eight to one (only one gun would normally be able to fire back). The Do 17 suffered badly at the hands of the RAF during the Battle of Britain, and its production run ended in 1940. Japan's air war in China As World War II broke out in Asia with the Battle of Shanghai and Battle of Nanjing, the Imperial Japanese Navy dispatched dozens of their unescorted Mitsubishi G3M bombers in the schnellbomber strategy of Giulio Douhet's total war concept of attacks against Chinese Air Force assets as well as civilian targets, however, the strategy backfired as the Japanese underestimated the effectiveness of the Chinese air raid early-warning net and the numbers of experienced Chinese pilots leading their squadrons of Curtiss Hawk III (max-speed marginally slower than G3M) and Boeing P-26 Model 281 (max-speed marginally faster than G3M) fighters in a bloody rout against the Japanese bombers. Nonetheless, the total war strategy with the schnellbomber wasn't lost to the Japanese, as the Chinese lost many of their top fighter pilots by Fall of Nanking at the end of 1937, and with ever-growing Japanese blockade of war materials and high-octane aviation fuel particularly following the capture of Nanning in the Battle of South Guangxi, the increasing obsolescence of Chinese fighter aircraft burning low-grade fuel versus fast and high-flying massed bomber formations burning high-octane avgas continued to wreak havoc and devastation against Chinese cities for years to come, particularly in the Battle of Chongqing and Chengdu beginning in May 1939; eventually however, the United States enacted an oil and steel embargo against Japan in July 1941. Germany's quest for "fast bombers" The Germans nevertheless persisted in their attempts to create newer Schnellbombers, as opposed to large bombers with heavy defensive armaments which were favored by the RAF and USAAF. Other aircraft recognized as Schnellbombers by the Luftwaffe were the Junkers Ju 88, the first to be custom-designed for the role, three years before the start of the war, the Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse in 1943, and the jet-engined Arado Ar 234 Blitz (dubbed "the fastest bomber" – "Schnellstbomber"). Several other Luftwaffe aircraft were originally designed as fast bombers, but entered service in other roles; these include the Heinkel He 219 as a night fighter, and the Dornier Do 335 — meant to have a small, ventral weapons bay to accommodate droppable ordnance from the start — as a new Zerstörer heavy fighter,