4 engines in AR-234

[seano]

seen it on the military channel. where's ours?

[Lusche]

seen it on the military channel. where's ours?

In that box with all the other planes that didn't see any combat in WWII.

[NEARY]

In that box with all the other planes that didn't see any combat in WWII.

Gloster Meteor?

[Bronk]

In that box with all the other planes that didn't see any combat in WWII.

I'd really like to take a peek inside that box.

[Golfer]

The Meteor did see action.

[macerxgp]

The Meteor did see action.

Not against anything that could both fly and shoot back.

[moot]

That's not the only criteria. V rockets were combat elements. Their pilots were scientists pushing red buttons on the ground. Can you make a case that Meteors wouldnt have fought enemy planes, had they encountered any?

[Golfer]

Not against anything that could both fly and shoot back.

As you know their mission was to destroy incoming V1 Rockets.  They fulfilled their mission objectives in active operational service.  They fired their weapons and destroyed enemy targets.  Sounds like combat to me...

[palef]

The Meteor did see action.

It was also deployed in the Holland/Belgium area in '45.

[Karnak]

Not against anything that could both fly and shoot back.

That is not a criteria of "combat".

And it did have at least one dogfight with something that could both fly and shoot back, Fw190s.  There were no losses on either side before a Spitfire squadron bounced them and went after the Meteors thinking they were German.

As to actually being shot at, they were used in ground attack.  Probably the most dangerous mission for Allied airmen at that stage of the war.

[MiloMorai]

I read the Meteors were setting up a bounce on the 190s when they were bounced by Spitfires.

[Angus]

They were in active service over enemy territory and fired their guns in anger, destroying both airborne and ground targets. Meteor doesn't belong to the box.
(It's the LW's fault, they weren't there!)

[Die Hard]

(It's the LW's fault, they weren't there!)

You're full of it.

616 Sq. Meteors were operational in July 1944. In January 1945 the Luftwaffe sortied 1,035 aircraft in attacks against 17 allied airfields. The Luftwaffe was most certainly "there", but most of the time the Meteors were not allowed to engage German aircraft over German held territory.

[Angus]

Am I full of what?
You are telling me no news. Operation Bodenplatte, launched on new-years morning 1945 was basically LW's last spasm. They saved up and threw out just about everything they had.
Fuel shortage had a lot to do with it. Did you know that Oxen were applied to tow aircraft about the ramps, and fuel saving was applied by cutting engines and gliding in for landings?
The Meteors were on the mainland when...in January 1945. 616? Colerne-Melsbroek (where sweeps were cunducted looking for enemy jets). Then 616 moved to join a bigger party (Meteor III by then) at Gilze-Rijen in MARCH, encountering no enemies in the air. The squadron was in Germany before the war was over.
They did kill a Storch....on the ground though...
In short, - late late 1944 the LW was mostly down, and after Bodenplatte even worse.

[Die Hard]

The Meteors were operational in July 1944, but were held back for secrecy reasons. Are you trying to say that the Luftwaffe "weren't there" in July 1944? And yes, the 616 sq. did transfer to Melsbrook in Belgium in January of 1945. The Meteors didn't see much combat with the Luftwaffe because they weren't allowed to, not because the Luftwaffe wasn't there.

A Storch? ... By war's end the few Meteors in service had destroyed 46 German aircraft on the ground.