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    DORNIER Do 17–The Luftwaffe's 'Flying Pencil': Rare Luftwaffe Photographs From Wartime Collections
    DORNIER Do 17–The Luftwaffe's 'Flying Pencil': Rare Luftwaffe Photographs From Wartime Collections
    DORNIER Do 17–The Luftwaffe's 'Flying Pencil': Rare Luftwaffe Photographs From Wartime Collections
    Ebook172 pages37 minutes

    DORNIER Do 17–The Luftwaffe's 'Flying Pencil': Rare Luftwaffe Photographs From Wartime Collections

    By Chris Goss

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    About this ebook

    For the first three years of the Second World War, the Dornier Do 17 was the Luftwaffe’s principal light bomber. Designed to be fast enough to outrun contemporary fighter aircraft, the Dornier helped to spearhead Germany’s Blitzkrieg as Hitler’s armies raced through Poland and then France and the Low Countries. Until its withdrawal to secondary duties in 1941, the Dornier Do 17 served in every theatre of war involving German forces. This included the invasion of the Balkans and Greece as well as the battle to capture Crete.

    After suffering heavy losses at the hands of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain, the Do 17 was employed in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The Do 17 was withdrawn from frontline service later in 1941 but continued to be used by the German Air Force in various roles until the end of the war, including seeing service as a glider tug and in the defence of the Reich in 1944 as a night fighter.

    In this compilation of unrivalled images collected over many years, and now part of Frontline's new War in the Air series, the widespread deployment of the Dornier Do 17 is portrayed and brought to life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateApr 30, 2018
    ISBN9781848324732
    DORNIER Do 17–The Luftwaffe's 'Flying Pencil': Rare Luftwaffe Photographs From Wartime Collections
    Author

    Chris Goss

    Having retired from the RAF with the rank of Wing Commander, CHRIS GOSS is a regular and highly respected contributor to major aviation publications in the UK, France and Germany.

    Read more from Chris Goss

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      Belle foto, molto rare che fanno questo libro molto prezioso per chi si interessa del do-17

    Book preview

    DORNIER Do 17–The Luftwaffe's 'Flying Pencil' - Chris Goss

    DORNIER Do 17

    THE LUFTWAFFE’S ‘FLYING PENCIL’

    DORNIER Do 17

    THE LUFTWAFFE’S ‘FLYING PENCIL’

    RARE LUFTWAFFE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM WARTIME COLLECTIONS

    CHRIS GOSS

    DORNIER Do 17

    The Luftwaffe’s ‘Flying Pencil’

    This edition published in 2018 by Frontline Books,

    an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

    47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

    Copyright © Chris Goss

    The right of Chris Goss to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

    ISBN: 978 1 84832 471 8

    eISBN: 978 1 8483 2473 2

    Mobi ISBN: 978 1 8483 2472 5

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

    CIP data records for this title are available from the British Library.

    Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery,

    Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport,

    True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing,

    The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and

    White Owl.

    For more information on our books, please visit

    www.frontline-books.com, email info@frontline-books.com

    or write to us at the above address.

    CONTENTS

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    Glossary and Abbreviations

    Part I: Early Development and Pre-War Deployment

    Part II: The Attack on Poland

    Part III: War in the West

    Part IV: The Battle of Britain and the Blitz

    Part V: After the Blitz, 1941 and Beyond

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    I would like to thank the following for their assistance in compiling this book: Bernd Rauchbach, Tim Oliver, Peter Cornwell and the late Dr Alfred Price.

    INTRODUCTION

    The Dornier Do 17 Fliegender Bleistift (Flying Pencil) has been linked with the rise of Hitler, regularly being seen flying over the pre-Second World War Nuremberg rallies. However, despite its radical design and technologically superior construction, by the summer of 1941, it was all but obsolete.

    EARLY DEVELOPMENT

    In October 1935, Dornier revealed its Do 17 V1, a twin-engined commercial transport aircraft that had first flown in on 23 November 1934 and was capable of carrying six passengers at relatively high speed. In the years that followed, it was modified and in July 1937, the Do 17 V8 participated in the International Military Aircraft Competition at Zürich, where it won the ‘Circuit of the Alps’ and showed that contemporary fighters might have difficulty in catching it.

    Deutsche Lufthansa (DLH) had placed a requirement for a high-speed mail plane, capable of carrying six passengers, for use on its European express service. The Do 17’s aerodynamic design together with the twin liquid-cooled BMW VI engines – the most powerful aero engines available in Germany at that time – met this requirement but also enabled it to achieve speeds nearly 60mph superior to other aircraft entering service with the embryonic Luftwaffe.

    Following the first flight of the Do 17 V1, identical versions V2 and V3 were passed to DLH in early 1935. The airline was pleased with the speed and mail carrying potential but quickly concluded that the design was impractical from a passenger viewpoint with two tiny cabins, one for two passengers behind the flight deck and another for four behind the wing. DLH therefore rejected the aircraft.

    The saviour of the Do 17 was now former Dornier employee Flugkapitän Robert Untucht, who was working for DLH as its liaison between the airline and Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM). He had the opportunity to fly one of the prototypes and was impressed by the handling qualities and performance, and suggested that with modifications, the aircraft could be a good bomber. He persuaded Dornier and the RLM that this was possible and after subsequent flights, Dornier was instructed to produce Do 17 V4, which differed in that the passenger carrying aspects, such as the portholes, were removed and the single fin replaced by a twin fin. Removal of the forward passenger compartment allowed an expansion of the flight deck and the fitting of a bomb bay. Two more prototypes were built: V5 was identical to V4, whilst V6 was powered by Hispano-Suiza engines, giving it a maximum speed of over 240mph. This speed meant that V6 was faster than many fighters of other nations, which meant that defensive armament was superfluous. Nevertheless, as well as a partly glazed nose, V7 included a fuselage-mounted blister behind the cockpit and was armed with a single 7.9mm machine

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