German Panic Fighters: Emergency Fighter Programs 1944-1945

During the second half of 1943, the arrival of numerous Mustang and Thunderbolt US fighters to the British bases multiplied by four the number of airplanes of the Eighth Air Force, altering the course of the war over the Reich in favour of the Allies. In a few weeks, the Jagdwaffe began to experience increasing 21 percent of its fighters in November and 23 percent in December. By early April 1944 the US fighter pilots were ordered to pursuit the German interceptors to their bases with groups of more than fifty aircraft and attack them while refuelling.
As France in 1939, the USSR in 1941 and Australia in 1942, the Germans began to consider the mass construction of a panic fighter’ that would stop the advance of the invader.
Between May of 1943 and March 1945 the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe issued eighteen specifications demanding different types of fighters to regain air superiority over the Reich.
The aeronautical industry responded with the 145 projects described in this book in 228 pages of drawings and 63,000 words.