Did you know…

How many B-17s did He 111s destroy in a single night at Poltava?

Short answer

Forty-four: He 111s from IV. Fliegerkorps, drawn from Kampfgeschwader 4, 53, and 55, dropped 91 tonnes (100 tons) of bombs and destroyed 44 B-17s and 15 American fighters. The Eighth Air Force bombers had landed on June 21, 1944, at Mirgorod and Poltava after attacking Debrecen, Hungary.

How many B-17s did He 111s destroy in a single night at Poltava?
An Army sentry guards new B-17 F (Flying Fortress) bombers at the airfield of Boeing's Seattle plant. The ship will... - NARA

Bombing raid on Hungary and a stop in Ukraine

On June 21, 1944, B-17 Flying Fortresses of the US Eighth Air Force landed at the Mirgorod and Poltava airfields after bombing targets in Debrecen, Hungary. The Soviets had not prepared adequate air defenses.

Ninety-one tons of bombs

IV. Fliegerkorps and its He 111s from Kampfgeschwader 4, 53, and 55 dropped 91 tonnes (100 tons) of bombs and destroyed 44 B-17s and 15 American fighters.

Other He 111 variants

The He 111H-16/R3 and H-20/R2, in pathfinder configuration, carried V-1 flying bombs to their targets in London as part of Adolf Hitler's "vengeance" campaign. A photograph dated August 8, 1944, shows a He 111H-16 with a V-1. When the British and Canadian 21st Army Group liberated the Netherlands and overran the launch positions, the He 111H-21 and H-22 were called on to take over launching the V-1s. The He 111Z Zwilling, meanwhile, was a design that joined two He 111s together. The result was an aircraft with two fuselages and five engines. It was originally conceived to tow the Messerschmitt Me 321 glider. It could tow a Gotha Go 242 or a Me 321 Gigant for up to ten hours at cruising speed.

More questions