War and Game

The first Luftwaffe aircraft to have drop tanks were, the Heinkel 51 and the Henschel 123. To increase the range the "manufacturers added drop tanks." The He-51B structure was strengthened, including twin-wire bracing of the landing gear, and a provision for a 50-liter drop tank beneath the fuselage was added. The Henschel tanks had an igniter, which caused the tanks to explode after they had been dropped. Galland used them in close support in Spain and Poland. All the aircraft developed in the mid 1930's had about the same range, which was considered adequate at the time: Hurricane, Spitfire, and Bf 109. The Bf-109 was being manufactured with no extra fuel line for a drop tank, let alone a rack to hold the tank.

The German Luftwaffe used them pre-war with some of their Heinkel He-51s. In these earlier aircraft that were already draggy to start off with... the addition of a drop tank probably was that much of a penalty. The Me-109s were designed as a clean fighter and so the drag penalty was much more serious. I've heard that the penalty imposed could be up to 50% of the fuel (for a badly designed tank) carried would be eaten up just in overcoming the drag. I think it was apparent with the Doras/early Emils that combat fuel range was an issue and thus it wasn't until the later Emils came along that the extra plumbing and fittings were put in place to accept a drop tank. It does take time to modify aircraft and the production facilities to handle these new modifications and build the infrastructure to stock up on supplies. Aircraft such as the Spits and Hurricanes were also designed to accept 'ferry' tanks but when initially developed they were created with the ideal of extending ferrying range not combat range.

The Luftwaffe was more concerned with a "bomb" rack. The first racks were fitted to the Bf-109E by Er 210. The racks and release system were fitted by the unit, not the manufacturer.

Er 210 started fighter bomber raids on England on August 12, 1940. The unit flew converted Bf-109E's and Bf-110's, "as fighter-bombers." The first factory fighter-bomber was the BF-109E-4/B This came with the ETC 250 rack for a bomb. It wasn't until October of 1940, that the Bf-109E-7 came off the production lines, with the factory installed ETC 250 rack that was capable of interfacing with a fuel drop tank. The drop tank fuel line came up behind the right side of the pilot seat, and ran along the right side lower cockpit edge through the fire wall to the engine.