Memories of Stuka Pilots

fat tony

fat tony

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A good read.

http://www.39-45war.com/stuka.html

My first contact with the Stuka, the JU-87, began at the end of November 1938, when I was promoted to Stuka captain, to squadron captain, as we say in Germany. This is the level of a company commandant of a company the first Staffel of I Stuka 1 in Eest Prussia. This group had been formed from the HS-123 group, which was a one-seater. It was the first aircraft in Germany which began to dive, but it was not the type we needed.

The right type was the JU-87. Since a commander of that Stuka Gruppe had not yet been appointed, I was to take over the commend for the present. Having taken over the Gruppe at its operational airport An Silesia, I ferried it, with all planes, across the "Polish Corridor", separating East Prussia from the rest of the Reich as a result of the Versailles Treaty. We touched down on Insterburg air base, the place where I had previously served as a reconnaissance pilot.

Now the "cold homeland" had me again, a region X had come to like very much because of the charm of its scenery. Here a new task waited for us. We were to transform our Gruppe into a real Sturzkampfflieger Gruppe flying JU-87Bs. We were informed that the first Gruppe of JU-87 dive bombers would be ready to be picked up from the district air base* in the Reich. Having handed over our HS-123s, we received our brand-new Stukas which made a most martial impression on us.

We first concerned ourselves with the details of instrumentation and with the hydraulic system, especially developed for dive bombing, finally with the bomb release. After a few short briefing flights the crews soon felt at ease in their closed cabins. We still had to learn how to control the JU-87 in nose-diving. There existed no Stuka school at that time, but there was the Barth air base in Pomerania where a Stuka training Gruppe was being built up within the Luftwaffe's training wing.

The instructors first had to get familiar, in test flights, with tne new weapon before they could pass on their experience and skill to the other Stuka Gruppe. We, therefore, helped ourselves as well as we could. We first singled out the crews. The pilot and his backseater, the latter also acting as gunner, had to be a real team; one that had to depend on each other, for better or for worse.

Hence, each pilot chose his backseater. If after awhile it was found that the two did not harmonize, the men were replaced until pilots and their backseaters had found themselves. Some of the crews stuck—or crashed—together throughout the war.
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At the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, they have a Stuka suspended from the ceiling along with a Spitfire in a dogfight.
U-Boat 505 is there as well, which is open to go through on a tour. A worthwhile day spent there with so much to see if you are visiting Chicago.
 
That is neat! I am fascinated by the last two paragraphs about partnering up, I would have thought that they had to put up with whoever
they got assigned to, which we all know, dosn't always work. Brilliant on their part to be so insightful and effective about the situation.
 
I read Rudel when I was a kid. You have to wonder, if there was no real instruction, about a dive procedure where you black out and the plane is supposed to mechanically pull up from the dive by itself. Volunteers?
 
Juster said:
I read Rudel when I was a kid. You have to wonder, if there was no real instruction, about a dive procedure where you black out and the plane is supposed to mechanically pull up from the dive by itself. Volunteers?
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Actually, you black out from the G forces from your pull up after dropping your bomb.
 
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