Heinkel He 111

1. Lead

The Heinkel He 111 was the main medium bomber of the German Luftwaffe in the Second World War, and the aircraft that carried the Blitz to London. Designed in the mid-1930s as a fast airliner that could be converted into a bomber — a deception that allowed Germany to develop a bomber while pretending to build a civilian aircraft — it entered service in 1936, fought in the Spanish Civil War, and became the backbone of the Luftwaffe’s bomber force in Poland, France, Britain and the Soviet Union.

More than 6,500 were built, and the He 111 served in every theatre of the war, as a level bomber, a torpedo bomber, a transport and, in the last year of the war, as the carrier aircraft for the V-1 flying bomb.

It was never the fastest or the most heavily armed bomber of the war, and by 1943 it was obsolete, but it was reliable, it was available in large numbers, and it remained in service until the end of the war in 1945 — and, in its Spanish-built form, for another decade after it.

The He 111’s story is the story of the Luftwaffe’s bomber force. It was designed for the short, fast campaigns of the Blitzkrieg, in which bombers operated with fighter escort and with air superiority, and it was at its best in those campaigns: in Poland and France, it bombed airfields, railways and troop concentrations with an accuracy and a reliability that the Luftwaffe’s commanders valued.

Over Britain in 1940, it found a different war: a war in which it was intercepted by fighters, in which its defensive armament was inadequate, and in which its losses were heavy. The He 111 adapted — it was fitted with more guns, it was used at night, it was used as a torpedo bomber and as a transport — but it never regained the dominance it had enjoyed in the early years, and by the end of the war it was a transport and a special-duties aircraft, not a front-line bomber.

Its long service, and its survival in Spanish production after the war, make it one of the most important German aircraft of the period.

2. Key Facts

Type	Twin-engine medium bomber
Origin	Germany
Designer	Siegfried and Walter Günter (Heinkel)
Manufacturer	Heinkel Flugzeugwerke; also built in Spain as the CASA 2.111
First flight	24 February 1935
In service	1936–1945 (Germany); to 1956 (Spain)
Produced	1935–1944; about 6,500 built in Germany
Crew	5 (pilot, navigator/bombardier, radio operator, two gunners)
Length	16.4 m (He 111H)
Wingspan	22.6 m
Height	4.0 m
Empty weight	About 8,680 kg
Maximum take-off weight	About 14,000 kg
Engine	Two Junkers Jumo 211F, about 1,340 hp each (He 111H-6)
Top speed	About 440 km/h
Range	About 2,300 km
Service ceiling	About 6,500–8,500 m depending on variant
Armament	Up to seven 7.92 mm MG 15 / MG 81 machine guns and one 20 mm MG FF cannon (later marks); up to 2,000 kg of bombs internally
Other roles	Torpedo bomber, transport, V-1 carrier (He 111H-22)

3. Background and Development

A bomber disguised as an airliner

The He 111 was born of deception. In the early 1930s, Germany was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles from building military aircraft, and the German aircraft industry developed bombers in the guise of civilian airliners. The Heinkel He 70, a fast mail plane of 1932, had shown that a modern, all-metal monoplane could be both fast and reliable, and in 1934 the Reich Air Ministry asked Heinkel to develop a larger aircraft, ostensibly as an airliner for Lufthansa, that could be converted into a bomber.

The designers, the brothers Siegfried and Walter Günter, produced an aircraft with an elliptical wing, a streamlined fuselage and two engines, and the first prototype flew on 24 February 1935. Lufthansa did operate a small number of He 111s as airliners, but the aircraft’s real purpose was never in doubt: it was a bomber, and the first military versions were already in production before the civilian aircraft had flown many passengers.

Spain and the early bomber

The He 111’s first combat was in the Spanish Civil War, where it served with the Condor Legion from 1937. In Spain, the He 111 proved to be fast and reliable: it was faster than the fighters that opposed it, and it could bomb with an accuracy that impressed its crews.

