Question for the 109 experten...

[Geary420]

I dont recall the name of the page now but i was reading some about Erich Hartmann yesterday and I found something interesting in one of the accounts of him ditching his aircraft in enemy territory.  It said something to the effect of "He removed his 109s precious clock as all 109 pilots were instructed to do".  Question is this, what was so precious about the clocks??  Did they have the Swasti on them and it was kinda like the japanese mutilating the imperial seal on there weapons, or was there some operational value to them??  

TecNine

[BUG_EAF322]

I guess there werent many of them coming out of production.
Reminds me of Il2 where in some model 109's cockpits are left holes in it of missing instruments.

[straffo]

Originally posted by Geary420
I dont recall the name of the page now but i was reading some about Erich Hartmann yesterday and I found something interesting in one of the accounts of him ditching his aircraft in enemy territory.  It said something to the effect of "He removed his 109s precious clock as all 109 pilots were instructed to do".  Question is this, what was so precious about the clocks??  Did they have the Swasti on them and it was kinda like the japanese mutilating the imperial seal on there weapons, or was there some operational value to them??  

TecNine

It's precious for navigation ,my guess is he wrote precious not for the $ value but for the usage value.

[Furball]

yeah i have read a report of ME-410 pilots being instructed to do the same.  The clocks were very precise, valuble and used for navigation.  They had the clocks in the 410 on a hinge and nail so they could be released quickly.

[HoHun]

Hi Geary,

>Question is this, what was so precious about the clocks??  

I suppose these were high-end clocks and rather expensive. I'm not sure, but I think they had to be subjected to the best possible care to maintain their accuracy, and leaving them in an aircraft that could be baking the in the summer heat or freezing in the cold of a winte night was not not good care for a precision instrument.

As they were removable, they were always threatened by theft, another reason to entrust them to the aircrews' personal care. As their lives could depend on precise navigation, and precuse navigation relied on an accurate clock, that was quite sensible.

As an aside, recently I was visting an exhibition on the famous 1950s' Mercedes 300 SL racing car with a couple of friends. (These were the original "Silver Arrows" - since on one occasion, they were 2 - 3 kg above specified weight, they were stripped of their paint and raced in bare - aluminium! - finish, starting the Mercedes tradition of silver racers.)

Anyway, our local aircraft cockpit expert pointed out the dashboard of one of the racers - it had a standard Luftwaffe instrument adapter right in the centre, featuring a standard Luftwaffe navigation clock :-)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[Geary420]

Thanx for the replies gents!

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