There are some who look at Hitler as a military genius. There is little evidence to support this and a ton of evidence that proves he was in fact an idiot. He doomed Nazi Germany because of terrible decisions like fighting on two fronts, invading the Soviet Union, and declaring war on the U.S. when he was not obliged to support Japan. But his mistakes included poor decisions when it came to weapons. He was slow in boosting u-boat production when more of the submarines would have possibly meant victory in the Battle of the Atlantic. And then there was the jet fighter debacle.
In Dec., 1939, the Royal Air Force began night bombing of Germany and the U.S. joined in the daytime starting in the spring of 1943. The 8th Air Force suffered horrendous losses to the quality German fighters. The Me-109 and Fw-180 were excellent planes, but the introduction of the P-51 Mustang allowed for long-range escorting of the B-17s and B-24s, which lowered losses to acceptable levels. The Germans needed a “wonder weapon”. Hitler had promised the German people that the war would be won using new technology like the V-1 and V-2 rockets.
In the early 1940s, Willi Messerchmitt’s company was working on a jet fighter that would have restored German air superiority against British and American bombers. The first successful flight of the Me-262 Schwalbe (Swallow) was in 1942. The plane was revolutionary. It was over 100 miles per hour faster than the best Allied fighter, the P-51 Mustang. It was armed with four 30-mm cannons in its nose. Remarkably, it did not require the high-octane gas the Germans were running short of. While not maneuverable enough to dogfight, it was ideal for slashing runs at bombers. It could evade bomber escorts easily. It was needed as a game changer in the battles in the sky over German cities. The Me-262 would have tilted the balance back to the Germans. But the jet was not produced in the numbers necessary to change the outcome. This was due to Hitler’s fixation on the jet being used as a bomber! Despite the recommendation by Adolf Galland, Germany’s most respected fighter ace, Hitler insisted on the jet being adapted to a role as a bomber. Hitler envisioned it as a weapon that could bomb invasion forces and thus make the invasion of France too costly. When told that the jet went too fast to accurately bomb troop formations, der Fuhrer responded that there would be so many vehicles on the roads that it couldn’t miss. Hitler went into an epic rant when he was informed that the plane had not been built to carry bombs. He demanded a “Blitz bomber”. Herman Goering did not have the guts to back Galland and stand up to Hitler.
As a fighter, the plane was ready to hit the sky and make bomber crews crap their pants, but it was nowhere near ready for a mission that would soon be obsolete. But that didn’t register with Hitler. Heck, he had been insisting on keeping production of bombers high even though the survival of Germany depended on shooting down bombers, not dropping bombs. Numerous changes had to be made to the jet, including auxiliary tanks because the fighter had a low flight time. Pilots would have to be trained to drop bombs, tactics would need to be perfected, and much practice would be necessary. Meanwhile, German cities were being hit by raids of more than 1,000 bombers. By the time Hitler allowed the plane to be mass produced as a fighter, the air war had been lost. The jet fighter proved very effective, but it was too little, too late. Thank goodness Hitler was an idiot. Many bomber crews have that to be thankful for.
https://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/little-late-hitler-introduction-messerschmitt-262/
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/wunderwaffen-hermann-goring-the-messerschmitt-me-262/
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