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''Mistel'' (
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
for "
mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. ...
", a parasitic plant) was the larger, unmanned component of a
composite aircraft A composite aircraft is made up of multiple ''component'' craft. It takes off and flies initially as a single aircraft, with the components able to separate in flight and continue as independent aircraft.Harper (1937) Typically the larger aircraf ...
configuration developed in Germany during the later stages of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The composite comprised a small piloted control aircraft mounted above a large explosives-carrying drone, the Mistel, and as a whole was referred to as the ''Huckepack'' ("Piggyback"), also known as the ''Beethoven-Gerät'' ("Beethoven Device") or ''Vati und Sohn'' ("Daddy and Son"). The most successful of these used a modified
Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called ''Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...
bomber as the ''Mistel'', with the entire nose-located crew compartment replaced by a specially designed nose filled with a large load of explosives, formed into a
shaped charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, init ...
. The upper component was a
fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
, joined to the Mistel by struts. The combination would be flown to its target by a pilot in the fighter; then the unmanned bomber was released to hit its target and explode, leaving the fighter free to return to base. The first such
composite aircraft A composite aircraft is made up of multiple ''component'' craft. It takes off and flies initially as a single aircraft, with the components able to separate in flight and continue as independent aircraft.Harper (1937) Typically the larger aircraf ...
flew in July 1943 and was promising enough to begin a programme by Luftwaffe test unit
KG 200 ''Kampfgeschwader'' 200 (KG 200) (" irCombat Squadron 200") was a German ''Luftwaffe'' special operations unit during World War II. The unit carried out especially difficult bombing and transport operations and long-distance reconnaissance flight ...
, code-named "Beethoven", eventually entering operational service. Other ''Mistel'' composites included the
Ta 154 The Focke-Wulf Ta 154 ''Moskito'' was a fast twin-engined German night fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank and produced by Focke-Wulf during late World War II. Only a few were produced, proving to have less impressive performance than the pr ...
/
Fw 190 The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' ("Shrike") is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, t ...
, Ar 234/ Fi 103, Do 217K/
DFS 228 The DFS 228 was a rocket-powered, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft designed by the ''Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug'' (DFS - "German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight") during World War II. By the end of the war, the aircraf ...
and Si 204/
Lippisch DM-1 The Lippisch DM-1 was a single-seat research glider that was designed and built in Germany from 1944. Development During World War II, Dr. Alexander Lippisch proposed a ramjet propelled point defence fighter, the Lippisch P.12/13a. It was ...
. Projects included the
Ju 287 The Junkers Ju 287 was an aerodynamic testbed built in Nazi Germany to develop the technology required for a multi-engine jet bomber. It was powered by four Junkers Jumo 004 engines, featured a novel forward-swept wing, and apart from the wing ...
/
Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the German ...
and Ar 234C/ Arado E.377.


Design and development

Initial experiments in Nazi Germany concerning composite aircraft of any type were performed with the
DFS 230 The DFS 230 was a German transport glider operated by the Luftwaffe in World War II. It was developed in 1933 by the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS - "German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight") with Hans Jacobs as the head ...
troop glider as the "lower" component and using established, piston engine-powered Luftwaffe aircraft, such as the
Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG () was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the ...
or the
Messerschmitt Bf 109E Due to the Messerschmitt Bf 109's versatility and time in service with the German and foreign air forces, numerous variants were produced in Germany to serve for over eight years with the Luftwaffe. Additional variants were produced abroad tota ...
, as the upper component in an attempt to provide the troop glider with a longer range than if it were simply towed in the conventional manner. Later, the technique became more refined, and the bomber component (which was often a new aircraft rather than surplus) was fitted with a specialised 1,800 kg (3,960 lb.)
warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...
. The final stage of ''Mistel'' development was of specialised purpose-built jet-powered bomber components, including ones developed from the
Messerschmitt Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Germa ...
, the
Junkers Ju 287 The Junkers Ju 287 was an aerodynamic testbed built in Nazi Germany to develop the technology required for a multi-engine jet bomber. It was powered by four Junkers Jumo 004 engines, featured a novel forward-swept wing, and apart from the wing ...
and the entirely new
Arado Ar 234 The Arado Ar 234 ''Blitz'' (English: lightning) is a jet-powered bomber designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Arado. It was the world's first operational turbojet-powered bomber, seeing service during the latter half of the ...
. None of these ambitious schemes, with the exception of the Me 262 mistel, had left the drawing board before the end of the war.


