Modifications for Air Strikes 1939-1940

What modifications were made to any He111, Do17, Ju88 used for naval attacks? Were any sort of auxillary fuel tanks available or designed? Were any engine modifications made to increase range? Would decreasing the bomb load to say 50% of maximum increase the range significantly?

Any books or online sources recomended?

 

Think you mean the Do 217, AFAIK the Do 17 never had a specialized naval attack version.

From William Green (pretty old source but it's all I've got, probably better sources are available now).

Ju 88: The Ju 88A, the most common bomber version, had some anti shipping variants.
A 268 gallon tank could be fitted in the forward bomb bay increasing range from 620 to 1055 miles in most Ju88A.
The main naval attack version was the Ju 88A-17 (and the similar Ju 88A-4/Torp conversions) that carried two LT-5 torpedoes

Ju 88H had a lengthened fuselage for long range naval operations
Ju 88-H1 long range naval recon
Ju 88-H2 long rang naval Zerstroer (Sunderland Killer) 1865 miles range

Ju 188: The naval (torpedo) variants were the Ju188A-3 (Jumo 213 engined) and Ju188E-2 (BMW 801 engined) but AFAIK they were similar in range to the standard bombers.

Do 217: had the following standard "naval" mod kits [in square brackets the Do 217 variant that could carry it]:
[E-1, E-2, E-4, K-1] R7 four man dinghy
[E-1] R8 an additonal 165 gallon tank in forward bomb bay
[E-2, E-4, K-1] R-10 (outer wing) or (R-15) inner wing ETC 2000/XII racks to carry the Hs 293A anti ship missile.
[E-2, E-4, K-1] R-14 Aux fuel tank in aft bomb bay
[E-4, K-2] R-17 255 gallon aux fuel tank in forward bomb bay
The Do 217K-2 had the ETC 2000/XII racks but carried the FX 1400 Fritz X glider bomb and it's guidance equipment not the Hs 293A, the Do 217K-3 had an improved guidance set and could carry either missile.

He 111:
He 111H-3 was a bomber with secondary anti shipping role (had a forward firing 20mm MG FF to suppress the ship's AA fire but no other special equipment).
Some He 111H-6 were modified to carry torpedoes but experiments with the Fritz X were not completely successful.
He 111H-12 was an Hs 293A carrier

 

Thanks. As it happens I have Green on my shelf. Tho I have not found all the items you give in it yet. Largest question is when the extra fuel tanks and the naval' or anti ship versions became operational. A secondary question connects to when the torpedos were available operationally. I understand they were not commmon in 1940, correct?

I also have Bekkers 'Luftwaffe War Diarys' , which lacks quite a few details. anyone else have recomendations for books or reliable web sites?

 

My edition of Green is a sixties vintage Macdonalds.
I don't think the torpedoes were used before 1941, the first luftwaffe torpedo sinking I know of is the Belgian Escaut on August 3 by KG26 planes, can't remember of any torpedo attacks by German planes during the Crete battles and had any torpedo planes been already available they would have been committed there.
The missiles were 1943 weapons, the sinking of the Italian battleship Roma in September 1943 was one of the first uses of the Fritz X.

A google serach came up with this
http://www.amazon.com/Luftwaffe-Aerial-Torpedo-Aircraft-Operations/dp/1902109422

which looks promisig, can anybody recomend it?

BTW I believe the floatplanes were under Kriegsmarine not Luftwaffe control until late 1941 so a Luftwaffe book may not have the whole story, some of the large ones like the He 59 or He 115 did carry torpedoes but can't find any references to actual usage.

 

I recall some forum discussion somewhere which had the same. The Navy air torpedo development was still in the test stage in 1939. Only small sample batches in production.

That leaves the auxillary fuel tanks. What book can date those reliablly?