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#Post#: 12226--------------------------------------------------
Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: vonofterdingen Date: August 17, 2020, 4:56 pm
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HTML https://i.postimg.cc/MpMtc4rL/Screen-Hunter-387.png
Some aircraft designs just click. Things just go right and a
particular design excels in a variety of different roles. The
Junkers Ju-88 is such a design. This aircraft was in production,
with its fundamental design unchanged, throughout the war. It
served as a bomber, torpedo plane, heavy fighter, recce, night
fighter, and dive bomber. I can’t think of a more versatile
aircraft of this period, and it performed very well in all of
its roles and variants.
From Wikipedia:
The Junkers Ju 88 was a German World War II Luftwaffe
twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and
Motor Works (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 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 a protracted development, it became one of the
Luftwaffe's most important aircraft. The assembly line ran
constantly from 1936 to 1945 and more than 15,000 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.
In October 1937 Generalluftzeugmeister Ernst Udet had ordered
the development of the Ju 88 as a heavy dive bomber. This
decision was influenced by the success of the Ju 87 Stuka in
this role. The Junkers development center at Dessau gave
priority to the study of pull-out systems and dive brakes.[13]
The first prototype to be tested as a dive bomber was the Ju 88
V4 followed by the V5 and V6. These models became the planned
prototype for the A-1 series. The V5 made its maiden flight on
13 April 1938, and the V6 on 28 June 1938. Both the V5 and V6
were fitted with four-blade propellers, an extra bomb bay and a
central "control system". As a dive bomber, the Ju 88 was
capable of pinpoint deliveries of heavy loads; however, despite
all the modifications, dive bombing still proved too stressful
for the airframe, and in 1943, tactics were changed so that
bombs were delivered from a shallower, 45° diving angle.
Aircraft and bomb sights were accordingly modified and dive
brakes were removed. With an advanced Stuvi dive-bombsight,
accuracy remained very good for its time. Maximum bomb load of
the A-4 was 3,000 kg (6,600 lb), but in practice, standard bomb
load was 1,500–2,000 kg (3,310–4,410 lb).[14] Junkers later used
the A-4 airframe for the A-17 torpedo carrier. However, the
variant lacked the undernose Bola gondola for a ventral gun
position.
The Ju 88C series of standard fighter-bomber versions from
the C-2 onwards culminated in the Ju 88 C-6, applying experience
acquired with the A-4 bomber, equipped with the same Jumo 211J
engines but replacing the "beetle's eye" nose glazing with a
smoothly curved all-metal nose, pierced only by the barrels of
its forward-firing offensive armament. The C-6 was used mostly
as fighter-bomber and therefore assigned to bomber units. As a
reaction to the increasing number of attacks on German shipping,
especially on U-boats in the Bay of Biscay, from July 1942 it
started flying anti-shipping patrols and escort missions from
bases in France.[15] V./Kampfgeschwader 40 being formed to
operate the C-6.
The Ju 88P was a specialized variant for ground attack and to
function as a bomber destroyer, designed starting from 1942[20]
and produced in small numbers, using examples of the Bordkanone
heavy calibre aviation autocannon series, which required the
omission of the Bola undernose gondola for clearance. The
prototype, derived from a standard Ju 88 A-4, was armed with a
7.5 cm anti-tank gun derived from the 7.5 cm PaK 40 installed in
a large conformal gun pod under the fuselage. This was followed
by a small batch of Ju 88 P-1, which standardized the solid
sheet metal nose of the C version for all known examples of the
P-series, and used the new 7.5 cm PaK 40L semi-automatic gun,
also known as the Bordkanone BK 7,5, which was also meant for
use in both the later Henschel Hs 129B-3 dedicated anti-armor
aircraft, and a never-achieved production version of the He
177A-3/R5 ground-attack Flak-suppression Stalingradtyp
field-improvised version. The Ju 88P-1 was produced in some 40
units, but with the massive cannon installation resulting in a
slow and vulnerable aircraft,[20] it was soon replaced by the Ju
88 P-2, featuring two Bordkanone 3.7 cm BK 3,7 guns, whose
higher muzzle velocity proved useful against the Russian tanks
in the Eastern Front. This aircraft was used by
Erprobungskommando 25. The Ju 88 P-3 also used the twin BK 3,7
guns, and added further armor for the crew, and was delivered at
one Staffel of the Nachtschlachtgruppen 1, 2, 4, 8 and 9 for
night attacks in the Eastern Front, in northern Norway (NSGr 8)
and Italy (NSGr 9).[20] Finally, the Ju 88 P-4 mounted a
smaller-volume ventral gun pod housing a 5 cm auto-loading
Bordkanone BK 5 cannon (the same ordnance used for the
field-improvised handful of Stalingradtyp He 177As created) and,
in some cases, 6.5 cm solid propellant rockets.[
The aircraft of V./KG 40 (which was redesignated
I./Zerstörergeschwader 1 in 1943) were a significant threat to
antisubmarine aircraft and operated as escort fighters for the
more vulnerable Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor maritime patrol
bombers. Between July 1942 and July 1944, the Ju 88s of KG 40
and ZG 1 were credited with 109 confirmed air-to-air victories,
at a cost of 117 losses. They were finally deployed against the
Allied Invasion of Normandy in June 1944, incurring heavy losses
for little effect before being disbanded on 5 August 1944.
