Messerschmitt Me 210

Me 210
	A Luftwaffe Me 210 A-1 of the Versuchsstaffel 210 test squadron, over France in 1942
Role	Heavy fighter, ground-attack aircraft, fighter-bomber, dive bomber
Manufacturer	Messerschmitt
First flight	2 September 1939
Introduction	1942
Retired	1945
Primary users	Luftwaffe; Royal Hungarian Air Force
Number built	90 Me 210A in Germany 267 Me 210Ca-1 in Hungary
Developed from	Messerschmitt Bf 110
Variants	Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse

The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a German heavy fighter and ground-attack aircraft of World War II. Design started before the war, as a replacement for the Bf 110. The first examples were ready in 1939, but they proved to have unacceptably poor flight characteristics due to serious wing planform and fuselage design flaws. A large-scale operational testing program throughout 1941 and early 1942 did not cure the type's problems. The design entered limited service in 1942, but was soon replaced by the Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse, a further development of the Me 210. The failure of the Me 210's development program meant the Luftwaffe was forced to continue operating the Bf 110 after it had become outdated, despite mounting losses.

Design and development

Messerschmitt designers had started working on an upgrade of the Bf 110 in 1937, before the production version of the Bf 110 had even flown. In late 1938, the Bf 110 was just entering service, and the RLM started looking ahead to its eventual replacement. Messerschmitt sent in their modified Bf 110 design as the Me 210, and Arado responded with their all-new Ar 240.

The Me 210 was a considerable departure from the 110, but used many of the same parts. The main differences were a modified nose area that was much shorter and located over the center of gravity, an internal bomb bay, an all-new wing designed for higher cruise speeds and a highly advanced remote-control defensive armament system that gave the gunner a far wider field of fire. On paper, the Me 210's performance was impressive: It could reach 620 km/h (390 mph) on two 1,350 PS (1,330 hp, 990 kW) Daimler-Benz DB 601F engines, making it about 80 km/h (50 mph) faster than the Bf 110, and nearly as fast as single-engine fighters of that era.

The Me 210's main landing gear followed some of the design philosophies that had resulted from the main change in the earlier Ju 88's main landing gear design, where each main gear had a single gear strut that twisted through 90° during retraction, to bring the main gear wheel resting atop the lower end of the main strut when retracted rearwards into the wing. Unlike the Ju 88, however, the Me 210's main gear wheels were inboard of the main gear struts when fully extended, whereas the Ju 88's were outboard of the struts.

The Bf 110 carried its ordnance externally beneath the wings and fuselage, but this created drag; the Me 210 avoided this problem by housing the bombs in an enclosed bomb bay, in the nose of the aircraft. The Me 210 could carry up to two 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs. The Me 210 had dive brakes fitted on the tops of the wings, and a Stuvi 5B bombsight ("Stuvi"-Sturzkampfvisier, dive-bombing sight) in the nose, for shallow-angle dive bombing. In the fighter role, the bomb bay was fitted with four 20 mm cannons.^{[citation needed]}

For defence, the Me 210's rear gunner was armed with two 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns. Each of these was fitted into half-teardrop-shaped Ferngerichtete Drehringseitenlafette FDSL 131/1B turrets mounted on each side of the aircraft, and was remote-controlled from the gunner's position in the rear of the glazed cockpit area with a unique gun-aiming setup. This unit had a pivoting handgun-style grip, trigger and gunsight at its center, to aim the guns vertically—with both turrets elevating and depressing together when operated - and horizontally, in pivoting each gun separately, outward away from the fuselage side when aimed to one side or the other.^[1] The rear of the cockpit canopy's lower side glazing panels were bulged out to allow the gunner to see in almost any rearward-facing direction. The guns were electrically fired, and an electrical contact breaker acted as a form of "interrupter" as used on many forms of multi-engined, turret-armed WW II aircraft, preventing the gunner from shooting off the Me 210's tailplane.

