![]() ![]() Early trials demonstrated that a dive bomber could be very precise-but the aircraft gave up a lot to get that precision. In the period 1931-34, the Junkers design team members experimented with K 47 configurations. Due to treaty restrictions, the Junkers K 47 was assembled in Sweden. This mono-wing attack airplane boasted a diving envelope ranging from zero to 90 degrees. A precision dive bomber fit the bill, and Junkers had one-a prototype called the K 47. In Hitler’s stealthy rearmament effort in the 1930s, the German Air Ministry had no choice but to commit to bomber types that could be put into production relatively quickly. For all that, though, it was not a quest for terror that lay at the root of its design it was technical ingenuity. The Stuka was probably the most terrifying warplane of the war. Two Ju 87 Stukas during the fateful summer of 1940.(Photos from the collection of John Weal) This left a deep impression that has persisted to this day. ![]() Although its time of dominance lasted only four years-the period 1939-43-its low-altitude attacks were witnessed by millions.įrom train sidings in Poland to the beaches of Dunkirk, from the head of Rommel’s columns in North Africa to the vast steppes of Soviet Russia, the Stuka rained down terror on enemy soldiers, sailors, airmen, and civilians alike. “Stuka” was the diminutive of Sturzkampfflugzeug, German for “diving combat aircraft.” It was unique. The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber lingers in the mind as one of the icons of Nazi Germany’s military machine. This was not the Stuka’s first successful operation in World War II. The bridgehead across the Meuse was secure by nightfall. ![]() Luftwaffe historian Williamson Murray, describing the event that unfolded on that day, wrote, “Continuous Stuka attacks on French reservists holding the line had a devastating effect.” France’s infantrymen, according to a French general who witnessed the scene, “cowered in their trenches, dazed by the crash of bombs and the shriek of dive bombers.” The German air attack went like clockwork. ![]()
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