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***image1***Most who are familiar with World War II jet aircraft think that the one that had the most potential to be a “war changer” was the famous German Me-262 – the heavily-armed, twin jet fighter whose performance was not matched, in many ways, until several years after the war. In fact, the jet that had the most potential to be a war changer was the Arado Ar-234 Blitz, a sleek, twin jet, single seat aircraft designed for a much less glamorous role – photo reconnaissance.
The Blitz was of conventional design, with a high, straight wing mounted on a very
slender fuselage. To have enough room for fuel and cameras in the narrow body, the Blitz was designed without landing gear, taking off with rocket assist from a three-wheel trolley and landing on skids on a grass runway.
While it used the same problem-plagued Jumo 004 jet engines as the Messerschmitt Me-262, they did not pose the same problem for the Blitz because the engines were not subject to the rapid throttle movements required in a fighter. In general on the Blitz, the engines were put into full power on takeoff and left there for the rest of the mission.
The first Ar-234 flew in June 1943 and by September 1943, there were four prototypes flying. It proved to be easy to handle and its performance was outstanding – 100 miles per hour faster than any Allied reconnaissance aircraft and 30 miles an hour faster than the fastest Allied fighter, with a very high service ceiling of 32,000 feet.
Its performance was so impressive that there was an immediate push to turn it into a bomber – the Arado 234B – which required widening the fuselage so it could accept tricycle landing gear and a bomb bay.
Meanwhile, the Allies were preparing for D-Day, the invasion of Normandy. One of the most important aspects of D-Day was the deception plan, which was intended to mislead the Germans about where and when the main landing was to take place.
If the Germans realized the entire Allied thrust was at Normandy, they could quickly rush in their tank divisions and push the Allies back into the sea. Thus, it was critical to shoot down any German reconnaissance aircraft that flew over England during the beginning of real preparations in early 1944 until well after D-Day.
A single reconnaissance sortie could bring back pictures that could compromise the entire deception plan and put D-Day in jeopardy. The Allies were successful and on D-Day, the Germans were confused and the landings succeeded.
During this critical period in March 1944, cameras were fitted on two Arado 234s, but only for test purposes. The bulk of the Arado engineers’ efforts were devoted to developing the more glamorous bomber version of the Blitz, and most of the Jumo 004 engines were given to the Me-262s. The reconnaissance Ar-234s – the single aircraft that might have photographed the invasion preparations and exposed the deception plan – languished in a desultory test program.
It was not until Aug. 2, 1944, almost two months after the invasion, that an Ar-234 made a reconnaissance flight over the Normandy beachhead. Completely unhindered – in fact, undetected – by Allied defenses, the Blitz took a series of magnificent pictures of the entire Allied landing area.
Over the next three weeks, two Arado 234s flew 13 more reconnaissance missions without interference from Allied defenses and brought back a wealth of intelligence data, but it only confirmed what the German ground commanders knew only too well – the Allies had landed overwhelming forces.
