[Graham Boak]

There's something a bit odd about this dive-bombing story. The He177 ended up structurally weak for the conventional role: had it been strengthened for dive bombing there should have been no problems in this respect. The time taken from initiation of design to first flight does not seem particularly protracted by the standards of the time: stopping to redesign would have extended this.

Further, the suggestion that it was the RLM that desired a traditional back-up goes against the conventional story that Heinkel tried to force this option through against RLM opposition.

Are we looking at yet another myth that has been accepted as history, or perhaps even two?