The He 177 Griffin is the best choice for a Luftwaffe bomber in AH. Although the Axis powers in Europe had several potentially useful bombers, none were used in significant numbers (1146 He 177s), or filled their potential, but the He 177 is very close to being the exception.
First use of the He 177(A-3) was summer of 1942 in a failed supply transport roll to Stalingrad.
SEE:
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_he177.html (wait 45 seconds for the ad to disappear.) Although there were a significant number of them at the time, they were still officially grounded because of development problems. Surprisingly, they were re-tasked to attack Russian positions around Stalingrad according to Rickard, and is the only Luftwaffe heavy bomber to see significant combat service.
The A-5/R5 was apparently the best version from an AH/technical standpoint, with a remotely controlled barbette to the rear of the bomb bay, but the first A-3s (official squadron deployment) were issued to KG 40 in the summer of '43. It was lack of fuel that grounded the Luftwaffe bombers in mid '44. P. Antil gives a nice recap of why at
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_he177_peter.html.
I'd very much like to see this added.
Just like the B-17 and the B-24, the He 177 wouldn’t be subject to the maximum bomb loads, or the more exotic weapons loadouts
