Its four engines, Junkers Jumo 205C diesels, were mounted in tractor/pusher pairs in tandem nacelles located at the joint between the dihedral and horizontal wing sections.

The rear (pusher) engines could be swung upwards through 10° during take-off and landing, to prevent contact between the three-blade airscrew and water spray created by the forward propellers.

In 1937, Deutsche Lufthansa ordered three Do 26 aircraft, which were designed to be launched by catapult from special supply ships, for transatlantic air mail purposes.

Allocated initially to KüFlGr (Küstenfliegergruppe/Coastal Aviation Group) 406 (later 506),[2] the Do 26s saw service in April and May 1940 in the Norwegian Campaign, transporting supplies, troops and wounded to and from the isolated German forces fighting at Narvik under the command of General Eduard Dietl.

[3] One of the Skuas, flown by future Fleet Air Arm fighter ace Sub-Lieutenant Philip Noel Charlton,[5] was hit by return fire from V2 and made an emergency landing at Tovik near Harstad.

[3] Then, on 28 May 1940, both V1 (ex Seeadler piloted by Ernst-Wilhelm Modrow) and V3 (ex Seemöwe) were set ablaze with gunfire and sunk at their moorings at Sildvik in Rombaksfjord near Narvik,[6] when discovered and attacked by three Hawker Hurricanes of No.