Messerschmitt Bf 110C "Destroyer"
Computer Controlled Aircraft

The Bf 110 was an aircraft designed for one mission--as a strategic fighter to accompany bombers to and from their targets--that found its greatest success in an entirely different role--as a night fighter. First conceived in 1934, successive refinements led by 1939 to the Bf 110C model, which served with some distinction during the Blitzkrieg from Poland to France and the Low Countries, but more than met its match in the Battle of Britain. This twin-engine, heavily armed fighter, or "Destroyer," as the Luftwaffe classified it, had greater range than its single-engine counterparts, and was nearly as fast. The problem was maneuverability. Spitfires and Hurricanes were far superior to any opposition the 110 had yet encountered, and they made mincemeat of the slow-turning, slow-climbing 110.

Over England it became an escort fighter that needed its own escort, and before long the 110 was withdrawn from the Battle of Britain. From 1942 on the 110 was developed into a highly effective night fighter, and in this role it ran up an impressive tally of kills against British bombers. As the American daylight strategic bombing campaign intensified, the 110 was pressed into service--escorted by high-flying Bf 109s--as a bomber destroyer, lobbing rockets into bomber formations, and riddling stragglers with cannon fire. Although always vulnerable to fighter opposition, the 110 carried two 20 mm cannon and four light machine guns firing forward, and a single rearward-firing light machine gun, so approaching a 110, even from behind, was risky. The last Bf 110 was delivered to the Luftwaffe in March 1945.