Product Description

If it can be said that adversity generates creativity, then the story of the Heinkel He 162 jet fighter is testimony to such a precept. From the summer of 1944, the adversity facing the leadership of the Third Reich was formidable. Ironically however, the very existence of such adversity prompted many inventive designs for the air defence of the Reich on a determined and even manic scale. The pinnacle of these accomplishments was the so-called Volksjager (the 'People's Fighter') project which was, and still is, regarded as a 'miracle of production'. Created in desperation by the Nazi leadership in mid-1944, and powered by a BMW turbojet, the He 162 was known to its pilots as the 'Spatz' (the 'Sparrow'). It represented an unprecedented aeronautical and engineering achievement, with the aircraft going from drawing board to prototype flight in just three months, often at considerable human cost. In this book, aviation historians Robert Forsyth and Eddie J. Creek draw, for the first time, on hundreds of previously unused Heinkel company papers to offer a unique insight into the workings of the Nazi production system in the late-war period, as well as other German and Allied documents. Their work is supported by many rare photographs and accompanied by line drawings and facsimile documents as well as highly detailed colour artwork by He 162 specialist, Simon Schatz. "Heinkel He 162 Spatz" offers the whole history of the Volksjager project, and is the first major history of this fascinating aircraft to be published in the English language. A natural accompaniment to the other detailed German aircraft monographs published by Classic Publications, it is certain to find a ready audience and will form an essential reference work to all those interested in the airpower of World War 2.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46117 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

The whole story about the Volksjager
This is a brilliant book with no reservations. It dispels the oft repeated view that the He 162 was a total disaster and instead suggests it would have been a very effective fighter with a little more development. As far as I'm concerned it really is the last word on this fascinating little fighter.
One slight query. In the chapter on the 162's deployment , although credit is given to Eric Mombeek for his research into JG1, who flew the 162, no mention is made (also in Mombeek's book) to `Kompanie Oesau' commanded by the diehard nazi Adolf Dickfield. Dickfield claimed that he shot down a P47 on 21st April 1945 ,while flying the Volksjager, and a Leutnant Bartz another one the following day. Dickfield wrote a controversial book called `In the Footsteps of the Hunter'. I wonder why no mention of these `victories',

Full story of a Luftwaffe's last throw of the dice in WW II !

The story of the so-called Volksjäger (the 'People's Fighter') project is told here in perhaps the most comprehensive work yet to appear on the type in English. The He 162 was a last throw of the dice by the Nazi leadership in mid-to-late 1944. Powered by a BMW turbojet, the He 162 achieved notoriety by going from drawing board to prototype flight in just three months, often at considerable human cost. Robert Forsyth and Eddie J. Creek offer a unique insight into the workings of the Nazi production system in the late-war period through many rare photographs, facsimile documents, detailed text and colour artworks. Development and deployment of the He 162 were compressed into the most restricted time frame possible - with almost inevitable consequences. No aircraft can go from drawing board to combat service without a prolonged period of developmental testing - the fact that the He 162 did so, in no way attests to any inherent brillance in the design or conception of the type. There was virtually no factory flight testing - this was to be carried out at unit level and this book exploits author Erik Mombeeck's considerable research into the history of the only fighter unit to have flown the type in combat Jagdgeschwader 1. The discussion surrounding the He 162's supposed combat successes also relies heavily on research carried by Rick Chapman in 1989 and I have to say that I think the authors conclusions, based on pilot reports and a translation of some German text to be erroneous.
Of particular interest though is a detailed photographic overview of the famous JG 1 line-up at Leck, the text documenting the mix of resignation and relief felt by the men of the last Luftwaffe Jagdgeschwader who had managed to fall back to Schleswig Holstein and who were able to surrender to the British. Much of this passage is drawn from my own translation of Eric Mombeek's forthcoming history of JG 4 (Vol II), e.g. this extract from the JG 4 War diary for Sunday 06 May 1945;


"Our aircraft, vehicles and other equipment is lined up as if for one last parade. The sight is an impressive one and will certainly give the British food for thought. We are proud to show off more than one hundred of our aircraft like this - from the ultra -modern Me262 and He162 that have flown only limited numbers of combat sorties - to the Bf109 and Fw190 fighters that have returned victories in thousands of successful air battles. All will pass into enemy hands. This afternoon several light tanks and trucks bring RAF ground forces onto the airfield. Oberst Nordmann then the Kommodore and Kommandeure have to go before the Colonel commanding the RAF forces. To our great surprise they receive a handshake by way of greeting! However we are airmen together - we remain sceptical as to what may follow the courtesies that our extended to us: what will happen when the other occupation forces arrive? The first orders are to draw up an inventory of all our matériel. All weapons must be handed in apart from the officers side-arms."

