Messerschmitt Me.410, part two

The first unit to operate the Me.410 over the United Kingdom was the V./KG.2 proving the Me.410 to be a target hard to hit for RAF's night fighters. The first Me.410 lost over British skies happened on the night of 13-14 July 1943 when a De Havilland Mosquito from No.85 Squadron shot down a single Me.410.
The Me.410 was also used as a bomber destroyer against USAAF's bomber formations in daytime. For that purpose it was loaded with many different field modifications, like an extra long-barrelled 30mm Mk.103 cannon in the nose or rocket launchers under the wings. Two main Zerstörer units, the ZG.26 and ZG.76 were equipped with the Me.410 by late 1943.
Their success against unescorted bombers was moderate during 1943 with a considerable number of kills achieved against USAAF's bomber formations. However, it was not a match against Allied lighter fighters in a dogfight like the North American P-51 Mustang and later versions of the Supermarine Spitfire.
In early 1944 the Me.410 encountered encountered swarms of Allied fighter escorting the bombers, usually flying far ahead of the bomber box formations, in an air supremacy tactic to clear the skies from any Luftwaffe airplane. This turned to be lethal for the Me.410 as their previous successes were being neutralized by their losses. For example, on 6th March 1944, during a raid over Berlin where 750 B-17s took place, 16 Me.410s were shot down in exchange of only eight B-17s and four P-51s (which were destroyed by either the Bf.109s or Fw.190s escorting the Me.410s). Paradoxically, in the next month, the Me.410s from the II./ZG.26 shot down 10 B-17s without any losses during a raid on Sorau, Rostock and Oschersleben. However, later, during that same raid, in a second sortie, eight Me.410 and three Bf.110 were shot down by P-51s with sixteen crewmen killed and three wounded.
Due to that poor success rate, and in spite of being Hitler's favourite bomber destroyer, the Me.410 units were taken from the Defence of the Reich duties and production was halted in favour of heavily armed single-engined fighters, like the Fw.190 A-8/R8 overtaking the bomber destroyer role and the Me.410s performing reconnaissance roles only. Some Me.410s were used together with the Junkers Ju.88 for high-altittude reconnaissance during the Battle for Normandy.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_410
2. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/179982
3. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/179990
4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters