Peeking into the Spanish Civil War, we find the origin of the Bf109 - but
less spritely models than the familiar Emil, Friedrich, and Gustav! There was
the same inefficient handling but without the fast acceleration available in
the DB600 engine series. Still, they were the speed wonders of their time. This
set also includes the D-1 and E-1, for use with the Polish scenarios and the
carrier version which would have served aboard the Graf
Zeppelin aircraft carrier. These are available for download in one
PDF file (114Kb):
- Bf109B-2 - includes the B-1 and Swiss D variants.
- Bf109C-1 - includes the C-2, C-3, C-4 weapons variants
- Bf109D-1 - interim production version produced while waiting for the
DB601 engine; served until after the Fall of France
- Bf109E-1 - the first Emil; flew over Poland; includes the rare E-1/B
Jabo version
- Bf109T-1 - carrier-borne variant of the E-3.
As World War II drew to a close, there were several plans to update and
upgrade the Bf109 - most of which fell through. The Bf109 survived in service
after the war in Czechoslovakia, Spain - and Israel. This set of 3 ADCs (76 Kb) includes:
- Bf109H-1 - a high altitude 109 design.
- Bf109Z - a twin-hulled model (like the P-82 Twin Mustang) carrying a
heavy weapon collection.
- S-199 Mezec (Mule) - a poor-handling post-war G-14 that
served in Czechoslovakia - and Israel during
their 1948 War of Independence.
After the He51 biplane fighter, Heinkel tried a couple times to break
Messerschmitt's hold on the German fighter market. This
set of 3 ADCs
includes a couple of decent aircraft that failed the political game:
- He51C - The resurgent Luftwaffe's first fighter, switched to ground
support in Spain after the advent of the Bf109B.
- He112B-1 - able to top the Bf109(C) in everything but top speed,
this was only used operationally by Nationalist Spain and Rumania.
- He100D-1 - A completely new fighter, quite fast, designed after the
failure of the He112.
Faced with first a trickle and then a nightly river of Bomber Command night
attacks, the Luftwaffe developed a variety of specialized night fighters,
developing air-intercept radar about a year after (with further developments
even further behind) British developments. Set includes
6 ADCs (136 kb).
- Dornier Do17Z-10 Kaus II - an early nightfighter; the last
variant of the Do17.
- Messerschmitt Me110G-4 - radar-armed last variant of the workhorse
zerstorer.
- Messerschmitt Me210A - not a night fighter, but an OK place for the
ADC.
- Junkers Ju88G-7 - Late model heavy nightfighter.
- Focke Wulf Ta154A Falke - The Luftwaffe's answer to
the Mosquito - until they ran out of glue.
- Heinkel He219A-7 - the wonderful night fighter that the pilots
wanted - but the Luftwaffe staff kept cancelling.
German bomber aircraft that interested me are now available for download in
a PDF file (210 Kb):
- Heinkel He177A-5 Greif heavy bomber - Germany's heavy bomber.
Used on the Eastern front and against England.
- FW200C-3 Kondor heavy maritime patrol bomber - Used for long
patrols into the Atlantic seeking convoys.
- Dornier Do17M-1 medium bomber - Variants include P (recon) and K
built for Yugoslavia.
- Junkers Ju52/3m g7e medium transport - "Tante Ju" is included
for use in a Cape Bon scenario - or early Spanish Civil War bombing missions.
The Dornier Do217 was used as the basis of several mid-war bombers,
intruders, and night fighters. This
set of 6 ADCs
inlcudes:
- Do217J-2: Night fighter
- Do217K-2: specialized stand-off guided missile carrier, carrying
the FX 1400 glide bomb or Hs293 rocket bomb.
- Do217M-1: later bomber with larger engines
- Do217N-2: Night fighter
- Do217P: High altitude recon bomber
- Do215B-5: Night Fighter
Early Bombers
The He111H bombers that darkened the skies from Bristol to the Baltic, from
Narvik to North Africa did not spring fully formed from the head of Zeus (or
Heinkel). This set
of 4 ADCs (101 Kb) traces its roots, including:
- He70F-2 - Heinkel's (and the Luftwaffe's) first modern monoplane
bomber. Used in Spain.
- He170A - a Hungarian recon version of the He70 used until 1941.
- He111B-2 & E-3 - conventional nosed versions used over Spain
1937-39.
He111 Follow-on Variants
Development of the He111 did not stop with the H-2 familiar from Achtung!
Spitfire. This set of 3 ADCs (200
Kb) describes:
- He111H-16: mid-war "standard" version, with larger engines
and more bomb capacity.
- He111H-21 - late war version "standard" version (plus
missile carrier variant)..