Was the type a 'dazzling success' as previous authors have referred to it. Hardly.. In my view the authors go too far here in referring to the He 162 as '"an unprecedented aeronautical achievement". Quoted in French aviation magazine 'Le Fana' in 1997, French He 162 test pilot Raphael Lombaert (briefly quoted in the Classic book) states that the He162 was 'anything but a success' & only 'dazzled' in the brevity of the conception process. The a/c itself as depicted by Lombaert was "pedestrian and dangerous". This was not a machine of sparkling performance by any stretch of the imagination. The most basic of fighter manoeuvres could in the He162 become "terribly vicious". Although not discussed in the Classic book, French He162s were never flown post-war for longer than 15 minutes due to concerns over the rate of fuel consumption and the horrendous noise from the jet engine right next to the pilot's head! Many died in crashes directly resulting from short-comings in the design. We can perhaps only agree with Lombaert when he states "whenever I see this a/c now preserved in museums I cannot help but spare a thought for all those that fell victim to this machine, truly a tool of desperation ..".

An essential reference work to all students of Luftwaffe World War II airpower and kudos to the authors & designer for putting it all together in this superb package.

'It needed the touch of a well-trained pilot, say 2,500 hours, to be really safe' - Test pilot Cdr W. Benson, RAF, on the He 162
Classic publications are very much on a roll at the moment, producing interesting, well researched and well produced volumes about some of the less well known German aircraft of World War Two. Beneath its rather uninspiring cover this book continues the trend and is an excellent history of the second of the German jet fighters to see combat, if only briefly.

The book is split into five main chapters. The first covers the background to the He 162 in the dire war situation of 1944 and political manoeuvrings within the Nazi hierarchy. With the Luftwaffe's failure to protect German armies in the field from devastation by Allied air power any scheme which seemed to offer a way to do so was grasped at. One such idea was for a fighter so simple and cheap it could be designed and built quickly and in huge numbers, given a superior performance by means of a jet engine, and flown by fanatical members of the Hitler Youth. Forsyth and Creek describe well the evolution of this idea and how it fitted into an armaments programme already stretched to capacity, the dumbfounded reaction to it of professional air men, and how commercial rivalries between aircraft manufacturers affected it.

Chapter two looks at how Heinkel's successful design, produced in an astonishingly short time, was taken from the drawing board to full scale production. The authors show just how difficult this was. Production had to be started before the first prototype was flown, leading to frequent design changes, and it had to be dispersed to avoid bombing, but the Allied attacks on transport led to lengthy delays in assembling complete aircraft. Bombing also removed key components one by one - the original proposed armament of 30mm cannon had to be replaced by less effective 20mm cannon, and the EZ 42 gyroscopic gunsight became unavailable both due to bombing of their manufacturers. This chapter also covers events such as the famous crash of the first prototype before senior officials due to glue failure in its wooden construction and the growing realisation that the aircraft would need to be flown by trained pilots. All of this is described in great detail.

Much of the workforce used to build the He 162 was 'forced'. Forsyth and Creek do not shy away from mentioning this but one of the few weaknesses of the book is that there are no personal accounts by any of the slave labourers involved. Their story is just as much part of the history of the He 162 as its designers and pilots.

The third chapter looks at the deployment of the He 162 to the front-line JG 1 from February 1945 and its painful experience with it. With only a few aircraft produced the authors are often able to detail individual flights as pilots took delivery of He 162s and trained on them. All to often they also died with them as a flawed, hasty design combined with poor build quality leading to numerous accidents. This chapter also describes in depth the very limited combat seen by the He 162.

Chapter four looks briefly at a design study for a pulse-jet powered He 162, various armament options and a suggested mistel composite. As one of the newest German jets the He 162 attracted much interest from the Allies after the war and the final chapter covers the history of the aircraft tested by British, American, French and Soviet pilots. There are lengthy quotes from the test pilots who flew the He 162.

Embedded in these five chapters are three sections which cover the procedures for flying the He 162, a detailed description of its components, and a series of photographs of the surrendered JG 1 machines at the war's end. References (mostly to original documents rather than secondary sources), an index and specification and performance data round off the volume.

The book is well illustrated throughout with plentiful photographs (a few in colour) which are informatively captioned. There are also numerous colour profiles of selected aircraft and reproductions of original documents.

In summary Forsyth and Creek have produced a very detailed history of almost all aspects of this diminutive fighter. They rarely offer an opinion themselves but those of the pilots and experts they quote build together to give the impression of an aircraft which, though it was produced in an almost unbelievable time and possessed the fighter's greatest single requirement of high speed, was deficient in almost every other aspect. Thoroughly recommended.