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00:00By the middle of 1944, Allied forces were regularly flying raids of 1,000 bombers over Nazi Germany.
00:30Escorted by powerful long-range fighters like the P-51 Mustang, the German Luftwaffe could put up little resistance to these vast air armadas.
00:40But in July 1944, a new German fighter appeared in the skies.
00:46Capable of flying at over 100 miles per hour faster than the Mustang, and armed with four 30-millimeter cannons, it could outmaneuver the escorts and destroy a bomber in a single pass.
00:58The new German fighter, which put fear into the Allied pilots and made the German Luftwaffe feel invincible, was the jet-propelled Messerschmitt 262.
01:08The first time I saw a German jet, the Me 262, I could hardly believe it, how fast it was.
01:18At this time, we were again not the hunted, but the hunters.
01:25Using extraordinary archive film and colour re-enactments, Battle Stations dives into the high-speed world of the race to get the first jet fighter ever to fly in combat.
01:40Ironically, the origins of the fearsome Messerschmitt 262 were born out of a peace treaty.
01:52Following its defeat in World War I, Germany was forced by the Allies to sign an agreement which banned them from developing further conventional aircraft technologies.
02:01But rocket and jet propulsion were never mentioned.
02:07In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler began to build his vision for Nazi Germany.
02:12That vision included the most powerful air force in the world.
02:15To achieve this, the air force must have speed.
02:22At that time, it was realised that to fly faster meant flying higher where the air is thinner.
02:27But the higher a plane flies, the harder it is for a propeller to draw it through the air.
02:32At the German University of Göttingen, a young engineer named Hans von Ohein began development work on a turbojet engine.
02:46A brilliant student, Hans von Ohein was only 21 years old when he first conceived the idea of a jet engine.
02:53He was a technician with an inquisitive mind. He was very good at theoretical problems. And he studied physics as well.
03:07Encouraged by his professor, the young engineer began to build a working prototype.
03:12Meanwhile, in Britain, totally unaware of what was happening in Germany,
03:17a 26-year-old Royal Air Force pilot named Frank Whittle was developing a gas turbine engine.
03:23In 1932, he filed a patent on the world's first jet engine.
03:29In this early film, Frank Whittle himself explains the principles of his engine.
03:34Look, this represents a centrifugal-type compressor.
03:38I use this to pull in air at the front and to compress it into combustion chambers like this,
03:44where the injection and burning of fuel heats and expands the air
03:48and gives it enough energy to drive a turbine which drives the compressor.
03:53This design was to become the world's first fully working jet engine.
03:57A high-velocity propelling jet.
04:00But Whittle found it difficult to get his design taken seriously by the British military establishment.
04:05The scientific advice at that time, and i.e. by the people in power, was it couldn't work.
04:11It required just too much power to make it work.
04:14And the officials at the ministry listened to that advice,
04:17and Whittle was very much seen as a bit of an upstart
04:20that was trying to sort of make his name and push forward an idea
04:23that was not really achievable at that time.
04:27The delays which were to hamper Whittle
04:29were to prove a distinct advantage for German jet engine development.
04:33By 1935, Hans von O'Hein had developed a test engine,
04:38and on the advice of his professor, approached the aircraft manufacturer,
04:42Ernst Heinkel, for financial support.
04:45Heinkel was known as a patron of radical concepts,
04:48especially those which would lead to higher speeds
04:51and enable him to build the fastest aeroplane in the world.
04:54Impressed, Heinkel recognized the enormous potential of such an engine
05:00and ordered the construction of a full-scale power plant.
05:06O'Hein and his team of engineers accepted the task
05:09and set to work on what would become the HES-3 jet engine.
05:13Back in Britain, Whittle had finally managed to raise enough funds
05:20to establish a small company.
05:24Located in the little Leicestershire town of Lutterworth,
05:27he called it Power Jets.
05:30In 1937, he tested his engine for the first time.
05:36Whittle had all sorts of problems
05:38when the engine on powering up ran away with itself
05:41and just kept going and going, the thrust built up,
05:44and Whittle just stood there and waited for it to go bang,
05:46because he was just transfixed by it.
