From: jfb@ihlpl.att.com (Joseph F Baugher)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: 50 Years Ago: Sunday, 6 September, 1942
Summary: The infamous Me 210
Date: 29 Sep 92 13:08:23 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories -  Naperville, Illinois


From Joseph F Baugher <jfb@ihlpl.att.com>

In article <Buq4qF.In6@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, sxrbs.orca.alaska.edu@raven.alaska.edu (Bob Stratton) writes:
> 
> From sxrbs.orca.alaska.edu@raven.alaska.edu (Bob Stratton)
> 
> In article <Bu9Gtt.DII@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) writes:
> >Sunday, 6 September, 1942
> 
> >The new German Me 210 fighter-bomber makes its combat debut over 
> >Yorkshire, where two are shot down by RAF Typhoons.
> 
> Does anyone have relative performance for a 210 over a 110? How did it 
> compare to a mosquito for payload/range max speed/r.o.c?
> 

The infamous Me 210 began its life in early 1938 with a design study 
for a potential successor to the Bf 110, which was itself not yet even 
in service.  The Reichslfutfahrtministerium (State Ministry of 
Aviation, better known as the RLM) proposal envisaged an aircraft 
which was to be capable of performing heavy fighter, fast 
reconnaissance, dive bombing and attack roles.  Messerschmitt's 
Augsburg design bureau submitted the Me 210 in response to this 
proposal.  In retrospect, the RLM was asking the aircraft to do too 
much.  The result was perhaps the Luftwaffe's greatest wartime 
failure, ranking right up there on the top of the disaster scale along 
with the Heinkel He 177.  

The Me 210 had a single-spar all-metal stressed-skin wing and a 
fuselage built in two vertical halves and joined top and bottom.  A 
one- piece wing center section was used with the I-section spar 
passing through the fuselage.  Welded steel box girders in compression 
were used as the main supporting members of the engine mount.  In 
comparison to the Bf 110, the nose of the Me 210 was relatively short, 
stubby, and compact.  The twin DB-601 engines projected well ahead of 
the nose of the Me 210, whereas the nose of the Bf 110 was well 
forward of the engines.  The two crew members sat back-to-back in an 
extensively glazed canopy.  

The first prototype, the Me 210 V1, flew on September 5, 1939.  It was 
powered by two Daimler-Benz DB 601A-1 engines each rated at 1050 hp 
for takeoff.  The airplane was initially fitted with twin fin-and- 
rudder tail assembly.  In early flight tests, the airplane displayed 
extremely unsatisfactory handling characteristics, and suffered from 
both directional and longitudinal instability.  At first, it was 
thought that the twin fin-and-rudder assembly was at fault, and the 
prototype was hastily refitted with a very large centrally-mounted 
vertical tail and a tapered tailplane of increased span.  

However, improvement in handling was only marginal with the new tail, 
and experiments with several other prototypes throughout the winter of 
1939-40 all failed to produce any significant improvement in the Me 
210's abominable handling characteristics.  The aircraft was still 
highly unstable, and its flying characteristics were unpredictable.  
Stalling behavior was extremely poor, and at high angles of attack the 
aircraft would often whip into a spin.  Turbulence along the rear 
fuselage resulted in some tailplane buffeting, and elevator flutter 
would be experienced in certain flight regimes.  A total of 14 
experimental Me 210s were built.  An extensive series of crashes 
punctuated the development program, and there was no improvement in 
sight.  

The Luftwaffe had originally anticipated that the first Me 210s would 
enter service in mid 1941, and assembly lines had been laid down at 
both the Augsburg and Regensburg Messerschmitt plants, and plans had 
been made for the Messerschmitt plant at Braunschweig to switch from 
Bf 110 to Me 210 production.  However, the serious problems 
encountered by the Me 210 were to put these plans on indefinite hold.  

As the spring of 1941 came and with the problems with the Me 210 still 
left unresolved, the Luftwaffe decided that it had no option but to 
commence manufacturing and delivery of the aircraft despite its 
obvious shortcomings.  No less than 94 service test Me 210A-0 aircraft 
were built, and they spent 18 months in trials.  The test program was 
punctuated by numerous accidents.  Pilots found the flying 
characteristics of the Me 210A-0 to be particularly vicious, and 
numerous proposals were made for improvements.  However, all these 
proposals turned out to require such major changes as to produce 
unacceptable delays in the introduction of the aircraft into service.  
However, even the top brass in the Luftwaffe eventually had to admit 
by the end of 1941 that the Me 210 as it currently existed was totally 
unsuitable for issue to operational units.  

