Hitler's Forgotten Secret Weapon
by
Leonard James
Published by Bretwalda Books at Kindle
Website : Facebook : Twitter
Copyright © Bretwalda Books 2011
Website : Facebook : Twitter
This book is available in print from www.amazon.co.uk
ISBN 978-1-907791-16-1
Contents
Introduction
Rumours of a Super Fighter
War in the Air
Dowding’s Nightmare
The Super Fighter goes to War
Eagle Day
Truth will Out
The Men
The Aircraft
Introduction
Historians tend to look back on the past with the benefit of hindsight. Things have a habit of seeming
inevitable just because that is how things happened. Knowledge we have now can seem to be
commonplace and obvious: RAF Fighter Command won the Battle of Britain; the Spitfire was a
superlative fighter aircraft; the Germans did not invade Britain.
But for the people who lived through the past, things were very different. They did not know what the
future held and they did not know what we know now. The people of Britain in the summer of 1940
did not know that they were going to defeat Germany. Every other country that had dared to stand up
to German dictator Adolf Hitler had been crushed in a matter of weeks. The Aryan “Master Race” was
starting to look like a reality. Hitler’s boastful gloating over his “secret weapons” that had seemed
bombastic in 1938 now seemed to be fully justified as new models of panzers swept across France,
new types of mines sank merchant shipping by the dozen and new types of bomber pounded cities to
destruction.
It was into this maelstrom of carnage, destruction, secrecy and terror that the Heinkel He113 “Super
Verfolgungsjaegar” (Super Air Pursuit Fighter) flew in the spring of 1940. Faster than the Spitfire,
more agile than the Hurricane and more heavily armed than the Messerschmitt Bf109, the He113 was
a “Super Fighter” indeed. It had the ability to dominate the skies. Hermann Goering, chief of the
Luftwaffe, was quoted as saying that “The Spitfire is now just a pile of scrap metal.”
And yet today almost nobody has heard of this wonder. The Heinkel He113 Super Fighter has become
Hitler’s forgotten secret weapon.
Chapter 1
Rumours of a Super Fighter
At 9am on 14 July 1936 a black car pulled up at the gates to Bentley Priory, a Georgian mansion built
in the Italianate style that had been a girl’s boarding school until bought by the RAF. In the car was
Air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding. He had just been put in charge of the newly formed RAF Fighter
Command and given Bentley Priory as his headquarters. Dowding was shown around the rambling
house and chose his office. None of his staff had yet arrived, but the paperwork had.
Dowding’s prime task as head of Fighter Command was to defend the air space over Britain in the
event of war with a foreign power. By 1936 it was becoming clear that if war came, then Germany was
going to be the enemy. If Dowding was to turn Fighter Command into a war-winning organisation then
he needed to know everything that he possibly could about the prospective enemy. Unfortunately, as
Dowding took his seat in Bentley Priory, that wasn’t very much.
The Treaty of Versailles that ended the First World War had forbidden Germany to have an air force
at all. Intelligence had reported that since coming to power in 1933 the Nazis had begun secretly
forming an air force, the Luftwaffe. The key figure in the formation of the Luftwaffe was Herman
Goering. Goering had served with distinction in the German air force during the First World War and
then become a leading member of the Nazi Party. His prestige was instrumental in persuading Adolf
Hitler to divert resources from his beloved army to the newly constituted Luftwaffe. Goering
generally preferred to leave the hard work to others, but he had a real talent for spotting the right men
for jobs and had a sound grasp of air power that enabled him to set the overall direction and pattern for
the Luftwaffe.
The formation of the Luftwaffe was, of course, carried out in absolute secrecy. It was a flagrant breach
of the Treaty of Versailles and Hitler worried about how other countries would react — but the
Luftwaffe, could not be kept secret for ever. In 1935, the new propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels,
came up with a plan. The Luftwaffe would be announced to the world, but in the guise of a purely
defensive force. It would be portrayed as a force dedicated to the defence of German air space against
invaders. To this end, the announcement in the summer of 1935 that the Luftwaffe existed did not
mention bombers, but concentrated on the new fighter the Heinkel He51.
Thus when Dowding sat at his desk in Bentley Priory, one of the first documents he read was the
assessment from British intelligence of the He51. It did not worry him unduly.
The Heinkel He51 was a conventional biplane fighter of a type to be found in all air forces around the
world. The frame was constructed of metal while the skin was of stretched fabric. The wings had two
aluminium spars, while the fuselage was built around four steel tubes shaped into a rounded form by
aluminium and wood spacers. The engine cowling was made of aluminium sheeting and could be
easily removed to allow for engine maintenance. The best feature of the aircraft was the BMW VI
engine, a V12 liquid-cooled powerplant that remained the main German air engine until 1938.
The performance of the He51 was average for the early 1930s. Nor was the weaponry outstanding,
being composed of twin 7.92mm machine guns firing through the nose, and later models were adapted
to be able to carry six 22lb bombs in racks below the wings.
Dowding knew that his RAF Fighter Command aircraft easily had the measure of the He51. The
Hawker Fury biplane, which the RAF had in large numbers when the He51 was announced, had a top
speed of 223mph, a ceiling of 29,000 feet and a range of 270 miles. Just entering service was the
Gloster Gauntlet with a top speed of 230mph, a ceiling of 33,500 feet and a range of 460 miles. Its
armament, however, was almost identical to that of the He51 being two 0.303in machine guns
mounted in the nose. Another Gloster biplane, the Gladiator, was due to enter service in large numbers
in 1937 and was even faster.
