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Heinkel He 111 in action - Aircraft No. 184

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The Heinkel He 111 is a legend. While not as fearsome as the tanks the Germans employed throughout the war, the 111 was not to be underestimated. Beginning life as a civilian airliner and first seeing action- like the Stuka- with the Condor Legion in Spain, the He 111 gained its smooth, graceful shape from the fact that, as an airliner, making it look good was originally a much bigger concern than making it a capable bomber. George Punka's "Heinkel He 111 in action". Aircraft Number 184, is 57 pages long and first published in 2002. It covers the history of this airliner-turned-bomber from the very beginning to the very end. Like many other bombers in Goering's Luftwaffe, the He 111 was designed to be fast and light, and wreaked havoc on Germany's neighbors during the early Blitzkrieg days of WWII. But, like those other bombers, the stiff opposition it suddenly ran into over Dover's white cliffs was too much for the comparatively slow, poorly-armed He 111. It is a testament to the bravery and skill of its crews that they were willing and able to climb into it time and time again, defending their bomber with nothing but one machine gun in each firing position, a feat made all the more impressive by the gunners' hitting anything at all, let alone achieving kills. Defending an aircraft under the circumstances the German crews had to is not an easy task, nor one for the faint of heart.
The Heinkel He 111 was a true workhorse of the Luftwaffe, serving literally from even before the war to its last days in Europe. It served long past the point where it should have been replaced by a newer, better aircraft, and was in time used for virtually every role imaginable for such an aircraft. Day bomber, night bomber, torpedo bomber, transport, anti-balloon cable cutter, V1 'buzz bomb' carrier, heavy glider and balloon tug, and on top of all that the 111 had once been a light, fast airliner. The Heinkel He 111 could do it all. Its crews also displayed a knack for defiant acts when faced with no longer being able to fly their planes- on more than one occasion, they would damage or destroy their 111s to prevent advancing Allied forces from making any use of them. When they heard the war was over, the crews of the last nine 111 bombers sabotaged their own aircraft in a last act of defiance before surrendering. The Heinkel He 111 served on every front in Europe during World War II and in every capacity possible. This book is as complete a history of this impressive aircraft as any.

Heinkel's twin-engined warhorse saw combat from 1936 to 1945, quite an accomplishment for a transport turned bomber. A graceful looking aircraft with a streamlined fuselage and ellliptical wings, the He 111 was, nevertheless, one of the Luftwaffe's bomber and transport mainstays, serving well past its prime. The aircraft's technical and operational history is concisely related in this Squadron/Signal title authored by George Punka.

Though it began life as a Lufthansa airliner, the He 111 was soon modified for more warlike purposes, early models carrying 3,300 lbs. of bombs and mounting three 7.92 machine guns. Early He 111B and He 111E models introduced the design to combat over Spain. By mid-1938 modifications to the basic design resulted in the H model, which sported the classic He 111 profile. The He 111 was THE Luftwaffe's main bomber in the early war years, seeing combat over Poland, Norway, France and Great Britain. When opposed by first-line fighters like the Spitfire and Hurricane however, the 111's glaring weaknesses - low speed and totally inadequate defensive armament - were finally underscored. Though up-gunned with 13mm machine guns in turrets and 20mm cannons, by 1941 the Heinkel was showing its age. Yet it labored on as a night and torpedo bomber, spearheaded the attack on Russia, saw action in the Med, served as an airborne V-1 launching platform and performed valiantly as a transport.

Punka does a good job of summarizing the Heinkel 111's war record along with its technical development. The text is complimented by over 110 photographs, numerous diagrams and four color pages of Don Greer artwork and profiles. The diagrams are especially interesting in showing the various modifications made to the aircraft in terms of armament, special equipment such as cable cutters, etc.

As a basic, comprehensive, inexpensive introduction to a legendary warplane, Punka's book can't be beat.