In spite of the problems encountered during service testing, plans had 
gone forward throughout late 1941 for the mass production of the Me 
210.  At the beginning of 1942, two production versions had been 
ordered, the Me 210A-1 heavy fighter with secondary fighter-bomber 
capability and the Me 210A-2 dive bomber.  During January 1942, a 
total of 64 Me 210A-1s had been accepted by the Luftwaffe.  In the 
meantime, a commission established to investigate the Me 210 debacle 
had recommended that production of the Me 210 be halted immediately 
and that the Bf 110 be reinstated in production.  It took until May of 
1942 before the production could finally be completely halted.  By 
that time, 90 Me210A-1 aircraft had left the assembly lines, leaving 
some 370 still in various stages of construction.  These aircraft were 
placed in storage.  

Despite the termination of the Me 210 production program, development 
continued unabated in the hope of finding a solution to the stability 
problems.  Finally an answer was found.  Automatic slots were provided 
on the wing leading edges, and the rear fuselage was entirely 
redesigned with increased depth and 3 feet greater length.  This 
seemed to work.  Messerschmitt's Augsburg design bureau then submitted 
a new proposal based on the revised Me 210 but with more powerful 
engines.  It was assigned the designation Me 410, and was envisaged 
for initial availability at the beginning of 1943.  Most of the 
development work on the Me 210 was now directed primarily toward 
proving out its Me 410 successor.  

Pending availability of the Me 410, Messerschmitt was authorized to 
rebuild some of its Me 210A-1 aircraft which had been held in storage 
by the Luftwaffe.  These were fitted with the new rear fuselage, wing 
leading-edge slots, and parallel-bar-type air brakes on the upper and 
lower wing surfaces outboard of the engine nacelles.  The rebuilt Me 
210A-1s were issued to a special unit, which first achieved 
operational status at Soesterburg in the Netherlands as 16./KG 6.  Its 
first operational sortie took place over Yorkshire on September 6, 
1942 where two examples were shot down by Hawker Typhoons.  Two more 
were lost the next week, and by September 20, 16./KG 6 was down to 
only three serviceable aircraft.  

The Me 210A-1 was powered by two DB 601F twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled 
inverted-vee engines, each rated at 1350 hp for takeoff.  Maximum 
speed was 288 mph at sea level, and 350 mph at 17,520 feet.  It could 
climb to 21,120 feet in 7.5 minutes, and maximum range was 1130 miles.  
Weights were 15,586 lbs empty, 21,297 lbs maximum loaded.  Armament 
consisted of two 30-mm MG 151 cannon and two 7.9 mm MG 17 machine guns 
mounted in the nose.  Protection against rear attacks was provided by 
a rather unique pair of remotely controlled barbettes, one mounted on 
each side of the rear fuselage just aft of the wing.  Each barbette 
contained one 13-mm MG-131 machine gun.  These guns were operated 
remotely by the rear-facing gunner, and each gun could be directed 
independently of the other.  Each gun could be elevated or depressed 
through a range of 70 degrees.  Each weapon could be traversed through 
40 degrees in azimuth, and the barbettes were attached to a drum which 
traversed the fuselage aft of the cockpit.  The drum was rotated via a 
1.5 hp electric motor by servo units controlled by a pistol grip.  The 
guns could be fired aft in unison, a contact-breaker device stopping 
the firing whenever the guns pointed at any part of the aircraft 
structure.  There was an internal bomb bay in the forward fuselage 
just underneath the pilot's seat.  Covered by clamshell-doors, the bay 
could carry 8 110-lb, two 551 lb, or two 1102 lb bombs internally.  

For comparison, here are the figures for the Bf 110F-2 heavy fighter 
which first appeared in service in the early summer of 1941.  It was 
powered by two Daimler-Benz DB 601F engines each rated at 1350 hp for 
takeoff.  Maximum speed was 310 mph at sea level and 352 mph at 17,700 
feet.  Maximum range was 745 miles.  Service ceiling was 35,760 feet.  
It could climb to 19,685 feet in 9.2 minutes.  Maximum range was 745 
miles.  Armament consisted of two 20-mm MG FF cannon and four 7.9-mm 
MG 17 machine guns mounted in the nose, plus one 7.9-mm MG 15 machine 
gun on a flexible mount in the rear cockpit.  The Bf 110F-1 bomber 
version could carry two 551-lb or two 1102-lb bombs on underfuselage 
racks.  In addition four 110 lb bombs could be carred on underwing 
racks.  

