German rear-guns reloading

[hubsonfire]

I think I've seen a reference to 3 man crews for the 110s in the nightfighter role, with the 3rd guy being the radar op. Anyway, back on topic.

[Krusty]

In the night fighter role the tail gunner operated the radar. He didn't have a back on his seat. When he needed to he just turned around and faced forward. I've built a fairly detailed model of the 110G-4 night fighter and there's not enough room for a third person, trust me.

[Lusche]

Originally posted by Krusty
In the night fighter role the tail gunner operated the radar. He didn't have a back on his seat. When he needed to he just turned around and faced forward. I've built a fairly detailed model of the 110G-4 night fighter and there's not enough room for a third person, trust me.

I will try to dig up additional info. I know that nightfighter ace Wolfgang Schnaufer did fly almost exclusively Bf110. And for the most time of the war, he was accompanied by his Bordfunker (=radioman) Fritz Rumplehardt and his Bordschütze (=gunner) Wilhelm Gänsler, both of them eventually decorated with the Ritterkreuz. That would make three...


EDIT:

All my book credit the 110 radar equipped night-fighter versions with 3 crewmembers. But as we know, sometimes they just copy each other, so I googled just a bit and found this:


"One night, after detecting an unsuspecting Lancaster in the bomber stream, into which he (Martin Drewes) mixed up thanks to Erich Handke (his excellent Bordfunker, or radar-operator, Ritterkreuzträger, or Knight's Cross bearer, in German), he proceed to make the conventional Schräge Musik attack, right from below, spreading the these guns fire from the inboard left engine till the starboard one ((...) The bomber disintegrated, and took Drewes and its crew with it, through an incredible amount of debris, which dilacerated the Bf-110G-4 (G9+MD)...they all had to jump immediately for their lives from the plane's blazing hulk!!! One schrapnel hit the gunner's (Oberfeldwebel Petz) wristwatch, stopping it right at the moment of the explosion: 01:19hs..."

(Taken from this site )

Once again, 3 crewmembers in a Bf 110.

[Krusty]

Very strange, as there are only 2 seats, and only 2 crew members given to almost every model kit out there.

Perhaps these were luxuries for high-ranking officers or high ace pilots?

[Kweassa]

Perhaps these were luxuries for high-ranking officers or high ace pilots?

 Perhaps you don't know that much about 110s as you might like to think.

[Krusty]

The normal 110s were 2-man setups. The 3-man setup is rather odd, so my first guess is to think "maybe that's one for special cases, like aces or officers".

Never said I knew that much about 110s. Said from what I've read, and from what I do know, 2-men was the norm, even for the G-4 night fighter.

[Lusche]

Originally posted by Krusty
Very strange, as there are only 2 seats, and only 2 crew members given to almost every model kit out there.

Perhaps these were luxuries for high-ranking officers or high ace pilots?

That sounds rubbish to me. If there was no space for 3 crew members, the Luftwaffe sure would not punish only it's aces with squeezing an additional crewmember in. I don`t think they would accept sitting the radar operator sitting on their lap

I would rather say the model kits are flawed - and that would be nothing new....

[frank3]

Well, I said the Bf-110 was originally designed for a 3-man crew, I didn't say it was the norm
I think the idea of having 3 crewmembers was very soon discarded (perhaps even before mass-production) so the models you're making might be right

[Lusche]

Originally posted by frank3
Well, I said the Bf-110 was originally designed for a 3-man crew, I didn't say it was the norm
I think the idea of having 3 crewmembers was very soon discarded (perhaps even before mass-production) so the models you're making might be right

Radar equipped nightfighters defenitely carried 3 crew members.