Moreover, Dowding knew that the RAF had on order three aircraft from a new generation of
monoplane fighters that were expected to be the most advanced in the world. The first of these was the
Boulton Paul Defiant. The performance of the Defiant was not massively better than that of the
biplanes it replaced, but it packed a punch in the form of a gun turret mounted behind the pilot. The
gunner could turn his turret to face any direction and pour a devastating fire from four 0.303in
machine guns into enemy bombers. The Defiant was due to enter service in late 1939.
More impressive was the Hawker Hurricane equipped with no less than eight 0.303in machine guns
that were mounted in the wings to fire forward. The aircraft was surprisingly nimble given its high
speed and yet proved to be a stable platform when the eight machine guns were fired.
The Hurricane was due to start arriving with the RAF in December 1937, and the first order was for
600 aircraft, soon to be massively increased as the prospect of war approached. The swift delivery and
large numbers were made possible by the fact that although the Hurricane was of revolutionary design,
its construction was traditional. Much of the fuselage was covered in stretched fabric and the internal
engineering was straightforward.
Rather different was the Supermarine Spitfire. Like the Hurricane, the Spitfire had eight machine guns
mounted in the wings and was a low-wing monoplane — but there the similarities ended. The Spitfire
was a highly sophisticated aircraft with an all metal cantilevered frame and pre-stressed metal skin.
The internal mechanics were likewise of latest design to enable them to be squeezed into the highly
aerodynamic shape and thin, elliptical wings that were to make this such a distinctive aircraft.
The advanced nature of the Spitfire’s design and construction meant that it was more expensive to
both build and maintain than was the Hurricane, and that manufacturing was a more prolonged
business. As a result the RAF ordered only 310 Spitfires for delivery June 1938, though again larger
orders were soon made .
Dowding was understandably concerned that Germany was likewise developing more modern and
sophisticated types of fighter. They certainly had the technical know how to produce aircraft that
might prove to be every bit as good as the three British fighters.
In 1934 the Messerschmitt company of Bavaria had produced the Messerschmitt Bf108 “Taifun”
(Typhoon). This was a light transport aircraft that could carry either three passengers or up to half a
ton of freight. Most of its sales were to businessmen and rich individuals who used it as a touring
aircraft by removing two of the seats and using the space created to carry luggage. The top speed of
190mph and ceiling of 20,000 feet were not terribly impressive, but the design was. The Bf108 was a
low wing monoplane with an all metal construction and an air-cooled inverted V8 engine. The design
and construction techniques could be easily adapted to produce a fighter.
On 1 August 1936, just days after becoming head of Fighter Command, Dowding received an urgent
telephone call from the British Embassy in Germany. The excited diplomat on other end of the line
explained that the opening ceremony of the Games in Berlin had featured a spectacular flypast by a
new type of German fighter aircraft. It had been fast, agile and had displayed a phenomenal rate of
climb. It was billed as the new Messerschmitt Bf109. Dowding set his intelligence officers to produce
a report on the new aircraft.
When the report arrived a few days later, Dowding was not so alarmed as he had been at first. The
Bf109 had a top speed of 292mph, a ceiling of 27,500 feet and a range of 405 miles. What really set
Dowding’s mind at rest, however, was the armament. The Bf109 had only two 7.9mm machine guns
mounted in the nose. As a vehicle to attack incoming bombers, the Bf109 was good enough, but when
faced by the Hurricane or Spitfire it would be outclassed. Even so, it was a sign of things to come.
It was to be a busy month for those in Fighter Command watching German aircraft designs. In August
1936 the He51 went into combat for the first time. Several of these fighters had been sent by Hitler to
take part in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco.
The biplane quickly achieved air superiority as it shot down opponents with ease. That prompted
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to send some Polikarpov I15 biplane fighters to aid the Republican side. In
response Hitler sent a few Messerschmitt Bf109 fighters, which then turned the tables once again. The
triumph of the Bf109, however, was not complete. The fighter may have been better than anything else
in Spain, but its armament of twin machine guns was too light to be truly effective. Many Republican
pilots came safely home despite a close encounter with a Bf109.
Also fighting in Spain with German pilots was another modern fighter, the Heinkel He112. This agile
fighter was very slightly faster than the Bf109, but had a slightly lower ceiling. The armament was the
same for both.
Although neither Dowding nor any one else outside the higher echelons of the German air industry
knew it at the time, the reason the Bf109 and not the He112 won the contract to supply the Luftwaffe
was the Spitfire. As the officials of the German air ministry — the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM)
— were putting the He112 and Bf109 through their paces the prototype He112 crashed. Heinkel said it
would be several weeks before a new prototype was ready. Meanwhile, German intelligence reported
to the RLM that the RAF had placed orders for 300 Spitfires. Goering and his head of aircraft
development Ernst Udet held a hurried conference. They decided that they could not wait for Heinkel
to produce another prototype. Since the Bf109 had been marginally ahead in most of the tests, the
RLM gave the contract to Messerschmitt.
The Luftwaffe bought a dozen or so of the He112 to use as testbeds for experimental radio equipment,
engine variants, weapons systems and the like. In 1937 Heinkel was given permission by Ernst Udet to
sell the He112 on the international arms market. It was typical of Udet’s rather informal way of doing
business that he popped down to the Heinkel factory for the day to give Heinkel the news himself
rather than send a formal ministry letter. According to Heinkel, Udet told him “Flog your crate off on
the Turks or the Japs or the Rumanians. They'll lap it up.”
