Drop Tanks

[LANKIR]

It does not appear that the German airforce employed drop tanks on their fighter planes during the Battle of Britain. Drop tanks would have given the fighters greater range and operational time. I understand that German fighter escorts for bombers only had about 10 minutes over England before they had to turn back. Why were drop tanks not developed and used? The Americans were able to effectively use their Mustang fighter planes over all of Germany because they used drop tanks. What was so hard about drop tanks?

Horrido!

Lankir

[Rajin Cajun]

I think for one it was just overlooked also another reason is it lowers maneuverability in a dogfight as well. Also I know a problem the Allies had was a lot of fighters dropped them once they got into an engagement for two reasons to increase maneuverability as well as keep it from exploding from a stray round.

[LANKIR]

OK, but still would it not have been possible to use the fuel from the drop tanks first to reach London, drop them, and then rely on a full supply of onboard fuel?

Horrido!

LANKIR

[Tom Houlihan]

Lankir, that's the way they generally did it. That way, the onboard tanks were full when they jettisoned the drop tanks. It is rather strange that the Germans never came up with that general method of operation.

[Lorenz]

It does not appear that the German airforce employed drop tanks on their fighter planes during the Battle of Britain. Drop tanks would have given the fighters greater range and operational time. I understand that German fighter escorts for bombers only had about 10 minutes over England before they had to turn back. Why were drop tanks not developed and used? The Americans were able to effectively use their Mustang fighter planes over all of Germany because they used drop tanks. What was so hard about drop tanks?
Horrido!
Lankir

The shortcomings in the range of the Bf 109E, which had proved something of an embarrassment to the Jagdstaffeln during the final phases of the French campaign, had been foreseen by the Luftwaffenführungsstab, and a jettisonable 66 Imperial gallon fuel tank for use by the fighter and been developed and, in fact, manufactured in some numbers prior to the offensive in the West. Produced from moulded plywood, it was found to leak badly after exposure to the elements for any length of time. Furthermore, the fighter pilots considered it to possess an incendiary proclivity, and it therefore saw no service use when the suitably-equipped Bf 109 E-7 began to arrive late in August 1940.

According to the author, drop tank equipped E-7s were first used during the Balkan campaign and then during the opening months of Barbarossa. Experiments were also carried out during 1941 with a pair of 66-Imp.gal. over-wing slipper-type tanks which could be jettisoned when their contents were expended. These trials were handled by the Forschungsanstalt Graf Zeppelin under project name Wurzelsepp, and Bf 109s began using them for long-distance ferrying from the factories and Luftzeuggruppen to the front units.

The Bf 109 F-series began replacing the E-series in mid-1941 and these all had centerline fuselage attachments for either a bomb or for a drop tank.

[Source: Green, William, The Warplanes of the Third Reich (Garden City (NY), 1972), pp.544, 548, 552-53].

--Lorenz

[phylo_roadking]

Moulded plywood? I read some time ago it was actually papier mache! which if made correctly with the correct impregnants, can be very strong -look at the huge outdoor architecture for the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco, for example. (90 years in the elements and still in damn good shape)

[Liam]

Well the Me110 had drop tanks - although tactical naivety rather limited its effectiveness in the Battle of Britain to the extent of it being withdrawn from combat.

[phylo_roadking]

The Me110 "zerstorer" class was an odd concept that nearly ALL european airforces tried tomintroduce up to 1939...hence we have oddities like the early-mark Bristol Belnheims being referred to as "fighters"! A powerful twin-engined fighter, usually with 2 or 3 crew....a great idea IF the opposing force has an equivalent whos willing to tango, but if they don't like the RAF, then what youre enemy DOES put up against you will outclass you! LOL
Lost in the mists of war is the Fokker G4 which WAS a successful twin-engine twin-boom fighter, but was only in service in small numbers with the Dutch air force, but in the few days it survived gave an excellent account of itself agains the numerically-overwhelming Luftwaffe. But when the concept came to England in the form of the Me110 it was up against BRITAIN'S air superority fighters.....!

[Ian Earl]

If i remember correctly "drop tanks" were used during the fighting in Spain but as Lorenz rightly say's the pilots didnt rate them.

[Schade]

Lost in the mists of war is the Fokker G4 which WAS a successful twin-engine twin-boom fighter, but was only in service in small numbers with the Dutch air force, but in the few days it survived gave an excellent account of itself agains the numerically-overwhelming Luftwaffe. But when the concept came to England in the form of the Me110 it was up against BRITAIN'S air superority fighters.....!

You mean Fokker G1 of course


This is a captured Dutch Fokker G1 with German markings at military airfield Ockenburg. Note that the number '348' is the original Dutch identification number.

[phylo_roadking]

Yep! and excellent pic - I didn't know any survived intact to be tested/rebadged.

[Schade]

Yep! and excellent pic - I didn't know any survived intact to be tested/rebadged.

Actually, a number of at least 30 G1's have been used by the Luftwaffe, mainly for testing and training purposes. It's certain that Flugzeugfuhrerschule C8, C11 and ZS 1 have used the G1.

I also found this image which connects the G1 to Flugzeugfuhrerschule B8 at Wiener Neustadt.


Here's a picture of 2 German soldiers, posing in front of a captured G1, still with Dutch markings.

[phylo_roadking]

30+??? Are you sure? I thought only 36 were built between 1938 and 1940

* Ah, just chased this down; there were 36 in the Dutch Air Force; 20 were destroyed on the ground on the first day of utilities, the rest were hevily attrited over the next few days but fought above their weight and seem to have scored a 1.3:1 kill ratio until they were out of action.

The planes transferred to Germany were actually a consignment of Wasp-engined models, twenty six in all, that were either complete and unarmed or in pieces - which had been ordered by Spain but were never delivered. Thats quite an ambivalent action on Hitler's part, to not let the consignment go to Franco....but given that there existed plans if necessary to take Gibraltar VIA Spain....! *

[Schade]

30+??? Are you sure? I thought only 36 were built between 1938 and 1940

You're partly right ; the Dutch Airforce ordered (and received) those first 36 G1's with the Bristol Mercury VIII engines.

The Spanish Republic ordered 26 G1's with the Pratt & Whitney Wasp engines, but never received them because of their defeat in 1938 by Franco.

10 of those machines were ready when Germany attacked Holland on the 10th of May 1940, but because of armament problems, only 4 of them actually took part in the fighting. The remaining 6 were captured unharmed.

Finally, Denmark had ordered 12 G1's, which were actually delivered in parts. But when the Germans invaded Denmark, they had only started to assemble the first G1, so all 12 Danish G1's fell in German hands without a scratch.

[Schade]

* Ah, just chased this down*

Lol, didn't see this until after I answered....

Note that Franco did not order the G1's, the Spanish Republic did before they were defeated by Franco. After that the Dutch government prohibited sending the planes, because of political issues. This took place before the German invasion, so Hitler had nothing to do with sending or not sending the planes.