The Most Desperate Nazi Aircraft of WW2 - The Mistel

The Luftwaffe's Mistel, or Mistletoe, was a unique German composite aircraft configuration used during the last months of World War II.

Alongside jet-powered aircraft like the Arado Ar 234 bomber or the Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter, the Mistletoe was one of Hermann Göring's last attempts to destroy their enemies.

The Mistel was a composite aircraft configuration consisting of a larger unmanned aircraft packed with heavy explosives and a small, piloted control aircraft mounted above it. The most used configuration involved a modified Junkers Ju 88 bomber as the Mistel explosive drone and a Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter joined to it by struts.

The Germans would guide the bomber drone and launch it against its objective. Its explosives could penetrate more than 7 meters of concrete and 5 meters of reinforced steel.

The composite aircraft first saw action during the summer of 1944, when the Allies invaded Normandy. They were also infamously used in the attempt to destroy the British fleet stationed in Scapa Flow.

However, the Mistel was able to terrorize British fleets when word got around that Germany was amassing an army of these explosive drones.

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