“The Germans are coming in an absolutely steep dive, and you can see their bombs actually leave the machines and come into the water. You can hear our guns going like anything now. I can hear machine-gun fire but I can't see our Spitfires. They must be somewhere there.” - BBC radio reporter Charles Gardner.
Nationality: German (Third Reich)
Year of Production: 1933-1944.
Number built: 6500, estimated.
Weight (empty): 3.93 tons
Wingspan: 13.8 metres
Length: 11.5 metres
Height: 3.9 metres
Crew: 2
Speed: 410 kph, could handle diving speeds of 600 kph, reports of 835 kph attained.
Engine: Junkers Jumo 210A, 602 hp, replaced by other variants of Jumo engine, maxing at 1401 hp.
Armament: 4x 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns, 1x 7.92 MG 15 machine gun, 250 to 500 kg bomb, 'Jericho trumpets', later variants had dual-barrel 7.92 mm MG 81Z machine gun replacing MG 15, 500-1200 kg bomb load, planned torpedo from 750-905 kg, and 2x 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon, with tank killer variant using 2x 37 mm Flak guns.
Background: I daresay most of you will recognise this aircraft from it's nickname. The dive bomber that helped the Germany army's blitzkerig across Europe, with the sirens of the devil or the banshee.
First used in the Spanish Civil War as part of the Condor Legion, the role of a dive bomber is simple. From height, it dives on you at a very fast speed, releases it's bomb, and pulls away. The screaming part was optional.
Also, did I mention the noise it made? I'll touch on that first, and include one video of it in the sources. From the video, it's this droning noise, which increases by a lot, and then the screaming of whatever the hell it is that's screaming, then there's the explosion, and one assumes the plane pulling away. Now, that's just one plane, I think that and a few others would be as scary as all goddamn hell.
The noise is by a thing called a Jericho trumpet, which are propeller driven sirens, which, although slowing the aircraft down by 20 to 25 kph, did the screaming noise that the aircraft was known for. After the trumpet was withdrawn, some bombs were fitted with whistles on the fin to try to emulate the noise.
And from that was born the vuvuzela.
Alright, not really. The aircraft itself was designed before 1928, with the view that the dive-bomber design had to be simple and robust, which lead to many features like the retractable undercarriage being removed.
After the events that lead to the rise of the Third Reich, the RLM, the German Aviation Ministry, of which I refuse to use the overly long name, gave it the go ahead, and in 1932, the double vertical stabilizers were introduced to assist the rear gunner.
Originally, the Ju 87 was fitted with a BMW engine, producing 600 hp, as well as dive brakes, which slow an aircraft when it's in a dive. When trials were done in 1934, Ernst Udet began diving at 1000 metres, and released his 1 kg bombs at 100 metres, barely escaping turning the aircraft into an additional 4 ton bomb. Despite the concerns held that such an aircraft might be too risky to be used by the average pilot in the Luftwaffe, Udet advocated that all medium bombers have dive-bombing capabilities.
Initially, the Ju 87 were powered by Rolls-Royce engines, and on a test flight, a failure in the twin fins and rudder ended up killing the chief test pilot and his engineer, after which, modifications were made to avoid that. Despite that, the RLM were not really interested, until Junkers offered to fit it with a Jumo 210 engine, and in early 1936, the testing continued. With joyous news from the RLM, who were so impressed that... they cancelled the development... Udet overrode the order, and development continued.
The Ju 87, in 1937, could take off in only 250 metres, and climb to 1.875 km in 8 minutes with a 250 kg bomb load, with a cruising speed of 250 kph. Despite that, there were pushes for a stronger engine, wanting the speed to be over 350 kph. The Jumo 210 Da engine was fitted, which boosted the speed to 290 kph.
Among other features, there was an automatic dive recovery system, and the bomb swung clear of the propeller before being released, with the aircraft generating 6 gs while pulling out. Development continued to reduce the g forces put on the crew, to prevent them blacking out.
Of course, this is mostly meaningless to some of the readers. So, let's move on.
Why should I be afraid of it? And what was it for?
“At lunch time we were in the thick of it again and Junkers dive-bombers appeared all over the sky. We engaged one by shrapnel control, but out fuse was too short. Then one came, sensationally straight at us, dived to a few feet off the ground and went clean through our position with machine guns blazing.” - Kenneth Rankin, on a Junkers 87 attack in Tobruk.
As explained above, the role is simple, to dive and bomb you, while killing morale.
Unfortunately, while preparing for the invasion of Poland, during a dive bombing demonstration for high ranking officials, 13 aircraft smashed into the ground, unaware that the cloud cover was lower then expected.
Despite that, the invasion went ahead, with the Stuka claiming the first air to air kill of the war, shooting down a Polish PZL p.11c fighter while it was taking off. In addition, a destroyer and a minelayer were also destroyed, not to mention the other events. Enemy aircraft were light, the Stukas losing only 31 aircraft
During the invasion of Norway, they were used to take out ground and naval targets, including the Oscarsborg Fortress, the French destroyer Bison, and the HMS Bittern and Afridi.
In France, the small headquarters in a village was destroyed in only four direct hits, allowing the German army to continue. Unfortunately, where enemy aircraft were organised, the Stuka suffered, at one point losing 11 out of 12 aircraft to 6 French fighters.
During the events of Dunkirk, the French destroyer Adroit, a paddle steamer, Crested Eagle, and many other ships were destroyed, the Royal Navy having only one destroyer out of 40 still operational. In the Battle of Britain, despite early success, the aircraft couldn't function properly without air superiority, the very thing being fought over..
It's interesting reading, but for the most part, if there's no other aircraft, or friendly aircraft around, the Stuka would get the job done. If there were hostile aircraft around, the Stuka would be mincemeat.
Also, be careful with the Youtube link, that sound is fairly frightening.
Sources used:
Junkers Ju 87 – Wikipedia
14th July 1940 – WW2Today
11th April 1941 – WW2Today
HowStuffWorks – Junkers Ju 87 Stuka
Junkers Jumo 210 – Wikipedia
BK 37 – Wikipedia
BBC Archive – News Report: Air Battle off Dover (audio)
Stuka Ju 87 siren – Youtube
The image is from the German Federal Archive. This image has not been altered, except for being resized.
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