The Luftwaffe's Forgotten B-29 Killer - Blohm & Voss BV 155 

The B-29 actually did operate during WW2 in Europe. This subject has been covered in one of RU-vid's Histoy Guy or Mark Felton sites. At one point, the USAAF sent 3-4 B-29s to the UK ( an early prototype and a few YB-29s) as a PROPAGANDA ploy to make the Germans THINK the B-29 was coming into the European theatre. They flew a few 'easy' missions and returned to the US. The B-29s did not return until the late 1940s/early 1950s when the RAF operated a squadron of B-29 'Washingtons'. The B-29 was/is a very complex aircraft to support. The UK bases struggled with Lancasters and Lincolns .There wasn't enough technicians to maitain the pressurization system, remote gun controls etc in two theatres As for unreliable powerplants, lets say the CAF were very proficient with operating a 3-engine B-29.until they upgraded to newer model powerplants about 10 years ago How did the German military behave to this B-29 threat? Just look squandered resources of design time ,bickering aircraft companies, models that did not 'do'.. The USAAF got thei money's worth with this propagand.

- Excellent video. I'd just like to add that History of the German night fighter force, 1917-1945 by Aders, Gebhard mentions that the British also tried to mislead the Germans into thinking that they would be bombing from the stratosphere at night in order to misdirect German efforts. The night fighter that resulted from that was probably the Ju 388J1 with BMW 8101TJ-1, TJ-2 or TQ engines. Service ceiling about 44,000ft. There was also the Ju 88J3 with Jumo 222E/F (back on the production program) with a speed of over 430-444 (depending on radar) but at slightly lower service ceiling. The Ju 88G7 due to its two stage supercharged Jumo 213E engines also had capability. -In regard to the The Me 109 ground looping problem you mentioned. It was solved in early-mid 1944 when aircraft with extended tail yokes began to appear. In the 3 point sitting attitude of 13.5 degrees propeller circulation caused and p-factor caused one wing to stall ahead of the other causing ground looping. The extended yoke changed the angle to about 12 degrees. It appeared in retractoable form on the Me 109K4 but was common in Me 109G10, G14 and even G6 since it was interchangeable. -With the BV.155 service ceiling of 55,565ft the B-29A, B36A were all within the interception envelope. The B-29 operated its first missions in June 4 1944 so the only thing the Germans had in service at that time was the Me 109G6ASM and Me 109G14AS with increased size super chargers. These had the performance needed to intercept a B-29 but it was still hard. -The Ta 152H could intercept the B-29 easily but it was a Feb 1945 aircraft. Me 262 as well.

dont sweat the haters, all engagement is good engagement as far as the algorithm is concerned.

I think your choice of words could have been better at the start of the video. Most people only watch the first 30 seconds and start bitching ! Watching the whole video it makes sense. Thank you.

EXCELLENT look at B-29 Killer.....Thanks from an very Old fighter pilot....Shoe

Blohm & Voss is apparently german for Stranger & Weirder.

And after finding the weirdest box possible, they say they need to redesign the box because the previous one doesn't work.

Typical..they built ships..so..like britains tanks designed by locomotive bolt and rivet heavy-handed engineers, u get crazy bat shit crazy, looney toon idea, most times, but what a child would imagine ideas😂blohm and Voss musta let the children play while the adults meth’d away considering their looney ideas near 44/45 trying to avoid the front, I wudda thought bat shit too😊

Somebody was sabotaging the war effort.. there's no way they were serious.

..keep studying, kind...

But their seaplanes were amazing.

Factssss

Whenever I see a B&V design, I just say "Yesss" and don't try to bother to ask.. Just kidding, love the designs

That's what I was thinking too. Your comment beat me to it.

Bikini island . ….. a nice place too …

Let’s not forget the cretinous pronunciation of “Spee”

Messing up one Graf (count) with another Graf.... 😅

Die Admiral Graf Spee, ein Panzerschiff hat sich auf Befehl ihres Kommandanten Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorff selbst Versenkt.

