page_title: Heavy fighter
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: Heavy fighter / Germany
context_page_description: A heavy fighter is a fighter aircraft designed to carry heavier weapons or operate at longer ranges than light fighter aircraft. To achieve acceptable performance, most heavy fighters were twin-engine, and many had multi-place crews. In Germany, they were known as Zerstörer.
  The twin-engine heavy fighter was a major design class during the pre-World War II period, conceived as long-range escort fighters or heavily armed bomber destroyers. Most such designs failed in this mission, as they could not maneuver with the more conventional, single-engine fighters, and suffered heavy losses. Most notable among such designs was the Messerschmitt Bf 110, which suffered great losses during the Battle of Britain. An exception was the American Lockheed P-38 Lightning, which proved to be an effective heavy fighter; even against smaller, lighter, single-engine aircraft and particularly in the Pacific theater.
  Many twin-engine heavy fighters eventually found their niche as night fighters, especially in the bomber-destroyer role; or as fighter-bombers, roughly analogous to modern strike fighters.
context_section_description: A major heavy fighter design was the Messerschmitt Bf 110, a German fighter that, prior to the war, was considered by the German Luftwaffe  more important than their single-engine fighters. Many of the best pilots were assigned to Bf 110 wings, specifically designated as Zerstörergeschwader ("destroyer squadron") wings. While lighter fighters were intended for defense, the destroyers were intended for offensive missions: to escort bombers on missions at long range, then use its superior speed to outrun defending fighters that would be capable of outmaneuvering it.
  This doctrine proved to be a costly mistake. In practice the Bf 110 was capable of using this combination of features for only a short time, until the late summer of 1940. It served well against the Hawker Hurricane during the Battle of France, but was easily outperformed by – and up to 50 km/h (31 mph) slower in top speed than – the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain. Eventually Bf 110s were converted to interceptors, and were particularly successful in the later marks of the Bf 110G series from 1942/3 onwards as night fighters, serving as the primary aircraft of the Luftwaffe Nachtjagdgeschwader night fighter wings, using various versions of the Lichtenstein radar for nocturnal interception of RAF Bomber Command heavy bombers, as well as finding some use as ground-attack aircraft. The Me 210 and Me 410 Hornisse were all-new aircraft designs meant to replace the Bf 110, but also could not outrun contemporary single-engine fighters, with the Me 210 having serious aerodynamic problems from mistakes in the design of its wing planform and the initial design of its rear fuselage.
  Aside from the Bf 110 and Me 210/410, the Luftwaffe also utilized various light bombers, medium bombers, and Schnellbombers (German; literally "fast bomber") in the heavy fighter role. Due to their relatively large size, these were mostly used as night fighter-bomber destroyers, as there was ample room to install airborne intercept radar systems as well as heavy armament. Bombers utilized in such a role included the Junkers Ju 88 and Ju 388; the Heinkel He 219; the Focke-Wulf Ta 154; and the Dornier Do 215 and Do 217.
   
  Towards the end of the war, the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil could have been an ideal twin-engine Zerstörer fighter design for the Luftwaffe due to its push-pull configuration, which placed its fuselage-mounted twin DB 603 engines' propellers on opposing ends of the fuselage, and potentially allowed much better maneuverability, while essentially using the same engines as the conventional-layout twin-engine Me 410. The centre-line thrust design of the Do 335, the first-ever front-line combat fighter to use it, did allow dramatically higher speeds (just over 750 km/h or 465 mph) than any other twin-piston-engine aircraft of its era, but was never produced in quantity.
  Following the example set by the Bf 110, the Japanese built the broadly similar Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu. Likewise neutral Netherlands built the twin-boom Fokker G.I, only to be seized by the Luftwaffe after the German invasion of the Netherlands.
caption: A Messerschmitt Bf 110 G-4, equipped with radar to serve as a night fighter
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