Schräge Musik

Going back to Schräge Musik for a moment (Don, did you “pull” your supplementary thread cos I can’t find it?), a number of questions have occurred to me as a result of reading posts in this thread, and from skimming thru parts of my library in search of definitive answers.

These are mostly to do with Bomber Command’s ignorance of Schräge Musik.

JDK has implied (and I’ve seen other comments supporting the idea) that Bomber Command was unaware of S.M. until the war’s end. Martin Middlebrook, whose books I rate highly, has stated that it took Bomber Command “many months” to realise what was going on – this suggests that S.M. was understood well before the war’s end, given that it started to be used in 1943.

I wonder what the truth is? None of my books is able to provide the answer. I find it hard to accept that no-one in Bomber Command could envisage something along the lines of upward firing guns, given that every heavy bomber in it’s inventory had just that capability with it’s turrets. And had everyone forgotten about one of the RAFs early answers to the shooting down of bombers at night – the Defiant, with guns capable of firing (almost) vertically?

Even if the exact installation details of S.M. eluded them, surely they could have considered the proposition that JU88s were being fitted with turrets capable of firing upwards?

And as the Germans were pushed back from Belgium, France and Holland, we must have discovered wrecked and abandoned night fighters by the score – surely there were some clues to be gleaned from these?

I’ve dragged this old thread out of its dusty closet for a couple of reasons …
1. I found out yesterday that my Uncle was in all probability killed by Schräge Musik.
2. A recent thread on Scarecrows touched on this, readers might find this thread interesting too.
3. I came across an amazing link today. 682Al was bang-on with his comments above.

Look at THIS. A Schräge Musik equipped Bf110 G-4/R-3 found and reported on by American forces in September 1944.

Who says it wasn’t known about? Spot of inter-service rivalry and the keeping of secrets?

cheers Don