Stuka: Hitler’s Lethal Dive Bomber (Images of War)

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He has d Alistair Smith is best known as an author, presenter and developer. Both the Accelerated Learning approach and the L2 — Learning to Learn approach — have been widely adopted and used with success by schools around the world. The invasion of Poland and the Battle of France saw the Stuka used to devastating effect. German blitzkrieg tactics utilised dive bombers in place of artillery to support highly mobile ground troops.

The British Expeditionary Force had set up strong defensive positions on the west bank of the Oise River to block rapidly advancing German armour. Stukas quickly broke the defences, and a crossing was forced long before German artillery arrived. This enabled German forces to make a fast and unexpected breakthrough of the French lines, eventually leading to the German advance to the Channel and the cutting off of much of the Allied army. The skies over Sedan also showed the Stuka's weakness when met with fighter opposition; six French Curtiss Hs attacked a formation of unescorted Ju 87s and shot down 11 out of 12 without loss.

Losses were such that it was rapidly withdrawn from operations over the United Kingdom. The Stuka had 7. Some were modified to destroy tanks with heavy calibre, 37mm Bordkanone BK 3,7 autocannons mounted in gun pods below the wings. They were very successful in this role in the early days of Operation Barbarossa before the Red Army Air Force countered with modern fighters, such as the Yakovlev Yak-1 and later Yakovlev Yak-3 [44]. The most successful dive bomber pilot was Hans-Ulrich Rudel who made 2, sorties. Later, using a tank buster Stuka with 20mm cannon, he claimed over Soviet tanks destroyed, mostly at the Battle of Kursk in July The Ju 87G Kanonenvogel equipped with two 37mm BK 3,7 anti-tank guns, as suggested by Rudel, proved to be a lethal weapon in skilled hands.

Stuka: Hitler's Lethal Dive Bomber

In the Soviet counter-offensive, Operation Kutuzov , which concluded Kursk, the Luftwaffe claimed 35 tanks destroyed in a single day. When Italy joined the war on the Axis side, Breda Ba 65s were shipped to North Africa for use against the British but they also proved vulnerable. By February , most had been shot down by British fighters. The United States Army Air Force took delivery of a few North American Mustangs from a British order but, as there were no funds to buy more fighters, they were modified as dive bombers with a new wing and dive brakes.

The aircraft was very fast at low altitude. Sadly, it was also accident-prone, achieving the highest casualty rate during training of any USAAF aircraft and was officially restricted to no more than a degree dive. It proved to be an excellent dive bomber and a good fighter, creating one ace in Italy who shot down five German fighters [50].

The Royal Navy's Fairey Swordfish and Albacore torpedo-dive bombers and Blackburn Skua dive bombers were replaced by Fairey Barracuda torpedo-dive bombers, which made repeated diving attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz which lay protected by torpedo nets in a Norwegian fjord, during The Vultee Vengeance was developed in the US as a private venture dive bomber for export. It first flew in March It had a zero incidence wing, which was perfect for vertical dives as there was no lift from wing or tailplane in a dive.

But it had to fly in a nose up attitude to maintain level flight, which made landings difficult.

Dive bomber

Initial orders were for France, but France fell before they could be delivered. It was considered too vulnerable to German fighters for use in Europe or North Africa, but large numbers flew in Burma from March It flew close support for General William Slim 's Burma campaign bombing Japanese supply routes, bridges and artillery. Japan started the war with a very good design, the carrier-borne Aichi D3A "Val". As the war progressed, the design became outdated due to its limited speed, due in part to the limited horsepower of its power plant and to the greater drag of its fixed main landing gear a shortcoming shared by the Stuka.

Both American airplanes were ubiquitous, with 6, Dauntlesses and over 7, Helldivers built. They were attacked by a large number of Aichi D3As and both were sunk.

The Combat Air Patrol of formidable Mitsubishi A6M Zeros had been drawn away, chasing torpedo bombers and escorting fighters, leaving a clear sky. Soryu and Kaga were ablaze within six minutes, while Akagi , hit only once, suffered fatal damage as the single bomb ignited fuel and bombs in the hangar.

Later on 4 June, Yorktown and Enterprise dive bombers inflicted fatal damage on the fourth Japanese carrier "Hiryu". Within hours the Imperial Japanese Navy had lost four of its aircraft carriers and many experienced naval airmen, both of which Japan would have difficulty in replacing.

