Junkers Ju 88 vol. II

October 14 1942. Two Junkers 88s in mottled camouflage droned west wards. Formations of dark clouds rolled past the bombers.

From time to time gaps in the clouds revealed the undulating surface of the Mediterranean. Visibility from the cockpit was rather poor. The canopy glazing was alternately spattered with water droplets and blasted clear by the slipstream. Fortunately, the sky became clearer as the two Ju 88s drew closer to the north African coastline. Finally, the last clouds behind them, the crews saw the red disk of the rising sun far away on the eastern horizon.
In the lead machine the Kommandeur of II./KG 77, Hptm. Heinrich Paepcke, awarded the Ritterkreuz on September 5, 1940, had already noticed the very narrow coastline, an orange thread against the dark sky. Both Junkers drop­ped to sea level. After a while the crews recognized the characteristic rugged shore of the El Alamein area. Minutes later they swept over it. Hugging the ground, the white buildings of Ras Shagig loomed out to the right, but the area was silent. There was no indication that their presence had been noticed. They pulled up to 1000 m to get a better view of the area. They had already flown past the railroad running along the shore. A few trains were to be seen steaming below but Paepcke did not pay attention to them. His targets were storehouses and dumps, which according to the previous evening’s reconnaissance were apparently located to the south of El Alamein. But where were they? There was only sand and rocks as far as the eye could see and a few dirt roads devoid of traffic. The sun was rising higher and the Kommandeur knew that they could not loiter indefinitely in enemy-held territory before enemy fighters rose to meet them.
Suddenly Paepcke’s observer noticed something on the ground. It was a spot of regular outline – too much so for this environment in fact – hardly noticeable against the reddish-brown desert. The two Junkers passed over the mystery object – it was clearly a large and very well camouflaged tent, a hole hewn out of the ground and covered with tarpaulin. One of those dumps!
Paepcke immediately climbed to 2000 m and banked the Junkers into a dive. The bomb safety switches were flicked off. The instruments in the cockpit began to vibrate with the increasing speed. Concentrating on his Stuvi sight, Paepcke aimed the aircraft at the target. He pressed the release button at 800 m. Two 500-kg bombs lurched free from their retaining catches and plummeted down. The pilot pulled up at once and peeled away in a climb. Seconds later a bomb smashed into the target – a direct hit – the fiery blast obscuring it from view. More explosions followed right after the first – the target was an ammunition dump!

It was only then that salvoes of anti-aircraft shells bracketed the attackers as strings of fiery red beads rose up from the ground. The German gunners replied with volleys of machine-gun fire.
It was only then that Hptm. Paepcke noticed several more similar dumps on the ground. He ordered the second Ju 88 bomber crew in. Two more explosions erupted below. Something began to burn with a bright flame and two plumes of black smoke spiraled into the sky. Anti-aircraft fire was becoming more intense and both Junkers had already taken several hits in the wings. Suddenly a shouted warning from the gunner electrified the crew. “Fighters at five o’clock!”
There was no time for another run at the target. Hauptmann Paepcke looked back to see four slender low-wing monoplanes above. Full throttle and descend as low as possible! The two Junkers roared low above the undulating desert, passing over scattered rocks and bushes. Here and there they passed at breakneck speed over the cones of military tents, with half-dressed soldiers among them firing at the bombers with their guns. A few more bullets slammed into both aircraft, piercing the skinning, fortunately missing any vital mechanisms.
Up ahead Paepcke noticed the train station near El Alamein that he had earlier ignored. It would be pointless to haul two bombs back to the airfield. He shot a glance to the rear – the fighters were still trailing some two kilometers behind the bombers. He gave a short order into the R/T. Both Junkers pulled up to dive-bomb the station. The gunners shouted jubilantly. Looking back, Paepcke saw a plume of smoke rising from the station. By now the enemy fighters were closing rapidly. Seconds later the bombers were again over the sea, roaring at full throttle in the direction of a bank of thick clouds, their only hope of evading their pursuers.

