![]() Stuka is short for one of those German freight-train words, Sturkampfflugzeug, which translates as “diving combat aircraft.” So to call a Ju-87 a Stuka was just like naming the P-51 “Fighter” or the B-17 “Bomber.” Nobody cares: The Ju-87 will forever remain the Stuka. “Stuka” became the Ju-87’s popular name, but it’s actually a generic term. His first move was to countermand that order, so the Stuka survived. But Udet certainly was a verticalbombing proponent, and his one important role in the Stuka’s development was that when RLM Technical Director Wolfram von Richthofen (the Red Baron’s cousin) canceled the Ju-87 program- Richthofen thought that a slow, cumbersome, diving Stuka would never survive the anti-aircraft guns toward which it was necessarily pointed-Udet happened the next day to be given Richthofen’s job. The Stuka design had already been finalized and was in mock-up form when Udet became enamored of the Curtiss, and he never did airshow bombing, just enthusiastic aerobatics. Well, not exactly, as the rental car commercials used to say. Thus the Stuka was born, with Udet thereafter credited as its “father.” Udet did divebombing demonstrations during airshows in Germany, the myth continues, and convinced the Luftwaffe that it would be a useful tactic. Hermann Göring, who wanted to entice Udet back into the reborn Luftwaffe, imported two export-version Hawk IIs for the ace’s use. Navy Curtiss F11C-2 Goshawk biplane dive bombers and was dazzled by their performance. Legend has it that when WWI ace Ernst Udet, then a civilian, attended the 1935 Cleveland Air Races, he saw some U.S. The Japanese actually bought and tested two Ju-87s before WWII, but placed no further orders- probably because their own Heinkel-influenced Aichi D3A1 “Val” dive bomber was already excellent, as Pearl Harbor would prove. ![]() In fact, it was Japanese interest in the tactic that led them to commission Heinkel to design a dive bomber to rival the American Curtiss F8C Helldiver, which became the He-50 biplane. and Japan experimented with diving delivery between the wars. The British were the first to try moderate-dive-angle attacks, during World War I, and both the U.S. Good hits were either on target or no more than 15 feet off-center.ĭive bombing was by no means a German invention, though they refined the tactic to a degree never seen before-or since. Republican anti-aircraft artillery was pretty primitive, so the Stukas bombed at will-as they were intended to-and even the worst drops typically landed within less than 100 feet of the target. When Bf-109Bs arrived on the scene, the Nationalist rebels soon claimed control of the air. ![]() The Spanish war did make it plain that the Ju-87 would be a useful weapon. Had Stukas been used to bomb the important bridge that was the primary target of the raid, the world would have long ago forgotten Guernica. ![]() It’s hard to cast a kindly light on any bomber, but the Ju-87 was designed to attack and destroy specific military targets, not civilians. The small Spanish market town of Guernica, the subject of Pablo Picasso’s famous antiwar painting, was bombed by Heinkel He-111s and Junkers Ju-52s, horizontal bombers heedlessly killing civilians as they carpet-bombed, exactly the kind of mission the Stuka was not intended to fly. Nine Ju-87s were also used at one time or another during the Spanish Civil War, but they were operated only occasionally and conservatively.Įven Spanish Nationalist pilots weren’t allowed near them, since they were still considered to be secret weapons. The Stuka’s ugly reputation was also influenced by the fact that the airplane is often envisioned-and frequently depicted in newsreels of the day-pummeling Warsaw and the Low Countries, its “Jericho Trompeten” sirens wailing. The Rolls-Royce Kestral-powered Ju-87 V-1 prototype first flew on September 17, 1935.
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