05:48He also was enthralled by what was happening.
05:51This was his baby,
05:52and he didn't want it to break, fall apart.
05:54He was looking after it,
05:55although everyone else sensibly left the area very quickly.
06:07Despite many setbacks and failures,
06:09Whittle finally succeeded in controlling his engine.
06:13But the British government was still not convinced,
06:15preferring instead conventional designs for aircraft and engines.
06:21Whittle faced resistance to his invention throughout the 1930s.
06:25Previous experiments with jet propulsion indicated
06:28that turboprops would be heavy, expensive, and very unreliable.
06:33The British Air Ministry and the Royal Aircraft establishment
06:36saw that turbojets were not going to be a viable alternative
06:39for aerial propulsion until 10 or 15 years down the road.
06:45Throughout this time,
06:46Frank Whittle did not know that the Germans were developing a jet engine.
06:50So good was the secrecy surrounding the project,
06:53little was known about what was being developed at all.
06:56Whittle's patents, which were released in 1935,
07:00and were published in Germany, in German,
07:03in the technical magazines at that time,
07:05made available to Von O'Hain
07:07a load of material that Whittle had previously had as a patent.
07:11And I think it would be fair to say at that time
07:13that Von O'Hain would have gone down the road of reading these.
07:16He wouldn't have copied it,
07:17but he would certainly have read it and interpreted it
07:19into the designs he was involved in.
07:21As the clouds of war gathered on the horizon,
07:26the Nazi regime had become more determined than ever
07:29to develop faster forms of propulsion for its Luftwaffe.
07:36In 1938, the Reich Air Ministry issued a specification
07:41to the German aviation industry
07:43for a single-seat turbojet fighter.
07:46Spurred on by this directive,
07:50Heinkel's team pushed ahead,
07:52designing an aircraft to be powered by O'Hain's jet engines.
07:57From the drawing boards of twin brothers Siegfried and Walter Gunter,
08:00the first practical jet-powered aircraft was to take flight.
08:04It was called the HE-178.
08:07On August the 27th, 1939,
08:12one week before the outbreak of World War II,
08:15the little Heinkel 178 took to the air.
08:18The Germans had succeeded in being first in getting a jet airborne.
08:23But the race for the first jet fighter had only just begun.
08:28On September the 3rd, 1939,
08:39the Second World War began.
08:41And over the next few weeks, Germany swept all before her.
08:48Flushed with the success of having just flown the world's first jet aircraft,
08:52it was two months before Ernst Heinkel and Hans von O'Hain
08:56were able to demonstrate their plane to the Nazi government.
09:02But with its army conquering all,
09:04and with its conventional air force becoming masters of the skies,
09:07the Germans had suddenly lost interest in jet power.
09:11The HE-178's short but glorious life was over,
09:17and was destined to spend the rest of its days in a Berlin museum.
09:22But there were others in Germany who did not believe
09:24that the race for the first jet fighter was over.
09:28Quietly working on his own jet aircraft design that would become the ME-262,
09:33was a brilliant 41-year-old aeronautical engineer called Wilhelm Messerschmitt.
09:38Throughout the 30s, Messerschmitt had been a designer and manufacturer of bombers and fighters.
09:44A favourite with the Nazi hierarchy,
09:46he was a workaholic and created loyalty from all that knew him.
09:51He was very artistic.
09:53At home over the course of a weekend,
09:56he could design an aircraft part on an A4 sheet of paper,
09:59and then the drawing would be ready to be taken into the workshop right away.
10:04His designs were that good.
10:07He was a very intuitive person,
10:11but he would lose his temper a lot.
10:14Yet whilst the German authorities appeared to have lost interest in their jet industry,
10:22in Britain, Frank Whittle's fortunes had changed.
10:25After a long and frustrating battle,
10:28the British Air Ministry finally agreed to finance and build a factory for him
10:32to manufacture his jet engine.
10:34The Gloucester Aircraft Company was given the contract to produce an experimental plane
10:40that would prove Whittle's engines.
10:42It was called the E-28.