- He111Z Zwilling - built of two H-6s joined by a common center
wing to haul the giant Me321 glider (and admittedly the variant that induced me
to produce this set).
We have all heard of the Ju88. However, it was neither the first nor the last
medium bomber Junkers built for the Luftwaffe. These ADC sets show a few others:
Set 1 (85 Kb):-
Ju86s
- Ju86D: a diesel poweredmedium bomber that fought in Spain, but was
phased out of the Luftwaffe. Other versions with gasoline engines flew longer
for other nations.
- Ju86G: last version combat bomber version of the Ju86. The change
to a stronger engine did not compensate for the aircraft's other shortcomings
compared to the He111 and the Ju88 prototypes.
- Ju86P: stretching the diesel engine to its limits, this version became
a hi-altitude strategic recon aircraft flying above the reach of most fighters.
- Ju86R: larger wing, higher altitude upgrade of the Ju86P.
Set 2 (85 kb)
- Ju88s
- Ju88A-1: The first version of the Ju88A to fly in combat.
- Ju88A-17: a torpedo bomber used in Over the Med and the North Sea.
- Ju88S-1: a late version with upgraded engines that depended on speed
for its defense.
Set 3 (110 kb)
- Ju188s and Ju290
- Ju188A: an liquid-cooled, upgraded Ju88 that grew out of the bomber
B program.
- Ju188D: recon version of the 188. Accounted for about half of those
produced.
- Ju188E: a radial engined version of the Ju188A.
- Ju290A: a long range maritime patrol bomber, successor to the FW-200
Kondor.
The Germans were masters of battlefield air support early in World War II.
The Ju87 Stuka was the Luftwaffe's most famous aircraft at the time. The
Luftwaffe supported the blitzkrieg with pin-point "surgical"
application of force, displaying an air-ground cooperation that most armed
forces merely dreamed about. This skill was a minor lesson learned in the
Spanish Civil War.
The Ju87B is included with Achtung! Spitfire. However,
the Ju87 soldiered on into the War, its mid-thirties aerodynamics showing its
age more with each passing month. This set
of 5 ADCs includes:
- Junkers Ju87C - Carrier-borne version of the Ju87B meant to serve
aboard the Graf Zeppelin with the Bf109T.
- Junkers Ju87D-1 - Cleaner version, with mods that stretched the JU87's
useful life into 1943.
- Junkers Ju87D-5 - More powerful engine, bigger bombload. Includes
the Ju87G-1 tank-buster armed with 2 37mm antitank guns flown by Ernst Udel.
- Henschel Hs123A-1 - Germany's first ground attack aircraft (circa
1936) that soldiered on from Spain to Barbarossa.
- Henschel Hs129B - Ground support aircraft that could pack a lot of
punch vs. ground targets. It was unmaneuverable and slow vs other aircraft.
In Fall, 1943, the Stuka Geschwaderen (StG - dive
bomber wings) were redesignated Schlacht Geschwaderen
(ground support). Stukas began to be phased out for FW190s.
German ground support and recon aircraft include some interesting oddities,
including those in this PDF file (316 kb):
- Blohm und Voss Bv141 - the first successful asymmetrical aircraft!
However, the RML dragged its feet about accepting the radical design, and by
the time they put in a purchase order, Blohm und Voss factories were all
assigned to other aircraft.
- Heinkel He59 - German naval recon and SAR float plane. It began
service before the SPanish Civil War (where it served as a patrol aircraft).
Six He59s delivered 60 men to seize the Maas bridges by landing in the canal in
Maastricht. Used as SAR and air ambulance over the North and Baltic Seas.
- Henschel 126 - Two-man parasol wing tactical recon aircraft that
flew throughout the war. It began its service in Spain and flew over Poland,
France, the Balkans, North Africa, and Russia as the Luftwaffe's standard
tactical recon and army cooperation aircraft. Supplanted 1940-42 by the FW189,
it was relegated to tarining an dglider towing, but in 1944 surviving aircraft
made their way into night ground attack units.
- Focke Wolfe FW189 - a German fork-tailed, well-glazed design that
supplanted the Henschel 126 1940-42. Used mostly on the Eastern Front. It
was rather slow, so as Soviet air power grew, the FW 189 was increasingly
used for second-line duties after 1944.
(Heck, I've done most everything else). In addition to Iron Annie, the Ju52,
there were other transports. Unfortunately for them, they were often targets.
Both the Go242 and the Me323 started as gliders, to which engines were attached
- and the marriage was not always a happy one. This
set of 5 ADCs
includes:
- DFS 230 - the world's first assault glider. Teams in this glider
took Fort Eben-Emael in Holland in the world's first air assault.
- Gotha Go242 - a medium-sized glider used along the Eastern Front.
