Me 262 STORMBIRD RISING

In wartime Germany, Stormbird or Silver was the official code-names given to the legendary Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational turbojet fighter.

Fifty years on, the anniversary of the first jet-powered flight of the Me 262 was celebrated at one of the principal silver bases – Lager-Lechfeld, in Bavaria – during which it was recognized that this revolutionary aircraft had made its mark not only in war, but also in peace.

As Generalleutnant Adolf Galland conveys in his foreword to this volume, the Me 262, which was the most technically advanced fighter interceptor of World War II, could have single-handedly swept the war-torn Europe skies clear of Allied aircraft had it not been hampered by official disinterest and Hitler’s Blitzbomber.

Now famous preoccupation with its conversion into these political wrangling, combined with previously unknown technical problems encountered by Messerschmitt engineers stretching the boundaries of aerospace technology, delayed the Me 262’s service entry until the late summer of 1944, by which time the Allies had established a toehold in occupied France and the 24-hour bombing campaign was in full swing.

The troubled birth and dramatically brief career of Stormbird are chartered in full detail in this benchmark work on the premier Luftwaffe fighter.

Through unique interviews sourced specifically for this volume, surviving fighters, night fighter and reconnaissance pilots relate their experiences of flying the Me 262 in the final months of the war. Detailed unit and pilot histories are also a feature of this comprehensive work, many previously unknown facts coming to light from original documents unearthed recently in Germany.

Equally as important as the views of the men at the ‘sharp end’ are those of the engineers and test pilots involved in the actual design, building and prototype flying of the jets in the early days. Postwar evaluation of captured Me 262s was undertaken by the Allies, and unique accounts are provided by General Harold E Watson, chief of the 1945 evaluation team known as ‘Watson’s Whizzers’, and other leading personnel. Bringing the story up to date, the remarkable Herbert Tischler, who is remanufacturing airworthy Me 262s to order in Texas, is fully profiled.

The handful of surviving Stormbirds spread across the globe are also detailed in full, and a comprehensive appendix features original factory drawings and performance charts compiled by RAF Intelligence during World War II. Profusely illustrated with over 200 unique photographs gleaned from original sources, this volume also contains an eight-page colour section.