Saunders - STUKA ATTACK!: the dive-bombing assault on england during the battle of britain

Dedication

To all who fell during the Junkers 87
Stuka attacks against the British Isles

Published by
Grub Street Publishing
4 Rainham Close
London
SW11 6SS

Copyright Grub Street 2013
Copyright text Andy Saunders 2013

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN-13: 9781908117359

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

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Printed and bound by Berforts Group, UK

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Contents

A S EVER IN A WORK of this nature I have called upon the assistance of a good many friends and colleagues who have willingly and enthusiastically provided me with specific bits of detail, checked facts for me, provided illustrations or else have given advice on content and sources. I am greatly indebted to them all.

First and foremost I would like to single out my friend and colleague of over thirty years, Dr Alfred Price. It is no exaggeration to say that some of Alfreds early books helped inspire my interest in the subject and I have been privileged to know him. I also felt honoured to have been asked to help Alfred, many years ago, with aspects of some of his superb Battle of Britain studies. Now, in his recent retirement, he has helped me by generously providing his extensive archive material relating to the Junkers 87 along with a great deal of other Luftwaffe and Battle of Britain material. Thank you, Alfred.

Next, and very significantly in respect of this work, I must pay tribute to my friend of many years, Peter Cornwell. With his extensive knowledge and truly superb archive of personal research spanning several decades, Peter was generous in supplying a comprehensive listing of all Junkers 87 aircraft lost as a direct result of air operations against the British Isles in 1940. Such a list has never before been published and its inclusion in this volume adds greatly to the content and value of the book. Thank you, Peter.

In addition, a great many other friends have also helped. In no particular order of merit they are:

Steve Hall, Ian Hutton, Chris Goss, Philippa Hodgkiss, Robin Brooks, Tony Moor, Winston Ramsey, Norman Franks, Paul Baillie, Dennis Knight, Martin Mace, Ron Gammage, Larry Hickey, Richard Black, Hugh Trivett, Robert Forsyth, Simon Parry and Mark Postlethwaite.

Although he passed away in 2000, I really must make mention of my late friend and colleague, Peter Foote. He was the inveterate and tenacious researcher of all things to do with the Battle of Britain, especially aircraft losses, and he began his work in the immediate post-war period. Were it not for his dogged determination to root out the minutiae and the detail of Luftwaffe aircraft and crews who had been downed over the UK, I am certain that our knowledge would not be as rich as it is today. I have used a great deal of Peters diligently assembled information in this book. He was a prodigious note taker, and a collector of photographs extraordinaire. Without his life-time of work there would certainly be gaps in our knowledge.

In addition to the above, I feel that I must single out the doyen of all information and writings related to the Junkers 87; Peter C. Smith. Thank you, Peter, for your valued comments during the early stages of preparing this book. I hardly feel worthy to be writing a book on Junkers 87 operations when Peter has written so many excellently researched and crafted books on the aircraft. All of them, of course, have been at the very top of my pile of Stuka reference works and it was comforting to know that I could be wholly reliant upon the accuracy and quality of information they contained. In research and writing terms they would be considered a secondary source, but to me they have hardly ever been that.

By now, I have become used to the excellent support, encouragement and guidance provided by John Davies and his team at Grub Street Publishing. It has been a joy working with you, and I must extend my thanks to Sarah Driver, Sophie Campbell and Natalie Parker who have responded instantly and helpfully to all of my queries along the way during the production process. I hope that working with me has not been too much of a trial. I am delighted to be able to continue producing books under the Grub Street banner.

Last, but by no means least, I must thank Zoe for her patience and forbearance whilst I locked myself away in my office writing this book. Also, of course, for the frequent cups of tea and plates of sandwiches she brought to sustain me not to mention the odd glass of something a little stronger to cheer me up as I worked into the later hours! A big thank you must also go to my daughter Robyn for large chunks of data-input, not to mention her valued assistance when I tried to cope with sometimes baffling IT issues. Finally, my thanks to Lewis who also keyed in big chunks of text that I needed to take from contemporary letters and documents. It probably wasnt how he anticipated spending a major part of his time when home from university! How would I have coped without you all in this whole process of book writing? You have been invaluable.

S OME MAY ARGUE, PERHAPS, THAT over-use of the word iconic has rather devalued its significance in the English language. Too often we are told that some object or another, or some event or venue, is iconic a description that is also quite frequently applied to famous weapons of World War Two. In some cases the word has been used in association with weapons that are perhaps rather more infamous than famous and such could probably be said of the much-feared Junkers 87 Stuka dive bomber, although if any one weapon of the period should be described as iconic, then surely this is it.

Strictly speaking the word Stuka could be applied to any Luftwaffe aircraft employed in a dive-bombing capacity, including the Junkers 88 and some variants of the Messerschmitt 110. The name Stuka is, though, just a shortened version of the German word Sturzkampflugzeug, or dive-bomber aircraft. However, despite the fact that it is a name that could be applied to other aircraft types it has become the exclusive moniker of the Junkers 87 universally and exclusively known as the Stuka. As a weapon of World War Two there can be no doubting its fame and notoriety and it is readily and universally recognized with its angular lines and distinctive inverted and oddly cranked gull-wing configuration. Not surprisingly, its fixed undercarriage helped give rise to the notion that it was somehow predatory. It was certainly the case that in its death-dealing dives it looked remarkably like a bird of prey as it swooped down onto a helpless quarry. Certainly, it had swept through Europe from Poland to Norway and on into the Blitzkrieg across France and the Low Countries. Its reputation had been fearsome. Its success undoubted. For the most part it was very much at the spearhead of assault, taking out armour, bridges, troop concentrations and other pinpoint targets. Weaknesses and failings had, however, manifested themselves in the aircrafts early deployment, and these would ultimately be exploited by those engaged in the interception of Stuka raids. Nevertheless, the aircraft was used through to the wars end, in every theatre of operations, and to considerable effect. It is its specific use during the Battle of Britain, however, that is the focus of this book.