Only 12 Ju 88s saw action during the invasion of Poland. The
unit Erprobungskommando 88 (Ekdo 88) was responsible for testing
new bomber designs and their crews under hostile conditions.
They selected 12 aircraft and their crews and attached them to
1./Kampfgeschwader 25. As a result of its small operational
numbers, the type made no impact.
The Luftwaffe committed II./Kampfgeschwader 30 to the
campaign under X. Fliegerkorps for Operation Weserübung. The
unit was equipped with Ju 88s and engaged Allied shipping as its
main target. On 9 April 1940, Ju 88s of KG 30 dive-bombed, in
cooperation with high-level bombing Heinkel He 111s of KG 26,
and helped damage the battleship HMS Rodney and sink the
destroyer HMS Gurkha. However, the unit lost four Ju 88s in the
action, the highest single loss of the aircraft in combat
The Luftwaffe's order of battle for the French campaign
reveals all but one of the Luftwaffe's Fliegerkorps (I.
Fliegerkorps) contained Ju 88s in the combat role. The mixed
bomber units, including the Ju 88, of Kampfgeschwader 51 (under
the command of Luftflotte 3) helped claim between 233 and 248
Allied aircraft on the ground between 10–13 May 1940.[29] The Ju
88 was particularly effective at dive-bombing. Between 13–24
May, I. and II./KG 54 flew 174 attack against rail systems,
paralysing French logistics and mobility. On 17 June 1940,
Junkers Ju 88s (mainly from Kampfgeschwader 30) destroyed a
"10,000 tonne ship", the 16,243 grt ocean liner RMS Lancastria,
off Saint-Nazaire, killing some 5,800 Allied personnel. Some 133
Ju 88s were pressed into the Blitzkrieg, but very high combat
losses and accidents forced a quick withdrawal from action to
re-train crews to fly this very high-performance aircraft. Some
crews were reported to be more scared of the Ju 88 than the
enemy, and requested a transfer to an He 111 unit. By this time,
major performance deficiencies in the A-1 led to an all-out
effort in a major design rework. The outcome was a longer, 20.08
m (65 ft ​10 1⁄2 in) wingspan, from extended rounded
wing tips that had already been standardised on the A-4 version,
that was deemed needed for all A-1s; thus the A-5 was born.
Surviving A-1s were modified as quickly as possible, with new
wings to A-5 specifications.
The Battle of Britain proved very costly. Its higher speed
did not prevent Ju 88 losses from exceeding those of its Dornier
Do 17 and Heinkel He 111 stablemates despite being deployed in
smaller numbers than either. Ju 88 losses over Britain in 1940
totaled 303 aircraft between July and October 1940. Do 17 and He
111 losses for the same period were 132 and 252 machines
destroyed respectively.
Of all the losses suffered by the Ju 88 at that time,
however, a number were due to the tricky behavior of the plane,
especially when compared with the proven He 111, and to the
crews' lack of experience on the type – many having converted to
the Ju 88 only shortly before. Of the 39 losses recorded for
July 1940, for example, only 20 were due to enemy action. The
others being written off in training accidents, crashes, or
malfunctions over mainland Europe. A series of field
modifications were made to make the Ju 88 less vulnerable,
including the replacement of the single MG 15 rear machine gun
by a twin-barreled MG 81Z machine gun and the fitting of
additional cockpit armour.
The flagship Ju 88 A-4 went into service during the closing
days of the Battle of Britain. Although slower than the A-1, it
solved nearly all of the troubles of the A-1. The A-4 actually
saw additional improvements including more powerful engines but,
unlike other aircraft in the Luftwaffe, did not see a model code
change. The Ju 88 C-series also benefited from the A-4 changes.