With his usual flair for publicity, Heinkel arranged for the He112 to be the surprise guest star at a
number of air shows all over Europe, then invited well known fighter pilots from a number of
different countries to come to Rostock to try the machine for themselves. The effort paid off
handsomely. The Japanese placed an order for 72 fighters, followed by Austria which wanted 42, the
Spanish who bought 18, the Yugoslavs who ordered 30 and the Hungarians who ordered 36 and began
talks on a deal to allow them to manufacture more He112 fighters in Hungarian factories under
licence. The final foreign country to order the He112 was Romania, which bought 30. In the event not
all these orders would be fulfilled as they were incomplete when the war broke out.
The sales drive had given Germany’s potential enemies the opportunity to study the He112. The
reports that came back to Dowding at Bentley Priory confirmed him in his views of German fighter
design. The Germans were producing aircraft that were good, but not that good. The He112 was fast,
nimble and had a good ceiling, but it was not as fast as the Hurricane or the Spitfire that would soon
be serving with the RAF. Crucially they were comparatively poorly armed. While both the Spitfire and
Hurricane had eight machine guns, the He112 had only two.
Meanwhile, rumours had been circulating in aircraft circles that the Heinkel company was working on
something very special. The Heinkel works at Rostock where new designs were produced and
prototypes tried out were famously secretive and well guarded. The owner, Ernst Heinkel, had been
one of Germany’s foremost aircraft designers since 1914. He had gained a reputation for keeping his
designs under wraps until the last minute. Even major potential customers such as Udet’s RLM had no
idea what Heinkel was up to until he presented them with a prototype.
In 1931 Heinkel had hired two young and highly talented aircraft designers: the twins Walter and
Siegfried Gunter. The Gunters had then disappeared into the Heinkel design shop to work amid
conditions of almost pathological secrecy. By late 1937, it was rumoured that they were working on
something top secret. The news that something was going on seems to have leaked out of the RLM
where officials were reported by various agents and air news reporters to be referring to a “Projekt
1035” that was said to be concerned with high speed.
At this time Heinkel’s company was undergoing a massive expansion programme as the company
geared up for the mass production of the aircraft types that it had sold successfully to the Luftwaffe.
These included not only the bomber He111, but also the twin-engined seaplane the He115. There was
also the long range bomber, the He177 Grief (Griffin) which was just starting to be designed at this
date.
One of the men who picked up the rumours of something happening at the Heinkel works was Major
Arthur W. Vanaman, the Assistant Air Attache at the US Embassy in Berlin. Vanaman’s duties
included building relationships with both German aircraft manufacturers and potential buyers of US
aircraft. While he was no spy, he was expected to keep a note of all he saw and to pay particular
interest to any military gossip, information or aircraft that came his way. The German government
was, of course, fully aware of Vanaman’s duties so they kept a close eye on him while allowing him to
go about freely. After all, at this date, the USA was not considered to be a potential enemy of
Germany but to be a future neutral nation that it would pay to remain on good terms with. The
Germans talked more freely in front of Vanaman than they did in front of French, British, Polish or
Czech diplomats.
Vanaman’s reports back to Washington first mention something special in the military department at
the Heinkel works in the spring of 1938. He had heard of a project called the He100 that included a
revolutionary evaporative cooling system for the engine. He asked Heinkel if he could go to the
Rostock factory for a visit, but was told he could not and was invited to the Oranienburg factory
instead — where the Heinkel 111 bomber was being produced. Vanaman was not particularly
surprised by the rebuff, after all Ernst Heinkel was notoriously secretive, but it did increase his
suspicions that something new was being developed at Rostock.
With his background in air engineering, Vanaman thought he knew what the new style cooling system
was. The American aircraft manufacturer Curtiss had tried to make a new form of engine cooling
work, but had failed to produce a practical device and had given up. Up to this date, all air engines
were either air-cooled or water-cooled. In an air-cooled engine the engine was equipped with large
flanges that were exposed to the air stream. The heat from the engine was dissipated through the
flanges into the air. Large engines produced too much heat for this system to work and instead had
water tubes running through and over the engine. The water was pumped away to a radiator that was
placed in the air stream and so got rid of the heat — the same system is used in modern cars. Both
systems meant that considerable air drag was set up by the flanges or radiator, thus slowing the
aircraft.
The evaporative system did not produce drag, and so would lead to a higher air speed. As the hot water
was pumped away from the engine block a small proportion of it was diverted into a large chamber
where it was allowed to expand into steam. The steam chamber was then cooled, making the steam
condense back into water to be pumped back to the engine block. In an aircraft the condensing
chamber would be a wide, flat panel set into the fuselage or wing where the slipstream would cool it
effectively. The rapid expansion into steam, followed by condensation was a very effective cooling
system, but it called for the water to be pumped around the system under high pressure and for the
condensing chamber to be under low pressure. It was this that had defeated Curtiss, but which Heinkel
was said to have solved.
Vanaman was convinced that if Heinkel had solved the engineering problems of evaporative cooling
he could, and almost certainly was, using it to produce a high speed fighter. Vanaman reported his
conclusions back to Washington, but still lacked any firm evidence.
One of the reasons that Hitler had been elected to office was his ambition to annex to Germany all
areas where the majority of the population was German-speaking. “Ein Volk, Ein Reich” (One People,
One Country) was the slogan on the lips of the German government. German-speaking Austria had
already been swallowed. In March 1938 the German armed forces had rolled over the Austrian border
unopposed and a plebiscite held on 10 April produced a massive majority of Austrians voting to join
Germany.
That left the German-speaking Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia and the Danzig Corridor in
western Poland. Neither Czechoslovakia nor Poland would want to hand over their lands to Germany,
but neither were they militarily strong enough to stand up to Germany alone. Hitler knew that both
states were in talks with Britain and France to try to secure alliances against Germany. In the event
France, but not Britain, signed an alliance with the eastern states.
