Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87 — the Stuka — was a German two-seat dive bomber that first flew in 1935 and fought from the Spanish Civil War to the end of the Second World War. In a steep dive it was exceptionally accurate, and where the Luftwaffe held air superiority it was devastating; slow and poorly armed, it was defenceless where it did not. Late versions hunted tanks on the Eastern Front. Only two intact examples survive.
Why It Mattered
The Ju 87 was the Stuka — its name an abbreviation of the German term for dive bomber — and it achieved notoriety in the Blitzkrieg triumphs of 1939–1940. Its weapon was accuracy: it delivered its bombs in a near-vertical dive, releasing them at low altitude, where no level bomber of the day could match its precision. First used in the Spanish Civil War, it was effective in Poland and France, where German forces operated largely in an environment of air superiority. Wind-driven sirens mounted on its fixed landing gear were fitted for psychological effect, adding fear to the damage its bombs did. Its fame outlasted its best years: it was driven from the Battle of Britain within months, yet it was used throughout the war.
Design Notes
The Ju 87 was designed by Hermann Pohlmann at Junkers and first flew in 1935. It was a two-seat, low-wing, single-engine monoplane, its double-spar inverted gull wing and fixed, spatted undercarriage making it recognisable at a glance. Louvred dive brakes beneath the wings slowed the dive, gave the pilot more time to aim, and ensured an automatic recovery at its foot. The main bomb hung beneath the fuselage on an arm that swung it down and out on release, so it cleared the propeller. Sirens fitted to the gear legs gave a distinctive and terrifying scream as the aircraft dived — noise made deliberately, as part of the weapon.
Operational History
The Ju 87 first saw action in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939, making its combat debut in 1937 with the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion. In Poland, the Low Countries and France it did the work it was built for, in skies the Luftwaffe largely controlled. Once France had fallen, its targets became Channel shipping, and then the coastal airfields and radar stations of southern England. Over Britain the story reversed: slow, poorly armed and highly vulnerable, the Stukas were slaughtered by RAF fighters. On 18 August, the worst day, 12 Ju 87s were shot down and many others damaged or written off; by the end of the month, losses to defending fighters had forced its withdrawal from the battle. It served on where the Luftwaffe still held the sky, and later in the war a specialist anti-armour version was produced, sent against the tank armies on the Russian Front. Production ran from 1936 to August 1944 and is estimated at 6,000 aircraft of all versions.
Afterlife
Only two intact original Stukas survive. The RAF Museum's example is a Ju 87G-2, serial 494083, on display in Hangar 5 of its London museum. The other is a Ju 87R-2/Trop held by the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. A few more Stuka wrecks are on display in Germany and Greece. The Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum is rebuilding an R-4 — shot down by Soviet fighters on a mission at Murmansk in April 1942, and recovered in the early 1990s — and it will be made airworthy. The American Heritage Museum is rebuilding a wreck that was lost on April 4, 1944, forced down on a frozen lake and recovered 77 years later, intending to fly it again.