In crates headed for the Philippines, they were diverted to Australia and operated from Charters Towers in Queensland. On 26 July , just seven Banshees were sent to intercept a Japanese convoy supplying forces occupying New Guinea. Six were shot down. With a sleek fuselage, retracting landing gear and a powerful licensed Daimler-Benz engine, it could outpace pursuing Grumman F4F Wildcats. To maximise speed and range, the Japanese had dispensed with armour protection and self-sealing fuel tanks, which proved to be very costly when the US Navy deployed the new Essex-class aircraft carriers , which each carried 36 of the faster Grumman F6F Hellcats.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19—20 June was a failure in terms of Japanese carriers hit, but the losses of Vals and Judies and their crews were enough to destroy the Japanese navy's ability to strike by air ever again. Henceforward attacks were mostly confined to kamikaze. Japan's industrial output dropped from a peak in , while that of the US increased by a quarter in two years from to After World War II , the rise of precision-guided munitions and improved anti-aircraft defences — both fixed gunnery positions and fighter interception — led to a fundamental change in dive bombing.

New weapons, such as rockets, allowed for better accuracy from smaller dive angles and from greater distances. They could be fitted to almost any aircraft including fighters , improving their effectiveness without the inherent vulnerabilities of dive bombers, which needed air superiority to operate effectively. However, the British Government's Chief Scientist, Henry Tizard , formed a panel of experts, which recommended using rockets. A rocket has a much flatter trajectory than a bomb, allowing it to be launched with reasonable accuracy from a shallow dive, and could be fitted on existing aircraft.

These rockets were fitted with iron spikes and fired at a shallow angle into the sea. Once under water, they curved upwards and punctured the pressure hull below the waterline, disabling or sinking the submarine. At over 4 long tons 4.

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By late , the RAF was able to hit stationary targets with greater accuracy from greater heights inflicting far more damage with less risk. On 12 November , two 5-long-ton 5. Wallis also designed a bomb that bounced across water to destroy the Eder and Moehne dams, which needed to be hit repeatedly at the same spot under water to be breached but had nets to protect against torpedoes. Pilots in the Pacific later developed a technique of skip bombing which required flying at low level and dropping a spherically-nosed conventional bomb onto the sea, at a shallow angle, which then bounced back into the air.

Although new aircraft could still dive towards their targets, they were no longer optimized for steep diving attacks. A bomb can be dropped far from a target's air defences using a guidance system to hit the target, ensuring greater accuracy and minimizing risk to the crew. Jet engines allowed higher speeds which made " toss bombing " possible, a reverse dive bombing method where an aircraft snaps up from low altitude as a bomb is released, throwing it upwards like a shot put.

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For other uses, see Dive Bomber disambiguation. This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. Learn how and when to remove these template messages. This article's lead section does not adequately summarize key points of its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. This article needs additional citations for verification.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. August Learn how and when to remove this template message. A Call to Arms: Jungle Dive Bombers at War. John Murray, London, The last of the dive bombers: The last of the dive bombers. The Roots of Blitzkrieg: University Press of Kansas. Patrick Stephens, London. Memoirs of World War I: The WFG again went unscathed.

The Junkers factory at Dessau was heavily attacked, but not until Ju 87 production had ceased. The Ju 87 repair facility at the Wels aircraft works was destroyed on 30 May , and the site abandoned Ju 87 links. The only known information pertaining to its combat career in Spain is that it was piloted by Unteroffizier Herman Beuer, and took part in the Nationalist offensive against Bilbao in Presumably the aircraft was then secretly returned to Germany.

Several problems became evident - the spatted undercarriage sank into muddy airfield surfaces, and the spats were temporarily removed. These aircraft supported the Nationalist forces and carried out anti-shipping missions until they returned to Germany in October A few days later several German soldiers came to the villages to photograph and study the results of the bombardment. There was no battle going on in the region and it appears that it was a mission only to test the airplanes.

It was claimed that the rebel forces of Franco did know nothing of it and that it was ordered directly by the Luftwaffe. On the morning of 21 January , 34 Heinkel He , along with some escorts and three Ju 87B, attacked the Port of Barcelona , five days before the city was captured by the Fascists. That was the only time a Stuka attacked the capital of Catalonia. During the attack the Republican ground defenders, equipped with a quadruple PM M mounting, hit one pilot Heinz Bohne in both legs and the Stuka crashed, seriously injuring Bohne, and his machine gunner, Albert Conrad.

Those two were the only Stuka casualties of the war. As with the Ju 87 A-0, the B-1s were returned discreetly to the Reich. The Ju 87 had not been tested against numerous and well-coordinated fighter opposition; this lesson was learned later at great cost to the Stuka crews. All Stuka units were moved to Germany's eastern border in preparation for the invasion of Poland.

