Why Everyone Feared The 'Flying Pencil' | Dornier Do 17

Today we're taking a look at the Dornier Do 17 & 215. This was a light bomber operated by the German Luftwaffe during WW2 and it became famous (or infamous) during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain as a fast-flying, low-altitude menace.

Sources:

Goss.C (2020), Dornier Do 17: The 'Flying Pencil' in Luftwaffe Service.
Hooton.E.R (2007), Luftwaffe at War; Gathering Storm 1933-39: Volume 1.
Nowarra.H.J (1990), The Flying Pencil.
Smith.J.R & Kay.A.L (1990), German Aircraft of the Second World War.
Dornier Do17 P Luftwaffe Flugzeughandbuch (1940)
Dornier Do17 E & F Ersatztiel-Liste (1937)

0:00 Intro
1:17 Design Origins, Chasing The Truth
9:26 Prototype Phase
13:53 Do 17 E & F Series
18:02 Service in Spanish Civil War
21:59 Do 17 M & P Series
25:06 Do 17 R, S, & U
28:31 Do 17 Z Series
32:12 War Thunder Promo
35:20 The Polish Campaign
38:50 "Phoney War" & Norway
43:56 Battle of France
49:43 Battle of Britain
53:26 The Blitz Begins
57:35 Night fighter Variants
1:01:11 Do 17 K Series
1:03:34 Do 215 Series
1:05:42 The Balkans & USSR Campaigns
1:09:32 Decline, Retirement, and Wrecks

[RexsHangar]

F.A.Q Section

Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)

Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.

Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)

Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.

[ProjectFlashlight]

Relax. Dark Skies blurts out obviously incorrect nonsense with mismatched footage twice a month without the slightest remorse, and you're worried about getting the precise origins of one German light bomber slightly wrong? Chill, my friend.

[SoloRenegade]

nothing wrong with finding out what you know is wrong. No one knows everything. We learn, and update our understanding as we go, as we acquire new information. It's when a person fails to update their thinking in light of new information and facts that is a problem.

[scottdewey]

Speaking as a history Ph.D., I am impressed by the quality and persistence of your research. I will assume in advance that much of the audience/market for your products is gamers, rather than historians - but you seem to have done an honest job for both markets, and I commend you for that. Which is in keeping with other videos you have posted on YouTube.

[charlesrousseau]

Flying Pencils, Suitcases, Panhandles, Barn doors, Fortresses, even Prostitutes... some quite remarkable flying objects in an interesting era. Thank you very much for this audiovisual masterpiece.

[gort]

The third origin story is the one I'd always heard and is the most logical. It was a bomber design called a transport as a cover story. Nobody designs a transport aircraft with a pencil thin fuselage that limits it's carrying capacity. The increased speed that design might allow at the cost of carrying capacity could cost revenue and isn't productive in air transport over relatively short distances in Europe.

[wideyxyz]

My first ever Airfix kit was a "flying pencil" I got it at Christmas. I was a bit too young (5) to build it on my own so my brother helped me with it. That was 54 years ago and I remember it clear as a bell.
My collection grew from that one model to a huge dust magnet my mum used to hate lol!

[klaus-peterborn]

In the words of Claude Dornier the Do 17 was build from the begin as military plane, the DLH was only used as smokescreen.

[borissljukic]

After WW1, Germany was prohibited from making certain advanced military equipment until the mid-1930s. That is why the Germans opened military factories in the European part of the USSR as early as 1928 and thus circumvented the ban. Military exercises between Germany and the USSR were held from 1928 to 1939 in the European part of the USSR.

[xandarch]

'The production of this video has been physically, emotionally and spiritually draining'. My exact experience with a Do 17K model that I'm building right now.

[Peter_Morris]

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but I’ll say it again if I have.

Your channel scratches that itch that History and Discovery used to before they went on to make stuff about aliens and tornadoes. I am reminded most strongly of Wings, but also the Modern Marvels series on various aircraft and military equipment.

Well done! Just superb work.

[elgato]

Excellent Rex. Your deep dive into the " Flying pencil" was both informative and fascinating. Thank you, sir.

[spiritfoxmy]

Funnily enough, the narrative I grew up with was the third narrative - that the Do-17 was always intended to be a bomber.

[cyberpunkrocker]

Excellent video! Although I would have greatlly appreciated if you had mentioned something about the Do17's in Finnish use (one picture at the end, though). My father, who was a radist in Finnish Army in the 50s, bought a FuG radio from a dismantled Finnish Do17. I still have some hazy memories of it.

[LeftToWrite]

That you gave a reasonable disclaimer around 2:20 is a big reason I subscribed.

[WychardNL]

Thank you for the mighty effort to compile this great video. I know that the Do-17 history is a complex one and this story is just what I needed.

[mpersad]

Another terrific video, Rex. Thanks as always for all the research you do, which make your videos so polished!

[lqr]

1:30 total lol, thanks for seeing the project through to the end though!

[billenright]

Built this model as a kid. Putting in all the windows was a pain in the ass.

[saladiniv]

0:50 low altitude, high speed strike aircraft aren't associated with twin engine bombers during that period?
* quietly looks at the mosquito *