The experience confirmed the Luftwaffe’s faith in the medium bomber, and it led to the first major production version, the He 111B, and then to the He 111E, which served in Spain and in the first campaigns of the Second World War.

The early He 111s had a stepped nose, with the pilot and the bombardier in separate compartments, and they were powered by Daimler-Benz DB 600 engines; the later He 111H, which became the main wartime version, had a fully glazed nose, with the whole crew in a single glazed compartment, and Junkers Jumo 211 engines.

The main wartime bomber

The He 111H, which entered service in 1939, was the He 111 that fought the war. It was produced in large numbers — more than 6,000 of the 6,500 He 111s built were H models — and it served on every front.

The H model’s glazed nose gave the crew a good view, and its defensive armament, which grew over time from three machine guns to as many as seven, plus a 20 mm cannon in some versions, was intended to protect it from fighters.

The He 111H was also adapted for other roles: the H-6 was a torpedo bomber, the H-20 was a transport, and the H-22 was the carrier for the V-1 flying bomb, which was launched from under the aircraft’s wing. The He 111’s production ended in 1944, when the Luftwaffe’s bomber force was being destroyed and Germany’s industry was turning to fighters, but the aircraft remained in service until the end of the war.

4. Design

Airframe and the glazed nose

The He 111 was a conventional, all-metal, twin-engine monoplane, and its most distinctive feature was its nose. The early aircraft had a stepped nose, with the cockpit above and the bombardier’s position below, but the He 111H had a fully glazed nose, in which the pilot, the navigator-bombardier and the radio operator sat together in a single glasshouse, with an excellent view forward and down.

The glazed nose became the He 111’s most recognisable feature, and it gave the crew the visibility they needed for bombing and for navigation. The rest of the airframe was straightforward: a mid-wing with an elliptical planform, a conventional tail, and a retractable undercarriage.

The aircraft was not fast — its top speed of about 440 km/h was slower than the fighters it met — but it was stable, it was easy to fly, and it could carry a useful bomb load over a useful range.

Crew, engines and armament

The He 111’s crew of five worked in a cramped but well-organised compartment. The pilot sat on the left, with the navigator-bombardier beside him and slightly forward, and the radio operator and the gunners behind them. The engines, two Junkers Jumo 211 inverted V-12s of about 1,340 horsepower each in the H-6, were reliable and well proven, and they gave the aircraft a range of about 2,300 km and a ceiling of up to 8,500 metres in some versions.

The defensive armament grew over the war: the early aircraft had three 7.92 mm machine guns, in the nose, the dorsal position and the ventral position, while the later aircraft had as many as seven machine guns, plus a 20 mm cannon in the nose or in the dorsal position.

The armament was never enough: the He 111’s guns were rifle-calibre, and they could not stop a determined fighter attack, and the aircraft’s losses, above all in the Battle of Britain, showed it.

Strengths and limits

The He 111’s strengths were its reliability, its range and its versatility. It could fly long missions, it could operate from rough airfields, and it could be adapted to almost any role, from bombing to torpedo attack to transport. Its weaknesses were its speed and its defensive armament: it was too slow to outrun a fighter, and its guns were too light to fight one off. The Luftwaffe knew this by 1940, but it had no replacement in production, and the He 111 remained the Luftwaffe’s main bomber because there was nothing better available. The aircraft’s long service is a measure of its quality — and of the Luftwaffe’s failure to replace it.

5. Variants

Variant	Years	Key features	Production
He 111A–C	1936–1937	Early versions; stepped nose; small numbers	About 100
He 111E	1937–1939	Served in Spain; DB 600 engines	About 200
He 111F	1938–1939	Improved E; Jumo 211 engines	About 150
He 111H	1939–1944	Main wartime version; glazed nose; Jumo 211 engines	About 6,000
He 111P	1939–1940	DB 601 engines; built alongside the H	About 800
He 111H-6	1941–1942	Torpedo bomber version	Included above
He 111H-20	1943–1944	Transport version	Included above
He 111H-22	1944–1945	V-1 carrier	About 100 converted
He 111Z	1941–1942	Twin-fuselage glider tug (two He 111s joined)	12
CASA 2.111	1945–1956	Spanish-built version; Rolls-Royce Merlin engines	About 200

The He 111H was the aircraft that fought the war, and its sub-variants show how the type was adapted. The H-6 was the torpedo bomber, carrying two torpedoes under its wings or bombs in its bay; the H-20 was a transport, with a larger cargo door and no bomb bay; and the H-22 was the V-1 carrier, with a V-1 mounted under its wing and launched in flight.

