behind enemy lines), or transporting important personnel. The Mistel program Beginning in 1942, to compensate for its lack of heavy bombers, the Luftwaffe started to experiment with packing some of its war-weary Junkers Ju 88 bombers with enormous shaped-charge warheads and guiding them to their targets with a fighter airplane mounted on the back of the unmanned bomber. Although not as effective as the Luftwaffe planners had hoped, the Mistel program continued to be developed through 1944. However, few effective operations were flown. The unit was originally intended to attack naval installations at Gibraltar, Leningrad or Scapa Flow in Scotland, but the Allied Operation Overlord diverted efforts to Normandy. On the night of 24 June 1944, Mistels of Kampfgeschwader 101 were dispatched to bomb targets in the English Channel. Although one of the Ju 88s had to be jettisoned prematurely, the remaining four pilots had successful launches and sank several block ships. Interest in the Scapa Flow attack was maintained, and in August 1944 Mistel forces were concentrated at Grove in Schleswig-Holstein. On 11 November 1944 RAF Lancasters attacked the German battleship Tirpitz and caused her to capsize. With Tirpitz out of commission there was no requirement for capital ships to be held in the Atlantic theatre, and soon those with the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow were on their way to the Pacific war, leaving the Mistels no worthwhile targets in Scapa Flow. All Mistels were placed under the command of KG 200 and Oberst (Colonel) Joachim Helbig. By late 1944 emphasis was placed on an all-out attack on Soviet armaments and power plants but by March 1945 the bases had been overrun by the Soviet advance. was ordered to concentrate Mistel operations against the bridges over the Oder and Neisse rivers. On 27 April 7 Mistel aircraft under Leutnant Dittmann of II./KG 200, escorted by Fw 190s, were launched against crossings at Küstrin, but only two Mistels got to the target to launch, results were inconclusive and the bridges remained intact. By April all available Mistel composite airframes had been expended and aircrew dispersed to nearby fighter units. On 12 April 1945 Henschel Hs 293 standoff missiles were also used against bridges on the Oder, by Do 217 bombers of KG 200. Suicide and near-suicide missions In the last months of the war, a small number of high-ranking German officers pressed for a suicide fighter program as a