![]() ![]() Udvar-Hazy Cente r in Chantilly, Virginia.Ĭhristian D. It is on display at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Out of 214 Ar 234s built, there remains one sole survivor today. In April 1945, it was the last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over Great Britain during the war. That said, the Blitz did achieve a final footnote in history before Nazi Germany’s surrender. Don Bryan became the first fighter pilot to kill an Ar 234. In March 1945, USAAF P-51D Mustang pilot Capt. Moreover, just like with the Schwalbe jet fighter, the Blitz bomber had its vulnerabilities, especially when taking off and landing. Ar 234 B-2s from KG 76, as well as other German aircraft, made repeated attacks on the river crossing. “During a 10-day period in March 1945, the Luftwaffe flew 400 sorties against the bridge at Remagen in an effort to slow the Allied advance. However, the Blitz ‘s performance as a bomber was fairly underwhelming. “Luftwaffe Captain Diether Lukesch of Kampfgeschwader (Bomber Wing) 76 led the small squadron on the historic bombing run…the sleek planes zoomed in to drop their payloads and then quickly soared away.” Nine of them were approaching a factory complex at Liege, each laden with a 1,100-pound bomb. These were Arado Ar 234 B-2s, the first operational jet bomber to see combat. They were jets, but not Messerschmitt Me 262s, history’s first jet fighter. Rather than the reverberating growl of piston-driven engines, these aircraft emitted a smooth piercing roar. The engine rumble from these aircraft was not typical, though. High above the Belgian city came the sound of approaching planes. With the weather clearing, aircraft from both sides were flying once again. “With savage fighting on many fronts, American troops at Liege were on high alert in case the Germans tried something there-though they didn’t expect what happened next. As Smithsonian Magazine’s David Kindy writes: The Ar 234’s first such mission took place on Christmas Eve 1944, over Liege, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. That’s not to say that the warbird wasn’t used for bombing missions. Blume had previously been a fighter ace, with 28 aerial victories, and was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite during the First World War. The Blitz ‘s designer was Walter Blume (not to be confused with the infamous Waffen-SS war criminal of the same name ). However, the company managed to produce a substantial number of aircraft during its 20 years of existence (1925 – 1945), and it cemented its place in history with the Ar-234. It was manufactured by Arado Flugzeugwerke – certainly not a household name among military-aviation history buffs in the same way Messerschmitt, Focke-Wolfe, Fokker, or Junkers are. The Blitz made its maiden flight on June 15, 1943, but it didn’t enter service with the Reich until September 1944 – thus fitting the chronology mentioned above. Hollway forgot to mention jet bombers, but Albert Speer’s Ministry of Armaments and War Production had this category covered as well: Meet the Arado Ar 234 Blitz (“Lightning”). Spurred by the specter of imminent defeat, projects that had been years in development were suddenly given highest priority, accelerated into production, and put into service.” ![]() As noted by Aviation History columnist Don Hollway, “1944 was the year of the Wunderwaffen, German wonder weapons. It is one of those unfortunate quirks of history that much of this Teutonic creativity took place under the evils of the Nazi regime, especially in 1944, the year before the Third Reich fell. Meet the Arado Ar-234: As I have mentioned in several articles, the Germans have long been innovators in weapons systems. ![]()
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