Warhead and operational history

The definitive Mistel warhead was a
shaped charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, init ...
weighing nearly two
tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000  kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s (the weight of a
blockbuster bomb A blockbuster bomb or cookie was one of several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF). The term ''blockbuster'' was originally a name coined by the press and referred to a bomb which had enough explo ...
) fitted with a
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
or
aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
liner. The use of a shaped charge was expected to allow penetration of up to seven meters of
reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
. Some 250 Mistels of various combinations were built during the war, but they met with limited success. They were first flown in combat against the Allied invasion fleet during the
Battle of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norma ...
, targeting the British-held harbour at
Courseulles-sur-Mer Courseulles-sur-Mer (, ), commonly known as ''Courseulles'', is a commune in the Calvados department, Normandy, northwestern France. Until 1957, the town's name was simply ''Courseulles''. It lies 3 km west of Bernières-sur-Mer and 18  ...
. An RCAF Mosquito piloted by
Walter Dinsdale Walter Gilbert Dinsdale, PC, DFC (April 3, 1916 – November 20, 1982) was a Canadian politician, known for his works with people with disabilities, who served as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament from 1951 until his death. Ea ...
was first to shoot down a Mistel over Normandy, causing it to crash behind enemy lines and cause a large explosion. The night-fighter ace described the Bf 109 & Ju88 composite as "lumbering" and a "cinch to shoot down". While ''Mistel'' pilots claimed hits, none of these match Allied records; they may have been made against the hulk of the old French battleship ''Courbet'', which had been included as a component of the Mulberry harbour at
Arromanches Arromanches-les-Bains (; or simply Arromanches) is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Arromanchais'' or ''Arromanchaises''. Geography Arromanches-les ...
and specially dressed up as a
decoy A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''ende kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to lu ...
by the Allies. Serious blast and shrapnel damage from a near-miss was suffered by HMS ''Nith'', a
River-class frigate The River class was a class of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the North Atlantic. The majority served with the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), with some serving in the other Al ...
being used as a floating headquarters, on 24 June. Nine men were killed and 26 wounded, and ''Nith'' was towed back to England for repairs. A second opportunity to use the Mistels, in
Scapa Flow Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009 Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and ...
in 1944, was abandoned after the sinking of the German battleship ''Tirpitz'' led to the departure of all of the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
's major surface units from the target. As part of Operation Iron Hammer in late 1943 and early 1944, Mistels were selected to carry out key raids against
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
weapons-manufacturing facilities—specifically, electricity-generating
power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...
s around Moscow and Gorky. These plants were known to be poorly defended by the Soviets and irreplaceable. However, before the plan could be implemented, the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
had entered Germany, and it was decided to use the Mistels against their bridgehead at Küstrin instead. On 12 April 1945, Mistels attacked the bridges being built there, but the damage caused was negligible and delayed the Soviet forces for only a day or two. Subsequent ''Mistel'' attacks on other bridges being thrown across the
Oder The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows thr ...
were similarly ineffective.


