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Top Secret Luftwaffe '46 Project


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I appear to have made a false start with my Harrier II in Hokkaido. The old Hasegawa bits were stashed and forgotten since the last GB two years ago... Mayday... Mayday... Mayday... missing a/c within 200 nmi of Chitose Air Base, Hokkaido.

In the meantime, in the spirit of actually building something, I bought a brand new kit over the weekend.

I shall submit a Top Secret Luftwaffe '46 Project to accompany Mottlemaster’s Heinkel he177-A6 armed with Wotan nuclear warheaded V1 (the best backstory) and pabbi's Ta-183 Huckebein (one of the coolest a/c out of WWII).

Late Oktober 1945...somewhere in der Vaderland, a new box had been opened, styrene has been cut and some pieces have even been welded together... All under wraps by the strictest order of der Führer to keep this Top Secret Project from the prying eyes of those pesky Americans and their bumbling allies (you know who you are).

In the meantime, on a windswept island off the edge of Europe, Churchill ordered a hastily converted Mosquito PR Mk.32 high-altitude photo-recon to try to find out more about the rumour of a Top Secret Project. The only problem is no one knew anything about this mysterious beast... let alone where it might be hiding... So much for suche nach der Stecknadel...

We are nevertheless keeping our fingers (and toes) crossed... hoping to see some murky images... soon.

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Welcome back to the GB. Hope those Harrier turn up soon but in the meantime will look forward to seeing what that Mosquito brings back.

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Thanks for the welcome!

On 20 October 1945, a specially configured pressurised Mosquito PR Mk. 32 was dispatched, flying high above a previously thought unassailable "safe" ceiling of 30,000 ft, to sniff out the Top Secret new aircraft. The Mossie failed to return from its snooping mission. The high performance wooden wonder was presumed lost possibly to teething problem of the newly developed two-staged super charged Merlin 113/114. Unfortunately no clear evidence of what happened could be established because the air crew were not recovered...

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FACT The second bombing raid on Schweinfurt in August 1943 was an utter failure. Of the 291 B-17 Flying Fortresses the United States 8th Air Force sent on that mission, outright combat losses represented over 26% of the attacking force. Losses in aircrew were equally heavy, 22% of the bomber crews were lost.

FICTION On 22 October 1945, four entire bomber wings of B-17 Flying Fortresses escorted by eight squadrons of P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustang were dispatched to bomb the V-3 Production Plant in Peenemünde.Of the 376 B-17 Flying Fortresses that participated in Operation Cross Bolt, 159 were lost outright, another 67 damaged so badly that they had to be written off, and another 138 suffered varying degrees of battle damage. Only an extremely lucky dozen escaped unscathed. The 189 P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustang escort fared better. 69 were shot down in exchange for only 70 Fw190s and 4 Me 262s in the melee.

Garbled air crew eye witness accounts spoke of a previously unknown weapon of "mass destruction" that "rained fire and brimstone" on the bomber cells at the commencement of Luftwaffe's attack. Naturally, the 8th Air Force Commanders were too shell shock to pay much notice to such superstitious rumours.This was the darkest day for the mighty United States 8th Air Force indeed. Outright combat losses represented over 42% of the attacking force. Losses in aircrew were horrendous, over 1,800 men were lost out of 3,950, representing more than 45% of the bomber crews.

Edited by tropical thistle
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FACT In contrast, the RAF Bomber Command was forced by well organised German air defence to switch to night attack tactics earlier in the war. Initial results of nocturnal bombing were dismal - less than one bomb in ten fell within 5 miles of its intended target. As novel technology developed, new technical navigational aids were fielded to allow the bombers to at least find the target. By spring 1943, the Mosquito pathfinders coupled with Lancaster heavy bombers formed a formidable partnership that allowed RAF Bomber Command to conduct precision night bombing anywhere in the vast German heartland.

FICTION On the night of 24 October, the RAF bombed the V-3 Production Plant in Peenemünde after the American’s failed attempt two days ago. Mosquito pathfinders from the No. 8 Group flew ahead of the main force to mark the targets with sky marking flares. The main bombing force of Lancaster heavy bombers was supported by the No. 100 Group of Mosquitoes specialising in the black art of electronic warfare and night fighter countereasures.

All appeared "normal” as the RAF armada ingressed the Baltic Sea. The RAF bomber stream was detected by Himmelbette ground radar station in occupied Norway. The Luftwaffe Nachtjagd was forewarned and an ambush was set...

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FACT The RAF Bomber Command’s night raid can be equally dangerous. Many airmen did not return from their missions.

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FICTION The RAF Bomber Command’s night raid on 24October did not fare better. Almost a third of the 219 Lancaster heavy bombers did not return. Another 29 were shot up so badly that the airframe had to be written off. The Mosquitoes fared much better, all but 8 returned safely to their bases.

Again the RAF bomber crew spoke of "mass chaos" after being “hit by hails of comets from all directions”. The Mosquitoes tasked with anti-night fighter patrol did not have much luck. They detected sporadic return on their air intercept radar sets, but the contacts seemed to move away at “unbelievably high speed”. They knew of no known Luftwaffe night fighter capable of that kind of performance.

The consolation or Operation Cross Bolt was some bombers escaped the Luftwaffe onslaught and managed to drop their load over the target. A post strike photo recon seemed to be in order...

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i wish i could work out how you are combining those two sets... A10 engines on the UhU? the UhU radar on the A10 (not WWII engines tho)....