An order for 1,000 Me 210s was placed before the prototype had flown. In time, this would prove to be a major error. The first prototype flew with DB 601B engines in September 1939, and was considered unsafe by test pilots. Stability was bad in turns, and it tended to oscillate, even while flying level. At first, the designers concentrated on the twin-rudder arrangement that had been taken from the 110, and replaced it with a new and much larger single vertical stabilizer. This had almost no effect, and the plane continued to "snake". The Me 210 also suffered from terrible stalls. With the nose up or in a turn, the stalls whipped into spins when the automatic leading-edge slats opened. The second prototype, Me 210 V2, was lost this way in September 1940, when the pilot could not get out of the resulting spin and had to abandon the aircraft. The chief test pilot commented that the Me 210 had "all the least desirable attributes an aeroplane could possess." It took 16 prototypes and 94 preproduction examples to try to resolve the many problems. Nevertheless, the RLM was desperate to replace the Bf 110s currently in service, and ordered full production in early 1941. The type exhibited grossly inadequate handling characteristics, and as a result, several elements of the airframe were redesigned, including lengthening the rear section of the fuselage by 92 cm (36-1/4 inches), designated as lang ("long"). The Me 210C was built with DB 605 engines, as well as incorporating the changes to the airframe. The Hungarian authorities were satisfied with the Me 210C in its current state, and purchased a production license for the type, to fill the role of the Varga RMI-1 X/H, designated Me 210Ca (a = ausländisch or 'foreign') as well as for its DB 605 engines. Several airframes were also purchased, to be completed in Hungarian factories for practice while the assembly lines were set up. Production started in the Dunai Repülőgépgyár Rt. (Danubian Aircraft Plant) as the Me 210Ca with the DB 605B engine, under an agreement where the Luftwaffe received two of every three produced.

The Me 210 was eventually developed into the Messerschmitt Me 410, with DB 603 engines.

Operational history

Deliveries to frontline units started in April 1942 and the plane proved to be even less popular with pilots. Production was stopped at the month's end by which time only 90 had been delivered. Another 320 partially completed airframes were placed in storage. In its place, the Bf 110 was put back into production. Although the Bf 110 was now equipped with the newer DB 605B engines and greater firepower, it was still an outdated design.

The Luftwaffe started receiving their Hungarian-built planes in April 1943, and the Hungarians in 1944; when they entered service they were more than satisfied with them. Production ended in March 1944, when the factory switched over to produce the Bf 109G. By that time, a total of 267 Me 210C had been built, 108 of which had been given to the Luftwaffe. The Me 210s of the Luftwaffe operated mostly in Tunisia and Sardinia and were quickly replaced by the Me 410.

Variants

Me 210 A-0: Pre-production aircraft.
Me 210 A-1: Two-seat twin-engined fighter-bomber and heavy fighter.
Me 210 A-2: Two-seat twin-engined dive bomber and heavy fighter.
Me 210C: Improved airframe, DB 605 engines.
Me 210 Ca-1: Hungarian-licensed production version of the Me 210C with Daimler-Benz DB 605B engines.
Me 210 Ca-1 (40 mm): Some Hungarian Me 210 Ca-1s were modified to carry a 40 mm Bofors autocannon in the lower fuselage in order to destroy Allied bombers. In addition, these aircraft could carry 152 mm rockets (modified version of the Hungarian copy of Nebelwerfer 41) for ground attack. The 44M Lidérc anti-bomber acoustic proximity fused air-to-air rocket was under development for the Me 210, but the project was not finished before the fall of Budapest.^[2]^[3]
Me 210D: Improved Me 210C, project only

Operators

Germany

Luftwaffe operated 90 German-built Me 210A and 108 Hungarian-built Me 210 Ca-1.
- Eprobungsgruppe(A) 210 (first testing unit)
- Versuchstaffel 210
- 3./SKG 210
- 16./KG 6
- 1.,2.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.122 (Me/DAF 210C-1 user)
- FAGr 122
- Stab/AG 22
- II.,III.,7.,8.,9./ZG 1 'Wespe' (Me/DAF 210C-2 [Ca-1] user)
- 10./ZG 26 (Me/DAF 210C-2 [Ca-1] user)
- I.,II./NJG 1
- NJG 101

Hungary

Royal Hungarian Air Force operated 179 Hungarian-built Me 210 Ca-1. The type was relatively successful against Soviet aircraft and the last Me 210s were destroyed by their crew at Parndorf (Hungarian: Pándorfalu) after the fall of Hungary in March 1945 due to the lack of fuel and spare parts.^[4]
- 1° and 2° RKI Század "Villám" (Evaluation wing), RKI (Hungarian Aviation Institute)
- 5/1.Légi Század "Bagoly" (NF Sqn)
- 102.Gyorsbombázó, 102/1.Század "Sas"
- 102.Gyorsbombázó, 102/2.Század "Tigris"
- 102.Gyorsbombázó, 102/3.Század "Villám"

Japan

Imperial Japanese Army Air Service
- received one aircraft (Me 210A-2 W.Nr.2350) bought in Germany for tests and delivered by U-boat. It was operated by the Testing unit of the First Tachikawa Air Army Arsenal.

Specifications (Me 210Ca-1)

Data from Messerschmitt Me 210/410 in action,^[5] The warplanes of the Third Reich,^[6] German Combat Planes^[7]

General characteristics

Crew: 2
Length: 12.2 m (40 ft 0 in)
Wingspan: 16.3 m (53 ft 6 in)
Height: 4.2 m (13 ft 9 in)
Wing area: 36.2 m² (390 sq ft)
Airfoil: root: NACA 23018-636.5; tip: NACA 23010-636.5^[8]
Empty weight: 7,069 kg (15,584 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 9,705 kg (21,396 lb)
Fuel capacity: 2,500 L (660 US gal; 550 imp gal) in four wing tanks
Powerplant: 2 × Daimler-Benz DB 605B V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engine, 1,085 kW (1,455 hp) 1475 PS each for take-off
Propellers: 3-bladed VDM constant-speed propellers

Performance

Maximum speed: 580 km/h (360 mph, 310 kn)
Range: 1,818 km (1,130 mi, 982 nmi)
Service ceiling: 8,900 m (29,200 ft)

Armament

Guns:
- 2 × 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151/20 cannon
- 2 × 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 17 machine gun
- 2 × 13 mm (0.512 in) MG 131 machine guns (rear armament), one each in FDSL 131/1B remotely operated turret
Bombs: maximum 1,000 kg (2,204 lb) internally
2 × 500 kg (1,100 lb) SC500 bombs
2 × 250 kg (550 lb) SC 250 bombs
8 × 50 kg (110 lb) SC 50 bombs

Notes

^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Wings of the Luftwaffe: Bf-110 "Destroyer" (YouTube). Ryan98063. Event occurs at 16:51 to 17:35. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
^ Hatala, András (2009). "44M Lidérc, az első magyar légiharc-rakéta (I. rész)". Haditechnika. 2009/2: 87–90.
^ Amdrás, Hatala. "44M "LIDÉRC" rocket" (PDF). eeoda.d.
^ Ede, Ádám. "A Messerschmitt 210-es többfeladatú repülőgép" (PDF). Relpüléstudomány.
^ Punka, George (1994). Messerschmitt Me 210/410 in action. Carrollton TX: Squadron/Signal Publications. p. 20. ISBN 0897473205.
^ Green, William (1970). The warplanes of the Third Reich (1st 1973 reprint ed.). New York: Doubleday. pp. 610–617. ISBN 0385057822.
^ Wagner, Ray; Nowarra, Heinz (1971). German Combat Planes: A Comprehensive Survey and History of the Development of German Military Aircraft from 1914 to 1945. New York: Doubleday. p. 258.
^ Lednicer, David. "The Incomplete Guide to Airfoil Usage". m-selig.ae.illinois.edu. Retrieved 16 April 2019.

Bibliography

"Hornisse ... The Last Zerstorer". Air International, October 1981, Vol. 21 No. 4. ISSN 0306-5634. pp. 181–185, 197–200.
Mankau, Heinz. "Messerschmitt Bf 110, Me 210, Me 410: an illustrated history". Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2003. ISBN 978-0-7643-1784-2
Petrick, Peter. "Messerschmitt Me 210/Me 410 Hornisse/Hornet: an illustrated production history". Hinckley: Midland, 2007. ISBN 978-1-85780-271-9
Mujzer, Peter (January 1997). "Les Messerschmitt Me 210Ca hongrois (première part)" [The Hungarian Messerschmitt Me 210Cas]. Avions: Toute l'aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (46): 10–14. ISSN 1243-8650.
Mujzer, Peter (February 1997). "Les Messerschmitt Me 210Ca hongrois (deuxième part)". Avions: Toute l'aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (47): 14–18. ISSN 1243-8650.
Punka, George. "Messerschmitt Me 210/410 in Action". Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1994. ISBN 0-89747-320-5

External links

[1] Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Wings of the Luftwaffe: Bf-110 "Destroyer" (YouTube). Ryan98063. Event occurs at 16:51 to 17:35. Retrieved May 22, 2021.

[2] Hatala, András (2009). "44M Lidérc, az első magyar légiharc-rakéta (I. rész)". Haditechnika. 2009/2: 87–90.

[3] Amdrás, Hatala. "44M "LIDÉRC" rocket" (PDF). eeoda.d.

[4] Ede, Ádám. "A Messerschmitt 210-es többfeladatú repülőgép" (PDF). Relpüléstudomány.

[Punka-5] Punka, George (1994). Messerschmitt Me 210/410 in action. Carrollton TX: Squadron/Signal Publications. p. 20. ISBN 0897473205.