The camel was never designed as a B-29 killer...unlike the BV155

The Ta 152 H0 and H1 used the Jumo 213E1 engine and the Fw 190D12/13 used the Jumo 213F engine which was the same engine apart from the lack of inter-cooler and he need to use higher octane C3 fuel. the Jumo 213EB had intercooling and could be fitted to both the Ta 152H and Fw 190D12/13. With this engine the Fw 190D12/D13 EB was expected to achieved 488mph and the Ta 152H EB 472mph but without needing GM-1 nitrous oxide.

Not to mention the 152 had a 30 mm cannon with two 20 mm. The Smithsonian Air and Space museum has a Ta 152 on display.

The Ta 152 , with its high speed & high altitude capability could have been a serious contender against Allied planes, but as usual for the Luftwaffe at this stage of the war, came out too late & in too small a numbers.

furthermore the Bf 109 H. 14.000 meters.

@@laurencek.1580 its not on display now.

Still has armor plates in yard for Bismark

That really means a lot, I appreciate that!

I agree with those compliments! Good pronunciation, clear speech, good tempo. Very easy to understand, even for a Swede like me. Interesting subject, too ! One comment: To the best of my knowledge, V in German is pronounced like F in English. 15:56 15:56

AHA! So JUST an amored boat Graf Spee was.... Naaah...do better - pølsetysker 😛 NB There was no carrier!

…right, Graf Zeppelin was not completed. Not sure what your comment regarding Graf Spee means.. Panzerschiff is the German designation for the class

@@pegamini7582 Why - Thank you :-) Was it: "Pølsetysker" you didn't get?

Makes you wonder what else the narrator got wrong . . .

If you pay attention very carefully, when I mistakenly say Graf Spee an enormous text comes on screen saying *Graf Zeppelin.

Technology aside though, can you imagine emotionally the burden put on German interceptor pilots? They knew they were massively outnumbered, but since those bombers were almost always going after civilian rather than military targets, every bomber that you let through is going to be dropping bombs on women and children down below. It must have been nerve wracking as there really was no way to "win" as even one bomber that makes it through is one too many. :(

@@BoopSnoot I know, as far as nations go, there were no “good guys” in WW2. All sides participated in horrific and inhuman military campaigns and if the war had gone the other way, the Allies would have been charged as war criminals. I don’t want to think about what the world would have looked like had the Axis powers won, but there was more than enough blood on everybody’s hands to go around. Of course if Trump is able to jerrymander his way into office again (with the help of the sickest and most comically corrupt Supreme Court this country has ever seen - just recently they rolled back “protected” status on our nations wetlands, which are already endangered) with an electoral win/popular loss we may see what that world might have looked like. Only with him and Putin instead of Hitler and Mussolini.

Definitely, I'll pop the 152 on the list!

The BV155 is in storage at the Smith Air and Space

You are right!! The B 29s were only used over Japan during the war. That's why I stopped watching at 0:26.

Look at the pinned comment, or my response to other 10 comments say this. I never NEVER said that B-29s were used in Europe, only that the Germans THOUGHT they would be. Please actually watch the video before making such comments.@@ronaldtillberry3253

Actually, there were four in England, showing the high commands. B-29 was technically going to replaced the B-17 but B-17 was showing better results in bombing missions. Interesting, while these B-29s at one air field, a German aero photo reconnaissance photo capture the B-29 by accident. Germany had no idea what they were looking but knew that B-29 where huge.

The B-29s in England in 1944 were put there to make the Germans think they were about to be used in Europe. This was not the event that introduced the B-29 to the Germans, they had known about it since late 1942, as well as some rough performance estimates. Regardless, this information was important, and therefore many people in the Luftwaffe would not have been aware of it. The reconnaissance pilot who photographed them likely didn't know what they were.@@stevekolarik2857

I believe some B-29s were sent to Europe a couple of years after the war, maybe at the time of the Berlin blockade.

