Colour footage of rear flamethrower on He111

[Phil Lloyd]

I stumbled across a piece footage of an He111 testing a rear facing flame thrower unit in Germany in the fall of 1939/40 and have attached stills as thought it maybe of interest.

I wonder if this could be a similar arrangement as that used on the 8/KG76 Dornier 17Z (F1+FS) of Rolf Heitsch which was shot down on 15th September 1940?

[Larry deZeng]

Not an assisted take-off device under development, but rather a flamethrower to allow a modified bomber to fly 2 meters off the ground and ignite wheat fields, or melt ice on frozen runways, or toast enemy columns moving along roads, etc.?

Hmmm.................somehow I missed this one, but I do have an open mind. Let's hear more - with generally accepted sourcing this time, please.

L.

[harrison987]

Cannot be a rocket to aid in take-off as it is pointing upwards...



In late 1939,a proposal was made by a technical officer of KG51 to fend off attacking fighters from the tail of the bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, by installing a flame thrower.

The flame and smoke would effectively blind the pursuers by throwing smoke, dirt, grime, oil, etc. onto the windscreens.

In February 1940, experiments were done with He 111 and Ju 88 at the Tarnewitz test site.

It was used by KG51 at the start of the Russian campaign, but it was not successful.

There are known photos of the Ju88 set-up...

[ouidjat]

Read LWiF N°19, 2012, starting page 20 for full I./KG 51, Ju 88 story.
I think the third photo posted by Phil isn't a He 111.... I said "I think", doesn't mean it's not.

[Pilot]

Larry deZeng- two pipes upward can be hardly used to the anything bellow aircrafts See first image please...

[Clint Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Pilot

Larry deZeng- two pipes upward can be hardly used to the anything bellow aircrafts See first image please...

They flew the Heinkels upside down... I think Larry's suggestion was meant as a facetious remark.

[Larry deZeng]

They flew the Heinkels upside down... I think Larry's suggestion was meant as a facetious remark.

Only partly! I'm a dumb-dumb when it comes to mechanical things and because of that I failed to notice the direction the pipes were pointed in. I never heard of that experimentation, which seems kind of far-fetched, but you have convinced me that it was for real. I think those pilots and their bosses were grasping at straws!

Thanks for the clarification - we are never too old to learn something new.

L.

[Pilot]

dumb-dumb

Ooooo not- I read with great attention your post, you are very informed Topic like this are very interesting, open some interesting area. What have to be inside head to invent something like this?

[Snautzer]

There are pictures with this device working. The ground thougt is not that bad considering how close the attacker needed to get

[Boomerang]

Perhaps an inspiration for James Bond's Aston Martin in Goldfinger?