Germany’s shrieking Ju 87 dive bomber lingered in the mind as a truly dreaded air weapon. The Stuka Terror By Rebecca Grant

imultaneously, like some birds of by the crash of bombs and the shriek of sailors, airmen, and civilians alike. This prey, they fall upon their victim dive bombers.” left a deep impression that has persisted and release their load of bombs The bridgehead across the Meuse to this day. upon the target. ... Everything was secure by nightfall. German tanks The Stuka was the war’s pre-eminent becomes blended together; along crossed the next day. The blitzkrieg into dive bomber. It scored hits on targets “Swith the howling sirens of the Stukas in France was on. ranging from artillery to aircraft carriers. their dives, the bombs whistle and crack This was not the Stuka’s first successful Its deadly cluster munitions tore through and burst.” operation in World War II. Nor would it troop concentrations herded together by The time was May 1940. The diarist be the last. the lightning-fast drives of the Panzer was one Sergeant Pruemers who, as part The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber infantry and tanks. Stukas sank ships from of Germany’s 1st Panzer Division, was at lingers in the mind as one of the icons the English Channel to the Black Sea. On that moment buttoned down and waiting of Nazi Germany’s military machine. the Eastern Front, the German aircraft’s to strike westward across the Meuse River “Stuka” was the diminutive of Sturzkampf- 37 mm cannon ripped up Soviet armor at and into the heart of France. flugzeug, German for “diving combat a prodigious rate. The German air attack went like aircraft.” It was unique. Although its time The Stuka was probably the most ter- clockwork. Luftwaffe historian Wil- of dominance lasted only four years—the rifying warplane of the war. For all that, liamson Murray, describing the event period 1939-43—its low-altitude attacks though, it was not a quest for terror that that unfolded on that day, wrote, “Con- were witnessed by millions. lay at the root of its design; it was techni- tinuous Stuka attacks on French reserv- From train sidings in Poland to the cal ingenuity. ists holding the line had a devastating beaches of Dunkirk, from the head of In Hitler’s stealthy rearmament effort effect.” France’s infantrymen, according Rommel’s columns in North Africa to the in the 1930s, the German Air Ministry to a French general who witnessed the vast steppes of Soviet Russia, the Stuka had no choice but to commit to bomber scene, “cowered in their trenches, dazed rained down terror on enemy soldiers, types that could be put into production 66 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2008 he was no great shakes of an administrator, blowing a bridge over the Vistula. After he saw great potential in the dive bomber that failure, though, the Stukas racked for precision attack. up success after success. Attacks against By this point, the Stuka prototype was encircled Polish forces and on Poland’s outperforming its competition. One of the cities stunned the world. most remarkable features of the Stuka Above all, it was the fine-tuned coor- was its automatic dive bombing system. dination of Stuka air attacks with ground Pilots set a predetermined release altitude maneuver that impressed. The Luftwaffe Photos from the collection of JohnWeal for their bombs. As they peeled off from had learned the value of coordination formation and pitched over into their with the ground forces during operations dives, the system engaged as soon as the in Spain. The Stuka Terror dive brakes extended. “By the time war engulfed Europe, Stuka pilots dove at close to 90 de- this German close air support system set grees and adjusted position with aileron the standard for its time,” wrote historian control while watching target indicator John Schlight. Chief architect of this air- lines painted on the canopy. At release ground coordination system was Gen. height, the contact altimeter triggered a Wolfram F. von Richthofen, a cousin of cockpit light and the pilot would release Manfred, the famed Red Baron of World the bombs. This release would re-engage War I. Richthofen had seen much action the elevator trim tab, bringing the tail in Spain as a combat commander and staff down and pulling the Stuka out of its officer