Junkers Ju-87 Stuka Dive Bomber
Name
Length
Wingspan
Weight
Max Bomb-load
Armament
Speed
Ceiling
Range
Junkers Ju-87 Stuka
38
45
8,580 lbs.
3,960 lbs.
3x 7.92mm mgs
254 mph
23,910
254 mi.
Junkers Ju-87 Stuka Tactical Bomber
ID: Plastic tactical bomber gaming piece: Ju-89 Stuka tactical bomber from the game Axis & Allies Europe 40-2nd Ed.
The Story of the Ju-87 Stuka: The famous German blitzkrieg or lightning war is sometimes erroneously thought to be mainly a matter of throwing more, better, and/or heavier tanks at the enemy, but this is not so! In fact, when the blitzkrieg had its greatest success, the Germans themselves saw their own armor arm as woefully unprepared, with far too few tanks and with far too many of those tanks being early light models than they had planned for the big war with France and Britain. (Hitler had promised his generals that the big war was still a year or two away when he invaded Poland in 1939, you see.) What had made the tactic so effective against the large and roughly equally well-equipped French Army was Germanys ability to coordinate the different branches of its military more effectively. On particularly important aspect of this was Germanys much larger air force (Luftwaffe) which had trained much more effectively to coordinate with the army... and more than anything else, such coordination required dive bombers! Dive bombing was, at the time, the only way to achieve the pin-point accuracy needed for close air support with the technology of the day. That is where the Stuka came in. It was not a particularly fast aircraft and its fixed landing gear gave it a rather old-fashioned look, but the Germans knew just how to use it! Pretty soon, its distinctive gull-shaped wings and distinctive scream as it screeched toward its target struck sheer terror in the hearts of Germanys enemies all across Europe, and the Stuka had secured its own place in legend! Other, more modern and higher performance dive-bombing and close-air-support aircraft would eventually be fielded by Germanys foes, but the Stukas close association with the German blitzkrieg would cause its fame to eclipse all of its rivals as the classic example of a World War 2 dive bomber!
Usage Notes: Use this piece for Global 1939 and Invasion of Italy Variants as a tactical bomber unit. Other German aircraft of interest may be: the Ju-89 Strategic Bomber, & the Messerschmitt Bf 109 Fighter.
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