STUKA:Hitlers Leathal Dive Bomber

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Images of War

Stuka: Hitler’S letHal Dive bomber a l I s ta I r s m I t h

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Contents

Introduction

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Chapter 1: Portraits

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Chapter 2: Training

22

Chapter 3: Czechoslovakia

40

Chapter 4: In Flight

57

Chapter 5: Snow And Ice

69

Chapter 6: Funerals

81

Chapter 7: Leave

95

Bibliography

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Introduction The Junkers Ju87, along with the early Panzers of the German army, was the epitomy of Blitzkrieg. Arguably the Stuka (from Sturzkampfflugzeug) is the most recognisable German aircraft of the Second World War. It is immediately identifiable, with its peculiar inverted gull wings and odd undercarriage.

Most of all it is associated with the bizarre attachment of the so-called Jericho Trumpet.

This terrifying, wailing siren was designed to instil fear in the enemy and make the aircraft a true weapon of horror.

The Ju87 made its first operational appearance in the skies over Spain during the civil war in 1936. It would go on to be one of the primary images and weapons of the early Second World War period. By 1942 the aircraft’s inherent vulnerabilities had become all too obvious.

In fact its shortcomings had become clear as early as the late summer of 1940. During the Battle of Britain the Germans had to resort to providing the Stukas with fighter cover. The Stuka was slow, it had a relatively poor defensive armament and, above all, it did not move well enough in the air.

However, even after the Battle of Britain the Stuka remained a primary weapon of Germany in its campaigns in the Balkans and in North Africa. It was even used to great effect in the east, on the Russian front. Its true vulnerabilities had begun to show once the Allies had reorganised their fighter defences to such an extent that the Ju87 became easy prey.

The legend of the Ju87 lived on, largely due to the fact that the Germans had not developed a credible replacement. Towards the end of the war the Ju87 still remained in the skies and in fact production did not cease until 1944. However, by this stage the primary role, that of a dive bomber, had been usurped by the Focke Wulf Fw190.

This photographic album belonged to a Stuka gunner and radio operator (Bordenfunker) Erich Heine. Unfortunately we do not know a great deal about this individual but we do know that he did survive the war and that there is an implication that he was shot down over the Ukraine in 1943. He almost certainly became a prisoner-of-war of the Russians. It is probable for this reason that the photographs all seem to relate to the early stages of the war. They follow his training and his assignment to a Ju87 squadron. What is particularly remarkable is the fact that he survived. Many Stuka crewmembers had a very limited life expectancy.

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The other remarkable thing about this album is that it contains photographs of perhaps the most famous Stuka ace, Hans-Ulrich Rudel. Rudel flew some 2,530 combat missions. The photographs featuring Rudel in this album are obviously of an early period, as they show him celebrating his 200th combat mission. Rudel was a prominent Nazi; he was highly decorated and would go on to claim some 2,000 targets destroyed, including a Russian battleship, hundreds of tanks, armoured trains and a host of static targets, including bridges. Rudel, by the end of the war, found himself in Bohemia and in immediate danger of falling into the hands of the Russians. He led an aerial armada in an epic escape attempt and landed at kitzingen in Bavaria, which was then in the hands of the Americans. He would spend nearly a year as a prisoner-of-war before imigrating to Argentina in 1948. He died in 1982.

This photograph album was put together by Erich Heine. He was born on 21 March 1921 and died at the age of thirty-six on 23 March 1957. We can only speculate on why he died so young. Perhaps he died during his period of imprisonment with the Russians, or more likely he died young as a result of his injuries and his treatment whilst he was a prisoner-of-war. We do know that he was shot down on 21 August 1943 over Central Ukraine and was posted as ‘missing in action’.

The album contains some unique photographs of Stukas in formation. They also cover some of the training aircraft and, poignantly, photographs of the funerals of some of Heine’s comrades. The undoubted star of the photograph album is the Ju87 itself. Around 6,500 were built between 1936 and the summer of 1944. It was a simple and a robust aircraft. Remarkably, the original Ju87 prototypes, the design of which had begun in 1933, were to be powered by a Rolls Royce kestrel engine. In fact the aircraft manufacturer bought ten for the prototypes.