On the morning of 15 August , during a mass-formation dive-bombing demonstration for high-ranking commanders of the Luftwaffe at Neuhammer training grounds near Sagan , 13 Ju 87s and 26 crew members were lost when they crashed into the ground almost simultaneously.

The planes dived through cloud, expecting to release their practice bombs and pull out of the dive once below the cloud ceiling, unaware that the ceiling was too low and unexpected ground mist formed, leaving them no time to pull out of the dive. Generalquartiermeister der Luftwaffe records indicate a total force of Ju 87 A and Bs were available for operations on 31 August To do this, Ju 87s were ordered to perform a low-level attack on the Polish Army Garrison headquarters.

The Stukas attacked 11 minutes before the official German declaration of hostilities and hit the targets. The Ju 87s achieved complete success. The mission failed as the German Army delayed their advance allowing the Poles to carry out repairs and destroy all but one of the bridges before the Germans could reach them. In air-to-air combat, Ju 87 formations were well protected by German fighter aircraft and losses were light against the tenacious, but short lived opposition.

The Ju 87s reverted to ground attack missions for the campaign after the opening air attacks. The lack of anti-aircraft artillery in the Polish Army magnified the impact of the Ju Troop trains were also easy targets. StG 77 destroyed one such target at Radomsko.

Demoralised, the Poles surrendered. The Stukas also participated in the Battle of Bzura which resulted in the breaking of Polish resistance. The Luftwaffe had a few anti-shipping naval units such as 4. This unit performed effectively, sinking the ton destroyer Wicher and the minelayer Gryf of the Polish Navy both moored in a harbour. The Polish naval units trapped in the Baltic were destroyed by Ju 87 operations. Once again, enemy air opposition was light, and the Stukawaffe Stuka force lost 31 aircraft during the campaign.

Denmark capitulated within the day; Norway continued to resist with British and French help.

Instead, the Germans relied on paratroops transported by Junkers Ju 52s and specialised ski troops. The Ju 87s were given the role of ground attack and anti-shipping missions; they proved to be the most effective weapon in the Luftwaffe's armoury carrying out the latter task. On 9 April, the first Stukas took off at As a result, the German naval operation failed. The Stukas had numerous successes against Allied naval vessels and in particular the Royal Navy which posed a formidable threat to German naval and coastal operations.

The heavy cruiser Suffolk was attacked on 17 April. Her stern was virtually destroyed but she limped back to Scapa Flow with 33 dead and 38 wounded crewmen. The light cruiser squadron consisting of the sister ships Curacoa and Curlew were subjected to lengthy attacks which badly damaged the former for one Ju 87 lost. A witness later said, "they threatened to take our masthead with them in every screaming nerve-racking dive".

On 27 April, a bomb passed through the quarterdeck, a wardroom, a water tank and 4-inch The muffled explosion limited the damage to her hull. Black Swan fired 1, rounds, but failed to shoot any of her attackers down. Bison ' s forward magazine was hit, killing of the crew. Afridi , which attempted to rescue Bison ' s survivors, was sunk with the loss of 63 sailors. Armed trawlers were used under the German air umbrella in an attempt to make smaller targets. Such craft were not armoured or armed. The Ju 87s demonstrated this on 30 April when they sank the Jardine tons and Warwickshire tons.

On 15 May, the Polish troopship Chrobry 11, tons was sunk. The Stukas also had an operational effect, even when little damage was done. The carriers mounted fighter patrols over the ships evacuating troops from Andalsnes. The Stuka waves accompanied by He s achieved several near misses, but were unable to obtain a hit. Nevertheless, Wells ordered that no ship was to operate within range of the Ju 87s' Norwegian airfields. The Ju 87s had, in effect, driven British sea power from the Norwegian coast. Moreover, Victor reported to the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet Admiral, Charles Forbes , that carrier operations were no longer practical under the current conditions.

In the following weeks, StG 1 continued their sea operations. The Ju 87s then took to bombing the town and the airstrip to support the German forces under the command of Eduard Dietl. The town fell in the first week of May. In the remaining four weeks of the campaign in Norway, the Ju 87s supported German forces in containing the Allied land forces in Narvik until they withdrew in early June.

The Ju 87 units had learned lessons from the Polish and Norwegian campaigns. The failures of Poland and the Stukas of I. This was to pay off in the Western campaign. The Stuka demonstrated its accuracy when the small building was destroyed by four direct hits. As a result, only one of the three bridges was destroyed, allowing the German Army to rapidly advance in the opening days of the Battle of Belgium. In pitched battles against French armoured forces at Hannut and Gembloux Ju 87s effectively neutralised artillery and armour.

