I can see the whole BoB bing re argued for the 10,000th time, and if it is, I wont be in it
...Despite that, and trying to stay clear of rabid-fan based ravings from both camps, there is a measure of truth to the claim that the Bf 110s reputation was unduly tarnished in the BoB, imho.
A few things 1st though, for starters, the BoB Bf 110 was almost entirely the Bf 110C-3, not the Bf 110C-4/b which we have in AH, and has the more powerfull DB601N engines. So, its a slower, and less capabale version than you see in AH. Just to make that clear.
It was certainly not in the same manueverbility class as a single engined fighter, ala Spitfire and Hurricane, or Dewotine, or P-40B, or Yak-1, wing slats or no. It did have good firepower (2 x 20mm MGFF and 4 x 7.9s)and range, but its climb, speed and agility was not stellar when compared to other types.
As far as "Goerings Order", I think too much is made of that since the first 2 of the 3 stages of the BoB (Kanalkampf and Adlertag) were not tainted by that. The close escort directive was issued in the final phase of the battle, the air assault on London, and was derived from the over generous estimates that the LW gave to their bomber crews on the state of the RAFs fighter defenses, resulting in the bomber crews complaining about the level of interceptions they received (in relation to what they were led to expect), prompting Goering to eventually, and unfairly, chide the Jagdwaffe about not doing a better job, and then interfering himself.
There were only two countries in 1940 that had what we could consider an "integrated air defense system", with radar to back it up, and those two countries were Germany and Britain. The Polish and French campaigns saw the LW operate against countries with no such system, and in the case of Poland, an obsolete air force. Vs Britain, they had the problem of a country that could play defense much better, with radar, a decent aircraft industry to back it up losses, and more modern types of fighters to deploy.
Fighter sweeps were ignored where at all possible by the RAF, and this was made possible by the use of radar. They did not have to resort to standing patrols to protect air space, this is the key. Without radar, fighter sweeps would be much harder to ignore (you end up in a fight by the time you know its there), and their time in the air is drastically cut down. This is one reason the 110s did better over France and Poland than Britain.
...so, back to the Bf 110. It had the same problem other LW combat types had over Britain, it flew blind, with no friendly radar to guide it, while the RAF could see the bigger picture, and focus on intercepting bomber raids it felt was worth the trouble, and trying to avoid the rest. It had greater range, but it was still operating over hostile territory, and it still had to protect the bombers they were tasked to escort.
The real litmus test for the Bf 110 though, imho, is the fact that veteran LW fighter leaders, like Osterkamp and Molders, did not request that it take over escort and sweep duties from the 109, if in fact it was as good a fighter, then its longer range made it an obvious choice to take the brunt of fighter ops over Britain, since the biggest problem for the 109 was lack of range, but that was never seriously considered, because its limitations as a fighter had been experienced by September 1940. Even if you want to lay the blame on Goering, the fact remains the LW considered the 110 as the 2nd best fighter they had, not the equal to the 109, and I guess they would be the ones to know.
In summary, its shortcomings can be traced to the difficulty of the campaign, as well as its performance drawbacks. In other words, it gets a mixed review. Was it a POS? no, was it as good as a 109 or a Spit/Hurricane as a straight fighter? clearly not. The truth lies in the middle, as most truths do. I will say it is a measure of the 110 that it served untill wars end in various capacities, and served on all fronts, so it obviously had its uses.
I posted a lot longer than I intended, oh well.
