I found this posting that outlined the combat history of the He177. I think its fair to say that it did have the oppertunity to prove itself to some degree but failed.
I don`t think so. Looking at HoHun`s research table of LW strenght of types, it`s striking how few He 177s were around until very late 1943. Ie. avarage number of He 177s with units on six monthly basis :
42 2half : 14.2
43 1st half : 50
43 2nd half : 69 (deliveries in numbers starting in November 1943, when the 100 mark is exceeded the first time)
44 1st half : 205 (peaking up in June-July 1944 with 269-258 respecitively)
44 2nd half : 137
So what are you expecting, some 50 aircraft around should have bring salvation to the World in 1943...? Or in the first half of 1944, before most bombers were grounded due to the lack of fuel in the automn..?
The type simply did not get into operational status in meaningful numbers until 1944, by when the overall situation in the air - well we all know it wasn`t exactly kind to the Luftwaffe types.
Re operation Steinbock I think the He177 lost around 18 out of 45 aircraft in the raid's (exact figures are hard to find) which when you consider being London only 50 miles from the French Coast, isn't a good record. not when you compare it to the distances that the Allied forces had to fly behind the German Lines.
Depends on which part of the
French Coast. Bordeaux-Merignac, KG 40`s base at the time, is something like 500 miles from London - same distance as say, East Anglia and
Nürnberg *caugh* *caugh*. Others operated from the German border. Surely single unsuccessful raids can be picked, but Steinbock lasted several months, so I don`t think the figures show much, without knowning the sortie rates and how other bomber types fared against the same opposition. Looking at KG 40s actual loss list, it doesn`t strike me as particularly bad - it would b e interesting to know the cause of losses, IIRC there were some strafing losses, which again can hardly blamed on the plane.
The general trouble seems to be the lack of detailed research of the He 177s operational history. Basically you can always read the same tidbits of information which appearantly highlight the
most unsuccessfull operations, and these keep circling around over the internet - most of them originiating to William Green`s decade year old books. Many operation theatres are just not noted - there are tidbits for example about KG 100s operations in the East in large, Combat Box-like formations against Russian RR stations, and generally these seem to be quite successfull. There were also high flying recce-raid missions above Britain in the summer 1943 as far as to Leeds and Manchaster in broad daylight, and the He 177 could do it unpunished.
I wouldn`t judge the plane based on only Green`s decades old comments when much of the aircraft operational history is yet to be written.
P.S. :
It`s best to ignore banned flameboys 8)
Not meaning you, Glider, of course.