As far as the incomparable Mosquito is concerned, there is virtually 
no comparison between it and the Me 210, although any comparison 
between the two aircraft is probably unfair since the Mosquito 
appeared in combat somewhat later in the war than did the Me-210.  
Perhaps the most apt comparison is with the Mosquito F.B.Mk.VI 
fighter- bomber version of 1943.  The Mosquito F.B.Mk.VI was powered 
by two Rolls-Royce Merlin 25 liquid cooled engines rated at 1635 hp 
maximum power.  Maximum speed was 362 mph at 5500 feet, 380 mph at 
13,000 feet.  Range was 1270 miles (with wing bombs only) and 1400 
miles (with fuselage bombs only).  Initial climb rate was 1870 
feet/minute, and an altitude of 15,000 feet could be reached in 9.5 
minutes.  Service ceiling was 33,000 feet.  Weights were 14,300 pounds 
empty, 19,500 pounds normal loaded.  Armament consisted of four 20-mm 
Hispano cannon and four 0.303 Browning machine guns in the nose.  The 
internal bomb bay could carry a pair of 500-pound bombs, and a pair of 
500 pound bombs could be carried on underwing racks.  In place of the 
underwing bombs, eight 60-lb rockets could be carried.  

Messerschmitt was eventually authorized to complete the Me 210A-1 and 
A-2 aircraft that were still on the production line, and these began 
to reach Luftwaffe service in early 1943.  Production of the Me-210 in 
Germany finally terminated in June of 1943.  

In November 1942, a small number of rebuilt Me 210A-1 aircraft had 
been delivered to III/ZG 1 in Sicily to fly alongside the units Bf 
110s.  This unit was transferred to Tunisia in early 1943.  By March 
of that year, the unit had converted entirely to the Me 210A-1.  The 
10./ZG 26 based in Tunisia also got a number of Me 210A-1s in early 
1943, but these were soon replaced by Ju 88s.  From January 1943, the 
Stab of FAGr 122 and 2.(F)/122 based in Sardinia operated some Me 
210A-2s, but discarded them in March.  

The Me 210B was a specialized high-speed reconnaissance version in 
which forward-firing armament was reduced to two MG 151 cannon and 
cameras were installed in the bomb bay.  Only two production examples 
were built.  

The Me 210C was a version manufactured in Hungary by the Duna 
Repulogepgyar (Danube Aircraft Factory).  Under the terms of the 
German-Hungarian Mutual Armament Program, two thirds of these planes 
would go to the Luftwaffe and one third would go to the Magyar Kiralyi 
Legiero (Royal Hungarian Air Force).  The Me 210C differed from the Me 
210A in being powered by two DB 605B engines of 1475 hp.  the engines 
which were to power the Me 410.  Two versions were planned, the 
Me210Ca-1 which combined the tasks of heavy fighter and dive bomber, 
and the Me 210C-1 which was primarily a long-range reconnaissance 
aircraft.  The first of three Hungarian-built Me 210Cs were accepted 
by the Luftwaffe in April 1943.  The first Hungarian units did not 
receive their aircraft until early 1944.  In spite of the negative 
experience of the Luftwaffe with their early Me 210A-1s, the 
Hungarians rather liked their Me 210Cs.  They found the Me 210C to 
possess an excellent performance and to be highly maneuverable.  The 
Magyar Kiralyi Legiero used it well as a dive bomber and close-support 
aircraft.  The Me 210Ca-1 attained a maximum speed of 297 mph at sea 
level and 359 mph at 21,325 feet.  Maximum range was 1075 miles, and 
service ceiling was 29,200 feet.  Armament was the same as that of the 
Me 210A-1.  In Luftwaffe service, the Me 210C was operated briefly by 
II and II/ZG 1 and III/ZG 26 and with several Aufklarungsstaffeln 
before it was supplanted by the Me 410.  

Hungarian production finally ended in March of 1944, and the Duna 
Repulogepgyar switched over to the manufacture of the Bf 109G.  by 
that time, a total of 267 Me 210Cs had been built, of which 108 had 
been given to the Luftwaffe.  

The Me 210D was proposed as an equivalent version of the DB 
605B-powered Me 210C, but it was never proceeded with.  

Sources: 

  Warplanes of the Third Reich, William Green, Doubleday, 1970.  

  Warplanes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume 2, William Green, 
  Doubleday, 1961.  

Joe Baugher       AT&T Bell Laboratories    2000 North Naperville Road 
		  Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033.   (708) 713-4548
Newsgroups: sci.military