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Luftwaffe Secret Projects
Strategic Bombers 1935-1945
Reichmarshal Hermann Göring was so convinced in 1940 that his Luftwaffe was invincible that he decreed that only refinements of existing types need be considered — there was no need for more research and development, the war would be short and sharp. The Battle of Britain and the flawed invasion of the Soviet Union changed all that. Germany needed all the technological muscle it could muster. From mid-1941 onwards the brakes were off and some of the finest minds in aerodynamics turned their thoughts to war-winning aircraft of a new generation.
Momentum was gained at an incredible pace, through advanced piston-engined designs to produce jet aircraft using aerodynamic concepts that the Allies seemed unable to match. Thankfully, the time lag generated by the German leadership allowed little in the way of hardware to appear operationally by 1945.
For the first time, Germany's incredible bomber projects of 1939-1945 are revealed — showing the technical dominance that their famed designers could have achieved if time allowed — shapes and layouts that do not look out of place in the 1990s.
With access to much previously unpublished information the authors bring to life futuristic shapes that might have terrorised the Allies had the war gone beyond 1945. Approximately 100 full colour illustrations in contemporary unit markings, plus dozens of three-view style plans and numerous black and white photographs show vividly what might have been achieved. Careful comparison with later Allied and Soviet aircraft show the legacy handed on, right up to today's stealth aircraft.
This book, which is a companion to the highly successful 'Fighters' volume, takes the lid off an incredible subject.
Momentum was gained at an incredible pace, through advanced piston-engined designs to produce jet aircraft using aerodynamic concepts that the Allies seemed unable to match. Thankfully, the time lag generated by the German leadership allowed little in the way of hardware to appear operationally by 1945.
For the first time, Germany's incredible bomber projects of 1939-1945 are revealed — showing the technical dominance that their famed designers could have achieved if time allowed — shapes and layouts that do not look out of place in the 1990s.
With access to much previously unpublished information the authors bring to life futuristic shapes that might have terrorised the Allies had the war gone beyond 1945. Approximately 100 full colour illustrations in contemporary unit markings, plus dozens of three-view style plans and numerous black and white photographs show vividly what might have been achieved. Careful comparison with later Allied and Soviet aircraft show the legacy handed on, right up to today's stealth aircraft.
This book, which is a companion to the highly successful 'Fighters' volume, takes the lid off an incredible subject.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 4, 2024
On 7 September 1940, Germany began a new phase in their air war against Great Britain. Having spent the previous five weeks attacking British air defenses, the Luftwaffe shifted their focus to strategic targets in advance of an amphibious assault on the British Isles. London, Manchester, and other metropolitan areas soon were subjected to almost nightly bombing raids, in the belief that doing so not only would prove disruptive to the British wartime economy, but would so demoralize the British populace that they would place irresistible pressure on their government to end the war.
Yet for all the destruction wrought on British cities, the Luftwaffe lacked the proper tools for such an effort. The reason for this lay in decisions made years before by German leaders to forego the development of the heavy bombers necessary for strategic bombing to have any chance of success, in favor of the medium and dive-bombers better suited for participating in the blitzkrieg campaigns Germany’s military leaders planned to conduct. This decision, and its consequences, is at the heart of Dieter Herwig and Heinz Rode’s book. In it they detail the troubled efforts by the Luftwaffe to develop strategic bombers, demonstrating how the oftentimes visionary plans were thwarted by a combination of engineering challenges and official indifference until it was too late to affect the outcome of the war.
As Herwig and Rode relate, Germany’s efforts to develop a strategic bomber predated even the Third Reich. As far back as 1926, the Luftwaffe’s predecessor, the Reichswehr, encouraged the development of planes that could meet the requirements of a heavy bomber for the era. When Germany abandoned secrecy and began pursuing rearmament openly in the mid-1930s, airplane manufacturers began presenting their plans to the military for large bombers capable of carrying heavy loads over long distances. Yet the leaders of the newly-created Luftwaffe turned down such proposals, believing that long-range penetration operations would be an “unnecessary luxury” in the rapid campaigns of conquest for which the military was preparing.
As a result, auspicious projects died stillborn. Three of them – the Blohm & Voss BV 142, the Junkers Ju 89, and the Dornier Do 19 – never got past the trials stage, with the prototypes of the especially promising Do 19 scrapped in 1936. Of the prewar designs, only the Heinkel He 177 would ever enter full production, and the “double-engine” design and the requirement that the plane be equipped to serve as a dive-bomber ensured that it never established itself as a reliable operational aircraft. While medium bomber designs continued to be developed, these proved inadequate for the demands for a strategic bomber once the need arose with the failure of the blitzkrieg concept in 1940-1 and the entry of the United States into the war.
