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As World War II progressed, the Luftwaffe’s lack of a heavy bomber became a serious problem. Without such an aircraft, the Germans lacked the capability of making long range attacks with very heavy bombs against dams, power stations, major bridges or large warships in harbors, even if they were lightly defended.
Germany was not capable of developing a heavy bomber and very heavy bombs after the war started, so in 1940 the Luftwaffe began looking at the concept of a composite aircraft — one aircraft on top of another. The idea had been tried before, usually to extend the range of the smaller aircraft, but in this case the idea was to use a small fighter on top of an explosive-filled bomber to guide it to a target.
In early 1943, a Bf-109 fighter was mounted on the back of a twin engine Junkers 88 bomber airframe with a 7,515-pound warhead replacing the bomber’s cockpit.
The warhead was a hollow shaped charge around a core of copper or aluminum and generally mounted a 3-foot-long stand-off fuse. When detonated, the explosion was capable of penetrating up to 24 feet of steel armor or 60 feet of reinforced concrete.
The guiding fighter was mounted on steel struts and connected to the bomber’s flight controls. Takeoff was made on three engines, with the fighter pumping fuel from the Ju-88 to give it enough fuel for a long range mission.
The Bf-109 pilot would fly the dual aircraft to the target using controls that manipulated the bomber’s control surfaces. Once the target was in sight, the pilot established a 30 degree dive at a speed of about 350 knots. When the target was close the Ju-88 autopilot was engaged, then the Bf-109 pilot exploded the rear jettisoning bolt to place the fighter in a slight nose up attitude. He then blew off the remaining bolts to separate and return to base.
The program was given the code name “Beethoven,” though the actual system was named the “Mistel,” or mistletoe, because of its parasitic connection.
The first tests of the concept took place at the secret Luftwaffe base in Peenemüde in July 1943 and proved successful enough for the approval of 15 Mistel conversions for use on high value targets, initially the harbors of Scapa Flow, Gibraltar and Leningrad.
Because of the distance, Gibraltar and Leningrad were dropped, but in May 1944, a unit of five Mistels deployed to Grove airfield in Denmark to attack Scapa Flow, guided by radio makers along the way planted by German submarines. But before the attack could be carried out, the Allies landed at Normandy on D-Day. The Mistels moved to Saint-Dizier, France, to mass for an attack on the Allied invasion force’s vital “Mulberry” artificial harbors.
The attack occurred on the night of June 24, 1944. The flight profile was initially low altitude to avoid radar detection, then at a distance of 4 kilometers from the objective the Mistel climbed to 800 meters and proceeded with the attack sequence.
One of the Mistels was attacked by a British Mosquito night fighter and the Bf-109 pilot jettisoned the bomber. The other four Mistels were launched and the fighters returned to base without damage.
Though the four Mistel pilots claimed hits on one Mulberry harbor, three apparently hit a decoy hulk set up by the Allies. However, a near miss by a Mistel did cause serious blast and shrapnel damage to HMS “Nith,” a command headquarters ship, killing nine, wounding 26 and forcing the vessel to be towed back to England for repairs.
Allied air superiority over Normandy’s beaches prevented more Mistel attacks, and the Mistel forces moved to Schleswig-Holstein for another try at attacking Scapa Flow.
Pick up a copy of next week’s Kaiserslautern American to see Part II of this story.
(For questions or comments, contact Dr. Michel at marshall.michel@spangdahlem.af.mil.)
