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Re: Chris Goss's Do.17 picture book
Chris
In such cases it is hard to find any evidence. A very nice comparison may be to M-15 Belphegor, a jet crop duster. While it was officialy designed for agricultural work and you will find no document stating otherwise, everyone involved in the project knew it was a combat aircraft. At the time, WaPac was very impressed by US use of chemical weapons against Viet-Cong and started very own programme. Of course, commies could not admit, they were developing weapon system of mass destruction, hence crop duster legend.
To be frank, however, it was a very common excuse used by everyone.
Regarding Do 17, I understand similar excuse was used in case of Ju 86 and He 111. Perhaps presence of seats had more to a bomber-transport concept of the period (eg. Stirling), rather than any civilian use?
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