for the Kondor Legion. He took dive. Aircrews experienced about six Gs command of the force in May 1939 and at the dive’s completion. led them into action against Poland. Next on the list for the Stukas was the That Howl Overhead invasion of Norway. Airborne paratroops The Stuka soon had reached a service relied on it as true flying artillery. Stukas ceiling of 26,000 feet and a range of more also claimed Norwegian, British, and than 370 miles. French warships in the few short weeks The attack aircraft sported two wing- of the northern campaign. mounted machine guns along with a Then came Case Yellow—Germany’s third gun installed in the rear cockpit. conquest of France. Typically, the early Stukas carried either On May 10, 1940, Hitler launched one 500-pound-class bomb or one 250- his attack westward in Europe. German pound bomb on the centerline bomb crutch Army Group B attacked Belgium in the and two 50-pound bombs on each wing. Ardennes to draw in the Allies, while Army Often, these smaller bombs were filled Group A crossed through Luxembourg with cluster-type munitions. and southern Belgium. Their plan was to Two Ju 87 Stukas during the Later Stuka models were equipped with drive in a wedge, cross the Meuse, then fateful summer of 1940. a 37 mm cannon for low-altitude attacks sweep through open country to encircle on tanks on the Eastern Front. Another and roll up Allied forces. “All depended variant, the Ju 87R, had underwing fuel on gaining the open country on the other relatively quickly. A precision dive bomber tanks to extend its range so that it could side, where speedy maneuver would bring fit the bill, and Junkers had one—a pro- reach out and strike Allied ships at sea. total victory,” wrote historian Matthew totype called the K 47. This mono-wing How did the Stuka create its trade- Cooper. attack airplane boasted a diving envelope mark—that terrifying howl? It was pur- The Stuka attacks were a big part of ranging from zero to 90 degrees. Due to posely designed into the aircraft. When the this effort to gain speed. German in- treaty restrictions, the Junkers K 47 was Stuka went into its dive, a powerful rush of fantry began to cross the Meuse on the assembled in Sweden. air would push through a specially built si- afternoon of May 13, 1940. The Stuka In the period 1931-34, the Junkers ren, activating the blood-curdling scream. barrage watched by Pruemers was part design team members experimented with The idea was to maximize the panic on of a coordinated air-ground offensive K 47 configurations. Early trials demon- the ground below, and it worked. against the sparse defensive positions on strated that a dive bomber could be very It wasn’t long before the Stuka made its the other side. On the Meuse, the Stukas precise—but the aircraft gave up a lot combat debut. A handful of Ju 87 variants pummeled French artillery and infantry, to get that precision. The design trades saw action in the Spanish Civil War in the while the German infantry performed an would earn the Stuka its reputation, but late 1930s as part of the Kondor Legion. astonishing river crossing. also sow the seeds of its undoing. However, it was not until Sept. 1, 1939 According to historian Murray, Panzer A Stuka prototype—powered, strangely that the world got unforgettable exposure commander Lt. Gen. Heinz Guderian enough, by a Rolls Royce engine—began to the Third Reich’s extraordinary dive carefully devised a plan with Fliegerkorps flight tests in September 1935 and was bomber. On that day, no fewer than nine II commander Lt. Gen. Bruno Loerzer. almost canceled in 1936. It was saved Stuka groups comprising more than 330 They organized Luftwaffe support to by the timely intervention of World War aircraft struck Poland with devastating come in waves while their infantry made I German ace Ernst Udet, who pressed surprise dawn attacks. the crossing. Luftwaffe fighters kept the for its continued development. Udet was In the beginning, Stukas tried and French Armee de l’Air and forward RAF heading up the Technical Office. Though failed to prevent Poland’s forces from at bay. AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2008 67 The Ju 87R, pictured here in the Norwegian campaign, was equipped with under- wing fuel tanks to extend its range—all the better to terrorize shipping lanes.