10:44Finally, on May the 15th, 1941,
10:51twenty months after Hans von O'Heinz HE-178 had first flown,
10:56the Gloucester E-28 took to the air.
10:59The first flight to the E-28 was a significant event,
11:04because obviously this was the final proof of the aircraft's operational use.
11:10Whittle, overnight, became the success.
11:16He'd achieved something that previously people thought wouldn't happen,
11:19an aircraft flying with no propeller.
11:21And they were suddenly giving him congratulations,
11:24well done, Frank, you know,
11:25and Frank Whittle turned around and said,
11:26well, it was bloody well designed to fly.
11:28Amongst all this excitement was visiting American Army Chief of Staff,
11:33General Henry Hap Arnold.
11:35He was convinced that this British invention could help to springboard America
11:40into the race for the jet.
11:42He was very surprised about the fact that the British had a jet-engined aircraft flying,
11:49and he could only speculate that the Germans were at least as far
11:53in their development of a jet aircraft as well.
11:55So, enthusiastic about the new jet technology
11:59and wanting to emphasize the U.S. need to catch up,
12:03Arnold negotiated with the British government
12:05to bring an example of Whittle's engine to the United States
12:08so the American turbojet program could begin.
12:12Britain's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill,
12:14was also eager to get the U.S. committed to the British war effort
12:18and agreed to hand over Whittle's jet designs.
12:21Churchill's attitude was,
12:23how can we involve America in our fight against the dictatorships?
12:29And he's seen the fact that we would give this very latest development of technology
12:35to the Americans freely,
12:36would help them appreciate the sort of problems we were in
12:40and later on maybe come down on our side.
12:43Hastily, arrangements were made to box up Whittle's engine parts and plans.
12:48amidst top secrecy,
12:51this precious cargo was loaded into a bomber
12:53and flown to Bowling Field in Washington, D.C.
13:01It was then transported to the General Electric plant in Massachusetts.
13:09I'll give you the Whittle engine.
13:11Unlike the small scale of development the Whittle faced in Great Britain,
13:14the American effort in modifying and improving his engine
13:17in the United States was on a large scale.
13:20At the General Electric plant,
13:22the company used its experience in heat-resistant and high-strength alloys
13:26to modify and improve what would eventually become the General Electric IA engines.
13:30I cannot overemphasize the secrecy and the importance of this work.
13:35We know that both the Italians and the Germans are working on jets.
13:39I hardly need tell you that they must not win the race.
13:45General, given unlimited priority, we will have the first unit running on test in six months.
13:52Meanwhile, in Germany, despite Nazi indifference to the jet,
13:58Heinkel's team continued to develop a jet fighter.
14:01On March the 30th, 1941, the Heinkel 280 had its first test flight.
14:07Triumphantly, Hans von O'Hein was amongst those who reveled in this momentous occasion.
14:15Powered by his jet engines, the plane was a superb design.
14:19Capable of speed in excess of 500 miles per hour,
14:22it was light years ahead of all its competitors.
14:26The test flight was a huge personal success for Heinkel and von O'Hein,
14:30but sadly, their jet fighter was not destined to be a winner.
14:35At the core of Heinkel's problem with getting contracts for operational jet and rocket aircraft
14:40was his inability to play by the rules of the Reich Air Ministry.
14:43But on the other hand, Messerschmitt was able to play by the rules
14:46and was awarded with substantial contracts.
14:51As 1941 drew to a close, Britain, America and Germany were all committed to jet development.
14:57But for America, another event made the race more intense.
15:04On December the 7th, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
15:10America's entry into World War II brought a much-needed lifeline to the Allies
15:14in the battle against Germany.
15:17The full-blown race for the first jet fighter was now on.
15:22In Britain, the government had finally given the go-ahead for Frank Whittle
15:26to develop a jet engine for a fighter.
15:29In America, General Electric was pulling out all the stops.
15:33Their promise to produce an engine within six months was on target.
15:38And in Germany, Hitler now saw the Me 262 as a wonder weapon
15:43and pushed Messerschmitt for an early completion to get the plane into production.
