Hidden deep within the Luftwaffe’s experimental programs was one of the most unusual and ambitious German weapons of World War II — the Mistel S1, a composite aircraft engineered for one purpose: to destroy heavily armored Allied battleships with a single, devastating blow. The Mistel S1 combined a Junkers Ju 88 bomber packed with an enormous explosive warhead and a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter mounted on top. The fighter pilot would guide the pair toward the target, lock the Ju 88 onto a precis