The most unusual variant was the He 111Z, the “Zwilling” or twin, in which two He 111 fuselages were joined by a new wing centre section and a fifth engine, to produce a glider tug powerful enough to tow the giant Messerschmitt Me 321 glider. Only 12 were built, and they served as glider tugs and as transports.

The Spanish CASA 2.111, built after the war with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, was the He 111’s afterlife: it served with the Spanish Air Force until 1956, and it became famous as a stand-in for the He 111 in films, above all in the film Battle of Britain (1969).

The glazed nose and the H model

The He 111H’s glazed nose was the aircraft’s most important design change, and it deserves a note of its own. The early He 111s had a stepped nose, with the pilot in a separate cockpit above the bombardier’s position, but the H model’s nose put the whole crew in a single glazed compartment, with a view that was unmatched by any other bomber of the time.

The glazed nose made bombing and navigation easier, and it made the He 111 instantly recognisable: the “glasshouse” nose, with its many panels, is the feature by which the aircraft is remembered. The H model also introduced the Jumo 211 engine, which became the standard engine for the type, and it set the pattern for the He 111’s long wartime service.

Production: the H model dominates

The He 111 was built in large numbers, and its production was dominated by a single version. Heinkel built about 6,500 He 111s between 1935 and 1944, and more than 6,000 of them were H models, the version with the glazed nose and the Jumo 211 engines.

The aircraft was built at Heinkel’s plants in Germany, and its production was at its height in 1941 and 1942, when the Luftwaffe’s bomber force was at its largest. The He 111’s production ended in 1944, when the Luftwaffe’s bomber force was being destroyed and Germany’s industry was turning to fighters, but the aircraft’s production continued in Spain, where about 200 CASA 2.111s were built after the war, with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, and where the aircraft served until 1956.

6. Operational History

Poland, France and the Blitzkrieg, 1939–1940

The He 111’s war began in Poland in September 1939, where it bombed Polish airfields, railways and troop concentrations in support of the German advance. In France in May and June 1940, it did the same, attacking French and British positions and bombing the ports and railways behind the front. The He 111’s speed and its bomb load made it effective in these campaigns, and its losses were light, because the Luftwaffe had air superiority and the Allied fighters were few. The He 111’s early war was the war it had been designed for: short campaigns, with fighter escort, against an enemy that could not defend itself in the air.

The Battle of Britain and the Blitz, 1940–1941

Daylight losses

Over Britain in the summer of 1940, the He 111’s war changed. The RAF’s Hurricanes and Spitfires intercepted the German bomber formations, and the He 111, with its light defensive armament and its slow speed, was an easy target. The Luftwaffe’s bombers flew in tight formations, with their guns covering each other, but the British fighters learned to attack from the front, where the He 111’s glazed nose offered no protection, and from below, where its ventral gun could not reach.

The He 111’s losses in the Battle of Britain were heavy — in some raids, a third of the bombers that set out did not return — and the Luftwaffe was forced to switch to night bombing, where the He 111’s losses were lower but its accuracy was worse.

The Blitz, the night bombing of London and other British cities in the winter of 1940–41, was the He 111’s work, and it was flown by He 111 crews who navigated by radio beams and dropped their bombs on the fires below.

The Blitz at night

The Blitz was the He 111’s most sustained campaign. From September 1940 to May 1941, He 111s bombed London and other British cities almost every night, and the aircraft’s crews became expert at night navigation and night bombing. The Blitz killed more than 40,000 British civilians, and it destroyed large parts of London, Coventry and other cities, but it did not break British morale, and it did not force Britain to sue for peace.