It was one of these prototypes that killed Junker’s chief test pilot Willy Neuenhofen along with the engineer Heinrich kreft.

It would appear to have been enemy action that led to the loss of the aircraft belonging to Erich Heine. Placing him geographically and in line with the reported loss of the aircraft over the Ukraine in August 1943, we can assume that the probable point at which he was shot down was near to kharkov. This was in the aftermath of the cataclysmic battle of kursk, which took place between the beginning of July and the last week of August 1943. The period from the middle of July had seen the Russians take the offensive and the Germans falling back.

Stukas would have been extensively used throughout the whole operation and would have been vital in trying to blunt the Russian armoured thrusts, that were threatening to overwhelm the German forces in the region. German aircraft losses during the battle of kursk alone were in excess of 800.

This photograph album is now owned by James Payne. The author is indebted to James for access to this album and the opportunity to research and write about these intriguing photographs, which feature such an iconic, if terrifying, aspect of the Second World War. Should readers wish to obtain their own copies of these photographs in high resolution then they should go James’s own military photo archive THRoUGH THEIR EYES, at www.throughtheireyes2.co.uk.

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Chapter One

Portraits The album has an interesting selection of professionally posed portraits, as well as snapshots of individuals. It would appear that the vast majority of these photographs, particularly those of Erich Heine, were taken at the very beginning of his Luftwaffe career. Having been born in 1921, Erich at the outbreak of the Second World War would have been just eighteen.

Exhaustive searches have not been able to identify exactly when Erich joined the Luftwaffe, but we are able to see that his training as a Stuka gunner and radio operator was very typical.

However, the very first portrait that appears in the album is not of Erich himself but it is a signed photograph of Hans-Ulrich Rudel. It would also appear that from at least one other photograph in the album Erich was either at the same airbase or perhaps in the same unit as Rudel at some stage in his career. It would also suggest that the photographs were taken relatively early in Rudel’s own very illustrious service in the Luftwaffe, as there is a photograph of him and what is probably his own gunner and radio operator celebrating their successful 200th combat mission.

The vast majority of the photographs of Erich show him as a basic airman, or aircraftsman.

The official German rank would have been Flieger, a standard enlisted man. As a potential member of the aircrew his collar tabs are far more prominent on his Luftwaffe uniform, as they were a gold/yellow colour. Each of the enlisted ranks and the officer ranks were designated by a number of wing-shaped emblems on the collar tab. A basic aircraftsman like Erich would have had just one, whereas a senior airman or lance corporal and up to the rank of chief master sergeant, or warrant officer, would have four. These wings were also visible on the officer ranks, along with other insignia.

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This is a signed photograph of Hans-Ulrich Rudel. He flew over 2,500 combat missions and it is believed that he was also the most highly decorated German serviceman of the Second World War. Rudel was also the only man that was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Gold Leaves, Swords and Diamonds.

Rudel had been brought up as a Lutheran in Silesia in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Even as a child he was very sporty and after passing his high school diploma he joined the Luftwaffe as an officer cadet in 1936. He was actually considered to be a poor flier and unsuitable as a combat pilot. As a result, he was sent to an operational reconnaissance unit. Rudel, unperturbed by his non-combat role, seized his opportunities during the Poland campaign in 1939. At that stage he was an observer and carried out a series of perilous long-range reconnaissance flights over Poland.

This culminated in his winning the Iron Cross Second Class in October 1939. He took the opportunity to pester the authorities for re-assignment and they gave in and sent him to Caen in May 1940 to join a dive bomber unit. He was still rated very poorly but again his chance came in June 1941 with Operation Barbarossa. He was awarded the Iron Cross First Class in July and then in the September he and another Stuka pilot sunk the Russian battleship Marat. This was a truly ancient vessel that had been commissioned in 1915. It had been extensively remodelled in the 1920s and 1930s. Incredibly, although she was sunk, she was actually re-floated and played a key role in the defence of Leningrad.

But she met her end in the early 1950s when she was finally scrapped.

