AHC: Screw Up The Luftwaffe Worse Than Udet

[oldironside]

Ernst Udet (1896-1941) was Germany's highest scoring surviving ace of World War One, a likeable character, a brilliant pilot and definitely not a Nazi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2CBx7x5GCI

Although he wasn't really interested in politics or admin, he became head of the T-Amt (technical office) of the Luftwaffe after Walter Wever's death. He was instrumental in getting the Ju87 into service, but it was with the third generation of Luftwaffe combat aircraft that he left his real mark.

The first generation included the Heinkel 51 fighter, Dornier 23 bomber and Ju52 bomber/transport, and these were in service before he came to power.

Second generation was the aircraft that essentially fought the Battle of Britain and which were all in a state of advance development when he took over (with the exception of the Ju88, which he screwed up by insisting on the divebombing requirement).

The third generation (Fw190, He177, Me210, Ar240, Ju288, Fw191) took longer than expected to mature, partly because of over ambitious specifications, but also because Udet didn't have it in his nature to bang his fist on the table and get the industrialists to stop their flights of fancy and concentrate on producing something the Luftwaffe could use.

In the end he gambled by ordering the immature aircraft into production anyway. The Fw190 was a success, but the others were desperate failures and the dislocation of production cost the Luftwaffe 2000 aircraft (Göring's estimate) just to go back to producing the aircraft that needed replacing in the first place.

So, your challenge is this: could you screw up the Luftwaffe in 1941-44 any worse than Udet did without being removed from office before the real damage was done?

For example: the Fw190 came close to cancellation before it entered production. Take that out and it severely reduces the Luftwaffe on all fronts.

Okay guys, knock yourselves out.

 

[Deleted member 1487]

Have Milch die in the same plane crash as Wever. The Luftwaffe would be an epic mess

 

[oldironside]

Have Milch die in the same plane crash as Wever. The Luftwaffe would be an epic mess

Very good point. Milch was a real bastard ("When Milch pisses, ice comes out") but he was at least competent. Take him away and there's no one to make sense of Udet's mess, and 41-43 would be... amazing.

However, the challenge is to screw it up from Udet's point of view.

 

[Deleted member 1487]

However, the challenge is to screw it up from Udet's point of view.

That's not what the title says. If you want it 'screwed up' from Udet's view then have Wever live and Udet never get into power; he wouldn't agree with what they were going to do because only Ju87s would dive bomb.

In terms of what Udet did to screw up the LW, its pretty hard to top that and remain in office.

 

[oldironside]

That's not what the title says. If you want it 'screwed up' from Udet's view then have Wever live and Udet never get into power; he wouldn't agree with what they were going to do because only Ju87s would dive bomb.

In terms of what Udet did to screw up the LW, its pretty hard to top that and remain in office.

Why do the words "obtuse", "hair splitting", "pointless", "pedantic", "irrelevant", and "(member's name redacted)" come to mind?

Okay, for you. If you had been Udet, what decisions could you have taken to screw up the Lw worse than he did? Answers on a postcard, because I'm going to be in ASB enjoying They Shall Reap The Whirlwind's back catalogue.

 

[CalBear]

Easy.

Push for a "Urals" Bomber program. Get Hitler to believe that the Super Heavy is a better choice as a "V" weapon than the experimental rockets. Divert BMW 801 engine production to support the effort.

Every bomber replaces six Fw-190s in production. Strongly backed bomber program can cost the Luftwaffe half of its best fighters to produce a mass of slow, low altitude bombers. As losses mount, convince everyone that the issue is the speed, Divert Jumbo 004 production to the bomber force. That should just about eliminate the Me-262 and Ar-234.

End result is slower low altitude B-36. well that had a whole pile of extra RAF and USAAF P-38 aces (and the P-38 actually get used in its designed role).

 

[oldironside]

Easy.

Push for a "Urals" Bomber program. Get Hitler to believe that the Super Heavy is a better choice as a "V" weapon than the experimental rockets. Divert BMW 801 engine production to support the effort.

Every bomber replaces six Fw-190s in production. Strongly backed bomber program can cost the Luftwaffe half of its best fighters to produce a mass of slow, low altitude bombers. As losses mount, convince everyone that the issue is the speed, Divert Jumbo 004 production to the bomber force. That should just about eliminate the Me-262 and Ar-234.

End result is slower low altitude B-36. well that had a whole pile of extra RAF and USAAF P-38 aces (and the P-38 actually get used in its designed role).

I like the way you think. I had to look at "Jumbo 004" three times before I realised it was a typo, but your plan is just the sort of lunacy Hitler would have gone for - Bombers! Strike! Kill! Terror!

 

[mr.bernham]

Put Hitler in direct and complete control of it.

 

[CalBear]

I like the way you think. I had to look at "Jumbo 004" three times before I realised it was a typo, but your plan is just the sort of lunacy Hitler would have gone for - Bombers! Strike! Kill! Terror!

Typos are my midlle name

The idea though, is actually IMO really solid. Hitler was, in some ways, like a kid, he was heavy on the "Ooh Shiny!" and short of common sense. Convincing him the best idea would be to rain destruction on the Bolshies and the English, with the chance to maybe do it to the Americans, would be irresistible, especially coming from an actual war here from the Great War.

 

[oldironside]

Hitler was, in some ways, like a kid, he was heavy on the "Ooh Shiny!" and short of common sense.

R.V.Jones in Most Secret War sums him up during the V1/V2 investigation as the "Nazeus, who could call his wrath down on the heads of all those who displease him".

Probably the best description I ever read of his later mania.

 

[Just Leo]

Ernst Udet (1896-1941) was Germany's highest scoring surviving ace of World War One, a likeable character, a brilliant pilot and definitely not a Nazi.

In 1936, a British WWI fighter pilot took his son to Germany where the son was taken under the wing of a Bucker Jungmann for an introduction to flight. He concluded the flight by doing the landing approach inverted. The son caught the flying bug. Two years later, Udet took the young Eric Brown to see Hanna Reitch fly a helicopter. Eric Brown became not only a test pilot, but the test pilot, and learned German too. It might be interesting to know his opinion of all this.

The Ju-88 gained weight due to the intervention of Ernst Udet. Some of the weight was dive brakes, later removed. Some was to strengthen the aircraft to enable it to perform manoeuvers. The FW-200 certainly wasn't strengthened, and we know about it. The Ju-88 was strengthened so we don't know what would have been the result if it hadn't.

Ernst Udet wasn't a nazi and he wasn't political and he didn't have ambition. He was given his position, a position surrounded by people ready and anxious to undermine that position for personal aggrandizement. Is it any wonder.