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A rare book worthy of inclusion in all military libraries

The story of the evolution of Heinkel’s heavyweight bomber, described in this volume, is one of genius, disaster, and despair. The He 177 was conceived as a long-range heavy dive bomber, a big brother to the Stuka and it was hoped to become one of the pillars of the Luftwaffe’s armament. It incorporated many novel ideas, such as two engines powering one propeller, but was plagued with teething problems and unreliability that caused the deaths of many test pilots and led to a small production run.

Book Reviews

This could have borrowed the subtitle “What a Bloody Shambles ” from the book by Christopher Shores on the Burma Campaign. Manfred Greihl recounts in a very matter of fact way the political machinations that folllowed this aircraft from conception, near still birth, intensive care incubation, to wobbly first steps, early teenage problems, missed manhood right on an a sorry old age decline.
First the early bombers of the Luftwaffe are described and as befits an interesting book I was soon Googling all manner of early Dorniers and the like. The internal politics of the Luftwaffe are detailed including the device and rule strategy of Goring that effectively pre-programmed the RLM to be an disjunction all organisation
The early figures and claims for the He 177 to be able to evade most fighters in the British arsenal again having googling and cross checking and wondering how fast the bomber actually was. Figures throughout the book showed it to be a slightly above average performer but certainly no Mosquito. In fact, I found myself checking it against Lancasters and Marauders to see the validity of the claims. Throughout the text much was made of the planes ability to dive away from problems at speed but that’s not a lot of use on a deep penetration that goes with the role of a heavy bombers.
The well documented problems with cooling and engine fires is presented from the sides of both Heinkel and Daimler Benz and certainly in the early years it was a the cause of the loss of development aircraft and operational aircraft. What I had not picked up before is the applying supply problem with engines good or bad. There were periods when finished Bomber were parked around airfields awaiting engines.
Again when issue to operations the serviceability was poor due to lack of engines, poor ease of access for service but also from lack of skilled service people.
This whole story reminded me of my operations days in automotive manufacturing – when a programme goes wrong it goes very wrong unless there is a clear leader with direction and power to bring it back on track by making people responsible, agreeing action plans that are realistic and then making sure they are stuck to. This programme had none of that, every week there was a new plan, every week there a new production plan and there was never ownership of the problems people just passed the blame. Just simple things like not having the materials available for items specified in plans.

All in all I enjoyed the book and came away with a better understanding of the planes capabilities and want went wrong. I also became acutely aware that the Third Reich just didn’t have the resources to build a 1000 bomber strategic force either in materials or fuel, especially when fighting the arsenal that was America and the Commonwealth.
In terms of content the books strength is contextual history of the design building and deployment of the He 177, 277 and 274. It also gives brief histories of competing aircraft such as the Me 264, Ju390 and Ju 488.
The photographs are good but not always of the best quality, there are good line drawings throughout which are supplemented by original blue prints reproduced rather small on occasions of things such as alternative weapon fits and bomb loads. These blueprints are wholly in German, but I am sure most Luftwaffe buffs pick up a bit of technical German as they go along.
As was normal 20 years ago there are no colour photos and no side profiles in either half tone or colour so the modeller will have to look elsewhere.

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The Heinkel He 177 owns its fame not to success but to failure. It was one of the most remarkable aircraft of the Second World War, but its innovative features produced a string of technical problems that doomed the aircraft and many of its unfortunate crews. Because of the poor reputation of the type, fables about it have spread widely.
In this excellent book, the authors clear away most of the fog that surrounds the He 177 and its developments. They give a detailed account of the He 177 from its inception to its final cancellation, with attention to design issues, service politics, and combat experiences. An equally interesting part of the book is the overview that is given of advanced German bomber designs, drawn both by Heinkel and by its competitors, to reach targets as far away as the USA and the Panama Canal. The book is well illustrated with rare pictures and original German drawings.
The authors of this work rarely disappoint, and this book can be highly recommended.