REALLY looking forward to how you combine 2 kits from completely different eras into 1 kit......

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Was enjoying the back-story episodes but the kit parts are adding a new and welcome dimension to this thread. As Rob says, intrigued to see how these two come together.

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Der Führer is well know for his interest in the okkult.

The authoritative trilogy of "Archaeology from the Antiquities" by Prof. Indiana Jones recorded the obsession of the Nazi Ahnenerbe organisation to find evidence of anthropological, cultural and historical dominance of the Aryan race in the 1930s. Numerous archaeological expeditions sent out to various parts of the world by the Nazi Party however did not find any conclusive of the aim of proving the Aryan master race. 

They nevertheless uncovered inexplicable ancient technology from diverse places like Bolivia, Karelia, Mesopotamia, Tibet, etc. Some of these diverse ancient wisdom were incorporated into weapons research and development that resulted in some of the most advanced military technology to come out of WWII.

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The legend of the Haifisch...

In 1936, the Nazi narrowly missed out on the Ark of Covenant. The US Army intelligence took the Ark from the Germans but the Ark was never to be seen again. (See Prof Indiana Jones' seminal work for a more comprehensive account). 

Unknown to the rest of the world, Nazi archaeologist recovered the remains of a mysterious aircraft in February 1939 from preliminary archaeological digs in the deserts of Mesopotamia (the exact coordinates actually place the spot within present day State of Kuwait)

The aircraft carcass was nicknamed the "Schleifen Haifisch" aka "Sand Shark" because of the fearsome

sharkmouth paintwork. It was unlike any aircraft the archeologists have ever seen before! Even more intriguingly, it appear to be American! It seemed that someone or something have had a shot at the plane because the airframe was peppered with holes like those made by a shotgun!

Fortunately for der vaderland, although the team leader was not a great archeologist, he was an astute man who knew he had stumbled onto something "big" - he was SS after all. So, the strange aircraft was quietly crated up and shipped back to Berlin in great secrecy. Back in Germany, Ernst Heinkel was given the honours of studying the strange contraption and replicating the technology he could gleam from it to further the Reich's war effort.

The first Heinkel product to benefit from the Sand Shark technology was the He 219 Uhu dedicated night fighter that first took to the air in November 1942. You could see the uncanny resemblance in the following photos retrieved from Heinkel's private archives.

Almostidenticalhorizontaltailstabiliser.jpg

Identicaltailplaneform.jpg

Uncannyresemblance-longslenderfuselage.jpg

Verysimilarwingspan.jpg

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Wasn't it speculated that there might have been a quantum singularity or some other weird irregularity in the Kuwait area in the early 90's

You knew of the missing A-10 as well?

OA-10A 76-0543 piloted by USAF Lt Col Jeffery Fox wa shot down by Iraqi Republican Guard SA-9 on 19 Feb 1991 62 nm north west of Kuwait City. Lt Col Fox ejected successfully and was captured as POW. The downed aircraft was however never found...

Now back to Doktor Ernst's patriotic work for the defence of the Reich... Replicating the Sand Shark however was not so straight forward. 

Whatwasintended.jpg

Der Führer saw Ernst's engineering mock up in a RLM presentation and literally blew his top!  

DerFuererobjects.jpg

You could clearly see why Hitler got so worked up... 

"Advanced jet propulsion engine or not, the Reich has no place for Mickey Mouse!" der Führer stormed out of the presentation. So, a chastised the good Doktor had to go back to the drawing board.

 

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You could clearly see why Hitler got so worked up...

"Advanced jet propulsion engine or not, the Reich has no place for Mickey Mouse!" der Führer stormed out of the presentation. So, a chastised the good Doktor had to go back to the drawing board.

:lol:

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Back at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in Warnemünde, Herr Doktor dispatched his chief designer, Dr. Siegfried Günter, to his new Heinkel-Süd facility in Schwechat in Austria with very specific instructions to “get rid of the Micky Mouse ears and figure out somewhere else to put the advanced fanjet propulsion units, don’t bother to come back if you fail!”

Doktor Siegfried got back to the drawing board...

Retaining the slick and elegant streamline fuselage of the Sand Shark from the desert of Mesopotamia, Siegfried came up with a more conventional signature Heinkel look.

ThislooksmuchmorelikeaHeinkel.jpg

Siegfried was however at a loss where to put those Micky Mouse ears. A perfectly logical solution would have been to place them in nacelles under the wings.  This would be too painful a reminder of the rival upstart Me 262 that stole the thunder of He 280 as Luftwaffe’s first operational jet fighter. It would be best not to remind Herr. Doktor Ernst...

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Thats a great coice of airframes to combine, looking forward to seeing how it developes.

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Surname begin with a "B" by any chance?

Nein. Not guilty.

On 28 October, a post strike recon flight was flown by a brand new Mosquito PR Mk. 34. All appeared routine on that flight until the unarmed aircraft was attacked by unseen assailant(s) from its 6 o'clock. The PR Mk. 34 was dashing across Bremenhaven homeward bound at a rarefied height of 35,000ft after a successful overflight of the target when something swooped down from high above and almost shot the wooden wonder out of the clear blue sky.

Fortunately, the very experienced pilot of the Mossie, a flamboyant Squadron Leader, Gordon Brown, DSO, DFC, with 8 confirmed kills under his belt no less, managed to nurse the tattered wooden kite to neutral Sweden. His rookie navigator, Anthony Blair, unfortunately did not survive the crash landing.

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