Messerschmitt Me.410, part three

The Messerschmitt Me.410 had many variants. The initial A version was armed with two 7.92mm (0.312in) MG 17 machine guns and two 20mm MG 151/20 cannons all of them placed in the nose. It was delivered to the Luftwaffe as the Me.410A-1 light bomber. Initially there was planned a heavy fighter version called Me.410A-2 but it was cancelled because the expected armament, the 30mm Mk.103 wasn't ready in time by 1944. The Me.410 featured a bomb bay for carrying air-to-ground ordnance or additional air-to-air weaponry. Initially there were three submodifications; U1 with cameras for reconnaissance version, U2 with two additional 20mm MG 151/20 and U4 with an extra 50mm (2in) Bordkanone (which an aerial adaptation of a Panzer gun), to turn the Me.410A or B series into a bomber destroyer. The recon variant Me.410A-3 received a deeper fuselage for additional cameras and fuel. It entered service in small numbers in early 1944 and equipped three long-range reconnaissance squadrons, usually operating together with other recon groups. Two of them were assigned to the Eastern Front and one was assigned to the Western Front.
The Me.410B was phisically identical to the A series but instead of the 7.92mm MG 17, it had two 13mm (0.51in) MG 131 machine guns. It was going to be powered by two Daimler-Benz DB 603G engines rated at 1900hp (1400kW) , but as it was cancelled in early 1944, it was powered by two DB 603A or DB 603AA engines. The sub-variants were the same as the A series with the same field modifications and fullfiling the same roles.
The Me.410B-5 however, was an experimental variant equipped with shackles to carry a torpedo and removed the MG 131s in the nose to make room for the FuG 200 maritime patrol radar. The bomb bay was converted to a fuel tank and so were the rearward-firing remote turrets in order to perform long-range missions. The Me.410B-6 was a torpedo-bomber conversion but intended for short-range coastal raids. It wasn't armed with a torpedo and was just a B-1 equipped with the FuG 200 radar. The Me.410B-7 and B-8 were updated B-3 recon variants that existed only as prototypes.
The Me.410C variant was a high-altittude fighter variant with redesigned larger wings intended to be powered by either DB 603JZ, BMW 801J turbocharged or the Jumo 213E driving all of them a four-bladed propeller. As the engines never went beyond the prototype stage, not a single Me.410C was built.
The Me.410D was an upgrade of the B-series to improve it's altittude performance but to a lesser degree than the C series. It was going to be powered by the DB 603JZ engines and was going to have a redesigned cockpit to improve fordward view from the pilot position and reduce drag. It replaced also many metalic parts with wood in order to conserve strategical materials. Many of them were built but, as the Goldschmitt Tego Film factory in Wuppertal was lost in an air raid, they ran out of replacement adhesives for the parts to couple so production was eventually cancelled to concentrate on Bf.109Gs in August 1944.
A total of 354 Me.410As were manufactured in all of its subvariants from May 1943 to August 1944. Most of they were manufactured by Messerschmitt AG in Augsburg but production was also overtook by Dornier-Werke GmbH in Munich. Counting all variants, a total of 1160 Me.410s were manufactured. Production was halted because the next month, in September 1944 the Jägernotprogramm (Emergency Fighter Program) went into effect.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_410
2. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/56248
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters