I think it was on "Wings of the Luftwaffe" that they were interviewing a Heinkel 111 pilot that flew (and lived to tell about them) numerous missions over London at night. He said that once they got caught in the spot light they were pretty much toast and the plane simply wasn't agile enough to get of it. That is, until they learned a method by abruptly cross controlling and throwing it into a spin.

It was originally "designed" as an airliner.