Richthofen’s tight coordination of air The Stukas were not the most plentiful As flying pinpoint bombers, the Stuka and ground operations paid off. More of Germany’s light and medium bombing needed undefended airspace to operate. than 1,500 German aircraft were used in force, rarely numbering more than 300 When the slow and highly vulnerable continuous offensives. Stukas attacked, or 400 aircraft for any campaign. Other Stukas met fighters, it was all over. The rearmed, and attacked again. According Luftwaffe medium bombers did as much or top speed of the early Stukas was around to one source, Stuka pilots flew up to nine more damage, but the Stuka was the prime 190 mph, compared with a 336 mph for sorties per day during the drive across and platform for precision and terror. the Hawker Hurricane and 408 mph for beyond the Meuse. the Supermarine Spitfire. The noise of the low-altitude dives Failure Over Britain On Aug. 18, British ace Flight Lt. Frank ensured that everyone knew what the The effectiveness came with a price. R. Carey led nine Hawker Hurricane Stukas were doing. Tactics called for Nearly 30 percent of the dive bomber fighters head on into a large formation loitering then diving in succession, force was destroyed in operations in May of Stukas attempting to attack the radar making the attack aircraft highly visible and June 1940. Often the Stukas were station at Poling on the southeast coast and fearsome. Stukas worked just ahead dispatched with a covering force of fight- of England. of ground units. Some found a French ers, but the RAF quickly learned to pick “I fired at one ahead of me—it stood tank regiment under the command of off the Stukas first. Ground anti-aircraft straight up on its nose with flames com- Col. Charles de Gaulle, who was trying fire also took its toll. ing out of it,” said Carey. The British to organize a counterattack on May 17, The Stukas were a key part of Nazi destroyed 16 Ju 87Bs in that attack and repeatedly attacked the unit. Germany’s plan to knock out the RAF alone. Carey went on to bag 25 kills Luftwaffe fighters succeeded in keeping fighter force for an invasion of England, and become the RAF’s second highest- the airspace clear for the relatively slow but the slow-flying Stukas suffered when scoring Hurricane ace. Stukas. “The enemy fighters appeared they tried to step out of the battlefield Despite Goering’s ambitions, the Stuka less and less, so that the Stukas could fly support role and move up to a more did not play a significant role in the Battle without fighter cover and could themselves strategic task. of Britain after August. Without air su- hunt freely,” recorded one German officer, Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering periority, the audacious dive bombing Lt. Dieter Peltz. “Sometimes it was sheer wanted especially to use the Stuka’s never got going. Fifty-nine of the dive target practice.” pinpoint accuracy against RAF radar sta- bombers were lost to enemy action from Ten days later, retreating Allied Forces tions and masts called the Chain Home July through September 1940. were falling back on the last remaining system. It had proved nearly impossible The Luftwaffe soon gave up on attempts open Channel port—Dunkirk. Stuka at- to take down. at precision and switched to night bomb- tacks shattered Dunkirk’s port facilities, By Aug. 13, the Battle of Britain was ing of London and other cities. then terrorized Allied ships attempting to raging at its peak. The biggest Stuka Conditions were soon more favor- rescue the remains of the force from the success of this campaign came late that able for the Stuka in the East. Free to beaches. One British merchant captain day. operate without facing enemy fighters, wrote of how the concussion from Stuka At around 5 p.m., a hundred Me 109s the Stuka was a major part of Hitler’s bombs roiled the waters as they attempted flew ahead of 80 Stukas. The bombers punishment attacks on Yugoslavia in the to load evacuees. Stukas sank several ships decimated the airfield at Detling, in Kent, spring of 1941. Raids on Belgrade etched during the evacuation and unleashed clus- hitting workshops, mess halls, and more the screaming bomber deeper into the ter munitions on troops jammed together. than 20 aircraft on the ground. Yet, no European psyche. Since the Stuka dove and released at low RAF fighters were destroyed in the raid, Ruth Mitchell, sister of Brig. Gen. altitude, the shrieking dive bomber and its and the British were about to get rich William Mitchell, was a photographer effects were easy for all to see. revenge on the Stukas. on assignment in Belgrade in April 1941. 