WWII Tech Pubs Briefing

Written by
Michael Hyde

Heinkel He 111's of the Luftwaffe slip through the French fighter patrols to bomb airfields during May 1940, while opposing groups of fighters wheel in combat high above.

[ Top of Page | Feedback ]

Overview

The Heinkel He 111 arose from a 1934 design specification for a fast twin-engined passenger and bomber aircraft issued jointly by the embryonic Luftwaffe and the national airline, Lufthansa.  The He 111’s  designers, twins Siegfried and Walter Günter, meant the airplane to carry a 1,000-kg (2,205-lb) bomb load, three 7.92-mm (0.312-in) machine guns (one in the glazed nose, one in a retractable ventral “dustbin” turret, and a third in a dorsal position), and a crew of four.  Two BMW V1 6.0 Z 12-cylinder water-cooled engines with a maximum output of 660 hp (492 kW) would supply the power.

The prototype first flew as the He 111a V1 on Feb. 24, 1935 was found to exhibit pleasant flight characteristics.  The third aircraft (He 111b V3), after slight changes in the wing design and lengthening of the nose, became the production prototype for the He 111A-0 series.  These aircraft performed too poorly for the Luftwaffe, which rejected them - the ten that Heinkel built were sold to China.  A fifth prototype with two 1,000 hp (746 kW) Daimler Benz DB 600Aa 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engines exhibited greatly improved performance. 

The newly impressed Luftwaffe accepted this aircraft and Kampfgeschwader (bomber squadron; abbreviated KG) 154 put the He 111B-1 to work by winter 1936, a mere eight months after the fifth prototype had been built.  Production aircraft used slightly de-rated 880-hp (657-kW) DB 600C engines that let the aircraft carry a bomb load of 1,500 kg (3,307 lbs) over a short distance.  He 111B-1s proved very effective on combat operations in the Spanish Civil War.

The D series, the next bomber version, with its DB 600Ga engines performed better than the B models.  Massive Luftwaffe rearmament created a shortage of DB 600 engines that forced Heinkel to abandon development of this series.  The company obtained 1,000-hp (746-kW) Junkers Jumo 211A-1 engines and inserted them into He 111Es.  The E model also served successfully in Spain, and some remained in Spanish service beyond World War II.  Turkey bought 24 111Fs, which featured a simplified wing.

In 1938, Heinkel test-flew an aircraft a completely redesigned nose section.  The new fully-glazed elliptical nose would become familiar in the coming war.  Heinkel fitted the new nose both to P models with 1,150-hp (858-kW) DB 601A-1 engines and to H models equipped with 1,010-hp (753-kW) Jumo 211A-1s.  Maximum bomb load increased to 2,000 kg (4,410 lb).  The P model was phased out in 1940 when the availability of Daimler Benz engines shrunk.

For the May 1940 attack on France and the low countries, the Luftwaffe could call on approximately 680 He 111 bombers and others deployed in pathfinder, mine-laying, and reconnaissance roles.  Over 100 He 111H-1s per month had been produced since May 1939 and they composed an important part of the German bomber force.  They operated particularly effectively in low-level raids on French, Dutch, and British airfields in which they destroyed many aircraft on the ground.  An infamous event of the period was the bombing of Rotterdam by He 111s of KG 54.

The H-1 continued to employ the three-gun defensive armament of earlier models which, while effective in Spain, proved insufficient during the invasion of Poland and totally inadequate in France.  Subsequent types mounted at least one extra nose and two beam guns.

Originally, the He 111 was to be phased out in early 1942 but production continued through late 1944 because planned replacements such as the Heinkel He 177 and Junkers Ju 288 never became available in sufficient numbers.

[ Top of Page | Feedback ]

Specifications

Figures are for He 111H-1 model.

[ Top of Page | Feedback ]