Ju-87 siren & psychological warfare

Picture of the siren:

http://www.luchtoorlog.be/ju87b_f2.htm (Scroll down to 14th pic)

Caption says: “on this Stuka the siren is removed”.

Tillerman.

Personally I would have thought that by the time the Typhoons were operating over mainland europe, the morale of your average German soldier, was already at rock bottom; faced with certain death on the Russian front, or extreme hardship/certain defeat elsewhere, its hard to imagine a relatively small siren being as unsettling, as a wing full of rocket projectiles.

Royal Navy Blackburn Skuas only had a two-pitch airscrew so the engine tended to overspeed on the way down when dive bombing. I think it was Major R.T. Partridge RM who noted that while it added strain to the engine, there was nothing like a nice screaming prop to put the wind up one’s enemies. It was an effect that was noticed, but like the Stuka, the last thing the Skua needed was any more external protuberances slowing it down.

I’m sure Ive read that bomber crews would often fill the milk bottles before dropping them…….

I doubt the many of the bottles ever had milk in them at all :dev2:
A relative of mine was around a number of PBY crews, and had several stories about “alternetive bombing techiniques” involving the belly gunner and various bits of debris, 5 gallon fuel tins, grenades 😮 ect.

Matt

I’m sure Ive read that bomber crews would often fill the milk bottles before dropping them…….

I’ve read several times that they were more often than not removed from JU-87 as they slowed them down? Not stating as a fact, just something I read. As for the allies, didn’t they used to drop empty bottles on the early bombing raids raids at least to sound like bombs as they whistled on the way down?

In Alfred Price’s book ‘The Hardest Day’ The Battle Of Britain 18 August 1940, he states that by the start of the Battle Of Britain that most Stuka units had removed the sirens from their aircraft with a quote from Major Helmut Bode of Divebomber Geschwader 77 ‘They were already slow enough without that extra drag’. Since then some television programmes and films have led people to believe the dive bombers never went anywhere without them. The Blenheim crews were known to drop empty milk bottles to try to upset those below.

On 3rd August 1940 300 and 301 Squadrons were inspected by AM Sir Charles Portal at Bramcote and after a dive-bombing demonstration his staff remarked that the Poles “handled the Battles like Spitfires.” On 22nd August 300 Squadron moved to Swinderby where they fitted their Battles with sirens made by Robey of Lincoln. It was unofficial but they were installed without fuss, only causing concern when they made unannounced, dummy dive-bomb attacks on No 1 Group HQ whose staff sought shelter under desks thinking enemy bombers were overhead.

Japan used un manned balloons to attack the West coastal areas of North America, the actual damage caused was small but it grabbed the headlines.

One was found in Oregon by a minister’s family out for a pinic, they found it and tried to move it. It exploded killing the wife and several children.
That was reported in the the media.
Otherwise, there was a media blaclout so the Japanese would not know if their program worked and was worth the effort.
Others caused some small forest fires.
One (bomb or wildfire caused by a bomb) briefly disrupted power to the the Hanford Reservation in the Washington state desert which produced nuclear materials for the US atomic bomb program.

The primary effect of the baloon bomb project was to tie up a few fighter squadrons on the west coast.
Wherether they would have been they anyway to protect large cities and Seattle’s Boeing works, I don’t know.
My guess is that at that point in the war, the USAAF was so large, I doubt if a few P-38s and pilots based near Seattle had much effect on the war effort.

Japan used un manned balloons to attack the West coastal areas of North America, the actual damage caused was small but it grabbed the headlines.

No. That’s exactly what it didn’t do…there was an almost total and successful news blackout about it…so successful that the Japanese gave up as they didn’t believe any of the balloons had reached America.

The second part of the Ju 87 ” Good Morning Neighbours ” kit was of course tin whistles on the bombs.
I did see a suggested riposte in a contemporary U.K publication for a small metal tube with a crimped rubber reed over one end to be soldered to British Bombs.
Think about it.

Japan used un manned balloons to attack the West coastal areas of North America, the actual damage caused was small but it grabbed the headlines.

The Stuka used a siren on its wing…

Actually on it’s undercarriage…

…well that’s the nit-picking done…sensible post to follow…promise! 🙂

I’ve read several times that they were more often than not removed from JU-87 as they slowed them down? Not stating as a fact, just something I read. As for the allies, didn’t they used to drop empty bottles on the early bombing raids raids at least to sound like bombs as they whistled on the way down?