SCHIBORS: The Blohm and Voss 222’s, the largest aircraft in the world, brought the reinforcements to LIBYA, taking off from HAMBURG and landing in AFRICA. They each carried 120 men with full equipment. One aircraft was shot down in the MEDITERRANEAN. Apart from that no fighter ever dared approach them. It has eight cannon and seventeen M.G.’s. It is very heavily armed and everyone points his M.G. 15 out of the window. It’s a six-engined aircraft, with three engines in each wing. It is three or four times as large as the “52.” It carries a few tanks and goodness knows what else—guns and all. It has also flown over bombs for the bomber aircraft. It has a cruising speed of 360 m.p.h. When it’s empty it can get away in no time.371
Schibors completely exaggerated the BV 222’s arsenal and payload capacity. He also substitutes its top speed for its cruising speed as a way of making his story more dramatic. But the plane obviously made a deep impression on him.
The warplane that elicited the greatest hopes was without doubt the Me 262 jet fighter. It began cropping up in POWs’ conversations as of December 1942. At first, the information passed on was vague and third-hand.372 For instance, in April 1943, Sergeant Rott from Bomber Wing 10 said he was convinced that big things were afoot at the Luftwaffe since during a visit, the commodore of another nearby wing had hinted that a new fighter jet was being tested.373 By late 1943, POWs were offering the first eyewitness reports on the miracle fighting machine.374 Lieutenant Schürmann can scarcely conceal his enthusiasm when he recounts: “They have a tremendous speed, it is amazing. It can only be estimated. When you see a Focke-Wulf fighter you estimate it is doing about 450 kph, but I estimated that that was doing 700 to 800 kph at least.”375 In spring 1944, speculation grew that the Me 262 would soon be actively deployed. A Lieutenant Fritz recalled a visiting general saying in March 1944 that the Me 262 was about to replace the Ju 88: “He said too that the whole production of those aircraft has been somewhat restricted and preparations were already being made for producing jet-propelled aircraft; that suddenly they would be used in onerous numbers and that we should thereby win back air superiority.”376 Similar rumors were circulated among the general German populace, which was increasingly feeling the hardships of the war. A Private First Class Maletzki reported: “The general morale is not so bad in GERMANY. I have heard people saying: ‘When the turbine-fighter comes, then all will be well.’”377
None of the POWs seems to have doubted the capabilities of the Me 262 in the slightest. In June 1944, nine days after being shot down, a Ju 88 W/T operator predicted: “After that they’ll bring out the turbine-fighters. If they do manage to put large masses of them into operation the English can pack up with their four-engined aircraft. The GAF is on the up-grade again, it will take a little time yet, perhaps six months.”378 A Lieutenant Zink from Fighter Wing 3 entertained similar thoughts: “But the first group will be put into operations in a fortnight’s time. 1200 kph. They will suddenly appear over ENGLAND. It rises up to 1200 m in two minutes’ time. It climbs at an angle of 44˚ and at a speed of 800 kph. There is nothing you can do against it. It has eight cannon and can shoot down anything. You could fly about quite comfortably over here, even if a hundred fighters were in the air.”379