15:47They wanted us to get a move on and granted permission to any of Hermeserschmitt's proposals.
15:55The German jet aircraft industry was now moving forward at full speed.
16:00Research and innovation was everywhere.
16:03Designers and engineers came up with concepts that were years in advance of their time.
16:07Wind tunnel tests into swept wings and fuselage configurations
16:12enabled the German planemakers to be way ahead of the Allies.
16:16It was a mixture of calculations,
16:20calculate this and that, and comparisons,
16:23and carrying out tests until you got the feeling that this was it.
16:27And then we built it and tried it and measured it and it was fine.
16:37On July the 18th, 1942, the Me 262 made its debut.
16:43But the first flight of the day was not without its problems.
16:47We ran into difficulties when the plane's tail would not lift up.
16:56So we ran tests and discovered that if the pilot braked gently at speed,
17:02then the tail would lift up.
17:08It worked.
17:10When the aircraft reached 120 miles per hour,
17:12the pilot touched the brakes, the nose dropped, the tail came up,
17:17and the Me 262 took to the air.
17:25The performance of the Me 262 in its test flight was incredible.
17:30On its second flight it climbed to 11,500 feet
17:34and reached a speed of 450 miles per hour.
17:37Already it was faster than any Allied planes in existence.
17:40Soon, German pilots would be flying at speeds that others could only have dreamt of.
17:49But would the Me 262 be the answer to Hitler's dreams?
17:54The Me 262's jet engines could now thrust it at speeds of over 550 miles per hour.
18:01It could simply outfly anything in the sky.
18:04Armed with four 30mm cannons,
18:06each was capable of delivering over 80 explosive shells into the enemy.
18:12Future plans were also to include 24 wing-slung air-to-air rockets.
18:18Nicknamed the Swallow,
18:20this awesome machine heralded the dawning of a new age of battle.
18:24And for Hitler's Luftwaffe,
18:26it was hoped that when it finally met the Allied forces,
18:29its hell would be unleashed.
18:39The successful test flight of the German Me 262
18:42had at last proved to the Luftwaffe generals
18:45this was the fighting machine that could win the war.
18:48But a lot of development work was still needed
18:49before it could become the all-conquering answer to Nazi dreams.
18:57In America too, scientists were working around the clock.
19:01GEC had successfully completed trials with their jet engines,
19:05and the Bell Aircraft Corporation was contracted to supply an experimental plane to test them.
19:09On October the 1st, 1942, amidst great secrecy,
19:18America's first jet aircraft, called the XP-59A,
19:22was flown at Murak Dry Lake in California.
19:25But the tests were disappointing.
19:28The aircraft could only manage a maximum speed of 390 miles per hour.
19:32This speed was below many of the German and Allied piston-powered planes.
19:38But the XP-59A did play an important part in the race,
19:42and was to be the foundation of America's future jet aircraft industry.
19:49The American turbojet development program preceded a slow pace
19:53because the overall objective of the American military
19:56was to win the war with the weapons at hand.
19:58The construction in large numbers of conventional piston-engine aircraft,
20:01such as the North American P-51 Mustang and the Boeing B-17,
20:06those were seen as the weapons that would win the war.
20:09So looking at jet technology,
20:11it was seen as a long-term development.
20:15Yet in Germany, the Me 262 was given top priority,
20:19as it went through a period of intense evaluation.
20:24In May 1943, the Luftwaffe's most famous heiress, Adolf Galland,
20:28flew the Me 262 for the first time.
20:33After the flight, he was amazed, saying,
20:36this is not a step forward, this is a leap.
20:39He also described the flight as like being pushed by angels.
20:43Hitler, too, was becoming more and more excited about the plane's performance.
20:52With his Reich now coming under daily attacks from Allied bombers,
20:56he ordered the Me 262 to be put into full-scale production,
21:00not only as a fighter, but also as a bomber.
21:03He felt that if he had a thousand jet bombers,
21:05they could halt or at least delay the expected Allied invasion.
21:12Messerschmitt had been asked if you could drop bombs with it.
