Why No Heavy Bomber for Germany?

what the Luftwaffe really needed if it wanted to destroy British industry, was a long range fighter, ala the Mustang.

 

They made one but they did it wrong again. They made the destroyer Me 110 to be a long range fighter but it hasn´t had any chance against the Spitfires. Based on the "Blitzkrieg Tactics" there was no need to have a 4-engine bomber, but later in war they ´ve seen that there is no chance to reach the war industry of Russia with their twin engine bombers. Strategically a really bad decision to stay with the twin engines. And instead to develop a good usable 4 engine heavy bomber, they dreamed of a "America Bomber" which costs lots of resources and it had no chance without a long range fighter. Or some carrier based fighters. So you can see the cat bites in her own tail.

 

Actually - yes it could....but with major caveats

Eric Brown tested a C-model during the war, and a G just after; the 110 could dogfight with fast monoplanes like the 1940 Spitfire and Hurricane - but bercause of its too-small tail surfaces it was ONLY that flickable and manouverable right up in the last 20mph of its performance envelope, when air was passing fast enough over its control surfaces.

And it was hindered in reaching this speed by TWO things; its mechanical fuel injectors were quite slow at building up speed from cruising...and of course in the BoB it was earmarked as an escort fighter, so was "pinned" to that speed for too long. In other words - when RAF fighters appeared, 110s had to accelerate to reach their full fighting manouverability....but that acceleration happened slower than the RAF's fighters!

Thus - first the Poles, then the French that Polish exiles taught the tactic to, then the RAF that French pilots taught the tactic to, discovered that the easiest way to bring down 110s was a P40 vs Zero-style "boom and zoom" attack - drop down on them from above and behind, fire on them, then immediately dive away fast...leaving the 110 behind them trying but failing to accelerate to catch them - if it survived

When the 110 became a nightfighter, the problem was even worse; not only were the nightfighter versions heavier, with heavier armament and radar sets on board, they had more drag because of the antennas...AND as Eric Brown discovered the "tune" of their exhaust stubs was ruined by the flame suppressors fitted.

 

The Me-110 holds the distinction of being the only escort fighter which needed single engine fighter escort. Now that isn't a good thing.

 

Yep, because tied to the speed of the bombers it was escorting, it was vulnerable as I described. So the LW ended up with a three-tier system in the BoB - the 110s providing close escort on the bombers, with 109s flying escort above and behind the 110s...instead of free hunting.

However - it had also proved itself as an intruder-bomber during the BoB, with the precision low-level attacks of ErPro210; unfortunately, the LW moved away from airfield attacks...

 

In regards to a German Long-range Heavy Bomber design, one should not overlook the construction of the six-engined Junkers Ju 390, which was nearly capable of reaching New York.
Junkers Ju 390 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I remember reading the RAF Flying Review article on this aircraft as a boy, but not sure I still have a copy of the article lying around.

 

Beating up airfields, even just strafing, might have been a good use for the 110s whatever the main bomber force was doing. I could see flights or squadrons hitting Fighter Command fields as the British are getting ready to take off to intercept the main attack, or maybe better, as they're landing and replenishing afterwards. The aftermath of a battle might be the best opportunity for small hit-and-run attacks to slip in. The 110 was slightly faster than a Hurricane and not much slower than a Spitfire, so they'd have a chance to get in and out, while attempts to intercept them would distract British planes and controllers from the main action.

 

They did such raids during the Battle of Britain. But as far as i know not with the 110. But good thoughts!

 

Yes, they did - Erprobungskommando 210, later renamed - Schnellkampfgeschwader 210 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Me 210? Unstable. I'd use an Me 410 A-1/U4 instead. With its 50mm Cannon it's like the predessor of the A-10 "Warthog", and very menacing looking, too!
Messerschmitt Me 410 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

He meant a Lufwaffe unit named "Erprobungskommando 210" not the aircraft Me 210 which wasn´t a masterpiece indeed.

 

The HE 177 was Germany's heavy long-range bomber, but unfortunately the "geniuses" in the Luftwaffe decided it needed to have dive-bombing capabilities as well. No one knows why they would insist that such a great heavy bomber would also need to have this useless function, since they already had so many aircraft capable of dive-bombing. Walter Weaver was the brains behind the heavy, long range bomber idea - he knew it would help to win wars in the future. Unfortunately he died in a plane crash in 1936, and Ernst Udet succeeded him with entirely different ideas. Udet felt that tactical bombing was the wave of the future. They should've found a comprimise and constructed both types. The Germans wasted so many resources on dozens of types of aircraft during the war, when just a handful of well-designed, mass-produced types would have sufficed.

 

Of course, the Arado 234 was the world's first jet-engine bomber, and would've done wonders in that role had they sped up the testing and production of it. If only, if only...

 

Only reason I can come up with, is a Condor replacement, to attack shipping. The CVE's sailing with the convoys would have slaughtered them. Hitler and Goering really had no comprehension on modern air warfare, not to mention naval war.

 

The possibility for the Germans to mass-produce a heavy bomber was almost inexistent.One also can question that this would be a good option:the German air force would be very weakened,and,why would the Germans need such a bomber ?

 

The germans would need the bomber, in my opinion, to hit british airfields and factories, which were well in range from bases in france. Also, against the soviet union. They might be able to criple soviet oil fields and also their factories before they were disasembled and reasembled farther east at the start of barbarossa. After 1943 though, a heavy bomber would have been low priority because german cities needed fighters for defense.

 

The existing German bombers could, and did, hit targets throughout the British Isles. They bombed Scapa Flow in the far north of Scotland from Germany in 1939, and their coverage and potential bombloads increased with the acquisition of bases in France, the Low Countries, and Norway. Granted larger bombers could carry heavier payloads, although they would be fewer in number, but that is a matter of degree rather than of operations not possible with twin-engine planes becoming possible. The key limitation on daylight bombing, fighter escort, was the same whatever type of bombers were used.

Attacking airfields was a means of achieving temporary air superiority, usually in conjunction with ground or amphibious operations; the strikes on the first day of Barbarossa are an excellent example. The idea is to achieve decisive results before the mostly unmanned planes hit on the ground can be replaced. It is the antithesis of the sustained bombing campaign for which heavy bombers were effective; incidentally airfield attacks in WWII were usually carried out by twin-engine types, or fighters.

 

The condors didn't attack shipping by divebombing - the flew over the top of a merchant ship, low and level, and dropped a stick of three bombs; usually at least one was close enough to stave in the single-layer iron plates of a period cargo ship...

The requirement to divebomb - or at least make 60-degree attacks - was mandated for the He177 in late spring/mid-summer of 1939 IIRC; it was viewed as a simple replacement for the failed "heavy divebomber" project.

 

Maritime reconnaissance and attack was one intended mission for the He177, so it could be considered an FW200 replacement regardless of how it delivered its bombs.

Donitz was eager to see the He177 operate over the Atlantic. In his memoir (which unfortunately I've loaned out and not gotten back) he expresses the expectation that it could be used in an air-to-air role against Allied maritime patrol aircraft like Liberators which were getting to be the bane of the U-boats. The He177 A1/U2 variant with two 30mm cannons under the nose might have been so used, though I'm not aware that it ever was.

 

Never said the Condor did attack by dive bombing. Iy was something incorporated I believe into the He-177, BECAUSE they wanted to use that in anti-shipping.