Heinkel He111 Bomber
The He111 was a medium bomber that was also used in small numbers as civil transport. The early versions of the He 111 flew in the Spanish civil war in 1936. The He 111 was a good medium bomber, but suffered severely over England because of a lack of fighter protection as the Bf109s did not have the range to provide them with more than 20 minutes of protection. It was kept in production long after it should have been replaced, but the Luftwaffe suffered from a developmental plan for long range, heavy bombers. It basically had none, until much too late in the war when they were on the defensive. Production ceased in 1944 after more than 7300 aircraft. Compared with Allied medium bombers like the B-25 Mitchell, it was undergunned. With a crew of four, and later five, it had a nose gunner, a top gunner and a belly gunner.
Technical Details
The early version of the He111 was powered by a pair of 700kW Daimler-Benz DB600CG engines. These power plants gave it a maximum speed of 229 mph (370km/h), a ceiling of 23,000 ft (7000 m), and a range 1030 mi (1660 km). It was armed with only three 7.9mm machine guns, and could carry a 1500 kg (3,300 lb) bomb load.
The He 111H-16 of 1943 carried a crew of five. It was powered by two 990kW Junkers Jumo 211F-2 engines. It had a speed of 250 mph (405 km/h), a ceiling of 27,900 ft (8500 m), and a range of 1280 mi (2060 km). It was armed with one 20mm cannon, one heavy 13 mm machine gun and five 7.9mm machine guns, and could carry an impressive 7,150 lbs (3250 kg) of bombs. Some of these were carried under the wings.
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