21:16Of course you could drop bombs with it,
21:18but that was not what it had been built for.
21:21And two bombs were only fitted underneath because we'd been ordered to do so.
21:25Some blamed Hitler for it, and others tried to put the blame elsewhere.
21:30It was all nonsense.
21:34The confusion in trying to build fighter versions
21:37and modify the plane to be a bomber would be a disastrous mistake.
21:47On June the 6th, 1944, the Allies successfully landed on the beaches of France.
21:52The invasion of Europe had begun.
21:56Vainly, the Germans tried to throw the invaders back,
21:59but with the Allies having complete air superiority
22:02and with no operational Me 262s available,
22:05the Germans were forced to retreat.
22:10On hearing this, it is reported that Hitler flew into a rage,
22:15and two days after D-Day, he announced a Fuhrer Bethel,
22:17an order of the leader, which demanded the Me 262 be made only as a bomber.
22:26Despite Hitler's orders,
22:29limited numbers of the fighter version did come off the production line.
22:33They were quickly rushed to the training schools.
22:36Destined to be flown by the elite,
22:38it was here that the cream of the German Luftwaffe saw the Me 262 for the first time.
22:47We were surprised when we first saw it standing there.
22:50The guns were incredible.
22:52The training of these pilots was given top priority,
22:58but with the tide of war running against them,
23:00there was little time for classroom tactics.
23:03The training was very simple.
23:07Four half days of lessons.
23:10Then you had to do your first flight on your own,
23:13because the machines were single-seaters.
23:15We had to give our word that we would not damage the machines,
23:22otherwise we would be punished,
23:25or immediately sent back to the units we came from.
23:28With that warning uppermost in their minds,
23:32even for these experienced pilots,
23:34the first flights were always nerve-wracking.
23:36The sergeant who was on the wing explained to me the interior of the plane,
23:43and especially what to look out for.
23:46For example, the gas for the engine was only stepped up very slowly,
23:51otherwise the engine would stall.
23:54The turbine engine had to get used to the speed very slowly,
23:59so one had to be very careful with that.
24:01Once in the air, the experience of flying an ME 262 surpassed all their expectations.
24:11For any pilot passionate about flying,
24:16it was a most extraordinary experience.
24:18Especially so because the roaring engine was not in front of your nose.
24:22All the noise was behind you.
24:24It was a wonderful feeling.
24:25The speed was really enormous, and the flying characteristics were so advantageous.
24:36You actually had a sense of confidence in that machine.
24:42Although the German pilots would praise the take-off and speed of the plane,
24:46it was the landing that gave them problems.
24:49In a 109 plane, one could just switch off the engine and drift down slowly.
24:55But in this plane, it wasn't possible at all.
24:59I was travelling at a speed of 400 or 500 miles per hour and couldn't reduce it.
25:05The plane just wouldn't descend.
25:07I looked at the altitude meter and had to fly in circles
25:11until I finally reached an altitude of 3,000 feet, then asked for permission to land.
25:16I lowered the landing gear and slowly approached the runway.
25:19Finally, I was able to land safely and was greatly relieved.
25:24In contrast to my usual take-off and landings, I was completely soaked with sweat.
25:30Initially, it was planned that only fighter aces would fly the plane.
25:38But four years of war had taken its toll on the Luftwaffe's finest.
25:41So, regular pilots, some with as little as 10 hours flying experience, were drafted in.
25:48But for inexperienced pilots, the Me 262 was not an easy plane to fly.
25:53And over 200 pilots were killed in training alone.
25:56Of course, the first ones, to whom I count myself as well, we were the best.
26:05But those who followed us were often at the beginning of their pilot training
26:09and didn't cope with the machine.
26:12To put those people in the jet was totally irresponsible.
26:16We had huge losses there.
26:19By mid-1944, those pilots that had survived the training were sent to newly formed squadrons.
26:29Ground crews, too, were hastily recruited to service and maintain these new wonder weapons.
26:39Generally speaking, my experience was that the ground crew tried very hard
26:44to ensure that the planes were always ready for take-off.