It thus became imperative to Hitler to convince France that the costs of war with Germany would be
prohibitive. Josef Goebbels and his propaganda machine was put into action. Thus it was that the old
German air ace from the First World War, Ernst Udet, extended an invitation to an old French air ace
to visit him in Berlin. The French air ace in question was Joseph Vuillemin, by this date the Chief of
Staff of the French Air Force. Udet was known for his energetic social life, and Goering for his
boisterous sense of humour. Both men turned on the charm for Vuillemin.
Having been wined and dined, Vuillemin was taken on a tour of air-related sites. These included
Luftwaffe bases, at one of which the entire German fleet of bombers was parked about as if they were
usually based there. Next day Vuillemin was taken to a different base where all the same bombers
were again on display, but as if they belonged to units based at this different airfield. Goering jovially
announced that these were the two biggest bomber bases and asked if Vuillemin wanted to see some of
the smaller ones. Vuillemin declined.
Then it was off to the Messerschmitt works in Bavaria for more fine dining, and a tour of the factory.
Vuillemin was allowed to view a Messerschmitt BF109 at close quarters, even getting into the cockpit
and being allowed to poke about as much as he liked. The fighter, Vuillemin noted, seemed to be
identical to those that had fought in the Spanish Civil War having two machine guns.
Finally, there was a visit to Rostock and the Heinkel factory. Vuillemin was escorted around by Ernst
Heinkel and Ernst Udet. Again he was allowed to inspect one of the German fighters, this time the
He112 that was being sold on the export market. As the tour was coming to an end, the party happened
to stroll past a Fieseler Fi156 Storch, a light transport aircraft able to carry four passengers. Udet
casually suggested that he take Vuillemin up to have a look at the Heinkel works from the air, and take
in the historic town of Rostock as well. Vuillemin agreed.
The pleasure flight passed off happily enough until Udet was coming in to land back at the Heinkel
works. From out of nowhere a sleek fighter painted in Luftwaffe squadron markings roared down as if
attacking the Storch. It swooped past at incredible speed, passing less than 30 feet from the cockpit of
the Storch. Vuillemin leapt out of his skin, but Udet managed to keep the Storch under control. He put
the transport down, helping the badly shaken Vuillemin down to the ground as the fighter came in to
land. Vuillemin watched the fighter, realising that it was a totally new type of aircraft that he had
never seen before. It was not a Bf109, nor was it a He112. Ernst Heinkel and members of his team
came bustling up and hurriedly led Vuillemin away from the runway and out of sight of the fighter.
Vuillemin got the impression that he had not been meant to see it.
Back in Berlin, one of Vuillemin’s party walked into a room where Udet was having a conversation
with Erhard Milch, then Goering’s deputy at the Luftwaffe. The two men had their backs to the door
and did not seem to have heard the Frenchman enter.
“What did old man Heinkel say about the production of those new fighters?” asked Milch.
“Not bad,” replied Udet. “The second production line is almost ready to start, but the third production
line will not be ready for a few weeks yet.” At that point the two Germans noticed the Frenchman and
hurriedly changed the subject.
Vuillemin went back to Paris a thoroughly depressed man. He sat down and wrote a report about his
visit concluding that the Luftwaffe had a massive bomber force and that a new, superlative fighter was
in production at Heinkel that was much better than the Messerschmitt Bf109. He concluded that if it
came to a straight war between France and Germany, the French Air Force would not last 14 days.
More likely it would be wiped out in 10 days.
Vuillemin’s report had the results that Hitler had intended. When in September, Hitler demanded that
Czechoslovakia hand over the Sudetenland, the Czechs turned to their ally France. But France called
in Britain and Italy for talks with Hitler in Munich. The result was that the four big powers ordered
Czechoslovakia to hand over the Sudetenland at once. Hitler had got what he wanted by frightening
France out of a war. Poland would be next.
However, the Vuillemin tour had an unforseen result. The French government now believed that they
could not defeat Germany alone, but needed allies. The British government of Neville Chamberlain
concluded from the events of 1938 that Hitler had to be stopped, and that only force would do so. They
quickly joined France in an alliance with Poland. If Germany attacked Poland to annex the Germanspeaking areas, Britain and France warned Hitler, it would mean war. Hitler did not believe them. The
conclusions he drew from 1938 were that France would not fight at all and Britain would not fight
alone.
The French reports about Vuillemin’s visit were passed on to Dowding and RAF Fighter Command.
Details were lacking, but what there was confirmed what Dowding already knew. The close view of
the Bf109 and He112 gained by Vuillemin confirmed to Dowding that the aircraft being flown by the
Luftwaffe were slower and less well armed than the Spitfire and Hurricane that by this date were
starting to enter service with the RAF.
The new Heinkel fighter was another problem entirely. If Vuillemin were to be believed, the new
fighter was very fast indeed. Vanaman’s reports about a new cooling system reinforced the view that
Heinkel was going for speed in his design. There was no news from either Vuillemin or Vanaman
about the armament of the new fighter. However, if speed was a paramount feature, as it seemed to be,
then it was unlikely that Heinkel would encumber his fighter with extra weaponry. It seemed that the
Germans were content with two machine guns on the Bf109 and on the He112. The new fighter would
probably be no different.
On 16 September 1938, Vanaman took up his invitation to visit the Heinkel factory at Oranienburg.
The visit went well and conversations covered the sort of topics to be expected when technicallyminded airmen got together. At one point, as the tour group was strolling across the tarmac, Vanaman
spotted a small aircraft behind a building. He tried to avoid paying too much obvious attention to it,
while at the same time finding an excuse to stop the walk so that he could snatch surreptitious glances
at the aircraft.
