"The 400+mph speed is also, so far as I have read, a myth. There is a claim out there that when it entered service it racked up some huge number of kills on the previously untouchable Mosquito. The problem with that claim is that there are no corresponding loss records for the Mosquito."
You can consider He219's 400mph as much myth as Mossies flying in German airspace 400mph while carrying bombs. Mossies were shot down even by 110s so there was nothing magical in Mossies speed in practice. However, Mossie was much faster than any other of the British bombers and they were also much fewer, so even finding one in darkness was a fluke as they were not flying in bomber streams were most British losses occurred anyway.
The ridiculous claim of several Mossies shot down in short time could have been a way to convince the German brass that He219 was much needed, as it was, but still was never suppiled in adequate numbers to make a difference. Bf110 and Ju88 were enough to inflict massive losses to British bombers so that is where the Nachtjagd focused saving resources and leaving the scattered solo Mossies, whether they were pathfinders or plain bombers, to their own devices, or to be chased around by single engined Wild Boars which were more up to task anyway.
-C+