Thankyou!

Smoke and mirrors

Unfortunately the narrator has difficulty differentiate between the number Zero and the letter o. 1o9 or 109 ? Sounds like he has been watching one too many Hollywood movies.

I doubt if the airfields were any where near the width they are depicted in the simulator videos.

Good data.

Yeah, but the Me262 engines generally fell apart somewhere between 10 and 50 hours from being built. If you throttled them hard, that number dropped drastically. And 'fell apart' sometimes got rather explosive.

A situation similiar to Bismarck may have occured, where the ship could have achieved some decent feat only to be destroyed by an overwhelming response.

- I'd just like to add that History of the German night fighter force, 1917-1945 by Aders, Gebhard mentions that the British also tried to mislead the Germans into thinking that they would be bombing from the stratosphere at night in order to misdirect German efforts. The night fighter that resulted from that was probably the Ju 388J1 with BMW 8101TJ-1, TJ-2 or TQ engines. Service ceiling about 44,000ft. There was also the Ju 88J3 with Jumo 222E/F (back on the production program) with a speed of over 430-444 (depending on radar) but at slightly lower service ceiling. The Ju 88G7 due to its two stage supercharged Jumo 213E engines also had capability. -In regard to the The Me 109 ground looping problem you mentioned. It was solved in early-mid 1944 when aircraft with extended tail yokes began to appear. In the 3 point sitting attitude of 13.5 degrees propeller circulation caused and p-factor caused one wing to stall ahead of the other causing ground looping. The extended yoke changed the angle to about 12 degrees. It appeared in retractoable form on the Me 109K4 but was common in Me 109G10, G14 and even G6 since it was interchangeable. -With the BV.155 service ceiling of 55,565ft the B-29A, B36A were all within the interception envelope. The B-29 operated its first missions in June 4 1944 so the only thing the Germans had in service at that time was the Me 109G6ASM and Me 109G14AS with increased size super chargers. These had the performance needed to intercept a B-29 but it was still hard. -The Ta 152H could intercept the B-29 easily but it was a Feb 1945 aircraft. Me 262 as well.

Har, har, har, that’s a snorter but it’s plane to see hart was in the right place. 😂

You know that's not a "warbird" It's a joke, it never saw any operational service, It wouldn't even exist in War Thnuder if it wasn't for Ito Kazunori's series of Luft '46 models in MSFS2004. These oddities, which like most of these one off's, static models and paper designs, will only fly in hyperbole sims.

That B-29 was bombing Japan and landed on Sakhalen island USSR

Thanks and welcome!

Sorry for the mistake, thanks for the clarification.

Perhaps all u ppl talkn about details shud start ur own site m spew correct details every time u post an article

Und war ein Schlachtschiff.

Panzerkreuzer oder schwerer Kreuzer@@stefanrath664

@@stefanrath664 Panzerschiff.

Ok, we really need to clear things up. The US never planned to use B-29s over Europe, and I never said as such. People are misinterpreting the video, what I said is that the Germans THOUGHT that it was to be used over Europe, hence why they felt the need to urgently develop a modern interceptor. I do have citations, in the description, which back up this point. The reason the 155 was developed was because the Luftwaffe thought the B-29 was going to be used to bomb Germany. In terms of saying a turbocharger was mechanically drive, this was a mistake on my part. Thanks for the comment and support.

​@@aviationdeepdiveYou are likely to find wartime and just-post wartime sources using the term "supercharger" in reference to both exhaust driven and mechanically driven units. Throw in translation errors or preferences and you can only get so accurate. Thank you for sharing your video, I found it to be clear and informative.

Thankyou, I appreciate that @@mbryson2899

@@aviationdeepdive The US actually sent a B-29 to England with the express purpose of scaring the Germans into thinking it was going to be used in Europe in the hope that they'd waste money and precious development hours working on a defense against that. This occurred on March 11, 1944 at Glatton.

