The Soviet Union purchased two Dornier Do 215 B-3 long range reconnaissance aircraft for evaluation. Originally ordered as Do 215B-2s by the Luftwaffe, which had cancelled its order in favour of the Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 177, they were redesignated Do 215B-3s. They were not equipped with either defensive armament of cameras when delivered.
The Dornier Do 215 was designed as an export version of the successful Do 17 bomber. Three prototypes were built: The V1 was essentially the same as the Do 17Z ans ws powered by Bramo 323 Fafnir radial engines; The V2 was powered by Gnome-Rhône 14-NO radial engines, while the V3 was powered by Daimler-Benz DB 601 Ba inline engines. With the more powerful engines, the V3 was faster and attracted interest from Sweden, who ordered 18 aircraft.
Due to deteriorating international conditions leading up the Second World War, Germany embargoed the Swedish aircraft and they were used by the Luftwaffe, where they were designated Do 215 B-1.
Official figures indicate that 105 Do 215s were produced between 1939 and 1941 by Dornier. The last machines were retired in late 1944.
Click on the links below to go see photos of the different variants used by the Luftwaffe.
As part of Nazi Germany’s support for the Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, an air component of volunteer crews was established as the Legion Condor. Initial Legion Condor bomber strength was composed of Junkers Ju 52. However these proved vulnerable to Republican Polikarpov I-16 fighters. In response, Germany sent some of its latest bombers to provide a more effective attacking force. This consisted of four Dornier Do 17s, four Junkers Ju 86s and four Heinkel He 111Bs.
The He 111s combat debut was on 9 March 1937 and by October, deliveries of new machines enabled the whole of Kampfgruppe 88 to be equipped with them. As the newer He 111E model became available, B models were passed on to the Spanish Nationalist Air Force, who used them to equip Grupo 10-G-25 in August 1938.
During the Spanish Civel War, the Legion Condor received a total of 94 Heinkel He 111s. Of these 21 were lost to enemy action, 15 to accidents and one more to sabotage. The remaining 25 He 111B and 33 He 111Es were left to the new Spanish Air Force at the end of the war.
Late in 1939 Spain received three He 111Js and three He 111Hs which were used for weather reconnaissance. An additional H model was received as a pattern aircraft for the license production by CASA. CASA built 256 H-16 bombers as the CASA 2.111.
He 111B models continued operating as bombers until 1952, with the E models being retired in 1956. They continued to be used as trainers until 1958 when the last one was retired. Although mostly retired during the 1960s, some CASA 2.111s continued as transports into the early 1970s.
