Dornier 17524 viewsThe Dornier 17, were the mainstay of the German bombers during the Blitz on Britain and especially London. Dornier 17 had been an easy target for the Spitfires and Hurricanes of Fighter Command but had proved itself to be a valuable part of the Luftwaffe in campaigns that led up to this battle. The Luftwaffe valued the plane as was shown by production levels for the plane at the start of the war. 1,700 Dornier 17's were built between 1939 and 1940. It made its mark in the attack on Poland in September 1939 and its versatility was such that it was used as a bomber, reconnaissance plane and as a pathfinder by the Luftwaffe. Its limitations were shown in the Battle of Britain, however, when it became clear that the plane was very vulnerable to attacks from the rear and from below and that its defensive armaments were poor. As with other German bombers, against a poor air force, the Dornier 17 did well and the Luftwaffe clearly was over-confident as to its capabilities.
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Dornier Do 191146 viewsAlong with the Junkers Ju 89, the Do 19 was developed as part of the "Ural Bomber" program championed by Gen. Walther Wever who forsaw the need for long range strategic bombing capability. When Gen. Wever was killed in April of 1936, the goal of a strategic bombing capability died with him. On April 29, 1937, the Ural-Bomber bomber program was cancelled by Kesselring in spite of protests. Kesselring felt the production and development resources would be better used to develop and build tactical bombers such as the Do 17 and He 111. This philosophy would later haunt and severely handicap the Luftwaffes ability to strike at Russia's production capabilities.
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Dornier 335447 viewsAs the Second World War in Europe drew to a close, a powerful new twin- engined fighter was preparing to enter service with the Luftwaffe. This amazing machine was the piston-engined Dornier Do 335. Fitted with Daimler-Benz DB603A-2 engines delivering 1750 hp at take-off, the first example, Do 335 V1 (CP+UA), flew for the first time on 26 October 1943 from Mengen, Wurttemburg, with Flugkapitan Hans Dieterle at the controls. When the US Army overran the Oberpfaffenhofen factory in late April 1945, only 11 Do 335A-1 single seat fighter-bombers and two Do 335A-12 conversion trainers had been completed. A further nine A-1's, four A-4's and two A- 12's were in final assembly, and components and assemblies for nearly 70 more had been completed. Heinkel at Vienna had been unable to build any Do 335A-6 night fighters.
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