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This individual is believed to be Rudel’s gunner and radio operator. He has insignia on his lapel that suggests that he is at least the rank of either senior master sergeant or chief master sergeant. We can clearly see that he is wearing an Iron Cross decoration on his left breast and below that we can see one of the many variations of the Luftwaffe flying badges. Above the Iron Cross is the Luftwaffe bomber operational flying clasp. This came into existence in January 1941 and it rewarded bomber crew, including dive bombers. A bronze version would be issued after twenty missions, a silver version after sixty and a gold one after 110 missions.

It is difficult to date this photograph exactly, but assuming this individual remained with Rudel then they had already flown their 400th combat mission by December 1941. In the January of 1942 Rudel received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and just over a year later he became the first ever pilot of any nationality to fly 1,000 combat missions. It was a remarkable feat, regardless of Rudel’s own Nazi sympathies. The life expectancy of Stuka crewmembers, certainly as the war drew on, was exceptionally short. Despite the fact that he had been branded as a poor pilot early on in his career, it is a truly remarkable feat that he managed to accomplish over 2,500 combat missions and was still alive.

It is possible that the man in this photograph is Gadermann, as he is mentioned in Rudel’s memoirs relating to an episode in 1944, although available photographs of Ernst Gadermann do not confirm this.

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It is difficult to precisely date this photograph, although the assumption is that this is between June 1941 and December 1941. This photograph celebrates the 200th successful combat mission of Rudel and his rear gunner. After Rudel had flown his 1,000th sortie in February 1943 he would go on to destroy around 100 Russian tanks during the battle of Kursk in the autumn of that year. Rudel had clocked up 1,800 sorties by March 1944. In November 1944 he received a wound in the thigh but continued to fly with his leg in a plaster cast. His luck nearly ran out on 8 February 1945 when he was over enemy territory and an anti-aircraft shell hit his Stuka. Rudel was badly wounded in the foot and he crash-landed. Gadermann managed to stop Rudel’s bleeding but his injury was too severe and he had to have his leg amputated below the knee. Undaunted, he recommenced combat in late March 1945 and continued fighting against the Russians until the very end. He then led three Stukas and four Fw190s from Bohemia to Kitzingen in Bavaria to land and then to surrender to American forces on 8 May 1945. So determined was he to fight on to the very end that he had all the other pilots wreck the aircraft on the airstrip to prevent the enemy from being able to use it.

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This is another unnamed German pilot. The portrait seems to have been taken during the early part of the Second World War. The individual is wearing his Iron Cross. In the early war years winning the Iron Cross was in recognition of extreme bravery or gallantry in combat. But as the war drew on the decoration was used much more as a motivator and it was handed out in hundreds if not thousands.

Also the quality of the medal deteriorated over time, due to the lack of quality metals available in the latter years of the war. In fact the Iron Cross was awarded to over 6 million individuals during the conflict. It is difficult to know which grade of Iron Cross has been awarded to this particular individual, although as he is wearing it around his neck the likelihood is that this is in fact a Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and that he is from a much more select band. It was originally introduced in September 1939 and only 7,361 were ever issued.

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This is another probable Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross recipient, although the rank of this member of the Luftwaffe is a non-commissioned officer of master sergeant rank at the very highest. In order to win this particular medal the individual had to have performed an act of extreme valour. Despite comparing photographs of early Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross recipients, it has unfortunately been impossible to positively identify this man.

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One of the first portraits of Erich Heine shows him rather romantically posed, complete with flying suit, hat and goggles whilst showing his individuality by wearing a patterned scarf. Although it is difficult to tell, due to the fact that this photograph has a sepia tint, it would appear that Erich is wearing the lightweight summer version of the flying suit. This was a tan material that was worn directly over the standard flight blouse and trousers. He also has an unlined flying helmet. The winter version was of a more robust quality and incorporated a lining. This could be in either dark grey or blue, or again in tan. There was a third variant, which was issued if the aircraft was to fly over water. It would have been made of either black or brown leather, or it could have been cotton, but in all cases it would have been fleece-lined.

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