[Green-6] Green, William (1970). The warplanes of the Third Reich (1st 1973 reprint ed.). New York: Doubleday. pp. 610–617. ISBN 0385057822.

[Wagner-7] Wagner, Ray; Nowarra, Heinz (1971). German Combat Planes: A Comprehensive Survey and History of the Development of German Military Aircraft from 1914 to 1945. New York: Doubleday. p. 258.

[Selig-8] Lednicer, David. "The Incomplete Guide to Airfoil Usage". m-selig.ae.illinois.edu. Retrieved 16 April 2019.

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v t e Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) and Messerschmitt aircraft
BFW Idflieg designations	CL.I CL.II CL.III CL.IV N.I
BFW/Messerschmitt company designations	M 17 M 18 M 19 M 20 M 21 M 22 M 23 M 24 M 25 M 26 M 27 M 28 M 29 M 30 M 31 M 33 M 35 M 36 M 37
RLM designations 1933–1945	Bf 108 Bf 109 Bf 110 Me 155 Bf 161 Bf 162 Bf 163 Me 163 MeC 164 Bf 165 Me 209 Me 210 Me 261 Me 262 Me 263 Me 264 Me 265 Me 309 Me 310 Me 321 Me 323 Me 328 Me 329 Me 334 Me 409 Me 410 ZMe 423 Me 509 Me 609
Project numbers	P 08.01 P.1034 P.1061 P.1062 P.1064 P.1065 P.1070 P.1073 P.1075 P.1079 P.1091 P.1092 P.1095 P.1099 P.1100 P.1101 P.1102 P.1103 P.1104 P.1106 P.1107 P.1108 P.1109 P.1110 P.1111 P.1112
USAAC designations	XC-44
RAF assigned names	Aldon