- Gotha Go244 - a Go242 glider with engines used a transport on the
Eastern Front.
- Messerschmitt Me321 Gigant - a giant-sized glider used to deliver
tons of supplies or a company of troops.
- Messerschmitt Me323D Gigant - a Me321 glider with engine, creating a
huge (if unweildy) transport. Used in Russia and to supply Rommel in North
Africa (until many were shot down in droves off Cape Bon).
- Messerschmitt Me323E Gigant - a toughened-up version
This PDF
file (93Kb) includes jets not (yet) covered by JD Webster that flew (or
almost flew) for Germany:
- Arado Ar234B - the world's first operational jet bomber most notably
used to attack the Ludendorf Bridge at Remagen in March, 1945.
- Arado Ar234C-3 - version of the Ar234 with 4 weaker BMW engines (for
more overall power) and other improvements.
- Horten Ho229 - a flying wing jet fighter that was a couple weeks
from pre-production when its factory was overrun by Americans in April, 1945.
- Heinkel He280 - a rival for production to the Me262, the He280 was
about a year ahead in development, was more maneuverable, but was held up
waiting for an engine.
These last-minute weapons are clearly design efforts that are grasping at
straws - but they were worked on until someone realized this was not the way to
spend resources. Included for your amusement in this
set of 3 ADCs
(52Kb):
- Bachem Ba349 Natter (Viper) - a rocket plane that fired one
furious burst of air-to-air rockets, and burst into a recoverable tail section,
freed pilot, and disposable nose cone. 10 of these were in position and ready
to use, just waiting for a flight of bombers to come by, when US ground forces
closed in. They were destroyed by the Germans.
- Blohm und Voss Bv40 - a high speed glider armed with 2 30mm cannon.
After flight testing, it was abandoned when someone realized that there was not
a shortage of Bf109Gs which were generally more effective.
- Fiesler Fi103R Reichenberg - a manned version of the V-1 Buzz
Bomb.
These aircraft were being developed as the Reich was falling, meaning that
prototypes were being constructed (or had been flown) but there were still a
few bugs to be worked out. This
set of 4 ADCs
(153 kb) are presented here as What If aircraft.
(For instance, what if the Me262 had effectively delayed the 8th Air
Force/Bomber Command Offensive and supplied good support on the Eastern and
Western fronts sufficient to give the Reich another 6 months of life...)
- Henschel Hs132 jet dive bomber - a jet version of the Stuka concept
that would depend on speed for its defense. The pilot would lie prone to
decrease the aircraft's cross section (target area) and to better withstand G
forces.
- Focke Wulf Ta183 fighter - an advanced jet fighter that was
preparing for flight test when its factory was over-fun by the Russians in
April 1945. The prototype and its design documents was the basis of the MiG 15.
- Messerschmitt P.1101 jet fighter - The P.1101 was a designed to
research the effects of different wing angles. It's wing could be swung to
different angles on the ground before take off. However, since it was also a
working high-speed jet, efforts were under way to mass-produce it as a jet
fighter capable of multiple swept-wing configurations. One prototype was taken
to the US and was later rebuilt as the Bell X-5 and used for its original
purpose.
- Messerschmitt Me264 Amerika bomber - designed as a maritime
bomber (from a long range research aircraft) that had the range to reach cities
on teh US east coast and return.
Germany fielded the first stand-off weapons used in the world, and was close
to fielding some other advanced weapons concepts: AAMs including self-guided
homing wepons. These ADCs are designed for use with the Guided Weapon Attack Rules I devised. This
set of ADCs (138
Kb) includes:
- FX 1400 Fritz glide bomb - used to sink the Italian battleship
Roma, and to damage another.
- Hs 293A anti-ship missile - guided rocket used against allied
shipping
- Hs294A anti-ship missile - development of the Hs293 used to attack
ships below the waterline
- Hs298 air-toair missile - guided AAM under the control of the pilot
developed for anti-bomber work.
- V-1 Buzz Bomb - launched by the hundreds at England, these were
air-launched after their initial launch sites were taken or destroyed.
- X-4 air-to-air missile - a wire-guided AAM developed for anti-bomber
work.
- Bv246 Hägelkorn - a self-guided glide bomb.
I have produced a
set of the
following SDCs for the German navy:
- Bismarck-class battleship
- Scharnhorst-class battleship
- Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier
- Hipper-class heavy cruiser
- Köln-class light cruiser
German Aircraft by Dan Foxman
Dan Foxman has produced the following additional German Aircraft available
in individual PDF files (no pictures):
Other than the PDF files listed here, click here to request files, leave comments, or complaints.
ADC Listing
Uncle Ted's main page
German
Aircraft