[AIRCRAFT IDENTIFICATION FILM JUNKER JU-87 & JU-88 STUKA DIVE BOMBER ]

One of a series of films made during WWII for aircraft spotters, anti-aircraft gun crews, and aircraft pilots and crews, this film details how to spot the Luftwaffe's Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber and Ju-88 fighter / bomber. The film uses a combination of animation and motion picture footage to show the aircraft's operation, describe its mission, and show its characteristics. Many of the animated segments in films like this were made by the Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers Animation. The Junkers Ju 88 was a German World War II Luftwaffe twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called Schnellbomber (fast bomber) that would be too fast for fighters of its era to intercept. It suffered from a number of technical problems during its development and early operational periods but became one of the most versatile combat aircraft of the war. Like a number of other Luftwaffe bombers, it served as a bomber, dive bomber, night fighter, torpedo bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, heavy fighter and at the end of the war, as a flying bomb. Despite protracted development, it became one of the Luftwaffe's most important aircraft. The assembly line ran constantly from 1936 to 1945 and more than 16,000 Ju 88s were built in dozens of variants, more than any other twin-engine German aircraft of the period. Throughout production the basic structure of the aircraft remained unchanged The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka (from Sturzkampfflugzeug, "dive bomber") is a German dive bomber and ground-attack aircraft. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann, it first flew in 1935. The Ju 87 made its combat debut in 1937 with the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War and served the Axis forces in World War II. The aircraft was easily recognizable by its inverted gull wings and fixed spatted undercarriage. Upon the leading edges of its faired main gear legs were mounted the Jericho-Trompete (Jericho trumpet) wailing sirens, becoming the propaganda symbol of German air power and the blitzkrieg victories of 1939–1942. The Stuka's design included several innovative features, including automatic pull-up dive brakes under both wings to ensure that the aircraft recovered from its attack dive even if the pilot blacked out from the high g-forces. The Stuka operated with considerable success in close air support and anti-shipping at the outbreak of World War II. It spearheaded the air assaults in the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Stukas were crucial in the rapid conquest of Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France in 1940. Although sturdy, accurate, and very effective against ground targets, the Stuka was vulnerable to contemporary fighter aircraft, like many other dive bombers of the war. During the Battle of Britain its lack of maneuverability, speed and defensive armament meant that it required a heavy fighter escort to operate effectively. After the Battle of Britain the Stuka operated with further success in the Balkans Campaign, the African and Mediterranean theaters and the early stages of the Eastern Front where it was used for general ground support, as an effective specialized anti-tank aircraft and in an anti-shipping role. Once the Luftwaffe lost air superiority, the Stuka became an easy target for enemy fighter aircraft on all fronts. It was produced until 1944 for lack of a better replacement. By the end of the war ground-attack versions of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 had largely replaced the Stuka, but Stukas remained in service until the end of the war. An estimated 6,500 Ju 87s of all versions were built between 1936 and August 1944.

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Transcription

the junkers 87b dive bomber commonly known as the stuka is one of the most easily identified german aircraft it has a range of approximately 500 miles designed and used strictly as a dive bomber it has been an important factor in german successes its normal tactics are to dive down from ten thousand feet and release its bombs at two or three thousand feet it carries its bombs between the landing gear and under the wing the stuka disrupts supply lines troop concentrations and has led attacks on fortifications and harbors ships which can be reached from land bases have been bombed repeatedly by stukas from the front the decided kink of the wings and fixed landing gear are the outstanding features from below the stuka can be spotted by its narrow tipped wings and rectangular stabilizer when looking at the airplane broadside notice the canopy forms a hump on the fuselage while the underside is straight rudder assembly has distinctive straight lines from above the stuka can again be spotted by its narrow tipped wings and rectangular stabilizer the stuka can climb better than 1500 feet a minute it reaches 14 000 feet in nine minutes and can make 242 miles per hour at this height the armor is placed here and here to protect the rear gunner the pilot sits in an armored seat the armament includes two fixed outboard wing guns firing forward there is also one flexible gun in the rear cockpit all three guns are 7.9 millimeter similar to our 30 caliber these bombers rely on fighter escorts until their bombs are dropped then being more maneuverable they will turn and fight trying to bring their front guns into play against attackers you can always tell a stuka by the distinctive kink in the wing the fixed landing gear the tapered wings the rectangular stabilizer the hump back and angular tail fin also remember that the italians have their own version of the stuka it's the breeder 201 german or italian it's an enemy the junkers 88 has several uses the latest being that of a long range fighter stuka dive bombing successes caused the designers first to change the ju-88 to a dive bomber the ju-88 has a glass nose like this except the long-range fighter which has a solid armored nose all models of the ju-88 have a low wing retractable landing gear and two liquid cooled motors circular radiators however give the engines an air-cooled appearance the carries a bomb load of two to three thousand pounds and a crew of three or four the outstanding features of the ju-88 from a head-on view are the underslung engines and on the bomber models the bomb racks between the engines from below the jutting engines of the ju-88 are quite apparent notice the nearly perfect alignment of the nose and engines and the angular wings remember ju as meaning jutting notice that from a side view the jutting engines and the large cockpit give it a nose-heavy appearance again observe the motors nearly even with the nose and the long slim fuselage from above notice the jutting engines the angular wings and the forward placement of the cockpit there is not much chance of confusing the ju-88 with an american bomber compare it with our north american b-25 on the bottom the ju-88 has a low wing and the b-25 a mid-wing also the ju-88 has a single fin whereas the b-25 has twin fins notice the nose-heavy appearance of the ju-88 in contrast to the long nose of the b-25 most american twin-engine bombers have the engine set well behind the nose from below the jutting engines of the ju-88 are in direct contrast to the long nose of the b-25 the ju-88's angular wing differs markedly from our bombers the ju-88 can climb more than two thousand feet a minute at fifteen thousand feet it has a top speed of three hundred miles per hour its range is about fifteen hundred miles armor is placed around the two pilot seats and in the rear and bottom sections of the cockpit all airplanes of this type shot down were found to have leak-proof oil and gasoline tanks the placement of the guns differs in the various versions of the ju-88 bomber models usually have a forward gun twin guns in the upper rear of the canopy and a gun in the bottom of the fuselage firing to the rear the rear gunner may also shoot to the right using a beam gun by carrying this gun to the left of the fuselage he can also shoot to the left the co-pilot has a flexible gun in the front but sometimes this gun is locked in position and is aimed by maneuvering the airplane all guns on the bomber are 7.9 millimeter roughly equivalent to our 30 caliber however the newer fighter models have one 15-millimeter machine gun and three 7.9 millimeter machine guns in the nose firing forward the 15 millimeter gun is slightly larger than our 50 caliber and fires 1 000 rounds per minute protection to the rear is given by guns in the top rear and one in the bottom rear the ju-88 is the most formidable of nazi airplanes to spot it look for underslung engines and bomb racks the alignment of the nose and engines the angular wings the nose-heavy jutting appearance and the slim fuselage we should have no trouble distinguishing the three airplanes we have been discussing close up they should be easily recognized did you pick them right let's try again just to be sure see if your answers check with these if they do junk the junkers you

Sources

YouTube channel: PeriscopeFilm · video ↗ — title, year, format, description, catalog record, video

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