The He 111’s role in the Blitz is its most controversial legacy: it was the aircraft that carried the bombing war to British civilians, and it is remembered in Britain as the symbol of the Blitz, just as the Stuka is remembered as the symbol of the Blitzkrieg.

The Eastern Front and the Mediterranean, 1941–1945

On the Eastern Front, the He 111 served from the first day of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 to the last days of the war. It bombed Soviet airfields, railways and troop concentrations, and it served as a transport, carrying supplies to encircled German forces at Stalingrad and elsewhere.

At Stalingrad, in the winter of 1942–43, He 111s flew in the airlift that tried, and failed, to supply the encircled Sixth Army, and many were lost to Soviet fighters and anti-aircraft fire. In the Mediterranean, the He 111 served as a torpedo bomber, attacking Allied shipping, and as a transport, carrying supplies to North Africa.

In the last year of the war, the He 111H-22 carried the V-1 flying bomb, launching it from the air over the North Sea, where the missile could reach London without crossing the Allied defences on the Continent. The He 111’s war ended in 1945, as a transport and a special-duties aircraft, and its last sorties were flown in the defence of Berlin.

7. Performance and Specifications

Specification	He 111H-6
Engine	Two Junkers Jumo 211F, about 1,340 hp each
Top speed	About 440 km/h
Cruising speed	About 370 km/h
Range	About 2,300 km
Service ceiling	About 6,500 m
Bomb load	Up to 2,000 kg internally
Defensive guns	Up to seven 7.92 mm machine guns and one 20 mm cannon
Crew	5
Number built	About 6,500 (all versions)

Speed, range and bomb load

The He 111’s performance was adequate for a medium bomber of the late 1930s, but it was not outstanding. Its top speed of about 440 km/h was slower than the British Wellington and the American B-25, and its bomb load of up to 2,000 kg was smaller than that of the British Lancaster or the American B-17.

Its range, about 2,300 km, was good, and it was enough for the missions the Luftwaffe asked it to fly, from the airfields of France to London, and from the airfields of Poland to Moscow. Its ceiling, about 6,500 metres in the H-6, was high enough for the bombing missions it flew, though it was lower than that of the Allied bombers.

The He 111 was not a great bomber, but it was a good enough bomber, and it was available in the numbers the Luftwaffe needed.

Against its contemporaries

Compared with the British Vickers Wellington, the He 111 was faster and had a better bomb load, but the Wellington was tougher and could absorb more damage. Compared with the American B-25 Mitchell, the He 111 was slower and less heavily armed, but it had a longer range. Compared with the Soviet Ilyushin Il-4, the He 111 was a similar aircraft in a similar role, and the two were evenly matched. The He 111’s place was as a medium bomber, and in that role it was outclassed by the Allied bombers that followed it, but it served longer than any of them in German service, and it did so because there was no replacement.

8. Operators

Germany and the Luftwaffe

The He 111 was used above all by Germany, by the Luftwaffe’s bomber wings (Kampfgeschwader), which operated it from 1936 to 1945. The bomber wings fought on every front, from Poland and France to Britain, the Soviet Union and the Mediterranean, and they were among the most heavily engaged units in the Luftwaffe.

The He 111 was also used by the Luftwaffe’s transport and special-duties units, and by the Condor Legion in Spain. The Luftwaffe’s He 111s were the aircraft that carried the Blitz, and they are remembered in Britain as the symbol of the bombing war.

The bomber wings were among the largest units in the Luftwaffe, and they were equipped with the He 111 from the beginning of the war to the end. Their crews flew thousands of sorties, from Poland and France to Britain, the Soviet Union and the Mediterranean, and their losses, above all in the Battle of Britain and at Stalingrad, were among the highest in the Luftwaffe.

