generals had convinced him not to invade Russia (I cannot remember the reference work, but I am sure he was already making plans for next years trip to Russia by the end of the Battle of Britain), in 1941 we'd have seen some serious changes. Drop tanks, FW190s, so much could have been different if they'd kept at it.

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