42 AH july 2016
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of the big bombers and headed for home only because they had
expended all their ammunition. (Karma’s a bitch: Pilot Major
Werner Streib, I/NJG.1’s commander, crashed hard on landing
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of that engagement.)
Legend indeed: One common He-219 myth holds that
dur ing the following 10 days, Uhus shot down 20 more British
bombers, including six of the formerly untouchable Mosquitos.
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a single Mosquito was beaten by an He-219 during all of 1943,
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end of the war, more He-219s had been shot down by Mos-
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The RLM had rejected Robert Lusser’s original He-219 con-
cept because of its complexity—pressurization, ejection seats,
remote-control gun barbettes, tricycle landing gear, manufac-
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\ZaQVOI^IZQM\aWN MVOQVM[KZM_KWVÅO]ZI\QWV[IVLIZUIUMV\setups. Though end-of-war
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Air forces hate single-mis-
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They want airplanes that can
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do reconnaissance, carry tor -
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port. The He-219 could do
nothing but fly at night to
shoot down large, slow bomb-
ers. During the day, it was
itself large and slow. This
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Uhu crews, since the basics of
such training had to be done
in daylight in a combat zone.
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the He-219 was proposed, as
was a long-wing, high-altitude
reconnaissance model. Hein-
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powered He-219, and tested a
BMW 003 turbojet in a pod
under the belly.
And always the phantasm
of a Mosquito-beater was pur -
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He-219, limited fuel, deleted
guns and added power to
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mph, but that airplane wasSURVIVING EXAMPLE
An Uhu awaits assessment
at Freeman Field in Indiana
(above) after the war. The
National Air and Space
Museum is currently in the
final stages of restoring that
same He-219 for display at
its Udvar-Hazy Center (right).
A cockpit view (opposite)
reveals the oddly shaped
control yoke and sensible
instrument layout.