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Luftwaffe Mistel


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Posted (edited)

I think this is pretty rare to catch one of these on camera!

 

The Mistel (German for "Mistletoe"), also known as Beethoven-Gerät (Beethoven Device) and Vati und Sohn (Father and Son), was a Luftwaffe composite aircraft type of bomber, that appeared late in World War II.
The scheme originally involved replacing the entire nose-located crew compartment of a bomber airframe (usually a Junkers Ju 88 variant) with a specially-designed nose filled with a large load of explosive, and guiding it to its target by a fighter aircraft mounted above it on a set of struts. After releasing the bomber, the fighter would return to base. The first such composite aircraft flew in July 1943 and was promising enough to begin a programme by Luftwaffe test unit KG 200, code-named "Beethoven".

 

Edited by Y-29.Silky
Posted

Note the pilot bailing out in the last shot. A wise move, I think...

Posted

But he leave the parachute tangled in canopy... :huh:

Posted

You may be right. I thought it was flames, but it certainly could be a parachute.

Posted

You may be right. I thought it was flames, but it certainly could be a parachute.

 

Looked like flames to me....or maybe both?

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Note the pilot bailing out in the last shot. A wise move, I think...

 

This is what I have been wondering  for so long, where did he come from? Did he climb down from the canopy, walk all the way to the tail and jump out, or did they have a tail gunner strapped to the 'aircraft bomb'?

Posted

This is what I have been wondering  for so long, where did he come from? Did he climb down from the canopy, walk all the way to the tail and jump out, or did they have a tail gunner strapped to the 'aircraft bomb'?

 

Not all Mistels carried a bomb in the nose. Could be the pilot of the Ju88 , but......

 

A still of the gun camera footage can be found here, http://worldwartwo.filminspector.com/2014/10/mistel-piggyback-german-bombers.html

 

Looks like someone on the ground.

Posted (edited)

At begin of sequence looks like the guy are clinging to the rudder...

 

Same sequence there, in slight better quality.

 

https://youtu.be/_vCl7aFNPt0?t=97

Edited by Sokol1
6./ZG26_Emil
Posted

Parachute got hung up maybe?

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