From Today I Found Out.

In August 1944, shortly after the Allied landings in Normandy, Flight Lieutenant Walter Dinsdale and Pilot Officer Jack Dunn of the Royal Canadian Air Force were flying their de Havilland Mosquito heavy fighter over the invasion beaches when they spotted an unusual shape in the distance. For several moments, the airmen struggled to make heads or tails of the strange aircraft, as Dinsdale later recounted:

“I recognized it as a [Junkers] Ju-88 [bomber] but couldn’t figure out what the thing on top was. I thought it was one of their glider bombs mounted in a new way. It was on top, mounted between the rudder and the main wing.”

At the moment, however, the aircraft’s precise identity was unimportant. All that mattered was that it was German – and thus a fair target. Unfortunately for the Germans, the aircraft proved easy pickings for Dinsdale and Dunn:

“It was retribution for Jerry for thinking up such things. [It was] an awkward thing which lumbered along at about 150 miles an hour…it was a cinch to shoot down.”

It was only later that the two Canadians learned exactly what it was they had shot down: a Mistel, a bomber packed with explosives and guided to its target by a fighter aircraft strapped to its back. Borne out of late-war desperation, this unusual weapon held great potential, but like so many wartime German innovations, arrived too late to have any effect on the conflict. This is the story of the Nazi’s strange piggyback bombs.

Author: Gilles Messier
Editor: Daven Hiskey
Host: Simon Whistler
Producer: Samuel Avila