Hello, asking by curiosity because I noticed other youtube channels did videos with this claim. The big issue with it is the ally were able to deal with the me 262 and it had its own weaknesses. The ally also had jet engines and ha the war lasted longer, they would’ve fielded jet fighters of their own (tho propeller planes could get their shot on the 262, while it’s landing per exmaple). I doubt more me 262 would’ve changed that much, nazi germany would still lost the war.
Thanks for your answers, I got a 1/32 scale revell me 262 a1a for my birthday.
It’s been a common myth about WW2 for decades. I remember hearing it for the first time in the 1970s. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Woody at WW2TV do a “WW2 Myths” episode about it.
The Me262 was not a potential war-winner for the Nazis. If it had been developed without interference by Hitler (who insisted that it be capable of being used as a bomber) it might have increased allied bomber losses by some amount, but the German aircraft manufacturing would not have been capable of producing enough … and German pilot training was a bare-bones thing even for piston-engined aircraft.
On the other hand even if it had somehow not been subject to Hitler’s whims, it might not have been given enough resources to even get it to the point it was considered “ready”, so that might be a wash.
J-C Mermet actually debunked the hitler delaying the me 262 stuff, it didn’t delayed the me 262 since bomber variants were already planned before its visit. The hitler delaying it seems to come from galland .
There is no doubt that this was a revolutionary aircraft but it appeared too late and in in too few numbers to be effective in combat.
There were several issues with the ME 262 that made the plane not very viable
It was notoriously difficult to control both n the ground and in the air on the ground landings and takeoffs required a steady hand as the controls were very sensitive move the joystick, throttle, flaps at the wrong time you would crash the craft. In the air it was easy to go into an unrecoverable dive or spin if you were not careful.
They had a very short flight time with less than one hours worth of flight time at full throttle and engaging in aerial battles ate up precious fuel.
The guns had very limited ammo and it needed to be conserved as one of the drawbacks to the 262 was it was very limited n what it could carry outside the pilot and fuel and ammo is heavy.
Unlike long range piston aircraft the 262s needed to be near the front lines due to their limited range and were easy targets on the ground.
They were flying bombs as there were several reports that if hit in a critical area that the volatile fuel could ignite turning the jet into a flying ball of flame.
These were some of the many issues that plagued the aircraft.
Even if the bulk of the 262’s flying problems could have been ironed out by, say, summer of 1944, it was still operating in an overall environment with severe “strategic” problems, much like the situation with Allied tanks vs German tanks. On paper, the Panther was tactically superior to the Sherman, but when five Shermans are being fielded for every one Panther–and has superior supply chains to keep the Shermans running–the side with the Shermans is going to win.
Thanks for the birthday, the chieftain explained well where this one panther for five sherman thing come from. Another pointis the ally would’ve made their own ejt more of a priority if the me 262 was used sooner and there’d still be counter measures such as bomb raid like on april 9/10 1945
Apart from the reliabilty issues the Allies actually had jets like the Meteor with longer lasting engines and the P-80/DH Vampire. Had the Allies followed the German knowledge they could have been made “operational” earlier but there was no real need to do that. The Meteor was more reliable but like the 262 HARD to control in an engine failure. (Multi-Engine flying is much more tricky because you have to learn that).
But even had the war lasted thru 1946, the Allies would have just massively outproduced the Germans. Not to forget that the Allies could train pilots in a safe environment (Canada/Rhodesia, USA). And the Vampires would have bitten the Swallows out of the sky eventually. The great thing with the Vampire is that it largely used Spitfire like controls making the transition fairly easy.