The Early Backbone Of The Luftwaffe: Heinkel He 111

In this video, we talk about the Heinkel He 111, a pre-World War II German bomber designed initially in an effort to skirt the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. We first talk about the treaty, why it came about, and how it went about restricting Germany and the German military. We then talk about a predecessor to the He 111, the He 70, a monoplane civilian plane designed to break records. We then talk about how the He 70 transitioned over to the He 111 and how the He 111 project was disguised as a civilian airliner project.

We then talk about the solid performance of the He 111 in the Spanish Civil War, the Invasion of Poland, and the Invasion of France. We then look at its worse performance in the Battle of Britain, why it performed worse, and how its many variants attempted to improve the design. We talk about the slow decline of the He 111 through the war, before production was cancelled in late 1944. We end by looking at two interesting He 111 variants: the He 111Z "Zwilling" and the He 111H-22, a V1 rocket carrier.