The aircraft’s machine guns rattled again in short bursts. The fighters were already within range. Just three kilometers to safety. Weaving slightly, tracer bullets zipped past the bomber’s cockpit, raising small fountains of water ahead of the Ju 88. Another pass. The gunners now had their hands full. One of them shouted for the pilot to sideslip to the right. Hptm. Paepcke immediately put the Ju 88 into a skidding turn, almost sensing the bullets ripping into his left wingtip. A fighter swept close past the bomber on the port side. The gunners hammered out sharp bursts of fire in its direction. For a split second Paepcke caught sight of a shark’s mouth painted on the engine cowling of the enemy machine.
Just one kilometer left. Another fighter ­attack could prove more successful. Hptm. Paepcke counted down the meters separating him from the safety of the clouds ahead of him. The big gray bank drew ever closer. The pilot snatched one more rearwards glance to see two more fighters knifing down towards him. Their wings burst into sparkling flame as they opened fire from long distance. Some bullets hit the bomber’s tail but just at that moment the Junkers was swallowed up by the gray vapor. The gunners’ weapons fell silent, the shark-mouthed fighters had gone. Heinrich Paepcke took a deep breath of relief. The damage turned out to be minor – the machine was responsive and the engines were working evenly. He tried to contact the other bomber over the radio but there was no response. Only after several minutes did they make contact with much interference and crackling. So the other crew was also safe. Much calmer now, the Kommandeur of II./KG 77 slipped above the clouds and headed for Sicily.

North Sea debut

On March 27 1939, the first ten Ju 88A-0s were delivered to the Luftwaffe Research Establishment at Rechlin. In order to test the aircraft under something like operational conditions, Erprobungskommando 88  was established the following day under Hptm. Helmut Pohle. A program of tests had been conceived to wring out the teething troubles of the new design. It was quickly discovered that the dive brakes were causing problems in the dive. They would at times get stuck in the engaged position, thus limiting the speed and rendering the plane unstable. The trials were monitored by a dedicated group of Junkers engineers, charged with making slight adjustments on the spot and preparing a detailed report for the designers.
In late May nine 3./KG 51 “Edelweiß” crews were sent to Lechfeld for training on the first Ju 88A-1s. In August the Ju 88A-0s were conditionally allowed to be used for operational training in order to work out the best possible attack techniques in both level and diving flight. Erprobungskommando 88 was then redesignated I./KG 25, consisting of only two Staffeln. With the outbreak of war on September 1, the unit transferred to Jever and was integrated into 3 Fliegerdivision , which entailed another redesignation. As of September 22, Hptm. Pohle’s crews were known as I./KG 30 “Adlergeschwader”. They moved to an operational base at Greifswald three days later. Two more Staffeln were added within a week, and now I./KG 30 was a full strength unit.
While the stalwart Ju 87 dive-bomber was earning its first plaudits in battle over Poland, its “big brother” Ju 88 was to be deployed over the North Sea against the Royal Navy. Although Greifswald was I./KG 30’s headquarters, coastal airfields were to be used in order to increase the bombers’ range. One of these was located on the isle of Sylt in the Frisian Islands, having been already used to fight British shipping during the First World War.
On September 26 the Royal Navy dispatched a heavy force to support a badly damaged submarine Spearfish. This force included: the battleships Nelson and Rodney, the battle cruisers Hood and Renown, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, seven cruisers and six destroyers. By noon the British were discovered. Four Ju 88s led by Lt. Walter Storp and nine He 111s of I./KG 26 were dispatched – the sum total of strike aircraft that the Luftwaffe could deploy against the enemy on that day.
As the Heinkels were ineffectively trying to attack the British cruisers, the four Ju 88s hit the aircraft carrier. One attack was flown by Gefr. Karl Francke, who had been one of the test pilots at Rechlin and had volunteered for frontline service. He dived in from 2700 m, catching the gun crews unawares. They were expecting a level raid after the twin-engined bombers. As he drew closer the wall of defensive fire grew thicker. Two 500kg bombs were dropped but the already dense fire and clouds prevented Gefr. Francke from accurately assessing the effects of his attack. After the sortie he reported: “Two SC 500s dropped in a diving attack on the aircraft carrier. The first hit near her side, the other probably hit the bow. No effects were observed.”

Despite Gefr. Francke’s non-committal report, German propaganda put their own spin on his words, feteing him as the man who had sunk the Ark Royal. To make that statement more credible, Karl Francke was immediately awarded the Iron Cross First and Second Class and promoted to Leutnant, a commissioned officer’s rank. The truth of the ‘sinking’ soon became evident and from that day on Francke was the butt of remarks by his colleagues regarding the validity of his promotion and awards. Lt. Stolp had hit the battlecruiser Hood but the bomb had failed to explode. He, too, was promoted to the rank of Oberleutnant.