68 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2008 production run for the Stuka was small The Ultimate Stuka Pilot by World War II standards at just 5,752 In the beginning, Hans-Ulrich Rudel was just another Stuka pilot, flying his aircraft.) first missions as the invasion of Russia began on June 22, 1941. He soon On the Eastern Front, the Stuka would became special. Part of an elite unit, Rudel learned fast and distinguished earn a new battlefield reputation. himself in September 1941 when he sank the Soviet battleship Marat near At first, the Stukas reveled in the lack Leningrad harbor using a specially designed 2,000-pound bomb. of Soviet air opposition. Soviet soldiers On another occasion, he hit more than 70 landing craft in the water. Rudel called it “the screecher.” would go on to fly 2,350 missions, most in the Stuka. Official Luftwaffe records Stuka pilots helped bring Germany’s credited him with destroying more than 1,000 ground vehicles, including a 66 divisions to within 25 miles of mind-boggling 519 tanks. Moscow. When winter set in, however, “Think about that number. It’s nearly three entire tank divisions. Wiped out things changed dramatically. “Engines by one man,” noted one commentator. The score for the Luftwaffe’s No. 2 tank killer? Sixty tanks. no longer start, everything is frozen stiff, Rudel and the Stuka were the perfect match. He was a phenomenon no hydraulic apparatus functions; to rely who relished flying on the deck. His scores mounted when Ju 87Gs were on any technical instrument is suicide,” delivered to the Russian front in numbers in 1943. Rudel’s style was to fire wrote a young Stuka pilot Hans-Ulrich a single 37 mm round into the vulnerable rear turret area of the T34 with Rudel, a standout Stuka tactician. the aplomb of an assassin. By 1942, the Soviet Air Force was re- His toughness was the stuff of legend. Rudel was shot down many times covering, and dive bombing at nearly a 90 but repeatedly evaded capture. After being hit in the thigh in November 1944, degree angle was turning just as suicidal he flew with his leg in a cast. Late in the war, he also flew the FW 190 and as flying with frozen instruments. was credited with 11 aerial victories. As a result, the Stuka now went through Rudel’s luck almost ran out in February 1945. He was again hit, this time in the foot, and crash-landed within German lines. A doctor stopped the a major change in tactics that turned it bleeding but Rudel’s leg was amputated below the knee. into a tank killer. The Stuka was rigged He was fitted with an artificial leg and resumed flying in late March with removable 37 mm cannon mounted 1945. under the wings. Instead of dive bomb- Under the sympathetic guidance of the Nazi propaganda machine, Rudel ing, the Stuka came in at treetop height became a popular hero and was lauded as the “Eagle of the Eastern Front.” to blast Soviet T34 tanks. These sniper- By the end of the war, he was the most decorated German combatant of style tactics paid off handsomely for the any discipline—land, sea, or air. Germans. The modified Stuka took on a Rudel flew his final sortie on May 8, 1945, the day the war in Europe ended. new designation, the Ju 87G-1. A mixed flight of Stukas and FW 190s escaped by air to the American lines Veteran Stuka pilots would tally armor to surrender, avoiding the Soviets, who had put a price on his head. He was also a Nazi to the core. He fled to Argentina in 1948, but soon kills numbering in the thousands. Ger- returned to start a business career in Germany. The success of Rudel’s man pilots on the Eastern Front racked memoir Stuka Pilot extended his reputation and stands out as a firsthand up massive kills in the Stuka because of technical account of the Stuka in low-altitude ground attack. Rudel died in their skill and the plentiful targets—but Bavaria in 1982. also because they had no chance of going home, a fact that undoubtedly led the pilots to take more chances. On the deck, the gun pods added weight She later wrote about the Stuka and her Next the Stuka—along with the cream to its already sluggish performance. By experience in the bombings in her 1943 of the German Army—moved on Rus- 1944, it took standouts such as Rudel, book The Serbs Choose War. sia. who was soon to be known as the Stuka As many as 74 Stukas took part in ace, to compensate for the Stuka’s by first wave of the bombing of Belgrade. Barbarossa now well-known limitations. Other fighter Mitchell hid under the stairs of her house. Operation Barbarossa began on June aircraft, such as as an armored variant of Explosions followed and then “with a 22, 1941. The Luftwaffe destroyed 1,200 the FW 190, took on more of the close weird smooth sound, like the tearing of aircraft, most on the ground, in a mere support role. Some Stuka units shifted to silk, the neighboring houses started to eight hours. night operations. collapse,” she later wrote. Against land armies left with no air The Stuka reign of terror was over, but Then came the second wave. “Again cover, the Stuka excelled. The Germans the gull-wing bomber stayed in action until the bombs were falling, thick and fast, had just 424 Stukas out of a total of the bitter end as the Allied militaries slowly and on and on,” wrote Mitchell. “Now far, over 4,000 aircraft, but again their terror but relentlessly rolled back the Germans then near, the Stukas shrieked.” Bombing outstripped their numbers. (The overall to bring World War II to an end. ■ went on for two days. Soon after that, the Stukas helped knock the British out of Crete. The RAF had Rebecca Grant is a senior fellow of the Lexington Institute and president of IRIS only a few fighters to oppose the aerial Independent Research. She has written extensively on airpower and serves as director, Mitchell Institute, for AFA. Her most recent article for Air Force Magazine onslaught and paratroop landings. A Stuka was “The All-Seeing Air Force,” which appeared in the September issue. unit under the command of veteran pilot Col. Oskar Dinort sank three cruisers and eight destroyers and damaged 13 other British ships in the week following the seizure of Crete’s airfield. AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2008 69