The desire to strike at targets in America spurred a new wave of projects. Most of these never got past the planning stages, and much of the description in the authors’ text is peppered with qualifiers such as “would have,” or “was to have been” because of this. Yet the designs themselves were impressively ambitious, with some – such as the Junkers Ju 287 and 390 bombers – even reaching the prototype stage. Many of these plans incorporated the newly developed jet engine, which promised the power and speed needed to meet the aspirations of designers. By 1945, however, the designs themselves had reached the realm of pure fantasy, not because of insurmountable technical issues, but because of the inability of the embattled German industrial base to turn such radical designs into operational bombers.
Ironically, the beneficiaries of these advanced projects would be the very countries which they were devised to attack. With victory came an intensive effort to acquire the designs and the technology developed to realize them, with much of this windfall reflected in postwar airplane development on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The legacy of this windfall is evident in the numerous illustrations Rode provides for the book, which evoke many of the planes developed in the years afterward. The illustrations also make for a visually appealing work that, along with its photographs and technical drawings, give readers a sense of what such planes would have looked like had they become operational. Yet it is the failure to realize such planes that makes the book such fascinating reading, as it not only explores the possibilities of what might have been, but the reasons as well for why they never became reality.
Yet for all the destruction wrought on British cities, the Luftwaffe lacked the proper tools for such an effort. The reason for this lay in decisions made years before by German leaders to forego the development of the heavy bombers necessary for strategic bombing to have any chance of success, in favor of the medium and dive-bombers better suited for participating in the blitzkrieg campaigns Germany’s military leaders planned to conduct. This decision, and its consequences, is at the heart of Dieter Herwig and Heinz Rode’s book. In it they detail the troubled efforts by the Luftwaffe to develop strategic bombers, demonstrating how the oftentimes visionary plans were thwarted by a combination of engineering challenges and official indifference until it was too late to affect the outcome of the war.
As Herwig and Rode relate, Germany’s efforts to develop a strategic bomber predated even the Third Reich. As far back as 1926, the Luftwaffe’s predecessor, the Reichswehr, encouraged the development of planes that could meet the requirements of a heavy bomber for the era. When Germany abandoned secrecy and began pursuing rearmament openly in the mid-1930s, airplane manufacturers began presenting their plans to the military for large bombers capable of carrying heavy loads over long distances. Yet the leaders of the newly-created Luftwaffe turned down such proposals, believing that long-range penetration operations would be an “unnecessary luxury” in the rapid campaigns of conquest for which the military was preparing.
As a result, auspicious projects died stillborn. Three of them – the Blohm & Voss BV 142, the Junkers Ju 89, and the Dornier Do 19 – never got past the trials stage, with the prototypes of the especially promising Do 19 scrapped in 1936. Of the prewar designs, only the Heinkel He 177 would ever enter full production, and the “double-engine” design and the requirement that the plane be equipped to serve as a dive-bomber ensured that it never established itself as a reliable operational aircraft. While medium bomber designs continued to be developed, these proved inadequate for the demands for a strategic bomber once the need arose with the failure of the blitzkrieg concept in 1940-1 and the entry of the United States into the war.
The desire to strike at targets in America spurred a new wave of projects. Most of these never got past the planning stages, and much of the description in the authors’ text is peppered with qualifiers such as “would have,” or “was to have been” because of this. Yet the designs themselves were impressively ambitious, with some – such as the Junkers Ju 287 and 390 bombers – even reaching the prototype stage. Many of these plans incorporated the newly developed jet engine, which promised the power and speed needed to meet the aspirations of designers. By 1945, however, the designs themselves had reached the realm of pure fantasy, not because of insurmountable technical issues, but because of the inability of the embattled German industrial base to turn such radical designs into operational bombers.
Ironically, the beneficiaries of these advanced projects would be the very countries which they were devised to attack. With victory came an intensive effort to acquire the designs and the technology developed to realize them, with much of this windfall reflected in postwar airplane development on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The legacy of this windfall is evident in the numerous illustrations Rode provides for the book, which evoke many of the planes developed in the years afterward. The illustrations also make for a visually appealing work that, along with its photographs and technical drawings, give readers a sense of what such planes would have looked like had they become operational. Yet it is the failure to realize such planes that makes the book such fascinating reading, as it not only explores the possibilities of what might have been, but the reasons as well for why they never became reality.
September 5, 2018
Great book, worth it
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews