Why Everyone Feared The "Flying Pencil" | Dornier Do 17

foreign ly we looked at the handily page Hampton which was often called The Flying suitcase due to its slab-sided fuselage today we're looking at another aircraft whose nickname also came from its looks the dornier do 17 often called The Flying pencil due to its slim fuselage and tail in some ways it's easy to draw comparisons between the two both were light and agile for their class both saw extensive use in the opening years of the second world war and both were replaced on the front lines of the various air wars rather quickly but these aircraft though similar in many aspects were operated in very different ways and the do 17 would earn a reputation for being an excellent low altitude high-speed strike aircraft not something that you'd immediately associate with the twin engine bomber of this period now usually I'd follow on by saying something along the lines of the origins of the dornier 17 can be traced back to the early 1930s blah blah blah and then go on to explain its development but the problem is that there are three different narratives for this development depending on what sources you're looking at and some of these vary rather considerably something that I've learned to my pain the production of this video has been physically emotionally and spiritually draining not only have I had to cross check more sources than I had ever anticipated but to my abject horror I learned along the way that half of what I assumed I knew about the do 17 turned out to be mostly wrong which was a bit embarrassing it's why this video is about a month late I had planned to originally upload this in February and now it is the end of March but with Wounded pride and a migraine strong enough to bring down a medium-sized rhinoceros I carried on and got the job done eventually because of this I want to give a full disclaimer now that my interpretation of things is based on conclusions that I have drawn after reading through a vast number of different pieces written on the air craft and this might conflict with the established Narrative of things depending on what an individual person has read on the matter so as far as I'm aware based on the research that I have conducted and with a silent prayer to my patron saint a bottle of Pinot Noir I declare this video to be mostly accurate so let's begin the three different narratives of its developments are as follows and please bear in mind these are condensed versions of events as going over it in full detail would quite literally take me a couple of hours so version one in the early 1930s probably as early as 1932 dornia was approached by Deutsch Lufthansa to build a high-speed Transport Aircraft specifically the company wanted a high-speed mail carrier one that could also seat six passengers which it could operate on its European Express routes sometime later dornier would produce the first second and third prototypes of its new do17 which after successful testing the latter two were handed over to Deutsche Lufthansa for evaluation though they were fast the aircraft were subsequently rejected as transports because the passenger cabins were considered far too cramped and it would have been uneconomical to run them purely as male planes and so the aircraft seemed to be a failure and the prototypes began collecting dust at the dornier factory then a former dornier employee Captain Robert untucked who now worked as liaison between Deutsch Lufthansa and the air Ministry flew one of the prototypes he was very impressed with its performance and suggested that with some modifications the aircraft could become an ideal high-speed light bomber and thus the story of the do 17's military career would begin the second narrative is a variation on the same theme in the early 1930s dornier was approached by Deutsch latanza who are referred to from now on as DLH to keep things simple to build a high-speed Transport Aircraft but at around the same time as this the reichsver ministerium soon to become the Reichel of Taft ministerium or the ministry for Aviation but for the purpose of Simplicity let's refer to it as the rlm con contacted dornier with an expression of Interest they suggested the construction of a new high-speed cargo plane as well but one that could also be equipped with so-called special equipment in other words they wanted dornier to design them a bomber but not in any official capacity ostensibly the aircraft was to be built and operated as a commercial transport but it must be able to be quickly converted over to its military role as easily as possible this narrative argues that the considerations for military equipment negatively impacted the design from the perspective of it being a passenger transport and thus why it was rejected additionally dornier had not been able to ride to commissioned to build a bomber either it had just been strongly suggested that the need for a high-speed bomber may arise and that any Transport Aircraft they build should have to bear that consideration in mind the third narrative approaches things completely differently and argues that from the outset the dornier 17 was a military design rather than a civil one the use of the aircraft as a transport for DLH was merely a cover for its true purpose and if the aircraft did prove useful in this civil role it would just be a delightful bonus the company had been approached about producing a military design as early as 1932 with meetings in 1933 eventually settling on the production of two initial prototypes the first being military and to the second civilian during the design and construction period the wishes of the rlm were given absolute priority over DLH for obvious reasons and the expected rejection of the aircraft as a commercial transport would give the opportunity for it to be um rescued by the military instead now that is of course a heavily heavily condensed explanation I'm inclined to agree with this third narrative for a number of reasons it was well known that attempts to circumvent the Treaty of Versailles had begun well before 1933 and the concept of the do17 being built as a clandestine bomber fits perfectly with this there is also written evidence to support this version of events as well records of meetings at dornier's headquarters in the mid-1930s show that the meetings focused heavily on the version of the aircraft that was to be equipped with so-called special equipment and in comparison little attention was given to the demands of Representatives of DLH and in fact in some later meetings the section of documents that would have been signed by said Representatives was instead crossed out indicating that they probably didn't even attend there is also the point of just plain old Fashions of Common Sense between the drafting of the initial design and the time when DLH received the prototypes for testing surely they would have noticed that the aircraft was unsuitable and would have requested modifications surely dornier would have not risked so much money in materials only to be rejected after all when the prototypes were first ordered the projected total cost was already over 700 000 marks and this ballooned to over a million by the time they were delivered in the early 1930s with the current economic climate being what it was that represented an almost untenable loss of money unless of course the project was in fact being bankrolled by the rlm from the outset this is further supported by the fact that the prototypes were only given over to DLH for a few weeks for testing something that in reality would have taken much longer this indicates that the company already knew the aircraft was unsuitable and that the so-called testing was merely a formality though this third narrative makes the most sense it's actually the least common of the three when it comes to dornier 17 literature but if you want to learn more of what I think to be the more logical version of events though again this video is based on my interpretation of things I recommend a piece written by German Aviation historian Carl costler who is a member of the German aviation history working group he wrote quite extensively on this topic in the 1980s and a revised copy is available on their website which I've linked below I have attempted to reach out to them via email to let them know how much I value their work but I never got a reply so if anyone out there knows the fine people running ADL please please pass on my deepest thanks for all of the research they have done as it cleared up quite a few things for me now with that massive tangent about the cloudiness of the do 17's history out of the way let's focus on how we went from three basic prototypes to the fast bomber that rumbled over the Skies of Poland France and Britain unfortunately not a huge amount is known about the exact construction details of these early prototypes so I'm going to restrict myself to covering this stage of its development in a more General manner as I'd rather not make any false assumptions the first of these prototypes the dornier 17c later known as the V1 which was the Prototype intended for the military was remarkably different from the aircraft that most of us would recognize today it was an incredibly Sleek design with a sharp pointed nose liquid cooled BMW 6 engines and a long thin tail that tapered down to a Single Fin and Rudder this aircraft was also unique in that it had eight portholes cut into the fuselage behind the wing trailing Edge these were not to viewing windows for a planned passenger cabin as was often claimed but they were instead meant to provide rear visibility for the radio operator who would also serve as a rear Gunner and also to make the tight confines of his station slightly less depressing and claustrophobic there was one aspect of the Prototype that easily links it with the later models of the dornier 17 and that was the thick cord shoulder mounted Wings possibly the only major aspect of the design that would remain mostly unchanged along with the second prototype the dornier 17A or the V2 the V1 was ordered in the spring of 1933 with the main body to be at least complete by the end of the year this production schedule proved to be too ambitious mostly because all of the equipment that was to be installed on the Prototype was new and untested and this delayed the completion date by well over a year during this time it was realized that the Single Fin and Dorado would not provide adequate stability and this was apparently confirmed by wind tunnel tests of this a third prototype was ordered to come with a twin fin tail and in the end the second prototype would also be modified to this Arrangement before completion this meant that the V1 was the only dornier 17 to ever be built with the single tail fin the First Flight of the V1 on November 23 1934 confirmed the prediction of instability and approximately a year later it too would be converted over to the twin Fin and Rudder configuration the V2 prototype which was intended as the Civil model for DLH handled much better thanks to its modified tail unit as did the V3 which at the time was known as the dornier 17d the fact that the first second and third prototypes were named out of alphabetical order is most likely explained by the idea that the letter represented an engine type rather than the airframe as a whole indeed the entire run of dornier 17 prototypes is rather confusing as eventually there were no less than 21 of them initially when the airframe at least began to look promising 14 had been ordered fine for the military and 9 for DLH this situation was then Changed by dlh's rejection of the aircraft which left the rlm scratching its head on what to do with an abundance of prototypes the rejection of the do 17 was partly due to the cramped quarters which would have required passengers to perform Feats of dexterity merely to get in but also partly due to a string of unfortunate to Mechanical failures that plagued the first prototype the chief culprit was the undercarriage which decided on multiple occasions to Simply cease being an undercarriage either during Landing or taxiing operations this led to numerous delays as the aircraft had to make repeated trips back to the workshop for repairs now to avoid this dragging on for about 5 hours I'm only going to mention the prototypes that are actually relevant to today's video if you want to learn more about them I recommend the piece written by Carl costler or alternatively I may end up doing a special video on the Prototype do 17s later on ironically it would be the V2 prototype the one that was originally meant to go to DLH that would become the prototype for the first production series of the bomber the do17e some sources state that it was the V7 prototype that was the precursor for this but the V7 was in fact used as the Prototype for the updated the o17e2 not the E1 following a long series of flights and evaluations of the first second and third prototypes the initial design of the bomber had been settled upon and production had been ordered at the same time as this a reconnaissance version the dr17f series had also been ordered as well this may have been the result of Captain Robert untucked who we mentioned earlier and who was claimed to be the supposed savior of the type the use of the do17 as a reconnaissance aircraft is never mentioned at all until after he had flown one of the first three prototypes again this goes against the established Narrative of him dragging the do 17 out of a Dusty hanger and proclaiming it to be an excellent candidate for a bomber but when you consider and took's comments about the aircraft's speed and maneuverability and then look at the timeline of its development it seems far more likely that the reconnaissance version of the aircraft owes its existence to his influence after a small pre-production batch of e0 models the do17 E1 entered production in 1936. this variant still retained much of this Sleek Heritage of the prototypes especially when compared to the more bulbous appearance of later do17 variants the E1 was powered by a pair of 750 horsepower BMW 6 engines which allowed for a top speed of 330 kilometers an hour at 3000 meters the aircraft was fairly compact with a wingspan of 18 meters a length of 16.2 meters and a height of 4.3 meters empty at weighed a mere 4500 kilograms and fully loaded it was barely over 7000 kilograms the standard bomb load was just 500 Kilograms though this could go up to 750 in exchange for reduced range and this put it well and truly in the category of a light bomber though many German documents optimistically listed it as a medium bomber instead probably a reflection on the preferred Doctrine for lighter and faster attack units due to its small size it only had a crew of three and initially there was just one rear-facing mg15 machine gun for the defensive Armament this was quickly increased to two and maybe even three machine guns though sources seem to vary wildly on their number and placement mostly because a lot of these early changes came in the form of field modifications for the most part it seems that the most common addition was to mount another gun in the area of the Bombay to provide a defense to the aircraft's vulnerable underbelly the F1 shared the same dimensions and roughly the same defensive Armament as the E variant but being a reconnaissance aircraft it of course exchanged its bombs for camera equipment this came in the form of two vertical cameras mounted in the Bombay along with an allotment of Illumination flares the F1 also had additional fuel tanks installed to increase its range to approximately 2050 kilometers the first of these dr-17s were delivered to luftwaffe units in 1937. dornier was among the first in Germany to make use of split assembly with its aircraft and because of this the bombers could be rapidly produced as the workload was not only split between dornier's various factories but also those of other manufacturers such as Bloom and Vos henschel and siebel the first unit to to receive the do 17 was Camp kashvarda 153 who received the E1 variant they were soon followed by kg-155 and kg255 meanwhile Alf clearance group 122 began to receive the do 17 F1 reconnaissance variant as with most of the luftwaffe's newest aircraft the dornier 17 did not wait long before its combat debut as by March of 1937 the first aircraft were already being sent over to take part in the Spanish Civil War Three do 17e1s arrived to form part of vb88 this was an experimental unit that operated a variety of aircraft to test their capabilities in real wartime scenarios soon this number was expanded to 12 aircraft and eventually somewhere between 27 and 31 do 17s would be operated in the Spanish theater almost every Source seems to conflict on the exact number the do 17's early missions above Spain confirmed two things it was indeed both fast and maneuverable but it was also pitifully armed in the early months of its involvement in Spain the dr-17 was pretty much uncatchable as the most commonly fielded aircraft by Republican forces appeared to be the I-15 biplane because of this the decision was made to bring in the F1 variant of the do17 to replace the heinkel he70 in the reconnaissance role this also had an impact back in Germany with production increased on the F1 variant which were now to replace most aircraft in the medium and long-range reconnaissance role for the bomber variant things were less Rosy the use of the heinkel he-111b highlighted the problem of the do 17's small bomb load in effect a single he-111 could do the bombing work of 4 do 17s the deficiencies of the E1 were further highlighted by the arrival of more modern Soviet aircraft specifically the polycarpov I-16 monoplane not only could these catch the do 17 but their agile handling made them almost impossible to take down with the bomber's weak defensive Armament in response to this taking into account feedback from do 17 air Crews as well as some subtle and not so subtle hints for improvement from the rlm dornier made steps to improve the design in fact this work had begun before the first aircraft had even joined luftwaffe units let alone arrived in Spain the V7 prototype as mentioned earlier had served as the templates for the improved do17e2 but the improvements were not enough to distinguish it as a significant upgrade and work had begun on a more powerful design in late 1936 early 1937 one that would eventually take the form of the do17m and P Series this resulted in a confusing Trio of prototypes known as the mv1 mv2 and mv3 I say confusing because much debate surrounds the initial mv1's purpose this was the Prototype that shocked observers when it attended the 1937 International military aircraft competition that was held in Zurich powered by a pair of 1 000 horsepower Daimler Benz 601 engines it blew away the competition and proved to be even faster than the competing fighter aircraft though it is sometimes said that this was the prototype for the subsequent m-series in reality the mv1 was almost completely unrelated it was modified for improved aerodynamics and its engines had been secretly upgraded to produce more power than officially stated which came at the cost of significantly reduced service life which for an actual production aircraft would have been completely ludicrous to use the performance of the mv1 attracted the interest of the Yugoslavian government who would go on to place an export order for the type and they would also go on to produce the do 17 under license as well but to keep things simple we will cover the domestic history of the aircraft funnel and look at the export models later the mv2 and more importantly the mv3 would be the real shape of things to come early on in their development it became apparent to dornier that the db600 engines and others of their class would not be available in the numbers required they being used for the messersmith bf-109 and 110 fighter aircraft as well because of this and in lieu of their higher reliability and survivability the decision was made to switch over to radial engines the mv2 was completed with a pair of brahmo fafnir 323s after which it spent the rest of its life as a testing aircraft and the mv3 was equipped with a pair of 900 horsepower 323 DS it was in Disguise that the first record of the aircraft being referred to as a Schnell bomber or fast bomber could be found and the mb3 was used as the template to fit the do 17m1 as a result of the Spanish Proving Ground and after much grumbling from luftwaffe pilots and grumbler-in-chief Hermann Goering Armament was increased by a forward mounted mg-15 machine gun which could be operated by the pilot or Observer whilst the Bombay of the 17m was lengthened increasing the bomb load to 1000 kilograms the this did not mean that the do 17 could always carry 1000 kilos of bombs as it depended on the type of bomb used it could carry 20 of the 50 kilogram sc50 bombs but due to the dimensions of the Bombay of the do17m even extended it would be limited to just two of the SC 250 bombs because of this the lighter bombs were of course preferred which meant that bomb for bomb the dr-17 ran at a disadvantage against the he-111 which eventually could carry much larger bombs as the years progressed the reconnaissance variant the do17p also received new radial engines but they were 850 horsepower BMW 132ns these allowed for an increased range whereas the do 17m actually had a slightly reduced range though the improvements in speed and Firepower were considered an acceptable trade-off as it would travel further the P had more advanced the radio equipment installed when compared to its counterpart this included radio direction finders as well as equipment to assist with blind landing at night or in very poor weather only five dr-17ps would see service in Spain and none of the M variant these arrived in December of 1938 and thus didn't get a great deal of flying time before the war's conclusion in April by this point just over 500 do 17s appeared to have been in service with the luftwaffe its Effectiveness as a reconnaissance aircraft had pleased both luftwaffe and nationalist air Crews with the four remaining airworthy do 17ps taking part in the victory flyover at the end of the Civil War but the dr-17's performance as a bomber had left much to be desired even though production of the M and P variants had only just begun it was now clear that as a pure bomber it was outmatched by other types which could carry more bomb and carry them further concerns that the speed and range of the reconnaissance aircraft would soon be eclipsed by other emerging designs this resulted in a short-lived attempt to switch back to liquid-called V engines as Daimler Benz were producing more powerful variants this would result in the do17r S and U variants before we continue this is future wrecks coming back in time with a warning as I had grossly underestimated the difficulty of actually completing this part of the video until we get to the part where I talk about the do 17 Zed I must advise that there are little or no photographs drawings or sketches that I could find on the RS and U models so please bear with me as we go through what is essentially a slideshow a collection of just four do 17rs were built powered by the db601 there are some claims that these were supposedly prototypes for a new series of long-range reconnaissance aircraft and while this wasn't the case as no serial production was ever intended they were built with special reconnaissance missions in mind like the r the do 17s did not enter production either but it did represent the shape of things to come as a direct result of the experiences in Spain which led to calls for greater defense and thus greater space dornier completely redesigned the forward section of the fuselage the cockpit roof was raised and fully glazed as was the nose and the lower section of the cockpit was expanded and also extended going back towards the wing Leading Edge this allowed for the addition of a fourth crew member as a dedicated Gunner and for the increase of the defensive Armament in general the aircraft was now protected by four mg-15 machine guns two forward-facing in the upper and lower parts of the nose a dorsal gun and a ventral gun all of these were situated within the main cabin along with the crew and all the other equipment and things inside were becoming somewhat cramped using the same new fuselage design the do 17u was intended as a pathfinding aircraft powered by the db600a engine it managed to top speed in excess of 425 kilometers an hour as they were intended to fly ahead and guide in larger formations of bombers the U featured an extra crew member who would operate the signal flares as well as the extra radio equipment as it turned out the U would be a short-lived experiment just 15 were produced as the decision was taken to make use of the db6 engines for fighter aircraft exclusively dornier appeared to have anticipated this as no production of the S variant had ever been proposed with just three examples being built as prototypes and work had already begun on equipping the updated airframe with brahmo 323a radial engines the result being the penultimate version of the aircraft the do17z The Zed began as something of a disappointment small pre-production batch of z0 aircraft were built for testing mostly to evaluate the performance of the engines and to evaluate the new aerodynamics of the airframe despite looking like a potato masher with a couple of wings bolted onto it the wind tunnel tests had apparently been promising this quickly changed with the Z1 the first production model either through optimism or human error the effects of adding a fourth crew member additional guns their required ammunition and the expansion of the crew cabin had not been fully factored into the considerations of things like power weight and range this was revealed during the z1's service trials where it was found to be so underpowered that the bomb load had to be halved to just 500 Kilograms understandably the prospect of a supposedly modern twin-engine bomber being unable to carry even 10 percent of its own weight in Ordnance rather annoyed luftwaffe officials the severity of words exchanged in meetings between them and dornier is evidenced by the rapid arrival of the do 17 Z2 which would become the main production version the Z2 mounted the new 323 P1 version of the brahmo fafnir rated at 1000 horsepower this engine was specially tuned to the performance needs of the do 17 in so far as to actually get it off the ground with a full bomb load of 1000 kilos modifications to the configuration of the supercharger resulted in a slight decrease in high altitude performance but a massive increase in low altitude performance particularly acceleration in testing the aircraft proved to be remarkably maneuverable at altitudes below 2000 meters being able to quickly regain speed after going through sharp turns and climbs the increased power also allowed a further increase of the defensive Armament to address complaints about gunnery blind spots two more machine guns were added to the upper fuselage one on the port and starboard side respectively unfortunately these along with the ventral gun would have to be operated by a single person and you would not credit to the extra hassle this was for the poor men that had to use them not only did you have to manage the ammunition for three different positions at once but each gun represented another thing to bash your head against in severe turbulence and the conditions of the cabin had departed to the Realms of cramped and were currently applying for visas to enter the domain of claustrophobia aside from the ever shrinking space for the crew there was one other drawback to the z2's design installing a more powerful Engine fettling with the supercharger and bringing the bomb load back up to 1000 kilograms was all well and good but this had a catastrophic effect on the aircraft's Range fully loaded the do 17 Z2 had an operational radius of just 320 kilometers which was only 20 kilometers more than the bf-109e without drop tanks this would have a profound impact on where the do 17 Z2 could be deployed and what missions it could carry out and it was these missions in the second world war that would give it a unique reputation among luftwaffe bombers the dr-17 was not a distant Specter that loomed high in the clouds it was instead something that lurked behind hillsides and hedgerows often flying low enough to qualify itself as a flying arborist was that perhaps the worst metaphor I have yet to subject your poor battered ears to on this channel possibly am I going to continue probably am I using this as an excuse to demonstrate the beautiful do17 models produced by the sponsors of today's 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fielded as well the main bombing units that fielded the do 17 were campfakish Fighters 2 3 76 and 77 included with them but also separately were numerous stuff films of reconnaissance aircraft mainly the do-17p and separately some nine Stuka gruppen also had the do17 again mostly for reconnaissance along with the do 17 Z2 some units were also now equipped with the Z3 this variant was used for both bombing and reconnaissance duties and although it technically formed part of the bomber line its use in both roles was about a 50 50 split the main difference between the two was a slight reduction in bomb and ammunition capacity to accommodate the camera equipment and because of this the two cannot easily be told apart the only real giveaway was the addition of a modified crew hatch this would allow a crew member to use a handheld camera to validate the accuracy of previous bombing missions a particularly important task as determining the accuracy of your bombs was sometimes impossible owing to smoke cloud turbulence Flack or a not so fun combination of the lot this assembled mix of do17s would see action from the very first moments of war with Poland with bombers from kg3 performing the type's first wartime Mission a bridge Striker dirt shell though all but one of the bomagushvadas would take casualties during the Polish campaign their losses were relatively light unsurprisingly the ones that fared the worst were the units operating the older e variant kg-77 operating E1 lost six aircraft and suffered damage to another 15 on the first day for the most part the bomber was used in low-level attacks its speed maneuverability and relatively light bomb load making it a good candidate for close air support because of this all of the do 17 losses over Poland were either due to Flack or ground fire the dr-17 was still faster than most polish Fighters sent to intercept it and although its defenses weren't hugely potent it was enough to ward off anything that got too close because of this the dr-17 earned something of a false reputation for being immune to interceptors among its Crews and some of them would receive a very rude shock when they made their way into the skies above France and Britain the last reported combat loss of a do 17 in Poland was that of a 17p reconnaissance aircraft which was downed over modeling on the 27th of September 1939 though the aircraft had acquitted itself well during the brief one-sided air War its short-range and limited bomb load had drawn wide criticism because of this some of the units were already transitioning to the newer Yonkers ju-88 by December of 1939 and production of the do 17 would only last for another 6 months though on paper its days were already numbered the do 17 was yet to take its largest Parts in the air War over Europe and indeed while many were flying with near impunity over the Skies of Poland others were also over the Skies of Britain and France from the moments that France and Britain had declared war on Germany the dr-17s had begun to carry out reconnaissance over France Belgium Britain and Holland and they were in general very effective in this role at the beginning they operated with almost complete Freedom this was a combination of their Advanced state of Readiness and the fact that the luftwaffe knew exactly what it wanted to do while the Allied Powers were still figuring out what their air strategy was now that they were actually at War because of this only two do-17s appeared to have been lost in its first two months of operation in the skies of Western Europe the first year of 17 to be lost was actually brought down by Friendly Fire a do17p which occurred on the 24th of September 1939 the first operational loss other than this occurred on the 26th of October when another do 17p suffered an engine failure above the east coast of England and was forced to land in Holland the 30th of October would see the first actual combat loss of a do17 over France with Pilot's officer Peter mold bringing down a do17p over tool encounters with British and French Fighters quickly revealed that the do 17's supposed advantages in speed and altitude were in fact completely non-existent a point of some embarrassment as various senior officers had been assured of its superiority in the reconnaissance role adding salt to the wound was the capture of do17 registered F6 FM which was brought down by number one Squadron in good enough condition that it was able to be examined in depth along with the camera equipment that had survived the impact the analysis of this aircraft allowed RAF Pilots to get a detailed understanding of the do 17's defenses which further aided in the aerial Beatdown of reconnaissance units that gradually began to pick up pace still despite a worrying weakness two enemy fighter activity losses of d017s were relatively light for the remainder of 1939 as things settled down into the sits Creek or phony War this was not helped by the particularly poor winter weather that had set in for most of the continent and the aircraft would not see much more action until the spring Norway saw minimal involvement when it came to the dornier 17 due to the long distances the aircraft would have to fly because of this only one unit containing five do 17ps took part in the land operations of April and May 1940. of those five two were seriously damaged on the ground on April the 11th in bombing raids one was damaged on the ground at Oslo on the 1st of May and the other two were damaged and burned out respectively at stravenger solar which meant that all five were either damaged or destroyed there was another unit that operated the do17s in the Norwegian theater but their focus was more Maritime in nature group 606 of the custom flieger the little spoken of German Naval Air Service also known as Hermann goering's personal punching bag would operate the do 17 Z5 this was a modified version of the Z3 with a focus on maritime operations in particular reconnaissance and air sea rescue though anti-shipping duties were also possible along with the camera equipment that came with the Z3 the Z5 included rapidly inflatable flotation bags life rafts emergency radio equipment and a kite antenna which served as an easy way of identifying the type most of group 606's operations involved Maritime reconnaissance in the Seas between Germany Denmark and Norway during the Norwegian campaign the units would only lose a single do17 which for the number of reconnaissance missions flown made it among the most efficient of any units to operate the aircraft in the first 12 months of the war their life was mostly uneventful with perhaps the most exciting event being a quick encounter between a do17 and a short Sunderland flown by 204 Squadron the encounter was essentially a draw with the do 17 unable to bring down its much larger opponent and to the Sunderland being too slow to pursue it for very long but as the observer in the do 17 was killed in the engagement it could be said that the Sunderland technically came off better as the Norwegian campaign carried on the Battle of France Got underway and this is where the do 17 would receive its true baptism of fire on the 10th of May dr-17s from kgs 2 3 76 and 77 all veterans of Poland were immediately thrust into action along with the various reconnaissance units that had already been operating since September 39. unlike other operations up until this point the took significant losses from the opening day kg2 alone would lose five aircraft in the first operational Mission with another six taking moderates to serious damage but they would also inflict heavy losses upon their opponents in particular the do 17 was used for low altitude strike missions against French airfields a task in which it was remarkably effective and they proved decisive in denying the luftwaffe's opponents easy access to the air one of the best examples of this tactic can be taken from the operations record book of number 114 Squadron which was based at the Airfield of row it recounts an attack by kg2 on the 11th of May the second day of the campaign against France at zero five 40 hours a high-flying German aircraft acting presumably as a decoy was observed flying in a Southwest Direction and being attacked by fighter aircraft a few moments later the 12 dorniers were seen flying up the man over juvenile at very low altitude the enemy aircraft passed low over vro and then did a right-hand turn coming in to attack over B flight one of the first sticks of bombs set a fire to a flight's petrol dump and two adjacent blenheims the attack lasted for about 10 minutes during which time about 150 bombs or 50 kilograms size were dropped resulting in the complete destruction of five aircraft another aircraft was then written off having its Port Wing Shattered by a near-miss having dropped all of their bombs the Germans machine gunned all of the remaining aircraft the flight offices the red house and transport and shelter trenches all of our aircraft were rendered unserviceable a subsequent investigation showed that there were 30 unexploded bombs lying on or near the aerodrome these owing to the fact that the enemy is using bombs with the delay fuses of up to 168 hours were treated with Extreme Caution the only injuries sustained were two ground to defense Personnel hit by machine gun bullets the wounds were not fatal the thoroughness of the enemy planning is shown by the fact that one aircraft flew to and fro and machine gunned the aerodrome a defense battery repeatedly this attack and others like it are what gave the do17 a reputation as a low-flying menace but not everything went smoothly the pace of operations meant that there was very little downtime for both air Crews and ground Crews to properly rest in fact the best chance they had of rest at this point was when the fuel supply shortages temporarily grounded aircraft for a day or two because of this attrition from both enemy action and accidents began to be felt of particular risks were the missions were dr-17s were sent after motorized columns these were particularly challenging to strike as they required the aircraft to attack its altitude and approach angles that often favored the anti-air defenses of the vehicles few though they may be the fortunes of the do 17 Rose and fell with each passing day during the Battle of France some days had comparatively few casualties others were especially painful but as many photos available of their operations during this period are photos of wrecked do17s that have been brought down in the French Countryside an incorrect image is often painted of their effectiveness in reality they were doing rather well as the situation became more desperate for the French do 17 losses began to ease however an exception was the airspace around Dunkirk on one particular day the 27th of May kg3 Alone lost 12 aircraft over Dunkirk and another five were temporarily grounded due to damage though on the whole the loss of do17 airframes could have been worse the campaign in France had been particularly costly for the senior officers of the various units for example in a nine day period between the 19th and 28th of May campusrada 76 lost two staffel capitans killed in action and groupen Commander Major Volta Hill of groupen 276 was wounded it kg 77 also lost to Stafford capitans who too were killed in action and a staffel Capitan from kg2 was also captured this level of Officer attrition continued into June with the most senior officer lost being General major wolf Von stutterheim who was shot down on the 15th of June he survived the initial event but eventually succumbed to his wounds several months later on at the end of the year how much of an impact these losses had is difficult to say but despite the toll on individual units the operations in France can easily be considered the high point of the do 17's military career things would be gradually reversed as the air War transitioned into the Battle of Britain for the most part the do 17 had encountered the Lesser part of the RAF during the Battle of France with the bulk of Britain's fighter Force being conserved at home for the battle that everyone knew was coming this of course was going to change things considerably in the small pause between the end of the battle of France and the official beginning of the Battle of Britain July 10th the dr-17 was primarily involved with either reconnaissance missions or Convoy attacks during this time some additional do17 air Crews continued to transition over to the Yonkers ju-88 as well by now production of the dornier 17 had officially ceased and as if to Signal the beginning of the end the final day of do17 operations for campagoshvada 77 resulted in no less than five aircraft losses by July 10th only two full gashvadas were still operating the do 17 as a bomber kg2 and kg3 in the first month of the campaign the bulk of their work was made up of attacks on various British convoys meanwhile the remaining do 17ps carried out armed reconnaissance missions though they were being rapidly replaced in this role by the junkers ju-88 as well though the do17 was mostly effective at attacking convoys its success in this role was often over-exaggerated for example on the first day of the Battle of Britain 52 do 17s from kg2 attacked a British Convoy and claimed to have sunk three Freighters totaling 21 000 tons and damaging a further three more in reality just one ship was actually sunk as a result of the attack and it weighed a mere 466 tons in exchange for this single small ship three do-17s were destroyed four more were damaged and eight escort Fighters were also lost despite the poor start and although it was considerably outclassed by the time of the Battle of Britain particularly if it came up against patrolling Fighters the do 17 would become at least according to most writers on the subject the most feared of the luftwaffe's twin engine aircraft throughout the remainder of the summer of 1940 the luftwaffe did its best to exploit the biggest strength of dornier's design its low altitude performance when the Battle of Britain transitioned from Channel raids to strikes on British airfields and radar installations in August the dr-17s were sent across at remarkably low altitudes hugging the sea and then the terrain they were able to avoid radar detection and if they were very lucky they also avoided visual detection up until the critical moment the do 17's apparent trick of being able to pop up out of nowhere quickly made it a fearsome opponent for ground-based air defenses who often had minimal time to react a very famous example of the do 17 being used in this way occurred on the 18th of August when aircraft from kg-76 who now operated a mix of do17s and ju-88s attacked Kenly Airfield three hangers and numerous other buildings were destroyed along with at least two aircraft on the ground the tactic of coming in low and fast was effective but it was a piece of high-risk High reward if the formation was spotted at any greater distance from their targets they were at an extreme disadvantage if Fighters were sent to intercept them this was further compounded by the increasing effectiveness of British anti-aircraft batteries who soon learned the tactics of the do 17 and adapted to match them an indication of their effectiveness can be seen in the increasing number of Knight attacks that began to appear on the log books of the do 17s by the end of the month it was then that the luftwaffe made the Colossal era of throwing away the main advantage of the do17 its low altitude performance and committing it to medium altitude bombing missions from the start of September as the blitz began the worst day for the do 17 was the 15th of September which of course became known as Battle of Britain day this day was materially and symbolically significant for the aircraft as it dramatically highlighted its obsolescence when compared to the Yonkers ju-88 and the heinkel he-111 from a Manpower and machine standpoint the losses on that day were incredibly severe considering the limited number of dr-17s that were actually deployed kg2 lost 7 aircraft and almost all the remaining airframes were damaged to some degree kg3 lost six aircraft again with many more also being damaged and kg-76 also lost six aircraft when it was intercepted by a large number of Fighters on route to London it was The Misfortune of this group of do17s that gives us the famous photograph of the tailless partly de-winged bomber plunging towards Victoria Station this was the do 17 of oberlutenant Robert Zeb apologies if I pronounced that wrong but that's how I've always known it now he was forced to bail out with his crew after suffering extensive damage by fighters from no less than three different RAF squadrons he had switched on the autopilot before escaping and the unmanned bomber flew on for a short time before being brought down by Sergeant Ray Holmes who was flying a hawk a hurricane of number 504 Squadron He was unaware that the bomber was unmanned and having run out of ammunition decided to Ram it with his aircraft to bring it down Holmes survived this incident but would be less lucky succumbing to wounds sustained on the ground later on following this day the do 17's role as a Frontline bomber rapidly diminished from the start of October the majority of missions flown in the do 17 were now done at night and often in support of larger formations of more capable aircraft but some other raids were also done at dawn or dusk often in poor weather with the express purpose of disrupting enemy airfields these were often done by a very small group of aircraft sometimes even flying solo and they were primarily targeted against airfields in East Anglia many of these missions involved dropping quantities of sd2 anti-personnel bombs more commonly known as butterfly bombs these proved to be far more effective at shutting down an Airfield than the larger bombs that the do-17 would otherwise have carried as several hours had to be spent clearing the mines this meant that just a couple of outdated German bombers could effectively silence an Airfield for the better part of a day by early 1941 the do 17 was now only operated partly by kg2 kg3 and group 606 of the custom fleego who had done a mixture of anti-shipping and Airfield raids throughout the summer and winter of 1940 to 41. they suffered their last do 17 loss on the night of the 17th of February with Lieutenant Gunther hoopners do 17 being brought down by a Bristol bowfighter of 219 Squadron apparently the do 17 was so slow compared to the heavy fighter that its pilot Squadron leader James little had to do a series of s-turns to stay behind the German bomber during the Chase and it was a stark metaphor for the aircraft's obsolescence the next month group 606 began to transition to the ju-88 as did kg3 and kg2 began to re-equip with the dornier 217 the larger spiritual successor to the do17 although its time as a Frontline bomber had come to an end at last the dr-17's wartime service was far from over Not only was it still a suitable platform as a reconnaissance aircraft but there were other theaters of the war where its age was not as much of a disadvantage and there were of course other versions of the do 17 operated by Germany and her allies one version that still saw action in British skies for a while longer was the little known Knight fighter version little known because it was operated in relatively small numbers and because it only had modest success when production of the do 17 ceased in mid-1940 opportunities were taken to find new ways of extending the usefulness of the surviving airframes once they were inevitably pulled from user's Frontline bombers to this end five do 17 z3s were eventually converted into the z7 cows or screech owl this involved removing the do 17s glazed nose replacing it with one found on a ju-88c series and stuffing it full of weapons and infrared searchlights the Armament was three 7.9 millimeter machine guns and a single 20 millimeter cannon testing of the z7 soon revealed deficiencies in the design mainly weapon serviceability and a poor gun accuracy and it was further refined this time it was given an entirely new nose with proper reinforcements for gun mounts and the Armament was increased to four machine guns and two cannons in the tip of the nose was an infrared Spotlight which made the aircraft easy to recognize and later on this was changed to the fug-202 Liechtenstein air radar system this redesigned version would become known as the do 17 Z10 the exact number of these Knight fighting aircraft built is difficult to pinpoint but it appears that approximately five of these z7s were produced and some of these were converted over to the Z10 with approximately 14 of them being built these aircraft first entered service near the end of June 1940 and they were used on so-called Intruder missions where they would be sent over enemy territory at night due to their small numbers and due to the difficulty of accurately recording events during nighttime operations it is unclear on how effective the cows actually was according to records the first confirmed kill phrase Z10 was a check operated Vickers Wellington which was brought down on the 16th of October and as fate would have it the last confirmed kill for a z-10 would also be a Wellington but this one was from the operational training unit and that was shot down on the 24th of April 1941 which meant that the cows was not in service for particularly long and it was soon replaced by a more suitable night fighter variants of the bf-110 and the ju-88 1941 was the last year of major operations for the Do 17. Not only because it was being superseded but due to the wide range of its use that year many airframes would be lost and each loss of course could not be replaced as production had ceased almost a year previously besides flying above the Skies of Britain in the early months of the year the Aging bomber would find itself in two other major theaters the Balkans and of course Russia the Balkan campaign specifically the invasion of Yugoslavia would see the aircraft used on both sides of the conflict and and this allows us to quickly touch on the export models of the dornier 17. the first export model of the aircraft was the dornier 17K which was produced for the Yugoslavian Air Force Yugoslavia would order approximately 36 do 17ks and they would go on to produce around another 70 or so under license this aircraft was something of a halfway house between the E and the M variant of the bomber in terms of airframe design but when it came to equipment it was completely different all but one of the aircraft exported from Germany would be sent without German equipment that meant no radios no guns and of course no engines after reviewing various options the Yugoslavian Air Force went with a multinational approach the engines would be the French gnome Rhone Mistral major the radio and camera equipment would be check built and the 7.9 millimeter machine guns would be belgian-made FNS unfortunately the Yugoslavian do 17K got something of a raw deal from beginning to end in the first place it was found to be woefully underpowered as gnome Rhone had exaggerated at the power output of the engines that they had sold and in the second place many of the Yugoslav d017s were destroyed on the ground in the first days of the German invasion they did play one key role in events though seven do 17ks would assist in the evacuation of King Peter II taking him to Greece along with the remaining gold reserves that had not been evacuated before The Invasion had begun most of these aircraft would then not survive the month and by the end of April 1941 less than a quarter of yugoslavia's do 17s were still operational many of these were subsequently captured and handed over to the Bulgarian Air Force who received approximately 15. before the Balkan Invasion Yugoslavia and several other countries had also expressed interest in the updated Zed variant of the do17 and this led to the development of the other export model as dornier had exhausted their alphabetical designations the decision was made to produce this export variant as the dornier 215 the 215 or 215 whichever you prefer is easily identified by its power plant for unlike the Z variant it was equipped with liquid cooled V engines rather than air cooled radials initially the plan had been to equip it with a 1000 horsepower gnome Rhone radial but this version attracted little attention so instead the 1100 horsepower Daimler Benz db601aa was selected instead the timing of this decision is difficult to pinpoint but dornier must have committed itself before these engines were officially reserved for use in fighter aircraft only otherwise work could not have proceeded aside from the engine the aircraft was virtually identical to the Z series being equipped with between four to six machine guns for defense and being capable of carrying 1000 kilograms of bombs ironically for an export model the majority of the 215s were operated by the luftwaffer an export order for 18 aircraft had been planned for Sweden but following embargoes they were retained for German use and the eruption of war between Germany and Poland led to the luftwaffe seizing and unspecified number of aircraft that were being built for Yugoslavia because of this only 105 examples of the 215 were built as once Germany was at War they of course were busy focusing on their own needs some of the completed aircraft would be operated by their neighbors such as the Royal Hungarian Air Force but for the most part the 215 became a luftwaffe asset it was alongside regular do 17s that they would see action above the Skies of Greece and then later in the year during the invasion of the Soviet Union their service in the Greek Theater was relatively easy kg2 and kg3 were the primary operators with kg2 as the main unit combat losses were relatively light owing to the lack of concentrated enemy air power and the majority of casualties either came from enemy ground fire or non-combat attrition accidents or mechanical failure in fact this latter problem was really making itself known by this time in the war the biggest concern and one that traces its way all the way back to the start of the do 17's development was the tendency for the