As soon as Vanaman got back to his office, he sat down to sketch the aircraft and write a hurried
report. Although the aircraft had not been in Luftwaffe markings, Vanaman concluded that it was a
fighter. Its overall size and shape would not allow it to be anything else. There were two features that
stood out. First the aircraft did not have the elliptical wings of the He112 and was therefore a new
type. Second there were no air intakes for the radiators — so Heinkel must have produced a working
evaporative cooling system. Vanaman concluded that the elusive Projekt 1035 and He100 were one
and the same: Heinkel was producing a new, very fast fighter to take over from the Bf109 at some
unknown date in the future.
Later Vanaman heard from a source he does not name in the report he hurriedly submitted that
Heinkel was proving to be a pest to Udet’s RLM. Heinkel had produced about a hundred airframes for
a new type of aircraft and was making all sorts of unreasonable demands of the RLM. He wanted a
series of new engines produced with all sorts of odd modifications for him to test in the new aircraft.
And he wanted the loan of Luftwaffe pilots to do the testing, and he wanted high tech equipment, the
details of which changed almost daily.
Vanaman rushed off a second report. He concluded that Heinkel was in the final stages of producing a
fighter that was at the very cutting edge of German air technology. If the RLM had paid for about a
hundred pre-production variants, as it apparently had, and was funding Heinkel’s demands then it was
almost certain that the Luftwaffe was not only very impressed by Heinkel’s work but had decided to
buy the new fighter in large numbers. Vanaman thought a final version might be ready for rigorous
testing by the spring of 1939.
Dowding soon got to see Vanaman’s work and added it to his own growing files on the new fighter.
Then, in April 1939, came a fresh burst of information about the mysterious new aircraft being
produced by Heinkel. The German government announced that a new Heinkel sports aircraft had
broken the world speed record. Observers from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI)
confirmed the fact and produced both data and photos from the flight which had taken place at the
Heinkel works at Oranienburg on 30 March. The aircraft had averaged 746.606kph (463.64 mph) over
four measured runs. Heinkel announced that the record breaking aircraft was a specially adapted
version of the He112 fighter. He called it the He112U.
Dowding’s intelligence team quickly snapped up copies of the photos released by the FAI, but they did
not learn much. The photos of the aircraft in flight showed a small object going very fast and were
blurred. The photos of the aircraft on the ground all showed the pilot, Hans Dieterle, and the team
from Heinkel standing in front of the aircraft in such a way as to block all details of the wings and tail.
A week or so later Goebbel’s propaganda ministry released a news movie about the flight. It did not
take Dowding’s team long to spot something odd about the movie. The aircraft shown in the movie
was not the same as that in the FAI photos. The FAI photos showed an aircraft that was of unpainted,
polished metal with putty used to fill in gaps between metal plates and smooth over rivet heads and
other bulges — all well known techniques to reduce air resistance and increase speed. The aircraft in
the movie newsreels was painted with Nazi symbols and had no putty.
Clearly the German propaganda ministry was up to something, but what?
The aircraft in the movie was quite obviously not an He112. It had relatively straight wings, while
He112 had clearly bent elliptical wings. The movie aircraft had a long thin nose, the He112 had a
shorter, thicker one. Some intelligence officers suggested to Dowding that the aircraft in the movie
was the new and mysterious Heinkel fighter. Perhaps Goebbels was trying to fool potential enemies
into thinking that the new fighter was faster than it really was by pretending that it had broken the
world speed record. On the other hand, the new fighter was supposedly a closely guarded secret, so
why would the Germans parade it around on a newsreel movie? Perhaps the aircraft in the RAI photos
was the real mystery fighter that had really broken the world speed record, while the aircraft in the
movie was some completely different aircraft put forward so that the world would not know what the
real fighter actually looked like.
It was a puzzle that Dowding could not solve.
Chapter 2
War in the Air
In March 1939 Czechoslovakia was dismembered. The Sudetenland had already been taken by
Germany the previous autumn. Now the Slovak-speaking half of the country declared itself to be
independent, while German troops marched into the Czech half to establish what they termed the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, but was in reality little more than a slave province for
Germany. Czech farmers were thrown off their land to make way for German farmers, Czech
government officials were sacked and all aspects of government taken over by Germans. Thousands of
people deemed by the Gestapo to be troublemakers were rounded up and thrown into prison camps.
In April 1939 Hitler announced that the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934 was no longer in
force. At the same time he opened talks with Britain, France, Italy and Russia aimed at solving what
he termed “The Polish Problem”. He stated that he wanted those parts of Poland that had been taken
from Germany at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 to be returned to Germany. However, the fate of
Czechoslovakia after the Sudetenland had been handed over did not bode well for those parts of
Poland left over. Poland refused to hand over the disputed areas. Britain and France backed Poland and
Mussolini’s Italy refused to take sides. The Soviet Union, however, was willing to help and secretly
agreed to support Hitler if they were allowed to annex eastern provinces of Poland.
On 1 September 1939, Hitler attacked Poland without warning, claiming that the Poles had infringed
the German border. Two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Suddenly all of
Dowding’s preparations had to be put into practice for real. It was with renewed interest that he read
the intelligence reports coming back from Poland on how the Luftwaffe was performing.
They made for grim reading.
The Poles had suspected that the German attack would come without warning and that Polish air bases
would be among the first targets to be bombed. They had therefore moved most of their aircraft off the
peacetime air bases to specially constructed temporary airfields where men and munitions were kept
in tents and sheds hidden under trees. Thus when the Luftwaffe flattened the Polish air bases on the
morning of 1 September they were bombing mostly empty buildings and hangars.
