Dornier Do 17 List

Dornier Do 17Z-10 NJG prototype (P?+DH) infrared searchlight

Photo’s 01-02: This Dornier Do 17Z-10 was one of a small number of aircraft fitted with 'Spanner 1', an experimental infrared device that had been designed to help pilots see in the dark. It consisted of an infiared searchlight mounted in the nose of the aircraft and a sight mechanism that protruded through the windscreen. Once the aircraft was airborne, the device would be switched on and the searchlight emitted an infiared light. The sight was then used by the pilot to detect any reflected energy, principally from the exhausts of a bomber's engines. However, in practice, the device proved to be rather ineffective and its operational life was short. 'Spanner Ü' was different in that the searchlight was deleted and the sight had a wider acquisition angle.

  

Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 - NJG 2

Dornier Do 17Z I./NJG2 Oblt. Albert Schulz Güze-Rijen 1941

Photo’s 01-02: Oblt. Albert Schulz of I./NJG2 with other members of the Gruppe and in the cockpit of his Do 17Z at Güze-Rijen. Clearly seen on the fuselage of the aircraft is the night fighter emblem which was designed in 1940 by Viktor Molders and which subsequently adorned many of the Nachtjagd's aircraft. By the time long-range intruder missions against Britain were cancelled in October 1941, Schulz had six kills to his credit. He would increase this total to 17 by the time of his death on 31 January 1944.

Dornier Do 17Z I./NJG2 Oblt. Albert Schulz Güze-Rijen 1941

Photo’s 01-02: Oblt. Albert Schulz of I./NJG2 with other members of the Gruppe and in the cockpit of his Do 17Z at Güze-Rijen. Clearly seen on the fuselage of the aircraft is the night fighter emblem which was designed in 1940 by Viktor Molders and which subsequently adorned many of the Nachtjagd's aircraft. By the time long-range intruder missions against Britain were cancelled in October 1941, Schulz had six kills to his credit. He would increase this total to 17 by the time of his death on 31 January 1944.

Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 - Stab NJG 2

Dornier Do 215B-5 Stab II./NJG2 (R4+DC) Leeuwarden 1942

Profile 00: Dornier Do-215B-5 'R4+DC' of Stab II./NJG2, Leeuwarden, Spring 1942. The upper and lower camouflage colors on this machine were divided by an undulating demarcation line which came well down the sides of the fuselage and continued to the nose in the same plane so that much of the fiont fuselage was in the undersurface color. The camouflage was probably a locally applied scheme of 74 and 75 on the uppersurfaces while the undersurfaces were 76. The code letters were in grey 77 but with the individual aircraft letter '0' in Stab green 25 with a white outline. Note that the white areas of the fuselage Balkenkreuz have been toned down and that the swastika on the tail has therefore been shown accordingly. Leeuwarden is the capital city of the Dutch province of Friesland

Dornier Do 215B-5 II./NJG2 (R4+DC) Leeuwarden 1942 01

Photo 01: A late production Do 215B-5 night fighter showing the aerials in the nose for the FuG 202 Lichtenstein Be radar. Also visible under the forward fuselage is a weapons tray which increased the machine's total forward-firing armament to three MG 17s and three MG/FF cannon. This machine was photographed at Leeuwarden in the spring of 1942 and was operated by Stab II./NJG2.

5 Staffel II. Gruppe Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 - 5./NJG 2

Dornier Do 215 B-5 5./NJG2 (R4+SN) Leeuwarden 1941-42

Profile Source: Flugzeug Classic 2011-08

    

Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 - NJG 3

4 Staffel II./Nachtjagdgruppe 3 - 4./NJGr3

Dornier Do 217N-2 4 Staffel II./NJG 3 (D5+HM) detached to Westerland but photo taken Haguenau France 1943

Profile 00: Dornier Do 217N-2 'D5+HM' of 4./NJG3 Haguenau, France, 1943. Following the realisation that black camouflage was unsuitable for night operations, this Do 217 coded D5+HM was finished blue-grey 76 overall. Note the small Geschwader code 'D5' ahead of the Balkenkreuz which appears to be black, whereas the individual aircraft letter and Staffel letter are in Grey 75. The spinners and propeller blades were green 70 and the machine carried the 'Englandblitz' badge on the forward fuselage. Note the vertical tail units which were heavily discolored by carbon deposits from the engine exhausts.

Dornier Do-217N-2 4 Staffel II./NJG 3 (D5+HM) Haguenau France 1943

Photo 01: Another Do 217, this machine belonging to 4./NJG3. Although this Gruppe's permanent base from September 1941 to March 1944 was Schleswig, the 4. Staffel II. Gruppe was detached to Westerland for most of this time. This photograph, however, is reported to have been taken at Haguenau in France. For a night fighter, the Do 217 was a large machine with a wingspan of more than 19 metres and a length, including the FuG 202 aerial array, of 19 metres.

Dornier Do 217N-2 4 Staffel II./NJG 3 (D5+HM) detached to Westerland but photo taken Haguenau France 1943

Profile 00: Dornier Do 217N-2 'D5+SM' of 4./NJG3, Haguenau, France, 1943. Following the realisation that black camouflage was unsuitable for night operations, this Do 217 coded D5+HM was finished blue-grey 76 overall. Note the small Geschwader code 'OS' ahead of the Balkenkreuz which appears to be black, whereas the individual aircraft letter and Staffel letter are in Grey 75. The spinners and propeller blades were green 70 and the machine carried the 'Englandblitz' badge on the forward fuselage. Note the vertical tail units which were heavily discolored by carbon deposits from the engine exhausts.