26:46I did not get to know them well enough,
26:51because I always had to be ready for action
26:54and was waiting for an emergency take-off.
26:56Sometimes, that would not happen at all.
27:01Hence the saying,
27:03Half of one's life, one waits in vain.
27:05The waiting was short-lived.
27:08PHONE RINGS
27:11Yes, yes.
27:13Alarm!
27:15Alarm!
27:17Come!
27:19Yet the waiting was short-lived.
27:22With thousands of bombers now pounding Germany,
27:25every available pilot was thrown into action.
27:27Helm! Come, come!
27:29Really?
27:30Yes, good!
27:31Good!
27:32Good!
27:33Go, go, go!
27:34Good!
27:35Good!
27:37On July the 25th, 1944, an ME 262 became the first jet airplane to be used in combat,
27:44when it shot down a British photo-reconnaissance Mosquito flying over Munich.
27:48It now appeared that the race for the jet fighter had been won,
27:51and with it, the prize of victory in the skies,
27:53which was now within the Luftwaffe's grasp.
27:54During the late summer of 1944,
27:55more and more German Luftwaffe pilots were taking their new ME 262 jet fighters into battle.
27:58The ME 262 became the first jet airplane to be used in combat,
28:00when it shot down a British photo-reconnaissance Mosquito flying over Munich.
28:03It now appeared that the race for the jet fighter had been won,
28:07and with it, the prize of victory in the skies,
28:10which was now within the Luftwaffe's grasp.
28:17During the late summer of 1944,
28:19more and more German Luftwaffe pilots were taking their new ME 262 jet fighters
28:23into battle.
28:25It seemed as though, finally, they now had a weapon
28:27that could beat the Allied bombers and their high-speed escorts.
28:35There were two groups of four Mustangs in close formation,
28:39and they were so incredibly confident.
28:41They hadn't seen me, and that was a mistake.
28:48I actually felt sorry for the guys as they hadn't noticed me.
28:51I came from deep, low right, and flew in there.
28:55We had four 30mm guns, the Mark 108.
28:59That was an incredible fire.
29:01Because the whole thing presented itself to me
29:04as a long, outstretched point you couldn't actually miss.
29:07And then two fighters dropped down.
29:10With one, I saw a parachute.
29:13With the other one, I didn't.
29:15That was such a case.
29:17By late 1944, the 262s were attacking the Allied bombers with devastating effect.
29:27Allied fighter and bomber crews were unsure how to deal with them.
29:31Their speed and firepower were just too potent.
29:33He's so close to the ground, we couldn't get a shot.
29:37And then he goes, shoo, like, bye, fellas.
29:44And I just said to the rest of the crew, we just saw a real pilot.
29:49We were jumped by an ME 262.
29:54And only got a very short glimpse of him because he made an attack from about 3 o'clock high.
30:02And he came down through the group and he went by so fast we couldn't hardly see him.
30:08It was really a shock because it was like nothing we'd seen before.
30:12The German pilots had not felt such supremacy in the air since the early days of the war.
30:19They felt sure that this incredible plane would turn the tide.
30:23I flew to the area around Dresden and went down to 16,000 feet.
30:30And I spotted two fighter planes.
30:32As they were above me, I increased my altitude and I took one of the fighter planes in my sights.
30:40In those days, the machine guns and cannons were automatically switched on.
30:45I had four cannons and I gave off a burst of fire.
30:49And before I knew it, the pilot had parachuted out of his plane.
30:54Where I had hit him, I did not know.
30:57It was all very new, much too fast.
31:00And then suddenly, I saw the second fighter plane in front of me.
31:07And I fired at it.
31:09And it went down, surrounded by smoke that looked like a flag.
31:16But it was the bombers that were the Me 262's real prey.
31:21Luftwaffe pilot Alfred Arms was on a routine patrol when he came across a B-17 on its 13th mission.
31:27Everyone quickly chose a plane without having any great discussions about whether they were going to take this or the other plane.
31:35Instead, you would say, the best position for me is the one in the middle.
31:39After all, there were enough planes in the sky, which made it easy to pick one.
