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The grandfather of today’s cruise missiles, the Mistel was
the piggyback aircraft of the Luftwaffe during WW II. This combination
aircraft arose out of research conducted to find a better means
for towing gliders into combat. About two hundred of these combinations
were ultimately built. The British had experimented with a piggyback
combination of a commercial transport on the back of a flying
boat in the late 1930s. The Mistel project in Germany had its
share of skeptics. As the program evolved and Germany’s
strategic position in the War eroded, the Mistel project became
focused on using unmanned obsolete Ju-88 bombers loaded to the
gills with explosives as a very large guided bomb. The top aircraft
in the combination, either a Bf-109 or Fw-190, would be piloted
into the proximity of the target. A rudimentary guidance system
would then be locked on the target, and the unmanned Ju-88 would
fly itself into the target. Some Mistel combinations utilized
normal looking Ju-88s, whereas others were fitted with a sinister-looking
warhead in place of the cockpit. In the fall of 1944 the Luftwaffe
laid plans for utilizing Mistels for attacks on Soviet targets
like power plants and armament factories. Because the Ju-88 component
only went “one-way” on these missions, the Mistels
would have superior range and bomb capacity when compared to
manned bombers. With Germany’s forces in retreat at this
point, the distances from the strategic Russian targets became
even too great for the Mistel. Instead Mistels were targeted
at key bridges, the destruction of which was designed to slow
the advancing Red Army. The Last Mistel attack of the War took
place in April of 1945. Four Mistel aircraft, with a hollow charge
warhead instead of the normal Ju-88 cockpit, coupled to a top-mounted
Fw-190 fighter were prepared at the Pennemunde airbase. The target
for the operation would be the bridge over the river Oder at
Tantow. One of the four aircraft encountered technical problems
and had to jettison the Ju-88. The remaining three piloted by
Lt. Dittman OFw Braun and Uffz Seitz proceeded to the target.
They acquired an unexpected escort in the form of eight Bf-109s,
but the fighters engaged Russian fighters along the route and
the Mistels proceeded to their target alone. The Mistel piloted
by Ofw Braun was hit by anti-aircraft fire and the Ju-88 was
jettisoned prematurely. The Mistel piloted by Uffz Seitz was
apparently shot down. Lt. Dittman, however, was able to lock
the guidance system of his Ju-88 on the target, and flew his
190 safely to an alternate base. |