World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
20 Feb 2009 09:07:18 AM

Above photo: He 177A-3/R1 of KG-40 which participated in the first opernational sorties flown by the unit from Chateaudum.

2.  Bill says:
14 Jan 2011 03:49:10 PM

Added comment from my previous one dated
20 Feb 2009

The Heinkel He 177 was Germany's only
Strategic bomber However, it had its problems
both in development and in operations.

LOOKED LIKE TWO BUT, POWERED BY FOUR:

It was a 4-engine bomber, that looked like a
twin-engine one, powered by 4xDB601 engines
mounted in pairs and was an interesting
concept.
The design had flaws with exhaust, fuel-lines
oil-lines, hydraulic lines and electrical wiring crammed together in a small space that led to over-heating and engine fires.
Later aircraft were modified with 4 seperate engines but with the added drag, weight and fuel reduced its performance.

Heinkel & Arado tooled up for production it was planned to build 70 bombers per-month
However, that number was never reached.
More He 177s were lost to engine fires, than to combat about 1,000 were built and between 200 to 300 saw service.

THE GERMAN CRAZE FOR DIVE BOMBING!...

The He 177 was a very large aircraft designed
for long-range and bombing it was armed with
2x20mm cannons w/1500rpg, 3x7.92mm machine guns w/2000rpg and 3x13mm machine guns w/1500rpg.

THE FOUR-ENGINE DIVE BOMBER:

Bombload was 13,225lb/6,000kg and could carry
the Fritz X or the Hs 239 missiles. With a
range of 1,000 miles and speed of 340mph, the
He 177 was called upon to be a 4-engine dive
bomber! enter a 60 degree dive, and release its bombs! at what altitude does the pilot pull out?, before the ground comes up..
One Heinkel He 177V38 was modified to carry
Germany's Atomic Bomb.

3.  Bill says:
14 Jan 2011 04:23:15 PM

In the photograph above, only the rear bomb
bay doors are open, the doors for the seperate forward bomb bay doors re cloed.

HOW THEY WORKED:

The two outer doors opened outwards, the two inner doors opened inwards towards each other.

4.  Bill says:
15 Jan 2011 08:00:21 PM

THE FRENCH CONNECTION:

The French captured the one prototype of the
Heinkel He 274V-1, that was designed as a
high-altitude bomber, modified with twin-
vertical stabilizers.

CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU:

The Germans failed to destroy the bomber and
was only damaged, repaired by the French and renamed the AAS-0La.
After WWII the He 274 served as a test bed for French aircraft development and other post-war programs. The aircraft was retired in 1953.

5.  Bill says:
8 Nov 2016 09:44:32 AM

THE LUFTWAFFE'S STRATEGIC BOMBER...NOT SO FAST

The Heinkel He 177 had its problems in development and in operations. Aircraft was powered by 4 x DB 601
engines mounted in pairs, that gave the impression it looked like a twin-engine bomber.

FULL OF BUGS:

The design concept was interesting, but flawed the engine design suffered from too many systems bunched together fuel, oil lines, hydraulic lines and electrical wiring that was close to the engines and their exhaust systems. The over heating led to many in flight fires.

GERMAN CRAZE FOR DIVE-BOMBING: YES AN He 177 DIVE BOMBER!

Besides horizontal bombing, the He 177 was to doubled as a dive bomber! and tests were carried out.
I can't imagine such a large aircraft going into a 60 degree dive, let alone pulling out of its dive, in one piece, against all the stress on the airframe and the crew living to tell about it.

COLD AND WINDY DAY:

He 177 sits on snow covered ramp. Aircraft assigned to 15./KG 40 emblem is a white worm on a yellow outline on a black shield.

6. SimonGunson says:
22 Dec 2021 12:42:21 PM

A bomber commonly referred to as the He177 V38 prototype captured at the Letov factory, Prague, 8 May 1945 was identified in a POW interrogation report from Sept '43 (KEW W/O, SRA 4394, having a bomb bay enlarged for the Atomic bomb called 76 Zentner. Another POW report SRA 4450, describes 76 Zentner as a powerful bomb able to destroy big cities leaving "not a single soul alive." Navigator Peter Brill revealed in 2005 that four He177 had especially enlarged bomb bays, "big enough to accommodate a car" and all four were stored under camouflage at Sprottau (now in western Poland). Peter Brill, called the variant an AK177,which he said had two four blade contra-rotating propellers. to provide sufficient fuel efficiency to cross the Atlantic. Peter was widely published in 2005. and his interview can be found on Youtube.