Dornier Do-217N-2 4 staffel II./NJG 3 (D5+HM) Haguenau France 1943

Photo 01: An air-to-air view of a Do-217N-2 night fighter. The Do-217N-2 entered service in late 1942 with examples reaching II./NJG 3 in February 1943. This particular aircraft belonged to 5./NJG3 and, although the picture is of poor quality, the Lichtenstein aerials in the nose and the last two letters of the fuselage code, D5+SM, are clearly visible.

6 Staffel II./Nachtjagdgruppe 4 - 6./NJGr4

Dornier Do 217N-2/R22 6./NJG 4 (3C+IP) flown by Fw. Gunther Konzac, Taveaux, France, May 1944

Profile 00: Dornier Do 217N-2/R22 6./NJG 4 (3C+IP) flown by Fw. Gunther Konzac, Taveaux, France, May 1944. This aircraft, W.Nr. 1570, was finished in a splinter scheme of 74 and 75 on the uppersurfaces and while the undersurfaces were 76, the starboard wing had been overpainted black up to a point just short of the leading edge and terminated in an undulating demarcation line. Although the full operational code was 3C+IP, only the last two letters appeared on the fuselage in black with the individual aircraft letter edged in yellow. The spinners were 76 and the propeller blades green 70. Note the configuration of the tail cone.

Dornier Do 217N-2/R22 6./NJG 4 (3C+IP) Gunther Konzac WNr 1570 Basel-Birsfelden 1944 01-02

Photo’s 01-02: From August 1943 to 7 May 1944, 6./NJG4 was based at Taveaux, some 60 miles from the Swiss border in eastern France. In the early hours of 2 May, one of the Staffel's, aircraft flown by Fw. Gümher Konzac landed in error on the Swiss airfield at Basel-Birsfelden, where the aircraft and crew were interned. Fw. Konzac's aircraft was a Do-217N2/R22 with four MG 151 cannon and four 7.9 mm MG 17 machine guns mounted in the nose, plus an oblique armament of four 20 mm MG 151 cannon installed in the fuselage. The four barrels of the latter protruded from the upper f'uselage and may just be seen above the wing root in the photograph.

 

Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 - NJG 4

11 Staffel IV./Nachtjagdgruppe 4 - 11./NJGr4

Dornier Do 217N1 11./NJG4 (3C+DV) with FuG202 Lichtenstein Rheine 1942

Profiles and Photo Data: Flugzeug Classic Nov 2012

Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 - NJG 4

Nachtjagdgruppe 101 - NJGr101

Dornier Do 217 E-2 1./NJG101 (5T+EH) taking off at Magdeburg Airfield 9th sep 1943

Dornier Do 217N-2/R22 NJG101 Czechoslovakia 1945

Photo 01: This unusual configuration of six vertically mounted MG 151 cannon instaJlation was first proposed by Stabs Ingenieur Poppendiek, an engineer at the E-Stelle at Werneuchen. Here it is seen installed in a Do 217 of the night fighter training Geschwader NJG101. However, this conversion was not adopted in large numbers and night fighter pilots preferred the usual twin-cannon armament which became the standard configuration. German Pilot of a night fighter Dornier Do 217N-2-/R22 with upwards firing cannons (Schrage musik), of four guns at an upward angle of 70 degrees 20-mm MG 151 cannon. The plane in the photo belongs to NJG101.

 

 Warnemünde Germany Map

 Mosjoen harbor Norway Map

 

    Bibliography: +

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  • Ciglic, Boris and Dragan Savic. Dornier Do 17 - The Yugoslav Story: Operational Record 1937-1947. Belgrade: Jeroplan Books, 2007. ISBN 978-8-69097270-8.
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  • Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. 'Balkan Interlude - The Bulgarian Air Force in WWII'. Air Enthusiast. Issue 39, May–August 1989. Bromley, Kent: Tri-Service Press, pp. 58–74. ISSN 0143-5450.
  • Griehl, Manfred. Dornier Do 17E-Z, Do 215B; The Flying Pencil in Luftwaffe Service. World War Two Combat Aircraft Archive No. 03. Air Coc, Erlangen, Germany, 2005. ISBN 3-935687-42-7.
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  • Smith, J.R. The Do 17 and Do 215 (No. 164). London: Profile Publications, 1967.
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    Magazine References: +

  • Airfix Magazines (English) - http://www.airfix.com/
  • Avions (French) - http://www.aerostories.org/~aerobiblio/rubrique10.html
  • FlyPast (English) - http://www.flypast.com/
  • Flugzeug Publikations GmbH (German) - http://vdmedien.com/flugzeug-publikations-gmbh-hersteller_verlag-vdm-heinz-nickel-33.html
  • Flugzeug Classic (German) - http://www.flugzeugclassic.de/
  • Klassiker (German) - http://shop.flugrevue.de/abo/klassiker-der-luftfahrt
  • Luftwaffe IM Focus (German) - https://www.luftfahrtverlag-start.de/
  • Embleme der Luftwaffe Band-1 (German) - https://www.luftfahrtverlag-start.de/
  • Le Fana de L'Aviation (French) - http://boutique.editions-lariviere.fr/site/abonnement-le-fana-de-l-aviation-626-4-6.html
  • Le Fana de L'Aviation (French) - http://www.pdfmagazines.org/tags/Le+Fana+De+L+Aviation/
  • Osprey (English) - http://www.ospreypublishing.com/
  • Revi Magazines (Czech) - http://www.revi.cz/

    Web References: +

  • Wikipedia.org - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_196

 

This webpage was updated 25th June 2023

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