From their hidden bases the Polish pilots went up to do battle. The PZL 37 Los proved to be a fine
bomber, carrying a heavy load while being fast and nimble in combat. The fighters were less
impressive. The PZL P11 had been among the best in the world when it appeared in 1931, but was by
1939 obsolete. The PZL P24 was considerably better, but was available only in small numbers. In any
case the Polish air force was heavily outnumbered having about 400 front line aircraft to face the
1,600 fielded by the Luftwaffe over Poland. In terms of aircraft shot down, the Poles did not do badly
downing some 280 German aircraft while losing about 330 of their own. But the Germans had more to
lose.
The Polish Air Force collapsed by 14 September by which time all their temporary bases had been
overrun by the rapidly advancing German panzers and the few Polish aircraft left intact had nowhere
from which to operate. The rapid German advance was due to the new tactic of “blitzkrieg” (lightning
war). This consisted of fast-moving columns of tanks and armoured cars which smashed holes in the
enemy front line, then penetrated deeply before fanning out to attack supply lines, communication
links and reinforcements. This left the enemy front lines short on food and ammunition and cut off
from orders, making them easy for the more slowly advancing German infantry and artillery to defeat.
The role of the Luftwaffe was to co-operate closely with the army. In particular the Stuka dive
bombers were to respond to radio appeals from the fast moving panzers to attack enemy strongpoints,
artillery or tanks. On 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Poland to take the eastern provinces and
on 27 September Poland surrendered.
Large numbers of Polish pilots and crew fled via Romania to France and Britain. They were
intensively questioned about German aircraft before being formed into squadrons to serve with the
French and British air forces.
The Polish pilots reported meeting two distinct types of German fighter in combat. There was a larger,
twin-engined fighter with a crew of two which had forward-firing and rearward-firing guns: the
Messerschmitt Bf110. The second type was a single-engined type with forward firing guns: the
Messerschmitt BF109.
If Dowding could content himself that the mysterious Heinkel fighter was not yet in service, he was
shocked to read of the awesome firepower of the Messerschmitts and of the unprecedented speed of
the Bf109. The Poles were estimating speeds for the Bf109 of around 340mph, some 50mph faster
than had been reported in Spain and faster than the British Hurricane. The Bf110 was estimated to be
just as fast, but less nimble in combat.
Just as disconcerting for Dowding were the reports of battle damage inflicted by the Messerschmitts.
Unlike the aircraft attacked by Bf109s in Spain, those who met them in Poland rarely escaped once
they were in the sights of the German pilots. Even a short burst of gunfire resulted in Polish aircraft
falling apart, catching fire or exploding. Clearly the Germans had uprated the weaponry on the Bf109
and done so with spectacular results. However, the Poles never managed to shoot down a Bf109 over
Polish-held territory so nobody was able to report on what that weaponry was.
However, a Bf109 was shot down at Rimling on the Western Front by a French pilot. The German
aircraft came down relatively intact, and French intelligence experts were soon pulling it to pieces.
They found that the Bf109 now had a Daimler-Benz DB601A engine, replacing the Jumo 210D of the
models that had flown in Spain. That explained the increased speed of the fighter. The downed aircraft
retained the twin 7.9mm machine guns in the engine cowling, but now had two additional machine
guns mounted in the wings. This did not fully explain the heavy battle damage reported by the Poles.
Some experts thought that perhaps the Poles had exaggerated damage in the heat of battle, others
worried that some Bf109s had a heavier armament still.
Dowding had to face the possibility that the Germans had mastered the production and use of the
airborne cannon. The mounting of 20mm cannon in fighters had been considered by the RAF in the
mid-1930s, but had been discounted. Although firing a large shell that exploded on contact with an
enemy aircraft was clearly much more effective than machine gun bullets, there were drawbacks.
First the greatly increased weight of the cannon made the fighter slower. Second the cannon fired
more slowly than a machine gun so that a pilot had to be able to shoot much more accurately to be
sure of hitting an enemy than if using machine guns. Thirdly, firing a cannon at high muzzle-velocity
produced such recoil that the fighter firing the weapon could be pushed off course, and in the longer
run shaken to pieces. The RAF had tried reducing the muzzle velocity to cut recoil, but that only
reduced the range and accuracy of the cannon and made it effectively useless in air to air combat.
If the Germans had found a way to mount a cannon on a fighter without inhibiting the fighter’s
performance than they would be a step ahead of the Hurricane, and probably on a par with the Spitfire.
There was, as yet, no firm proof that the Germans had managed this, but it is clear from his
correspondence that Dowding was worried by the possibility.
The conquest of Poland was followed by what was to become known as the Phoney War. Neither the
British nor the French wanted to launch a land invasion head on into the heavily fortified German
border, nor were they willing to breach Belgian neutrality by going around the edge of the German
fortifications. It was widely anticipated that the Germans would break Belgian neutrality and the
Allies opened talks with the Belgian government over how to deal with that eventuality when it
occurred. Meanwhile, the Allied armies settled down to wait.
In the air, more was possible. The RAF was keen to start bombing military targets in Germany, but the
French objected. Vuillemin was convinced that the Germans had a vastly superior bomber force to that
of the Allies. He thought that any bomber attack on Germany that resulted in civilian casualties would
lead to massive reprisals on French cities by the Luftwaffe, and he felt that the French fighters would
be almost powerless to stop them. He persuaded the French government to insist that the RAF attack
only targets where civilian casualties were absolutely impossible. That ruled out any barracks or
ammunition dumps in or near towns, so the RAF was restricted to bombing enemy warships at sea.
The RAF did undertake long missions by bombers over Germany although all that was dropped were
leaflets. These missions did, however, allow the RAF to test navigation techniques and to identify
targets for future bombing attention.