The Ju 87s also assisted German forces in the Battle of the Netherlands. The British Valentine was crippled, beached and scuttled while Winchester , Whitley and Westminster were damaged.

Whitley was later beached and scuttled after an air attack on 19 May. The Ju 87 units were also instrumental in the Battle of France. It was here that most of the Ju equipped units were concentrated. They assisted in the breakthrough at Sedan , the critical and first major land battle of the war on French territory. The Stukawaffe flew sorties against French positions, with StG 77 alone flying individual missions.

The Ju 87s benefited from heavy fighter protection from Messerschmitt Bf units. During the battles of Montcornet , Arras , Bolougne and Calais the Ju 87 operations broke-up counterattacks and offered pin-point aerial artillery support for German infantry. The Luftwaffe benefited from excellent ground-to-air communications throughout the campaign. Radio equipped forward liaison officers could call upon the Stukas and direct them to attack enemy positions along the axis of advance. In some cases the Stukas responded in 10—20 minutes. Oberstleutnant Hans Seidemann Richthofen's Chief of Staff said that "never again was such a smoothly functioning system for discussing and planning joint operations achieved".

During the Battle of Dunkirk , many Allied ships were lost to Ju 87 attacks as the British Operation Dynamo sought to evacuate British and French armies from the pocket. The Ju 87s operated to maximum effectiveness when the weather allowed. RAF fighter units were held back and Allied air cover was patchy at best. On 29 May the Royal Navy destroyer H. Grenade was severely damaged by a Ju 87 attack within Dunkirk's harbour, and subsequently sank. The French destroyer Mistral was crippled by bomb damage the same day. Jaguar and Verity were badly damaged while the trawlers Calvi and Polly Johnson and tons disintegrated under bombardment.

The merchant ship Fenella 2, tons was sunk having taken on soldiers. The attacks brought the evacuation to a halt for a time. The rail ships Lorina and Normannia 1, and 1, tons were sunk also. Whitehall was later badly damaged and along with Ivanhoe , staggered back to Dover. Havant , commissioned for just three weeks, was sunk and in the evening the French destroyer Foudroyant sank after a mass-attack.

Further victories against shipping were claimed before nightfall on 1 June. The steamer Pavon was lost while carrying 1, Dutch soldiers most of whom were killed. The oil tanker Niger was also destroyed. A flotilla of French minesweepers were also lost— Denis Papin tons , the Le Moussaillon tons and Venus tons. In total, 89 merchantmen of , grt were lost, and the Royal Navy lost 29 of its 40 destroyers used in the battle 8 sunk, 23 damaged and out of service.

Allied air power had been ineffective and disorganised, and as a result, Stuka losses were mainly due to ground fire. For the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe's Order of battle included bomber wings equipped with the Ju Lehrgeschwader 2 's IV. St , Sturzkampfgeschwader 1's III. Gruppe and Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 's III. Gruppe, Sturzkampfgeschwader 51 and Sturzkampfgeschwader 3's I. Gruppe were committed to the battle. As an anti-shipping weapon, the Ju 87 proved a potent weapon in the early stages of the battle. On 4 July , StG 2 made a successful attack on a convoy in the English Channel , sinking four freighters: Britsum , Dallas City , Deucalion and Kolga.

Six more were damaged. That afternoon, 33 Ju 87s delivered the single most deadly air assault on British territory in history, when 33 Ju 87s of III. Mantle continued to fire on the Stukas as the ship sank. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for remaining at his post despite being mortally wounded.

Mantle may have been responsible for the single Ju 87 lost during the raid. During August, the Ju 87s also had some success.

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On 13 August the opening of the main German attacks on airfields took place; it was known to the Luftwaffe as Adlertag "Eagle Day". The attack killed the station commander, destroyed 20 RAF aircraft on the ground and a great many of the airfield's buildings. The Battle of Britain proved for the first time that the Junkers Ju 87 was vulnerable in hostile skies against well-organised and determined fighter opposition. The Ju 87, like other dive bombers, was slow and possessed inadequate defences. Furthermore, it could not be effectively protected by fighters because of its low speed, and the very low altitudes at which it ended its dive bomb attacks.

The Stuka depended on air superiority, the very thing being contested over Britain. It was withdrawn from attacks on Britain in August after prohibitive losses, leaving the Luftwaffe without precision ground-attack aircraft. Steady losses had occurred throughout their participation in the battle. On 18 August, known as the Hardest Day because both sides suffered heavy losses, the Stuka was withdrawn after 16 were destroyed and many others damaged.

