Next up is a Do-17Z2 assigned to the Staff Flight of III/KG3. It took off from St Trond in Belgium to attack Biggin Hill On August 26th 1940, piloted by Feldwebel Willi Effmert, navigator Herman Ritzel, wireless operator Helmut Reinhardt and bomb aimer Heinz Huhn. While flying in heavy clouds over the Straits of Dover the Dornier became separated from the rest of III Gruppe. Shortly after 1pm it was flying on its own when it was jumped at 13,000ft over Deal by a Boulton Paul Defiant of 264 Squadron from RAF Hornchurch.
With both his engines hit Effmert made a wheels-up landing on the Goodwin Sands at low water and the aircraft appears to have "ground looped" just before coming to a halt, breaking in half, killing Reinhardt and Huhn. Effmert and Ritzel survived to be captured, and spent the remainder of their war as PoWs in Canada."
This is the truely horrible Hobbycraft kit. The kit is so bad I felt a sense of relief instead of pride when I finally finished it. Do not buy this kit unless you enjoy self inflicted pain. The entire cockpit is scratchbuilt as the few pieces that come with the kit are not remotely close to accurate. I also ended up moving the exhausts to the correct position on top of the cowling; I job that involved much cutting, puttying and cursing. I did numerous other scratchbuild replacments, so many I can't remember them all. This kit is due to be replaced when I get around to building the Classic Airframes Do-17Z2 kit, though I may saw off the fuselage to keep the cockpit, which I am pretty proud of. Did I mention how bad this kit is?