Spain, China and others

The He 111 was also exported, in small numbers, to other countries. Spain built the CASA 2.111 under licence after the war, and operated it until 1956; China received a small number of He 111s before the war, and used them against Japan; and Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary received He 111s and used them on the Eastern Front. The Spanish CASA 2.111 is the He 111’s most important export: it kept the aircraft flying for a decade after the war, and it became famous in films, where it stood in for the He 111 in the Battle of Britain and in other films about the war.

9. Legacy and Influence

The symbol of the Blitz

The He 111’s most important legacy is the Blitz. It was the aircraft that bombed London, and it is remembered in Britain as the symbol of the bombing war, just as the Stuka is remembered as the symbol of the Blitzkrieg. The He 111’s glazed nose, its twin engines and its bomb load are the image of the German bomber in the British memory, and the aircraft appears in countless books, films and documentaries about the Blitz. The He 111’s legacy is a controversial one: it was a weapon of terror bombing, and its crews bombed civilians as well as military targets, and the Blitz remains one of the most debated campaigns of the war.

The airliner that became a bomber

The He 111’s second legacy is technical: it showed that a modern airliner could be converted into a bomber, and that a civilian aircraft industry could be used to build a military air force. That lesson was learned by other countries, and it shaped the way air forces were built in the 1930s. The He 111’s long service, and its survival in Spanish production after the war, also show how durable a good design can be: the aircraft that was designed as a deception in 1934 was still flying in 1956, more than twenty years later, and it is still flying in films today.

10. Surviving Examples

Where to see one today

Several He 111s survive in museums, and the best known is a He 111H-20 at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, London, where it is displayed as an example of the bomber that carried the Blitz. A He 111P-2 is held by the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection at Gardermoen, in Norway, and several CASA 2.111s survive in museums in Spain, Germany and Britain, including one at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin. The surviving aircraft are few, compared with the 6,500 that were built, but they are enough to show visitors the glazed nose, the twin engines and the bomb bay that made the He 111 what it was.

The film star

The He 111’s survivors owe their fame, in part, to the films in which they appeared. The CASA 2.111s that were used in the film Battle of Britain (1969) became famous, and they are still remembered by audiences who saw the film. The aircraft’s appearance in films has kept its memory alive, and it has made the He 111 one of the best-known German aircraft of the war, even though only a handful survive. For most visitors, the easiest way to see a He 111 is at Hendon, where the surviving H-20 stands as a reminder of the bomber that carried the Blitz.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the Heinkel He 111?
The Heinkel He 111 was a German twin-engine medium bomber of the Second World War, the Luftwaffe’s main bomber, used in the Blitz, on the Eastern Front and as a torpedo bomber and V-1 carrier. About 6,500 were built.

Why was the He 111 designed as an airliner?
Germany was forbidden from building military aircraft by the Treaty of Versailles, so the He 111 was developed ostensibly as a fast airliner for Lufthansa, while its real purpose was as a bomber.

What was the He 111’s role in the Blitz?
The He 111 was the main bomber of the Blitz, the night bombing of London and other British cities in the winter of 1940–41, which killed more than 40,000 British civilians.

How many He 111s were built?
About 6,500 He 111s were built in Germany between 1935 and 1944, and about 200 more were built in Spain after the war as the CASA 2.111.

What was the He 111H-22?
The He 111H-22 was a version adapted to carry and launch the V-1 flying bomb from under its wing, in the last year of the war.

Where can I see a He 111 today?
A He 111H-20 is at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, London, and a He 111P-2 is at the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection at Gardermoen.

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Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Heinkel He 111” — first flight, production of about 6,500, specifications, variants and operational history.
2. Manfred Griehl, Heinkel He 111 (Airlife, 2001) — development, variants and service.
3. John Weal, Heinkel He 111 (Osprey Publishing, 2004) — the bomber in combat, from Spain to the Eastern Front.
4. Alfred Price, The Blitz (Ian Allan, 2000) — the He 111 in the night bombing of Britain.
5. Heinz J. Nowarra, Heinkel He 111: A Documentary History (Jane’s, 1980) — production and specifications.
6. The Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, “Heinkel He 111H-20” — the surviving aircraft.