Fliegerkorps moved up from their bases around Cherbourg-Octeville and concentrated in the Pas de Calais under Luftflotte 2 , closer to the area of the proposed invasion of Britain. Over the next 10 days, seven merchant ships were sunk or damaged, mainly in the Thames Estuary , for the loss of four Ju 87s. G 1 with escort drawn from JG 26 and JG 51 went out against another convoy; as no targets were found over the estuary, the Stukas proceeded to attack Dover , their alternate target.

Bad weather resulted in a decline of anti-shipping operations, and before long the Ju 87 groups began re-deploying to Poland, as part of the concealed build-up for Operation Barbarossa. By spring , only St. G 1 with 30 Ju 87s remained facing the United Kingdom. Operations on a small scale continued throughout the winter months into March. Targets included ships at sea, the Thames Estuary, the Chatham naval dockyard and Dover and night-bomber sorties made over the Channel. These attacks were resumed the following winter.

In response to the Italian defeats in Greece and North Africa , the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ordered the deployment of German forces to these theatres. Amongst the Luftwaffe contingent deployed was the command unit StG 3, which touched down in Sicily in December In the next few days, two groups - 80 Stukas - were deployed under X. The first task of the Korps was to attack British shipping passing between Sicily and Africa, in particular the convoys aimed at re-supplying Malta.

The crews were confident that they could sink it as the flight deck had an area of about 6, square metres. The Ju 87s delivered six and three damaging near-misses but the ship's engines were untouched and she made for the besieged harbour of Malta. The Italian Regia Aeronautica was equipped for a while with the Stukas. Italian pilots were sent to Graz in Austria to be trained for dive-bombing aircraft. The Picchiatelli were used against Malta , Allied convoys in Mediterranean and in North Africa where they took part in conquering Tobruk.

They were used by the Regia Aeronautica up to Some of the Picchiatelli saw action in the opening phase of the Italian invasion of Greece in October Their numbers were low and ineffective in comparison to German operations. The Italian forces were quickly pushed back. By early , the Greeks had pushed into Italian occupied Albania. Once again, Hitler decided to send military aid to his ally.

The British gunboat Cricket and supply submarine Cachalot became victims. The former was crippled and later sunk by Italian warships. In March, the pro-German Yugoslav government was toppled. A furious Hitler ordered the attack to be expanded to include Yugoslavia. Operation Marita commenced on 7 April. The Luftwaffe committed StG 1, 2 and 77 to the campaign.

Operating unmolested, they took a heavy toll of ground forces, suffering only light losses to ground fire. The effectiveness of the dive bombers helped bring about Yugoslav capitulation in ten days. The Stukas also took a peripheral part in Operation Punishment , Hitler's retribution bombing of Belgrade.

The dive bombers were to attack airfields and anti-aircraft gun positions as the level bombers struck civilian targets. Belgrade was badly damaged, with 2, people killed and 12, injured. In Greece, despite British aid, little air opposition was encountered. As the Allies withdrew and resistance collapsed, the Allies began evacuating to Crete. The Stukas inflicted severe damage on Allied shipping. In the next two days, the Greek naval base at Piraeus lost 23 vessels to Stuka attack. During the Battle of Crete , the Ju 87s also played a significant role.

The Stukas were called upon to deal with the British naval threat. The dive bomber wing supported Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel 's Afrika Korps in its two-year campaign in North Africa; its other main task was attacking Allied shipping. As the tide turned and Allied air power grew in the autumn of , the Ju 87 became very vulnerable and losses were heavy. The entry of the Americans into North Africa during Operation Torch made the situation far worse; the Stuka was obsolete in what was now a fighter-bomber's war. The Bf and Fw could at least fight enemy fighters on equal terms after dropping their ordnance but the Stuka could not.

By , the Allies enjoyed air supremacy in North Africa. The Ju 87s ventured out in Rotte strength only, often jettisoning their bombs at the first sight of enemy aircraft. After that, the Stukas were on their own. The dive bombers continued operations in southern Europe; after the Italian surrender in September , the Ju 87 participated in the last campaign-sized victory over the Western Allies , the Dodecanese Campaign.

StG 3; from 17 October on Rhodes , to recover the islands. On 31 October the light cruiser Aurora was put out of action for a year. The light cruisers Penelope and Carlisle were badly damaged by StG 3 and the destroyer Panther was also sunk by Ju 87s before the capitulation of the Allied force. It proved to be the Stuka's final victory against the British. The Luftwaffe order of battle of 22 June contained four dive bomber wings. Also included were Stab , I.

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