The first Ju 88 was lost on October 9. On that day 21 Junkers along with a powerful force of 127 He 111s were out in search of the British fleet. Weather conditions were unfavorable but did not prevent the pilots of I./KG 30 from claiming ten (!) bomb hits on a few cruisers; none was hit in fact, whereas one 3./KG 30 machine was lost to anti-aircraft fire. Despite the damage, pilot Oblt. Konrad Kahl, managed to fly it to within sight of the German coast and the two flyers bailed out to safety.
A week later, on October 16, fifteen I./KG 30 aircraft were deployed against the battlecruiser Hood, reportedly steaming to Rosyth. When the German formation reached the base at the Firth of Forth, Hptm. Pohle spotted the Hood, already in dry dock. Prior to the sortie, he had been very clearly instructed not to attack facilities that might potentially cause civilian casualties. The Hood had to be left alone.
Instead, bombs were dropped on ships anchored in the harbor: the light cruisers Edinburgh and Southampton, and the destroyer Mohawk. The latter was hit by Lt. Horst von Riesen, with eight British sailors killed and seventeen wounded. The diving Ju 88s were greeted with ground and ship fire. Spitfires of No. 602 and 603 Sqns put in an appearance shortly afterwards, inflicting damage to von Riesen’s aircraft, although the Junkers managed to reach the German coast with only one engine running and was able to carry out a successful forced landing. Despite severe damage, the crew escaped unhurt.
Several bombs fell near enough the cruiser Edinburgh for shrapnel fragments to cause damage. As Hptm. Pohle was diving in, his cockpit canopy was swept off in the slipstream but he nevertheless succeeded in dropping a 500kg bomb on the Southampton. Since the warship was not as heavily armored as a battleship, the bomb fell through her three decks, passing right through her hull without exploding! Ju 88 (4D+AK) came under attack from No. 602 Sqn Spitfires. His port engine on fire, Pohle directed the machine away over the sea, F/L George Pinkerton and F/L Archie McKellar giving chase. His aircraft riddled by fire, three of Pohle’s crew were killed and his starboard engine shot out. The only thing he could do was ditch. A British trawler rescued the wounded Pohle, who was then taken prisoner. The same fate befell Oblt. Siegfried Storp’s 1./KG 30 crew. The Royal Navy had sixteen men killed and 44 wounded.

The new Kommandeur of I./KG 30 was Hptm. Fritz Doench. The following day, he led four Ju 88s on a sortie against the Scapa Flow naval base. The Junkers were accompanied by thirteen He 111s. The raid inflicted heavy damage on the training ship Iron Duke (ex-battleship). Anti-aircraft fire accounted for one of the Ju 88s, which crashed and burned on the island of Hoy.
The experience gained by I./KG 30 showed clearly that the Ju 88 was capable of inflicting more damage as a dive-bomber than He 111s in level raids. An average 50 per cent accuracy was an extraordinary result compared to other bombers. In addition the Ju 88 was appreciated by crews for the stability of its wide-track landing gear in ground maneuvers, ability to take much damage, its long single-engine flight endurance and long range on combat sorties. Housing the crew together was also an excellent innovation since it greatly facilitated cooperation in flight.
In November, Lehrgruppe 88  was formed at Greifswald under Maj. Friedrich-Karl Knust. This entailed the formation on December 1 of II./KG 30, and of III./KG 30 on January 1, 1940. In addition, the pilots of LG 1, KG 4 and KG 51 began training on the new aircraft. However only a reduced number of crews had an opportunity to become acquainted with the Ju 88, given that only 69 Ju 88A-1s had been built by the end of 1939.

The Luftwaffe was tasked with attacking convoys and isolated merchant ships as of November 1, with the Junkers Ju 88s of KG 30 assigned the mission of assaulting British warships. The occasional raids on Royal Navy bases proved ineffective, though. This was primarily due to the unusually harsh winter. On February 3 1940, the crew of the 2./KG 30 Staffelkapitän Hptm. Rosenthal, was posted missing. They had become prisoners of war. Other crews sank the trawler Sphinx (830 tons). On February 9, I./KG 30 attacked a group of minelayers off Peterhead, sinking the Robert Bowen (290 tons) and Fort Royal (351 tons). The British put up an effective defense, bringing down the 2./KG 30 machine of Fw. Pfeiffer; the crew was reported missing upon ditching off the island of Sylt.