v t e Reich Air Ministry (RLM) aircraft designations (list)
1 to 100	8-1¹ Fi 2 8-3¹ 8-4¹ Fi 5 DFS 6 8-7¹ Gö 8 Gö 9 Do 10 Do 11/Wn 11 8-12⁴/Do 12 Do 13 Do 14 Do 15 Do 16/Wn 16 Do 17 Do 18 Do 19 Do 20 8-21¹ Do 22 Do 23 Do 24 Do 25³/Kl 25 Do 26/Kl 26 8-27/Do 27³/Kl 27⁵ 8-28¹ 8-29/Do 29 Fw 30 Kl 31 Kl 32 Ju 33 Ju 34 Kl 35 Kl 36 He 37³ He 38/Ju 38 DFS 39 BV 40/DFS 40 He 41³ Fw 42/He 42 Fw 43 Fw 44 He 45 He 46/Ju 46 Fw 47/He 47 Ju 48 He 49/Ju 49 He 50/Ju 50 He 51 He 52/Ju 52 Ju 53 DFS 54/NR 54 Fw 55/NR 55 Fw 56 8-57⁴/Fw 57 Fw 58/He 58 He 59 He 60/Ju 60 Fa 61/Fw 61/He 61 Fw 62/He 62 8-63⁴/He 63 Ar 64/He 64 Ar 65/He 65 Ar 66/He 66 Ar 67 Ar 68 Ar 69 He 70 8-71⁴/He 71 He 72 He 73³ He 74 Al 75 Ar 76/FZG 76⁶ Ar 77 Ar 78³ Ar 79 Ar 80 Ar 81 8-82⁴ 8-83¹ Al 84 Ju 85 Ju 86 Ju 87 Ju 88 Ju 89 Ju 90 Ju 91³ Ju 92 Ju 93³ Ju 94³ Ar 95 Ar 96 Fi 97 Fi 98 Fi 99 Fi 100³/He 100
101 to 200	Al 101 Al 102 Al 103/Fi 103 R Fh 104 Kl 105 Kl 106 Kl 107 Bf 108 Bf 109/Bf 109R⁶ Bf 110 He 111/He 111U⁶ He 112 He 113⁶ He 114 He 115 He 116 He 117³/Hs 117 He 118 He 119 He 120 Hs 121 Hs 122 Hs 123 Hs 124 Hs 125 Hs 126 Hs 127 Hs 128 Hs 129 Hs 130 Bü 131 Bü 132³/Hs 132 Bü 133 Bü 134 Ha 135 Ha 136/Hü 136 Ha 137 BV 138 Ha 139 Ha 140 BV 141 BV 142 BV 143 BV 144 Go 145 Go 146 Go 147/Ju 147 Go 148³ Go 149 Go 150 Kl 151 Kl 152/Ta 152 Kl 153³/Ta 153 Kl 154³/Ta 154 BV 155/Kl 155³/Me 155 Fi 156 Fi 157 Fi 158 Fw 159 Ju 160 Bf 161 Bf 162/He 162 Bf 163/Li 163/Me 163 Me 164/MeC 164 Bf 165 Fi 166/FK 166 Fi 167 Fi 168 Fi 169³ He 170 He 171³ He 172 He 173³ He 174³ 8-175⁴ He 176 He 177 He 178 He 179⁵ Bü 180/He 180 Bü 181 Bü 182 Bü 183³/Ta 183 Fl 184 Fl 185 Fw 186/Ju 186 Fw 187/Ju 187² Fw 188³/Ju 188 Fw 189 Fw 190 Fw 191 Ao 192 Ao 193³/DFS 193 DFS 194/Me 194 Ar 195 Ar 196 Ar 197 Ar 198 Ar 199 Do 200^4,6/Fw 200
201 to 300	Si 201 Si 202 DFS 203 Si 204 8-205¹ Fw 206 8-207¹ Me 208 Me 209 (I)/Me 209 (II) Me 210 Hü 211 8-212⁴/Do 212 8-213¹ Do 214 Do 215 Do 216 Do 217/Hs 217 Do 218³ He 219 He 220 Do 221³ BV 222 Fa 223 Fa 224 Ao 225/Fa 225 BV 226/Ho 226 FGP 227 DFS 228 Go 229/Ho 229 8-230/DFS 230 Ar 231 Ar 232 Ar 233 Ar 234 Do 235⁵ Fa 236³ BV 237 BV 238 8-239¹ Ar 240 Go 241 Go 242 Me 243³ Go 244 Go 245³ BV 246 8-247¹ Ju 248 BV 250/Ho 250 Ho 251 Ho 252 Ju 252 Fi 253/Ho 253 Ho 254/Ta 254 8-255¹ Fi 256 SK 257 8-258¹ Fw 259 8-260¹ Me 261/Me 261w Me 262 Me 263 (1941)/Me 263 (1942)/Me 263 (1945) Me 264 Fl 265/Me 265 Fa 266/Go 266³ Ho 267 Ju 268 Fa 269 He 270 We 271 He 272³ He 273³ He 274 He 275⁵ He 276³ He 277 He 278 He 279³ He 280 He 281³ Fl 282 Fa 283 Fa 284 Fl 285 Ju 286 Ju 287 Do 288^4,6/Ju 288 Ju 289³ Ju 290 Hs 291 As 292/Hs 292³ Hs 293 Hs 294 Hs 295 Ar 296/Hs 296 Hs 297 Hs 298 Ju 299³ Fw 300
301 to 349	DFS 301 8-302¹ 8-303¹ 8-304¹ 8-305¹ 8-306¹ 8-307¹ 8-308¹ Me 309 Zwilling Me 310 8-311¹ 8-312¹ 8-313⁴ 8-314¹ Hs 315 8-316¹ Do 317 Do 318 He 319 Me 320³ Me 321 Ju 322 Me 323/ZMe 323 8-324¹ Fa 325/Fw 325³ 8-326¹ Me 327 Me 328 Me 329 Fa 330 DFS 331 DFS 332 Fi 333 Ar 334³/Me 334 Do 335 Fa 336 Ju 337³ 8-338¹ Fl 339 Ar 340 8-341 WNF 342 He 343 Rk 344/So 344⁵ Go 345 DFS 346 Rk 347 8-348¹ Ba 349
Post-349 (non-sequential)	Ju 352 Fi 356/Ju 356 Me 362 Me 364² Me 368³ Ju 388 Ju 390 Fw 391 Ar 393³ Ar 396 Ta 400 Me 409 Me 410 Do 417 He 419 ZMe 423 Ar 430/Ka 430 Ar 432 Do 435 Ar 440 8-445⁴ DFS 446 Ju 452 Me 462² DFS 468 Ju 488 Fw 491 He 500 Me 509 Me 510 He 519 8-520⁴ ZSO 523 Ar 532 8-534⁴ Do 535/He 535 Me 600² Me 609 Ar 632 Do 635/He 635/Ju 635
¹ Not assigned ² Unofficial/proposed ³ Assigned, but not used before RLM was dissolved ⁴ Assigned to captured aircraft ⁵ Unconfirmed ⁶ Propaganda/cover designation Note: Official RLM designations had the prefix "8-", but this was usually dropped and replaced with the manufacturer's prefix.

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