No idea how that one got past me... 😆

Thank you very much, your voice lines add a lot to the video! I agree, the 155C is quite interesting - some people online have actually made models of it which you can find, I think it looks quite cool - albeit very unusual. But of course being a 155 it'd be remiss if it didn't :)

That is what I was also thinking.

Thanks! I have used War Thunder so far, but will also use IL2

Muzzle velocity too low. Had to get very close and risk fire from the bombers. Less of a problem for the Me262 which'd whoosh past, but with just a few seconds to aim and fire. Me262 had many shortcomings... lack of speed brakes understandably unforeseen until first combats. And the engines were immature, not really reliable (actually dangerous) until the Jumo004B. But the 155 was a waste of engineering effort. Not just because the B29 wasn't a thing for Europe. Turbojets would outpace, not just in speed but also in terms of manufacture, being far less complex... and not demanding such high quality fuels.

I wish the video producers would be somewhat honest and more careful with the production of their videos

Yes you're right, silly technical error on my part.

Unless you’re Napier - who coupled the turbocharger turbine to the crankshaft to extract more power to drive the propeller…

​@@allangibson8494 Wright did that as well on the R-3350. It was called a Power Recovery Turbine.

@@fantabuloussnuffaluffagus The Napier Nomad didn’t have a gear between the compressor and the power turbine (it was basically a single shaft axial flow turboprop engine with the combustor replaced with a piston engine) but the concept was similar.

Supercharging is simply the effect of increasing airflow to the engine to boost performance at altitude. A supercharger can be mechanically driven or by a turbo or any combination thereof.

At least a cosmetic rebuild. It’ll never be safe to fly ever again, but a 1 of 1 , 80 year old prototype really shouldn’t be flown anyway…

Absolutely, just want to see it in all its glory, not tucked away gathering dust!!! Rather like the Ta152....Another absolute favourite. Just do the cosmetic and show it's grace and elegance. I'm sure some people would say no to a rebuild but what purpose do they serve rotting away unseen?

I'd really rather not!!!!

It is, hence the huge letters *Graf Zeppelin on screen when I mistakenly said Graf Spee

Patton-Patton-Patton 🤪

The Pershing is the Pershing@@TheSaturnV

@@TheSaturnV Pershing Pershing Pershing !

Me 262 ain't fighting at 16,000 meters.

The 262 was brilliant but suffered from a lot of issues and would have been difficult to scale, particularly late in the war.

"rather insane" sums up the whole German approach to the war - makes you wonder how people renowned for good organisation etc got so screwed - but hang-on, Hitler was "in charge"... oops

I cannot document this, but Some where I saw or read the the US intentionally sent at least one B29 to England to get the Germans to spent time ,effort, money, material on just such a fighter as is discussed here.

I have lost count of the comments that have made this point so I'm copy and pasting this response to all of them: I never said the B-29 was used over Europe, I said the Germans THOUGHT that it would be used over Europe, and it was developed to counter the B-29 bombing raids that they THOUGHT were coming. 4:34 , 11:57

Not "sunk at the battle"...her crew SCUTTLED it...!

@jenniferkelly6931 yes that's right. It was still sunk.

The B-29s sent to Europe in March 1944 were meant to trick the Germans that they were about to be employed. This was NOT the event that caused the Germans to be aware of the B-29s existence. They had known the B-29 existed since late 1942, and had some rough performance estimates about it that scared them enough to prompt development of the interceptor. It's important to remember the Luftwaffe knew about the B-29 when they saw it in 1944, the purpose of that stunt was to make them think they were about to be used.

Seems quite a bizarre take to 'wish' the war had continued, it would have resulted in the death and suffering of millions more people.

@@aviationdeepdive Get back to me when you find your sense of humour.