Survivors

A
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' (" Shrike") is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, ...
(''Werk Nr.'' 733682), preserved at the
Royal Air Force Museum Cosford The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, located in Cosford in Shropshire, is a free (currently, 2022) museum dedicated to the history of aviation and the Royal Air Force in particular. The museum is part of the Royal Air Force Museum, a non-departme ...
, was the fighter part of a ''Mistel'' system. It was one of four that were captured by British forces at
Tirstrup Tirstrup is a town in East Jutland, Denmark. As of 1 January 2022, the town has a population of 475.Schleswig Air Base Schleswig Air Base is an airbase of the German Air Force, home to Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 51 (Tactical Air Force Wing 51) ''"Immelmann"'' (AKG 51) flying reconnaissance variants of the Panavia Tornado. It was formerly known from c.194 ...
, along with two other captured ''Mistels'', The Fw 190 was later flown to Britain while its Junkers 88 partner is thought to have been scrapped. The Fw 190 retains its ''Kugelverschraubung mit Sprengbolzen'' ("ball joints with
explosive bolt A pyrotechnic fastener (also called an explosive bolt, or pyro, within context) is a fastener, usually a nut or bolt, that incorporates a pyrotechnic charge that can be initiated remotely. One or more explosive charges embedded within the bolt a ...
s"), fittings that attached it to the other aircraft. The aircraft became the property of the RAF Museum in 1998 when its title was transferred from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. It was put on display at the RAF Museum Cosford in 2013 after previously being on long-term loan to the
Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...


Variants

Variants of the Mistel included: *Mistel Prototype: Ju 88 A-4 and Bf 109 F-4 *Mistel 1: Ju 88 A-4 and Bf 109 F-4 *Mistel S1: Trainer version of Mistel 1 *Mistel 2: Ju 88 G-1 and Fw 190 A-8 or F-8 *Mistel S2: Trainer version of Mistel 2 *Mistel 3A: Ju 88 A-4 and Fw 190 A-8 *Mistel S3A: Trainer version of Mistel 3A *Mistel 3B: Ju 88 H-4 and Fw 190 A-8 *Mistel 3C: Ju 88 G-10 and Fw 190 F-8 *Mistel Führungsmaschine: Ju 88 A-4/H-4 and Fw 190 A-8 *Mistel 4: Ju 287 and Me 262 *Mistel 5: Arado E.377A and He 162


Mistel combinations


Operational

*Ju 88 A-4/Bf 109 F-4 *Ju 88 A-4/Fw 190 A-8


Projected

*Ju 88 G-1/Fw 190 A-6 *Ju 88 A-6/Fw 190 A-6 *Ju 88G-1/Fw 190F-8 *Ju 88H-4/Fw 190A-8 *Ju 88H-4/Fw 190F-8


Design proposals

*Ju 88 G-7/Ta 152H *Ta 154/Fw 190 *Ar 234/Fi 103 *Do 217K/
DFS 228 The DFS 228 was a rocket-powered, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft designed by the ''Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug'' (DFS - "German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight") during World War II. By the end of the war, the aircraf ...
*Si 204/
Lippisch DM-1 The Lippisch DM-1 was a single-seat research glider that was designed and built in Germany from 1944. Development During World War II, Dr. Alexander Lippisch proposed a ramjet propelled point defence fighter, the Lippisch P.12/13a. It was ...
*Ju 287/Me 262


Operators

;
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
* ''
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
''


See also

*
Operation Aphrodite Aphrodite and Anvil were the World War II code names of United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy operations to use Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated PB4Y bombers as precision-guided munitions against bunkers and other har ...


References


Further reading

* Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. "Prelude to 'Stand-Off'". ''
Air Enthusiast ''Air Enthusiast'' was a British, bi-monthly, aviation magazine, published by the Key Publishing group. Initially begun in 1974 as ''Air Enthusiast Quarterly'', the magazine was conceived as a historical adjunct to '' Air International'' maga ...
'', Thirty-four, September–December 1989. Bromley, UK: Fine Scroll. ISSN 0143-5450. pp. 43–47, 80.


External links


Short description with Mistel photography




{{Authority control Composite aircraft Military equipment introduced from 1940 to 1944