Customer Reviews

Heinkel: He 177, 277, 274

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Few aircraft have as much myth and folkloring surrounding them as the He 177, the only German heavy bomber of WWII and a aircraft frequently reviled for its the unreliability of its engines.

In this book, Griehl dispells many of the myths, and documents the reality of the He 177, with its successes and numerous failures. For this purpose, he goes deeply into the aircraft's history, citing from contemporary documents, showing many original drawings and rare pictures. While doing so, he does not limit himself to a technical discussion of the 177 and its derivates, but also look at the strategic context of the period, the evaluation of competing designs, and the wide gap between the dreams and hopes of the Luftwaffe and the reality of the second half of WWII.

One of the most interesting documents reproduced here is a map of the world showing the potential reach into and over the USA of projected large bombers operating from Germany; some extending as far as Chicago or the Panama canal...

This is a book founded on through research, which sets the record straight. It achieves a commendable balance between the technical, the operational, and the strategic elements of the He 177's story.

Dear Fellow WW II Av-Fans:

I've had the magnificent Griehl/Dressel volume on the He 177, which has got to be one of the most "enigmatic" warplanes of WW II, and a whole LOT of things about the entire He 177 series of aircraft are covered in this volume as never before, in minute detail...the produced-in-volume 177A series, the B-series four-engined version, of which four prototypes were ordered (with three flown), the He 274 (two prototypes started, finished up by the French after the war) and the never-completed He 277 "Amerika Bomber" design, which, from what I've read in this book, could have been the most likely Nazi heavy bomber design to have been used against the USA had the Luftwaffe managed to have ever had them, at the right time.

The "oft-told story" in earlier books about the He 177's history, about the "He 177B" being nothing more than a cover designation for the never-built He 277 is simply EXPLODED all to pieces from the text of this book. It's easy to surmise from carefully reading this volume's text that a series of events and documented requests of the German Air Ministry (RLM) concerning an "He 277", whose earliest known mention emerged nearly a year after the Amerika Bomber design competition itself started, much more firmly link it with the Amerika Bomber program, from the evidence given in this volume.

A never-before detailed progression of the He 274 aircraft's development is also given here...as well as Hermann Goering's hatred of the He 177A's "welded-together engines" as he termed them, regarding the sloppily cobbled up DB 606 and DB 610 "power system" powerplants, needed to pull a B-17-sized aircraft skywards and yet have streamlining enough to do---dive bombing missions??

All in all, fans of the "gruesome Griffin" have been waiting for a book like this...details about the He 177 that haven't been revealed previously, and if you can get a copy of this fine volume, get your hands on one..!