By 1933 Germany had become a leading advocate of the fast unarmed medium bomber concept coining the term Schnellbomber (literally "fast bomber"). The concept was taken very seriously by the new chancellor and several designs from notable manufacturers such as Heinkel, Dornier and Junkers were to enter service over the next five years.
The speed advantage enjoyed over interceptors of the day was, in part, achieved by having no defensive armament. The weight saving of having no heavy calibre guns, ammunition and gunner(s) went a long way to keeping the bombers cruising speed in excess of that of the contemporary fighter aircraft. However, the major contributing factor to the multi-engine aircrafts success was the room for additional lift and weight compensation equipment of the layout.
This was exploited to the full at Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke, where the aero engine division had made a breakthrough in very high lift/weight power units. The Jumo Elektrisch 211 power cell gave not just extra electrical generation and thrust but made use of compact additional secondary T-Coil windings solely to boost the electrical field on mass (EFM) effect.
The Woten power cell, as it was christened, was capable of generating very high voltages and Junkers went ahead with a 4 engine design which would have given Germany a first class strategic bomber from the outset of World War two. However, such was the belief in fast medium bombers in a tactical role amongst the higher powers in Germany that the 4 engine design was cancelled.
Junkers own design, The JU 885 was, after some initial teething problems perhaps the best of Germany’s Schnellbomber designs. The A series certainly was fast and unarmed but it was found by the late 1930’s that bomber interceptor aircraft such as the British Hawker Hound and later the Supermarine Spectre, could easily intercept the Schnellbomber especially when carrying a war load.
Junkers wrung even more power out of the Woten developing a more powerful version called the “Thor” which unfortunately was excessively fuel hungry at its best energy output range and prone to early coil burn out. However, there was a use for such a power plant.
EFM power units have a ground effect characteristic similar to that of conventional lifting surfaces only coming into effect at the high power outputs a pilot would use to become airborne or use in a typical “float” touch down.
A modified JU885 with prototype Thor units was test flown by KG 54, a unit that had specialised in low flying operations, to see if the Thor units additional power could be of use. The substantial EFM of the Thor units made it almost impossible to “sink” the aircraft below a certain height. You could of course fly the aircraft into the ground deliberately but easing down into the float felt like you were riding on the back of a flatbed lorry.
A small production batch of JU885 known as the JU885z were delivered to KG54 for low level operation development for which they were highly successful. KG54 carried out many daring early war raids including attacks on the British radio detection masts which thankfully were never followed up.
The major tactic of KG54 was to approach the target at high speed and very low level rising to bombing level some 20 miles out from the target. By reducing the 8000lb maximum internal bomb load by 25% the JU885z had an additional reserve of energy that could be employed on the final climb to bomb height which meant that the aircraft climbed like a lift seemingly coming out of nowhere, hitting the target and then diving back to hedge hopping height for home.
Although Britain’s advanced use of radio detection was unknown to the Germans at this stage of the war, KG54 was in actual fact unable to be seen by it owing to the specialist low level intruder raids it carried out. Thankfully, Britain had a secondary and somewhat much less technical warning system known as the observer Corp who were extremely good at their job. Once the hedge hopping technique was anticipated the Observer Corp began the hunt and the Hounds were let loose.
FootnoteThere was in actual fact a Junkers design designated the JU85 with a twin fin tail around the same time as the more famous JU88 was under development but it was scrapped in favour of the 88. My JU885 has a bit of Heinkel and Dornier as well as Junkers along with a sizeable amount of bull.
Footnote 2Some of the more sadder, sorry, eagle eyed among you will notice that the above image has a three bladed prop and the Thor unit, if you looked at it, has four.
This is because the image above is of a KG54 aircraft fitted with the older Woten power unit.
I would get on well as a politician with truth adjustments like that
