WOW307 Heinkel He 111

Description

The Heinkel He 111 was designed by Siegfried and Walter Gunter in 1934 ostensibly as a civilian passenger liner, but in reality the aircraft was intended to provide the Luftwaffe with a fast medium bomber. The mainly glazed Plexiglas nose of the He 111 gave it a very distinctive and easily recognisable look, almost akin to a giant wasp or bee.

During the early stages of the war the He 111 performed well but like many German aircraft, its weak defensive armament was exploited by the RAF during the battle of Britain. Casualties amongst bomber crews were particularly high but with no suitable replacement the He 111 soldiered on until the end of the war as a strategic bomber, transport aircraft, glider tug and was even used as an experimental variant to launch the V1 flying bomb whilst airborne.

Various airforces operated the He 111 including the Spanish, Romania, Turkey and China amongst others. The last ones were retired by the Spanish in the 1970’s who made a licence built variant, with some of these featuring in the 1969 film ‘The Battle of Britain’ directed by Guy Hamilton.

The He 111 was over 59ft in length with a wingspan of 74ft, this makes for a very impressive looking model in 1/30 scale as the attached photos will testify. Armament consisted of 7 x 7.92mm machine guns with a 2000 Kilo bomb load carried internally, further ordnance could be carried externally.

Our latest version comes in the markings of 1H JA flown by KG 26, a unique looking bird with 2 sets of German crosses on the upper wings flown ostensibly to avoid friendly fire. However this made the aircraft somewhat easier to spot by the enemy, namely the RAF which was rather unfortunate for her and her crew.
Intercepted by Spitfires, 1H JA has the honour of the first German aircraft during WW2 to be shot down over the UK, whilst carrying out a reconnaissance mission in October 1939. Two of her crew were killed during the attack with the other two surviving members badly wounded, the pilot managed to crash land the aircraft relatively intact just outside Edinburgh.