became responsible for the Erprobungs und
Lehrkommando He 177s.
By the autumn of 1943, the initial
production version He 177 A-1 (with a
single MG 81 7.92mm machine gun in the
nose, single MG FF/M 20mm cannon in the
forward ventral gondola, remote controlled
dorsal turret and single 13mm MG 131 in the
tail) had been replaced by the A-3 variant.
Its rear fuselage was lengthened by about
5ft (1.6m) and most were powered by the
improved DB 610 engines.ANTI-SHIPPING MISSIONS
The He 177 A-3 first went into action,
equipped with the Hs 293, on the afternoon
of November 21, 1943. Convoy SL 139
(from the South Atlantic to Britain) had
rendezvoused with convoy MKS 30G
(originating in the Mediterranean) on
November 16, 1943 and was heading north
from Gibraltar. Twenty-five He 177s from
II/KG 40, led by Maj Mons, took off from
Bordeaux-Mérignac in southwestern France,
each armed with two Hs 293s. When the
convoy was 420 miles (676km) northeast of
Cape Finisterre, 20 aircraft (five had returned
with technical problems) attacked the 73
ships. Merchantmen Marsa and Delius were
both hit by the missiles, launched by Hptm
Alfred Nuss of 6/KG 40. The Marsa was set
on fire, and was last seen afloat the following
day, while the Delius was badly damaged
but managed to make it to Liverpool.
There were German casualties. One He
177 failed to return, another crash-landed
south of Bordeaux killing five of the crew
with just the gunner surviving, while a final
Griffon ran out of fuel and the crew baled out
over France.
Five days later, the second target
was a convoy in the Mediterranean. The
mission started badly. One of the He 177’s
starboard engines caught fire due to a
broken crankshaft after which it crashed
and burned out. Just one ship was sunk –
the 8,600-ton troopship Rohna – but with
the loss of 1,138 military personnel and
crew. Hptm Hans Dochtermann, of 5/KG
40, was credited with the sinking.Rudolf Mons and the other five on
board failed to return, as did another five
crews. Furthermore, an He 177 crashed
on returning to Mérignac with the death of
the pilot and three crew, another ditched off
Montpellier, killing the flight engineer, and
the final aircraft returned with a wounded
gunner. The human cost of this mission was
35 aircrew reported missing, six killed and
eight wounded or injured.
He 177s were rarely seen in the skies
in the closing weeks of the year because
apparently, they flew few missions having
lost so many aircraft and men. However, II/
KG 40 still had 24 aircraft, three of which
were lost to RAF fighters on December 24,
25 and 28, 1943.
At the end of January 1944, Operation
Steinbock, a resumption of what were hoped
to be major attacks against the mainland
UK began with He 177s of I/KG 40 and I/
KG 100. There was a high rate of attrition- between January 20 and May 30, 1944,
I/KG 40 lost at least 12 He 177s, and I/KG
100 nine.
Gen Maj Dietrich Peltz, commander of
the retaliatory offensive, said: “It was true
that the He 177 carried the greatest bomb
load of the types under my command,
but she was technically very complicated.
Because of this, the number of aircraft
available for any one mission was very low
in comparison with the other types.”
Meanwhile, II/KG 40 continued operations,
initially above the Allied beachhead at Anzio
in Italy, in January 1944, losing at least seven
aircraft in three days, and then over the
Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay at the
cost of nine machines up to the end of May.
Both I and II/KG 40 were then deployed
against Allied shipping off Normandy,
following the D-day invasion on June 6,
1944, but proved vulnerable to Allied night-
fighters and flak.
Losses were debilitating – 23 aircraft
between June 7 and June 13. On June 22,
German reports show that 1 and 2/KG 40,
based at Toulouse-Blagnac, had just 12
aircraft available, while II/KG 40 at Mérignac
only had another dozen.
Allied aircraft were also destroying
bombers on the ground. For example, seven
He 177s were reported by the Lufwaffe to
have been wiped out at Mérignac on Junehttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 81An He 177 of 6./KG 1 sporting an unusual camouflage scheme in 1944.A Heinkel A-5 flown by the RAE for evaluation – it was assigned the serial TS439.78-82_he177DC.mfDC.mfDC.mfDC.mf.indd 81 02/05/2018 12:45