By the summer of 1941, most of the units equipped with the
Dornier Do 17 were upgrading to the Ju 88. With a few
exceptions, most of the German bomber units were now flying the
He 111 and Ju 88. The Ju 88 was to prove a very capable and
valuable asset to the Luftwaffe in the east. The Ju 88 units met
with instant success, attacking enemy airfields and positions at
low level and causing enormous losses for little damage in
return. 3./Kampfgeschwader 3 attacked Pinsk airfield in the
morning of the 22 June 1941. It caught, and claimed destroyed,
60 Soviet bombers on the ground. The 39 SBAP Regiment of the 10
Division SAD actually lost 43 Tupolev SBa and five Petlyakov
Pe-2s. Ju 88s from Kampfgeschwader 51 destroyed over 100
aircraft after dispatching 80 Ju 88s to hit airfields. In
general the Soviet aircraft were not dispersed and the Luftwaffe
found them easy targets.[37] A report from the Soviet 23rd Tank
Division of the 12th Armoured Corps described a low-level attack
by Ju 88s on 22 June, resulting in the loss of 40 tanks.
However, the Ju 88s were to suffer steady attritional losses. At
0415 on 22 June 1941, III./KG 51 attacked the airfield at
Kurovitsa. Despite destroying 34 Polikarpov I-153s, the Ju 88s
were intercepted by 66 ShAP I-153s. Six Ju 88s were shot down
before the German fighter escort dealt with the threat.[38] By
the end of the first day of the campaign, Ju 88 losses amounted
to 23 destroyed.
[img width=1024
height=644]
HTML https://i.postimg.cc/cLphfmpL/Screen-Hunter-389.png[/img]
Due to the lack of sufficient numbers of Ju 87 Stukas, the Ju
88 was employed in the direct ground support role. This resulted
in severe losses from ground fire. Kampfgeschwader 1,
Kampfgeschwader 76 and Kampfgeschwader 77 reported the loss of
18 Ju 88s over enemy territory on 23 June. KG 76 and KG 77
reported the loss of a further four Ju 88s, of which 12 were
100% destroyed.[40]
In the north, the VVS North-Western Front lost 465 aircraft
on the ground, 148 of them bombers, to the Ju 88s of KG 1. A
further 33 were damaged. Out of a total of 1,720 aircraft
deployed by the VVS Northern Front on 22 June,[41] it lost 890
and a further 187 suffered battle damage in eight days. The Ju
88s units helped virtually destroy Soviet airpower in the
northern sector.
Again, the Ju 88 demonstrated its dive-bombing capability.
Along with He 111s from KG 55, Ju 88s from KG 51 and 54
destroyed some 220 trucks and 40 tanks on 1 July, which helped
repulse the Soviet South Western Front's offensive. The Ju 88s
destroyed most rail links during interdiction missions in the
area, allowing Panzergruppe 1 to maintain the pace of its
advance.
Ju 88 units operating over the Baltic states during the
battle for Estonia inflicted severe losses on Soviet shipping,
with the same dive-bombing tactics used over Norway, France and
Britain. KGr 806 sank the Soviet destroyer Karl Marx on 8 August
1941 in Loksa Bay Tallinn.[44] On 28 August the Ju 88s had more
success when KG 77 and KGr 806 sank the 2,026 grt steamer
Vironia, the 2,317 grt Lucerne, the 1,423 grt Atis Kronvalds and
the ice breaker Krišjānis Valdemārs (2,250 grt). The
rest of the Soviet "fleet", were forced to change course. This
took them through a heavily mined area. As a result, 21 Soviet
warships, including five destroyers, struck mines and sank. On
29 August, the Ju 88s accounted for the transport ships Vtoraya
Pyatiletka (3,974 grt), Kalpaks (2,190 grt) and Leningradsovet
(1,270 grt) sunk. In addition, the ships Ivan Papanin, Saule,
Kazakhstan and the Serp i Molot were damaged. Some 5,000 Soviet
soldiers were lost.[45]
On 2 December 1943, 105 Ju 88 A-4s, armed with bombs and
motobomba circling torpedoes, attacked the Allied-held port of
Bari, Italy. The attacking force achieved complete surprise and
sunk over 20 Allied ships in the overcrowded harbour, including
the U.S. Liberty ship John Harvey, which was carrying mustard
gas. About 1,000 people were killed and another 1,000 wounded;
many fatalities and injuries were as a result of the release of
mustard gas. The attacking force lost one aircraft; the Allies
had not assigned any fighters to guard Bari as they thought the
Luftwaffe incapable of striking in this strength at this stage
of the war. The port was completely closed for three weeks from
the damage of the raid, and
In April 1943, as Finland was fighting its Continuation War
against the USSR, the Finnish Air Force bought 24 Ju 88s from
Germany.[47] The aircraft were used to equip No. 44 Sqn, which
had previously operated Bristol Blenheims, but these were
instead transferred to No. 42 Sqn. Due to the complexity of the
Ju 88, the FAF spent most of 1943 training crews on the
aircraft, and conducted only a handful of bombing missions. The
most notable was a raid on the Lehto partisan village on 20
August 1943 (in which the whole squadron participated), and a
raid on the Lavansaari air field (leaving seven Ju 88 damaged
from forced landing in inclement weather). In the summer of
1943, the Finns noted stress damage on the wings. This had
occurred when the aircraft were used in dive bombing.