At dawn on 9 April 1940 a force of Messerschmitt Bf110 fighters attacked the Danish air force on the
ground and wiped it out. A thousand German soldiers came ashore from a German freighter in
Copenhagen harbour and attacked various key targets in the city. The Royal Guard drove off the attack
on the Royal Palace, but other places were captured. At 8.30am Denmark surrendered.
On the same day, Germany invaded Norway from the sea and from the air. The Norwegian air force
consisted of 12 Gloster Gladiator fighters plus a large number of long range reconnaissance aircraft
that could also carry bombs for use against ships. Seven of the Gladiators were destroyed on the
ground, but the other five got into the air and claimed four German bombers before they themselves
were shot down by Bf109 fighters. The Norwegian government ordered the long range reconnaissance
bombers to fly to Britain, later to be followed by the Norwegian navy, merchant ships and as many
men of the army as could be got out in time. The forces left in Norway surrendered on 10 June, but
King Haakon VII refused to surrender to Germany and continued the war from Britain.
A few British Hurricanes had been used during the later stages of the fighting in Norway. The combat
reports sent back to Dowding indicated that the Hurricanes had performed well against the Bf110 twin
engined fighters, but less well against the Bf109. From what his pilots told their debriefing officers,
Dowding concluded that the heavier Bf110 fighters were definitely equipped with cannon. Whether or
not the Bf109 also had cannon was more of an open question, but the evidence was beginning to
indicate that they did.
Dowding was just beginning to digest this news and assess what it meant for his fighters when
shocking news arrived. The German air magazine, Der Adler (The Eagle) had published a special
edition on the Norwegian campaign. On the front cover was a dramatic artwork described as showing
“An Air Battle over Norway”. The British bomber being shot down was easily recognisable as a
Handley Page Hampden. The German fighter was described as being the new Heinkel He113 Super
Jaegar (Super Fighter).
The Germans were fielding a new model of fighter that surpassed the existing fighters in every
respect. Dowding’s nightmare had come true.
Chapter 3
Dowding’s Nightmare
The intelligence that had been coming out of Germany meant that the Der Adler article did not come
as a huge shock, though some of its contents did. The article inside the magazine was entitled
“Heinkel Fighters on Watch in the North” and was lavishly illustrated with photos of the Super Fighter
in flight and on the ground. Most of the text and captions was the sort of gushingly enthusiastic
propaganda that might be expected. “No sooner are the Super Fighters in the air than they are ready to
confront any intruders,” ran one typical caption.
There were, however, two facts that were of great interest to the RAF intelligence officers. The text
stated that the new fighter “held the absolute air speed record for Germany one year ago.” It had been
in April 1939 that the world speed record had been broken by what was then described as a “sports
aircraft” made by Heinkel. Quickly comparing the new He113 Super Fighter with the pictures of the
supposed sports aircraft showed that the two were remarkably similar — almost identical in fact.
Of course, nobody believed that the He113 Super Fighter had itself taken the world speed record. The
record-breaking aircraft would have been stripped of weapons, armour and all surplus weight.
Nevertheless, the new fighter was obviously designed for high speed.
Just as disconcerting for the RAF was a photo that showed the He113 head on while parked on the
ground. The caption read “This is the portrait of the He113 which is seen by those pilots whose routes
take them in the path of the German Luftwaffe.” The view showed the apertures for three weapons: a
cannon in the nose and two heavy machine guns in the wings. It was a formidable array of weaponry
that easily outclassed the eight light machine guns carried by the Spitfire and Hurricane. Dowding and
his team had a lot to think about.
One photo showed a mechanic working on the engine of the aircraft. Just enough detail was visible to
reveal that the He113 was powered by the Damler-Benz DB601 aircraft engine. This was a liquidcooled, inverted V12, 33.9 litre, fuel-injected piston engine. It could deliver 1050hp for long periods,
with a peak output of 1,159hp for short periods. This was not a new engine for although it had entered
service only in 1935, it was based on the DB600 which was some years older. It was generally
considered to be a good, efficient and reliable engine, but nothing particularly remarkable.
In the weeks that followed, Der Adler printed other stories about the He113 Super Fighter, as did other
newspapers and magazines. The stories were picked up by the press in neutral countries, who were
helpfully supplied with photos of the aircraft by the Germans. Very soon a night fighter version was
announced. Photos that were reproduced were shown with the markings of at least 10 different
Luftwaffe squadrons — the nightfighters had a crescent moon logo on the engine cowling. Another
squadron had a marking that showed a dagger thrust through an admiral’s cocked hat. Presumably it
was a naval version or a version specialised for maritime work in some way.
All the prewar reports of Heinkel working on a top secret, highly effective fighter aircraft to replace
the Messerschmitt Bf109 had been vindicated. Dowding ordered his intelligence men to prepare an
immediate assessment of the He113 Super Jaegar based on what the Germans had announced
themselves and what could be gleaned from prewar reports.
The intelligence analysis landed on Dowding’s desk on 20 May 1940. The speed with which the report
was compiled shows the seriousness with which Dowding and the RAF treated the subject. . The report
was classified as being Top Secret and was guardedly marked on the inside cover as being “based on
information received to date”. The report was circulated to all the senior officers in RAF Fighter
Command, each of whom signed the front cover to show that they had seen it, wrote comments where
they felt necessary and then passed it on. The annotated copy came back to Dowding on 30 May.
The report emphasised that so far little was known for certain about the He113, but went on to give the
up to date information about the aircraft so far as it was known.
