Blohm & Voss BV.138, part three

The Blohm & Voss C-1 was the main production version of the aircraft with 228 machines having been made. The first one rolled out from the factory in March 1941 and production was continued at Blohm & Voss' factories from March 1941 until October 1943 with 161 aircraft being manufactured. The other sixty-seven of them were manufactured by Weser Flugzeugbau, in Nordenham, close to Hamburg.
It had a stronger structure and was powered by three 6-cylinder, liquid-cooled Junkers Jumo 205D opposed piston diesel engines that yielded a power of 880hp each. Both starboard and port engines drove three-bladed propellers and the central one drove a four-bladed one. It was ,engines wise, the same configuration as the previous B variant, except that the C one had wider propellers. This way the excessive vibration pressent in the A and B versions was eliminated. It was armed with two 20mm MG 151 cannons, one of them placed in the nose turret and another one placed in another turret in the rear fuselage plus a single 13mm MG 131 machine gun in an open position placed behind the central engine. The standard C-1 could carry three SC-50 bombs, the same amount as the B variant, while the version with underwing racks, the C-1/U1 could carry up to six SC-50 bombs or four 150kg (331lb) depth charges. Incredibly enough, some of them were able to be catapult-launched.
The Bv.138 in all its variants was used by long range reconnaissance units of the Luftwaffe, operating mainly off the coasts of France and Norway, from where they helped the U-Boat campaign and, while the initial A and B variants weren't very successful, but, as the C variant overcame previous variants' problems, it was the most produced and used one.
They also served in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.
The Bv.138MS was a mine-sweeper variant produced from modified B aircraft. All guns were removed and a circular dural hoop was installed surrounding the fuselage which was used to detonate magnetic mines. Some Junkers Ju.52/3m had also installed that hoop and the British used a similar technique in some Vickers Wellington bombers.

Sources:
1. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_blohm_und_voss_bv_138.html
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blohm_%26_Voss_BV_138
3. https://www.valka.cz/Blohm-Voss-BV-138-C-1-t6475
4. Wydawnictwo Militaria 64 - Blohm & Voss Bv 138 (Translated)