Ju-87 Stuka

Perhaps these were all rear gunner kills (not that that makes them any less impressive as killing a fast moving fighter with a pair of rifle-caliber machine guns would seem to be no easy task.

Entitled, Junkers Ju-87 Stukageschwader of the Russian Front, it gave a very good account of the war that the Stuka fought against the Soviets. If you have any interest in the Eastern Front or the Stuka itself I highly recommend it.

…thanks a lot. While usually well written I find John Weal’s Osprey books a little light weight. I assume you don’t have Holger Nauroth’s Stukageschwader 2 Immelmann book – that’s a 300 page A-4 hardback…have you looked at the two volumes recently published by Classic/Ian Allan or the three volumes from Kagero devoted to the Stuka..?

If you were daft enough to plonk yourself in front of one, I suppose it’s possible…

Appreciating German technology does not make anyone a nazi 😀

Regarding the combat victory, I can see how an rookie pilot might have gotten too close to that rear gun (even if only 7.92)…:eek:

Killing a plane on approach, or a straggler, is also considered a kill. When the Stukas (Stukai? 😀 ) were used in the early blitz krieg warfare, its likely they would have caught more than a few pilots unprepared and gotten a few air to air kills that way.

Hans-Ulrich Rudel shot down 9 aircraft in his career. As he flew mostly Stuka, I would assume that some of these were from within a Ju-87. However, Im sure the forumites will correct this if incorrect.

A P-39……..he must have been drunk 😉

Originally posted by PhantomII
I believe toward the break in the “gull wing” the Stuka had a fairly thick aerofoil so room for cannons (especially with only one in each wing) is feasable I’d say.

Here’s a screenshot of the Ju-87G and then below it the Ju-87D from the flight simulation called Fighter Ace 3.5.

Does anyone know how good that game is?

I want to get a good WWII flight sim and preferably one with the Ju-87 and Bf-110 (in addition to my obvious requirement of the P-40), and I’ve found out that both Il-2 Forgotten Battles and Fighter Ace 3.5 fill all my requirements.

Can anyone help? Keep in mind I’m pretty much a single-player person, and I don’t do the online gaming stuff anymore (used to with Jane’s Fighters Anthology….what a great game!).

Ju-87G

Ju-87D

NOTES: Notice in the first screenshot the Ju-87G is firing one machine gun from the starboard wing. However there appears to be a port for a gun on the port wing as well. Since some G models were D conversions this could make sense (perhaps the port gun was removed), but were all G models conversions. If not, I wonder why they would still have a gun port on the left side?

Granted I know it’s a just a game, but flight sims can be remarkably accurate sometimes, and from what I can tell this one (Fighter Ace 3.5) is fairly accurate.

The Ju-87D in the lower screenshot also has gun ports though they aren’t being fired in this particular shot.

Just some food for thought I guess.

Try the IL2 Forgotten battles ,it may also have the ME110 in the expansion pack due out later this year.

http://www.il2sturmovik.com/

http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/6/ubb.x?a=cfrm&s=400102&f=25910613 😀

I saw a bit of this last night, and it looked like archive footage.

I hope they don’t remake these films – they’re classics in their own right without the need to re-do them!

Thank’s for that. I have always wondered what their eventual fate was.

I spotted a Stuka in a trailer for the BBC’s “Dunkirk” the other night (which I’m taping for later viewing). Are these shots done by CGI?

In fact, with CGI will we see a resurgance of interest in WW2 epics and maybe re-makes of such films as “The Longest Day” and “A Bridge Too Far”?

All the “Proctukas” were scrapped afterwards. The reason they were not used was because the wings weren’t strong enough to handle the trademark dives – hence the use of models.

They didn’t look too bad – there are pics of them around, but I haven’t got one 🙁

And there were the Stuka mock ups made from Percival Proctors for the film “Battle of Britain”. They weren’t used in the end – presumabley because the CAA refused permission. Instead, not too convincing models were used.

Does anyone know what happened to these replicas?

I thought the railway tunnel thing HAD been attempted??

Tony’s defined it very well. Thanks! 😉 The most famous example was the 617 Sqn Dam Busters raid, where by using quite complex systems (well docuented elsewhere) a bomb (or ‘mine’) was laid against the dam inside front.

Later, B-25 Mitchells used it in the Bismark Sea, and the Mosquitos converted to Highball (again well documented elsewhere – do a google if it’s new to you) were not quite ready when the war ended.

Most original attempts I vaguely recall were to skip a bomb into a railway tunnel!

Cheers

Skip bombing is practised at straight and VERY low level. The idea is that the bomb hits the ground (or sea) while still horizontal, so it skips off the surface and may continue skipping for some distance until it hits something. It was usually used against ships but also against tanks.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion
forum

Can someone enlighten me as to what skip bombinbg is please? I all know about is straight and level 😉

Originally posted by Tony Williams
Rudel flew around 400 sorties in an Fw 190, in which he shot down 11 planes. A brief biog is here: http://www.achtungpanzer.com/gen9.htm

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and Discussion forum

The 12th air victory was a P-39 with a single shot from the 37mm.

I think it is very important to admit when you are wrong. No, no, I do, really!

As PhantomII suspected the Stuka WAS used for skip bombing, and the story is very interesting. It was before the British or the Americans, and though Smith credits a French aviator, one La Burthe in the 1920 with the idea, it was in fact the Italian Stuka units, led by their Stuka ace Giuseppe Cenni who pioneered this anti-shipping technique in 1941.

The Italians came up with it as an alternative to the Stuka’s normal technique of overwhelming the ship(s) with multiple attacks at the same time – the Italian Stuka units were simply not big enough for this to work, and thus developed this little documented technique. (Ref: Stuka, Smith, 1861261772, pp124,5,6)

Though Smith is an unapologetic Stuka advocate, his book is well written and very readable – it also makes you realise how much of what we think we know of W.W.II history is propaganda, or anti-propoganda, either way rubbish and at varience with the facts. Highly recommended.

An apology offered PhantomII!;)
Cheers

Someone give a good re-cap on the various Stuka replicas and possible flying restorations please.

Just to say I met Glen yesterday at a location ‘somewhere in the UK’ from what he told me he seems quite serious about these aircraft & is spending some serious funds on them! Good luck to him, I hope he gets them back in the air!
Cheers………………….

Hi
In this months edition of Flypast Mag ther is some mention of a JU 87 coming from Russia but the status is not known. Has anyone heard any other details about this a/c and who and to what state it is to be restored??:confused: :confused:

My gran used to say “I want never gets” – what the hell does she know?? 😉

You have an idea of how much it is?

I’ve got so many books I want to get right now.

I want P-40 Warhawk Aces of the CBI

P-40 Warhawk Aces of the Pacific

(already got P-40 Warhawk Aces of the MTO and American Volunterr Group Colors & Markings)

I also want Bf-110 Zerstorer Aces of World War II

I also want the new Century Series fighters book from Airtime publishing (their Phantom book was AMAZING!…one of my better purchases).