Restrictions followed: the dive brakes were removed and it was
only allowed to dive at a 45-degree angle (compared to 60–80
degrees previously). In this way, they tried to spare the
aircraft from unnecessary wear.
One of the more remarkable missions was a bombing raid on 9
March 1944 against Soviet Long Range Aviation bases near
Leningrad, when the Finnish aircraft, including Ju 88s, followed
Soviet bombers returning from a night raid on Tallinn, catching
the Soviets unprepared and destroying many Soviet bombers and
their fuel reserves, and a raid against the Aerosan base at
Petsnajoki on 22 March 1944.[48] The whole bomber regiment took
part in the defence against the Soviets during the fourth
strategic offensive. All aircraft flew several missions per day,
day and night, when the weather permitted.
[img width=1024
height=577]
HTML https://i.postimg.cc/KzF5HYvX/Screen-Hunter-390.png[/img]
[font=verdana]
In game…
I do not fly this plane often myself, but it is one of those
aircraft that is represented in almost every campaign I fly that
involves the Luftwaffe on either side. I did play it in a
campaign once, though I regret that I do not recall the name.
The campaign was for a squadron of Ju-88s attacking Fleet Air
Arm bombers on ASW duties over the Bay of Biscayne. It was a
blast to fly the Ju-88 as a heavy fighter in that role. Most of
my experience with this plane, however, has been as a hunter in
a Yak-1 or P-40. It is good fun that way too![/font]
#Post#: 12227--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: JG51_Ruski Date: August 17, 2020, 5:10 pm
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Good show Von Thank You !!!!
#Post#: 12229--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: larsresult Date: August 18, 2020, 4:11 am
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Good choice Von. A plane that looks right and feels right.
#Post#: 12233--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: cafs Date: August 18, 2020, 7:49 am
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The workhorse of the Luftwaffe, much like RAF's DH Mosquito or
VVS' Petlyakov Pe-2. Within the USAAF the
medium-bomber/torpedo-bomber/heavy or night-fighter work were
split between the B-25 Mitchell/B-26 Marauder/A-20 Boston,
respectively. 👍👍
#Post#: 12235--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: DHumphrey Date: August 18, 2020, 12:15 pm
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Nice article Von ... thanks for sharing !!! :)
#Post#: 12246--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: ben_wh Date: August 19, 2020, 5:19 pm
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Thank you, von, for the write-up.
Eric Brown had very high praise for the Ju-88 in 'Wings of the
Luftwaffe'. Its versatility is a very useful virtue for the
Luftwaffe, having to fight on multiple fronts with widely
different combat requirements.
In game, this versatility is reflected: you can fly the Ju-88
(with mods, in different variants) as a level bomber, dive
bomber, day fighter (destroyer), night fighter, ground attack
aircraft, torpedo bomber, balloon cable cutter(!) among others.
Even then, there are still variants that is not yet represented
- which underscores its truly diverse roles.
This is one of those planes in game that can showcase both the
versatility of its real-life, historical self as well as the
versatility of the IL-2 game engine.
Cheers,
#Post#: 12248--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: vonofterdingen Date: August 20, 2020, 1:00 am
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I had not heard of the cable cutting role. I can see how that
could be important but how did the cutting mechanism work? It
sounds like dangerous work!
#Post#: 12249--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: larsresult Date: August 20, 2020, 4:41 am
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The Ju88A-5 was the first model equipped with a cable cutting
device which was a metal frame projecting in front of the nose
and was used for cutting the cables of barrage balloons during
the Battle of Britain. It didn't always work and so was not very
popular with crews as they had to fly among the balloons and the
weight slowed the aircraft down.
Robert Forsyth's two volume set published by Air Classics/ Ian
Allan on the Ju88 gives more details and diagrams.
#Post#: 12252--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: ben_wh Date: August 20, 2020, 9:25 am
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[quote author=vonofterdingen link=topic=1746.msg12248#msg12248
date=1597903251]
I had not heard of the cable cutting role. I can see how that
could be important but how did the cutting mechanism work? It
sounds like dangerous work!
[/quote]
HTML https://youtu.be/n2kxk8USflU
#Post#: 12254--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Junkers Ju-88
By: vonofterdingen Date: August 20, 2020, 2:49 pm
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Holy smokes. Nice demonstration Ben! I would never want that
job! I can understand why it was not popular with crews, Lars.
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