land ending gear to fail during Landing the wearing out of the airframes became so problematic that some air units were forced to exchange their aircraft for bf-110s by the time of operation Barbarossa but despite the logistical challenge the dr-17's reputation as a low altitude Menace for its enemies lived on during the fighting in Yugoslavia and then particularly in Greece the hilly and often mountainous terrain was perfectly suited to low altitude strike missions pilots from kg2 in particular wrote that it was an uplifting experience to fly first over the Aegean and then the Greek Foothills and then passed the flanks of Mount Olympus itself all in the space of a single morning their experience over the Soviet Union was of course far less romantic and it was short-lived the dr-17 only played a minor part in the air war in this theater with kg2 being the only unit that still wholly operated the type but like other luftwaffe units it did enjoy early successes in the first startling weeks of the campaign their use was mostly split into three categories reconnaissance Master salt or solo extreme low-level attacks the last of these became increasingly unpopular when the German air Crews realized how dangerous it was to bailouts over enemy territory as captured German Airmen did not have a particularly long life expectancy especially if they had just spent the morning strafing Soviet armored columns though many Soviet Fighters were sent to intercept them the biggest threat to the do 17 were was once again ground fire but even this inflicted minimal casualties at first for example the eighth scaffold of kg2 only lost one aircraft during its entire time flying do 17s on the Russian front the thing that ultimately curtailed the do 17's use in this theater was unsurprisingly its short range the light bomb load was also a problem of course but the sheer vastness of the Russian landscape presented migraine-inducing fuel problems for the officers in charge of kg Logistics because of this the aircraft that found the most use during this time was the reconnaissance variant as it had better range and was usually operated at a lower risk a special nighttime reconnaissance unit made excellent use of the do17p during this time but there unfortunately seems to be little record of what they actually did and in particular what equipment They Carried so far as can tell they may have carried some early radar equipment to check for enemy Intruder aircraft but I have not found enough on this for me to say it with any degree of certainty so we'll just leave it at that the dr-17's time on the Russian front Drew to an early close at the end of 1941. the kg2 returned to Germany in November to convert to the do217 and the elements of kg3 that had been involved returned to convert to the ju-88 by the end of the year this process was complete and with a few individual exceptions the do17 was no longer considered a Frontline unit they would however remain in use in one form or another right up until the end of the war many were employed as glider tugs to assist in the transport of supplies to encircled or retreating their marked forces particularly in the caban region others continued to be used in the nighttime reconnaissance role considered a less risky and secondary occupation up until late 1942 and further south some do17s were used as transports or couriers in the African and Mediterranean theaters but this was a role they were not well suited both due to their short range and by 1942 their inferior speed and only a handful appeared to have been used in this way the do 17 would make a very very brief return as a Frontline bomber during the bay Decker Blitz which was a series of Air Raids that selected its targets from the bay Decker guide a popular travel book that was published in the 1850s but as I am working on a special video for this topic I'll leave that aside for the time being the last major operators of the do 17 in numbers were the various training and communication units that did their best to keep up with the needs of a war machine that was very quickly seeing the odds turn against it love to land akashvara 1 gives a good example of the variety of tasks demanded during the final two years of the war in 1943 their do17s supported and helped with the training of paratroopers they also assisted in the supply and evacuation of the 17th Army at kiban they acted as both transports four gliders Towing them between various airfields and as official glider tugs mostly for Supply missions most of these responsibilities were put upon them almost simultaneously and the unit was kept exceedingly busy throughout 1943. in 1944 they were reformed into a dedicated glider Towing unit and even by February of 1945 they still had several old do 17s on strength as Towing aircraft all of their late War losses were either due to accidents or mechanical failure and the last do17 to be actually lost in combat was shot down over Croatia back on the 10th of October 1944 when the war was over a few hundred supposedly remained sitting quietly in aerodromes or in fields or hidden away in forests in total over 2 100 dornier 17s were built plus 100 or so of the 215. despite this and despite the fact that hundreds still littered airfields by War's end no intact examples can be found today one aircraft is currently undergoing a long-term and extensive restoration program a Henshaw built do17 Z2 was recovered from Goodwin sands on the 10th of June 2013 having been discovered there five years earlier but apart from a few other known wreckage sites many of which have sadly been plundered that is all that remains though on paper the do17 looked to be a fairly successful aircraft for the luftwaffe in the early years of the second world war in reality it had left much to be desired the earlier models were poorly defended all of them had a lackluster bomb load and the aircraft's range was often smaller than that out of the fighter aircraft sent along to escort it all of these problems weren't recognized early in the do 17's development and while its production as a light bomber continued dornier worked on a new design derived from the dr-17 but on a larger scale this new design the do217 would go on to rival and even exceed the capabilities of the heinkel he-111 and the Yonkers ju-88 and despite being built in much smaller numbers than either of them it was considered equally as successful but the story of the do217 is one we will cover another day once again thank you to War Thunder for sponsoring today's video with their support over the past few months has been amazing and don't forget to click on the link below and claim your free premium benefits and as always thank you all so much for watching and a big thank of course to the patrons an extra big thank you in fact as this month has been quieter than usual I've had a lot of stuff going on so it's been very hard to manage the video schedule at the moment house hunting working on long-term projects and figuring out my itinerary for rapidly approaching trips has kept me stupidly busy a big thank you of course to our wink and mother tier patrons our highest tier members and a warm welcome to Carolyn Johnson who is the newest member of this special group hopefully my German pronunciation wasn't too atrocious in this video but I'm sure people will let me know otherwise but again everyone thank you all and thank you all so much for your continued support and I'll catch you all next time goodbye

Channel: Rex's Hangar

Views: 705,824

Keywords: Dornier, Dornier do 17, do 17, dornier do 215, schnellbomber, rexs hangar, rex's hangar, aviation, history, ww2, luftwaffe, battle of france, battle of britain, dornier do 17 documentary, dornier do 17z, dornier do 17 battle of britain, plane video

Id: grvkSRGIFu8

Length: 75min 23sec (4523 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 25 2023