31:43The rear gunner in that particular B-17 was 19-year-old Craig Bennett.
31:50He came so fast.
31:51All you had time was just pull the triggers and let the guns fire.
31:57And aim them as best you could at this thing.
32:00I was aiming at a fortress when suddenly ahead of me there was a large wall of fire, into which the captain of my squadron and others disappeared.
32:14The first plane was the leader and he hit our plane.
32:20And the plane just blew up. The whole plane exploded. His plane and ours.
32:31I was able to fly over the wall of fire.
32:35It turned out that the fortress had exploded and taken two adjacent planes with her.
32:40That's how big the explosion was.
32:48And the tail broke off and started falling.
32:54And the rest of the plane was gone.
32:57I was the only one that got out of my aircraft.
33:01Craig Bennett was to spend the rest of the war as a POW.
33:05Yet it was not all a one-sided fight.
33:11Once they got over the shock of these new wonder weapons, the Allied pilots slowly began to learn how to deal with the German jet.
33:18The first problem was how to overcome the huge speed disadvantage.
33:22The pilots found that when they put the Mustang into a steep dive, their speed was the same as the Me 262.
33:28So I just bent the throttle as far as it could forward without going through the stop.
33:35And slowly, very, very slowly, started gaining a little on the guy because he was making little turns.
33:45Each time he turned a little bit, I'd get a little closer.
33:48I finally got up in range.
33:49And this guy was inexperienced, I'm sure, because when he saw the first tracers either go by him or hit his airplane, he made a turn.
34:00If he had put his nose down, hugged the ground, we probably never got him.
34:05And immediately, where we got in range, bam.
34:07The Allied pilots also found that the Me 262 did not respond as quick in a turn as propeller planes.
34:17This would have deadly consequences.
34:21I was on the inside of his circle and I was able to get a bead on him and shoot in front of him so he would fly into the bullets.
34:31But it was on takeoff and landing that the Me 262 was at its most vulnerable.
34:42Allied pilots lay in wait around the airfields.
34:45Hundreds of 262 pilots were to die in this way.
34:49The Americans changed their tactics to concentrate on all airfields where jet fighter units were stationed.
34:56This way, they were able to hit us when we were most vulnerable, during startup and landing.
35:06During takeoff, we did not have enough speed.
35:12And when landing, we had to reduce it.
35:16That was the problem.
35:17With the tide of war turning against them, the Me 262 superiority in the skies was over.
35:30More and more planes were being shot down and fear was ever present in the remaining pilots' minds.
35:37The thoughts would only enter your head at a later stage, when within the squadron, nearly every third or fourth person had to be replaced every week.
35:47The longer the war lasted, the more this occurred.
35:54I believe this led to the end of the war.
35:57Furious that the new jet squadrons were being wasted by the German High Command,
36:04and under insistence of General Galland and other famous air aces,
36:08Hitler reluctantly allowed every 20th Me 262 to be built as a fighter.
36:12It was a completely wrong thing to do, and some of the bombers were used as night fighters.
36:21They had totally misjudged the situation.
36:24One can only assume that they were following their own delusions.
36:27The infamous Fuhrer Befer, the order of the leader, was at last rescinded in late 1944.
36:36Hitler finally ordered that all Me 262s should now be built as fighters.
36:42But with the Allies marching into Germany, was it too little, too late?
36:47By early 1945, and with nearly all her factories destroyed by the Allies, Germany was finding it almost impossible to produce the jet fighters so desperately needed.
37:04So a novel solution was brought about.
37:10The bombing did slow everything down.
37:13But if we had enough material, we could have manufactured the required numbers by, let's say, 43 or 44.
37:21In the end, we got used to it, or went into the woods, where we put up large shelters, camouflaged tents.
37:36Manufactured throughout Germany, sections of the Me 262 were then delivered under cover of darkness, by truck, horse and cart, and even bicycle, to be fully assembled in forests.
37:46Over 800 were to be built in this way.
37:52But as more and more Me 262s were being destroyed by Allied fighters, so too were the cream of the German Luftwaffe.
38:01One day a plane came crashing down above me, and my plane caught fire.
38:07I had to bail out.
38:09That's how I had to land, with my parachute.
38:12And that was the end of the war for me.
38:14There was suddenly a big bang.
38:19For a couple of brief moments, I did not look back as I would usually do.
38:25I was looking in the sky to see what had happened.
38:28There was a flash somewhere.
38:32Then I saw the engine was catching fire.
38:35At that stage, I was about 4,000 feet above the layer of cloud.
38:39Upon seeing the fire, I immediately dived into the clouds.
38:44I changed course and turned left, in order to get out of the line of fire.
38:48I wanted to jump out with a parachute.
38:53And then I remembered that someone had once told me that if you were too frightened to jump out, then push the joystick to the side, stand on it with your foot, and push yourself off.
39:06That's what I did.
39:07Towards the end of the war, there simply were not enough trained pilots to fly the jet fighter.
39:23Even if there had been, the production of the Me 262 had ground to a halt.
39:27They simply could not build enough jet fighters to stem the tide of the conquering allies.
39:39Germany finally surrendered on May 7, 1945.
39:43Her cities and factories were totally smashed.
39:47So, too, was her jet aircraft industry.
39:49In the following months, Britain, America and Russia squabbled over the carcasses of the wonder jets that were scattered throughout Germany.
40:00In picking through the bones, they began to build their own jet aircraft industries.
40:06In an operation called Operation Lusty, under the command of Colonel Watson, the Americans gathered all the German planes they could find.
40:14They were flown to Cherbourg, in France, and then shipped to America for evaluation.
40:21Watson's Wizards were a group of American pilots tasked with capturing flying German aircraft to the French coast and bringing them back to the United States for testing and evaluation.
40:33The commitment to getting this new technology back to the United States, and they were actually racing against the British and the Soviets to do this,
40:40would ensure that America would have an aeronautical superiority in the post-war period.
40:47The Americans began an extensive testing program of the Me 262.
40:52By analyzing the jet turbines and wing design of this German fighter, they were able to produce their own design, which was to become the fabulous F-86 Sabre.
41:01It's not until the German jet technology that's brought over through Operation Lusty and other programs that aircraft like the North American F-86, with its swept wing, especially reflect the German technology and the way to design a proper and efficient jet airplane.
41:21The Russians also delved into the ME 262's secrets, and with the help of British jet technology, would later build the MiG-15.
41:32Really, the boost for the Russian engineering industry was what they captured from the Germans at the end of the Second World War.
41:40The main thing, though, really, for the Russian aircraft industry was when we gave them our latest engine, and that allowed the MiG-15 to go from being an average aircraft with good design to a world beater.
41:52Along with the ME 262's move to America went designer Hans von O'Hein. He was to become the chief scientist of aero-propulsion for the United States Air Force.
42:03Frank Whittle eventually moved to America, where he became a consultant on several aviation projects.
42:10Wilhelm Meschesmit, the father of the ME 262, remained in Germany and helped in rebuilding their shattered aircraft industry.
42:17Hundreds of Allied aircraft were to fall victim to the ME 262, but at a terrible price.
42:26Partly any of the 1400 ME 262's that were built survived the war.
42:33Yet many people still believe that if the ME 262 had entered service earlier, it could have saved Germany from defeat.
42:40There has been a lot of speculation, and perhaps if they could have introduced the whole programme half a year earlier.
42:50But if you are truthful, would it have decided the war? Only the gods know.
42:56Germany had won the race to get a jet fighter into the air. It outclassed all its rivals.
43:01And in its short operational life of seven months, the ME 262 had pushed forward the frontiers of air combat to new heights.
43:12At the time, it was the best fighter plane in the world.
43:17And as an aircraft, it was an exceptional solution.
43:26We were surprised that the others could not do better.
43:30The ME 262 was undoubtedly one of the most famous aeroplanes in the whole history of German aviation, if not the world.
43:40Born out of a need to be a fearsome destroyer, from the day it first flew, it spelled the end of propeller-driven aircraft,
43:48and heralded the dawning of the new jet age.
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