Mine-laying was not neglected, either, specialist units being formed to perform such tasks against British harbors. These were 1./KG 30 (Ju 88) and 7./KG 26 (He 111), which usually operated under the cover of night, when enemy interference was likely to be negligible.
A March 8 reconnaissance sortie to Scapa Flow resulted in combat with a few dozen Hurricanes of No. 111 Sqn. After a long pursuit the British shot a 2./KG 30 machine piloted by Oblt. von Sicharthoff into the sea, none of the crew surviving. A week later, on March 16, eighteen Junkers of I./KG 30 and 21 He 111s raided Scapa Flow, causing severe damage to the cruiser Norfolk and the Iron Duke. However for the first time, there had been losses among civilians, one person being killed and six wounded. (RAF Bomber Command soon carried out a retaliatory raid over Germany) While returning, one of the 3./KG 30 crews landed in Denmark owing to low fuel, whereupon they were interned. Attacking a convoy on March 29, the Ju 88 of 6./KG 30 Staffelkapitän Oblt. Quadt was lost to anti-aircraft fire, it being the first loss to be sustained by II./KG 30, a “newcomer” to the fray.
Further losses came on April 2 when the Scapa Flow anti-aircraft artillery brought down a 4./KG 30 machine, killing the crew of Staffel­kapitän Hptm. Fritz Koch. The Stab KG 30 crew of Oblt. von Bülow was also lost on this sortie. Losses resulted not only from ground fire or British fighters but also from clashes with other British aircraft. On April 3, searching for convoy ON 24 off Bergen in Norway, two Ju 88s of 5./KG 30 tangled with a Sunderland flying boat of No. 204 Sqn that was protecting the ships. The brief aerial fight ended with both Junkers shot down! The crew of 5./KG 30 commander Oblt. Karl Overweg was killed, while Uffz. Erkens’ crew force-landed in Norway, where they were interned.

Fire over Norway
Invading Norway enabled the Germans to threaten Britain from the North. The British, too, were preparing to take Norway, as that would have allowed them to cut off the North Sea and isolate the Third Reich. In the event the Germans were quicker off the mark. Denmark, an obstacle in the northbound advance, offered no resistance in the face of German military might.
The landing operations were to be carried out by paratroops and infantry supported by the Kriegsmarine. Aerial support was provided by Fliegerkorps X, which had 1086 aircraft available. This strength included 95 Ju 88s.
The attack on Norway took place on 9 April 1940. The Germans landed at the harbors of Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, Kristiansand, Oslo, Egersund and Arendal. At the same time the men of Fallschirmjägerregiment 1 were dropped on the airfields of Oslo and Stavanger.
The bombers of KG 30 were tasked with the destruction of the British fleet. The first sortie was flown in the afternoon of April 9. 47 Junkers 88s were airborne accompanied by He 111s and Ju 87s. The entire formation was directed against a British naval force of 28 warships bristling with anti-aircraft weapons. The dive-bombing Ju 88 crews proved to be the most aggressive. They sent the destroyer Gurkha under and inflicted damage on the heavy cruiser Devonshire and the cruisers Glasgow, Galatea and Southampton. In addition, one bomb hit the deck of the battleship Rodney but, failing to pierce it, fell into the water. Losses were heavy, though – anti-aircraft fire brought down four Ju 88s, including the machine piloted by the Kommandeur of III./KG 30, Hptm. Mahrenholtz. None of those shot down survived.

[…]

Read more…

• Recommended - Aircraft

Mitsubishi A6M Reisen Zeke Vol. I The Zero was exciting, like nothing I’d seen before. Even sitting...

Lublin R-XIII In 1897, Emil Plage founded the Factory for Building Machines...

Duks in Royal Serbian Air Force The Duks factory was founded in Moscow in 1893, and it was initially...

Yakovlev Yak-3 Yakovlev Yak-3 is considered one of the best World War 2 fighters,...

Hawker Siddeley (BAe), McDonnell-Douglas/Boeing Harrier AV-8S/TAV-8S & AV-8B/B+/TAV-8B The Hawker P.1127 and the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel...

P-51B/C Mustangs Over The Third Reich On 6th March 1944 the day dawned murky and cloudy. It was hardly...

P-51D/K Mustangs Over the Third Reich On 14th January 1945 the weather over the continent was unusual...