First, the He113 was very fast. It was estimated to have a top speed of 390mph, faster than the
Spitfire’s 355mph. Rate of climb was thought to be 2,600 feet per minute, a bit slower than the
Spitfire’s 2,857 feet per minutes. However, the fuel-injected DB601A would give the He113 an
advantage in diving over the Spitfire with its carburettered Rolls Royce Merlin engine. The armament
could be deduced from the head-on photo in Der Adler. The RAF report stated that the apertures had
been measured and found to be larger than those needed for standard Luftwaffe 7.9mm machine guns.
The report concluded that the aircraft probably had three 20mm cannon — an awesome amount of
firepower that would easily outclass anything the RAF had in service.
However, Air Vice Marshal Robert Saundby, who saw the report on behalf of RAF Bomber Command,
spotted a problem with this conclusion. The wings of the He113 were too thin to hold the ammunition
drum that fed the 20mm FF cannon that was used by the Luftwaffe. “This aircraft may carry 3
cannon,” Saundby concluded in his note, “but they are not mounted in this photograph.”
Other data could also be deduced from the Der Adler photos since they included tools and other
objects of known size. The He113 could be deduced to be 26 feet 11 inches long, have a wingspan of
30 feet 10 inches and a height when parked on the ground of 8 feet 2 inches. The wing area was
estimated to be 156 square feet. This made it rather smaller than the Spitfire or the Hurricane.
The configuration of the wings was something new. The outline of the wings was slightly swept
forward, though this impression was given more by the forward bend to the trailing edge than to the
forward edge, which actually bent back slightly. The wings were slightly gulled, meaning that they
bent upward half way along so that the tips were above the roots. Opinion was divided about the
purpose of this wing shape. It might have been designed to allow for a better airflow over the wing
from a large propeller, but on balance it was thought that it was probably an adaptation to improve
performance at high altitudes.
The retractable undercarriage folded inwards, which was unusual in German aircraft. The result of this
was two fold. First the wheels were wider apart on the ground and second the mechanics for lifting
them was located further out in the wings than in most models. It was thought that this was done to
allow more space for the guns in what looked to be rather thin wings.
Dowding’s report also included a copy of Vanaman’s report on the new fighter, though most of the
information he supplied had been incorporated into the RAF report. There were also cuttings from
magazines and newspapers published in Italy and in neutral countries such as Hungary and Romania.
The secret report attempted to analyse how many of the He113 were in operation and how quickly they
were being produced. Reports coming out of occupied Poland indicated that the PZL factory had been
taken over by the Germans for the production of a secret aircraft. If this factory was being used to
produce the He113, it was estimated, then about 30 aircraft a month could be produced without undue
problems. More could be produced if Heinkel scaled back production of his bombers and seaplanes in
his factory in Germany.
The German magazine article in Der Adler had stated that one squadron of He113 Super Fighters had
been used in Norway. The other squadrons, the article did not say how many, were reported to be
stationed along the north German coast to intercept any Allied bombers attempting to come in off the
North Sea to attack targets in Germany.
This made sense. Presumably a squadron of experienced fighter pilots had been sent to Norway to put
the new fighter through its paces in combat. Once that had been done, the fighter was being held back
to a quiet sector where the new pilots could get used to their new aircraft steadily and without undue
pressure. Just as important, so long as the He113 Super Fighter was active only over Germany there
was no chance that one would be shot down or suffer engine failure over Allied territory and therefore
be available to Allied intelligence.
Dowding and his intelligence team tried to guess the current state of the German supply of this terrible
new weapon. The He113 Super Fighter was clearly the same aircraft that had given Vuillemin such a
scare on his visit to Rostock in August 1938 and that had been glimpsed by Vanaman a few weeks
later. A tentative time line was reconstructed that had the German RLM asking German aircraft
manufacturers to design a replacement for the Bf109 as that aircraft had gone into service in 1936. It
would be reasonable for Heinkel to have produced a number of prototypes for testing by the summer
of 1938.
It was believed, therefore, that Vanaman had been correct when he reported that about 100 preproduction examples were in existence in the autumn of 1938. The conversation between Udet and
Milch about production lines that had been overheard by Vuillemin’s assistant was believed to have
referred to another aircraft, presumably the He112 which was then being sold for export. If so, then
Udet and the RLM would probably have chosen their preferred configuration of engine and weaponry
for the He113 Super Fighter in the spring of 1939. Given the time necessary to get a new production
line established, flight test the new aircraft, deliver them to the Luftwaffe and then train the pilots on
how to get the best out of the new model, it would be reasonable to expect the first squadron to enter
service about a year after the aircraft was ordered.
That would be in the spring of 1940. Right on cue, the first squadron had seen service in Norway in
April 1940. Exactly how quickly other squadrons would enter active service was open to question. It
depended on how many resources the German government was willing to devote to manufacturing the
new aircraft and how many experienced men the Luftwaffe would take out of the front line to train the
new pilots. It might take months for the new aircraft to enter service in large numbers, or several
squadrons might already be ready.
The RAF and French Air Force briefed their pilots on the new He113 Super Fighter. They were told of
its capabilities and shown photos and artworks so that they were able to recognise it when they saw it.
Then the air staffs got on with their plans for the coming campaign and waited for the He113 Super
Fighter to appear in combat.
A public announcement of the new fighter was made at the same time. It was assumed that word
would leak out from the air force personnel sooner or later, and it was better for the RAF to control the
flow of information. The information released to the public was more limited than that in Dowding’s
report, and some key facts had been changed. The top speed of the He113 was deliberately reduced
from an estimated 390mph to just 360mph so that it was close to that of the Spitfire.
Now Dowding and his pilots could do nothing except wait for the terrible new fighter to appear in
action. It was just a question of time.