August 15th, 1939. A group of German
Junkers-87 from the 76th Dive-Bomber Wing were approaching the military training area
at Neuhammer. That day, the planes carried practice bombs with smoke charges that they
were going to drop on the training targets. The bombing run was supposed to be nothing
more than just a spectacular demonstration to impress the high-ranking Luftwaffe officers
who impatiently waited on the ground to finally see the Ju-87 in action. The group commander
Hauptmann Walter Sigel checked his map once again to make sure they reached the training area,
then ordered his group to follow him and turned his plane into a steep dive. But in less than a
minute, the demonstration, which was supposed to showcase the unique capabilities of the new
German bomber, turned into a huge disaster, becoming the largest one-time loss
of Ju-87s in its entire history.
When it comes to the military aviation of World
War Two, it is hard to find an aircraft that was so controversial yet famous at the same time
as the German Junkers-87. The deadly terrifying effectiveness of this bomber, demonstrated
during the German offensive in Poland, France, and Russia quickly turned this aircraft into a
true war legend, making the Ju-87 one of the most recognizable symbols of the German Blitzkrieg.
But what is interesting is that the Ju-87, being feared and hated by its enemies for
its amazing combat performance within the German Luftwaffe for quite a long time was the
subject of intense debates and controversies. At the time, Junkers-87 represented a new class
of bombardment aviation the dive bombers, the future of which in the 1930s was still uncertain.
It was, in particular, because of this uncertainty that the Luftwaffe commanding officers gathered at
the Neuhammer training field on August 15th, 1939, just two weeks before the outbreak of World War
Two. The generals were to watch a demonstration of the ability of Junkers aircrafts to drop bombs
with unmatched precision due to a new technique called dive-bombing . But to better understand
the reasons for the German commanders doubts regarding the Junkers -87, let s do a quick
dive into the history of this matter first.
Although during World War One all the belligerent
[???????????] countries had eventually created their own heavy bomber units, due to poor
bombing accuracy, the actions of the heavy bombers inflicted more of a morale damage to the
enemy. But to be fair, it wasn't given that much importance at the time. The Italian military
theorist Giulio Douhet, in his famous work "The Command of the Air", which later had a huge
influence on the post-war development of aviation, wrote: "Aerial bombardment can certainly never
hope to attain the accuracy of artillery fire, but this is an unimportant point because
such accuracy is unnecessary".
It was only later after the end of World War
One that the accuracy of bombing began to be taken more seriously. One of the first who started
working on this problem were the United States, whose geopolitical position dictated the
need to combat large water surface targets when protecting their coastline. And although
the efficacy of their tests in the 1920s on sinking the ships with aerial bombs remains
in debate to this day it has, nevertheless, forced the US Navy to look more closely at the
potential capabilities of naval aviation and created the need for searching for special bombing
techniques to destroy small and maneuvering targets. Such as ships, for example.
One of such techniques was dive-bombing . The thing is that a bomb dropped from an airplane
flying horizontally at a high altitude, is affected by multiple forces during
its fall, which are sometimes simply impossible to calculate. Therefore, at best
the accuracy of the bombing at the time ranged in hundreds of meters, if not worse.
The dive-bombing was different. Unlike the aircraft dropping bombs while flying high and
horizontally, the dive-bomber would approach the target in a steep dive and release the bomb at
low altitude. As a result, the bomb after being released, would continue to fall along a given
trajectory of the dive and would hit the target with unmatched precision, measured by dozens
of meters instead of hundreds. This bombing technique was quite complex to execute and has
its troubles but the Americans, nevertheless, in one form or another continued their bombing
experiments. Watching the dive-bombers in action was a breathtaking view, so it even became the
element of some aerobatic shows at the time. And it was one such dive-bombing demonstration
that was accidentally witnessed by a German pilot, whose name is now inextricably linked
with the creation of the dive-bombers most famous representative Junkers-87.
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the Junkers-87 story.
In 1933 Germany adopted the so-called
"urgent program" of aviation development, which in particular, included the development of
a new dive bomber. It is worth saying that from a technological standpoint, the development
of a dive bomber was a much more difficult task than it might seem. To achieve the needed
accuracy of bombing, such a bomber would dive to the ground at an angle close to 80 degrees,
which, in turn, required the solution of many technological problems. For instance, the
bomb dropped from a standard holder during the steep dive would go through the propeller area
completely destroying it. So, one of the first tasks was the development of a special bomb
holder - the so-called swing bomb rack. Also, the aircraft must be able to dive at slower
speeds and exit the dive at a low altitude, which would require complex wing mechanization.
In addition to this, when pulling out of the dive, the aircraft incurs a force close to 5G, which
means the bomber had to be durable and robust. Thus, the required aircraft would have to be
close to fighters in its agility and durability, and close to a medium bomber payload wise.
But the main problem was the controversial concept of a dive-bomber itself. Which within Luftwaffe had its supporters and opponents as well. In 1935 the idea of dive-bombers received a strong proponent represented in Luftwaffe by the newly appointed inspector of fighters and dive-bombers Colonel Ernst Udet. Not long ago a national hero of the German Empire for being the second best fighter ace after the all-famous Red Baron Manfred Richthofen. It is believed, that while in the United States Ernst Udet was amazed by the air performance of the Curtiss Hawks which in particular demonstrated the dive-bombing technique. Udet was delighted with the American plane and even purchased two of them which were then delivered to Germany. He also shared with Herman Goering the newly appointed minister of aviation his thought that if you release bombs at the altitude of half as much as the Americans do you could hit targets more precisely. But the dive-bomber concept also had powerful opponents and one of the main was Luftwaffe's Chief of the Technical Office Wolfram
Richthofen, the cousin of the famous Red Baron, who strongly believed that the idea of?
dive-bombing was absurd. In his opinion, the slow flying bomber while attacking the target
at low altitudes would be an easy target for enemy anti-aircraft guns and fighters, leaving the
bombers little chance to hit the target and survive. Moreover, Richtohen being a pilot himself
in the past, was perfectly aware of the g-force level the pilot would experience when exiting
the dive, hence he feared that the high-level skills required for dive-bombing could not be
expected of "average pilots" in the Luftwaffe.
It's worth mentioning that the history of
the trials and adoption of the Junkers-87 dive-bomber into service was full of intrigues
and definitely deserves its own video, meanwhile, we will jump straight ahead to the final stage of
the German dive-bomber competition. On June 9th, 1936, Wolfram Richtofen issued a recommendation
to cancel all further Ju-87 development because he considered the aircraft to be worthless. But the
very next day, on June 10th, 1936, Richthofen was removed from his position and the new Chief
of Technical Office became Ernst Udet, who immediately rejected Richthofen's order regarding
the Ju-87. Ernst Udet's appointment accelerated the development of a new German dive bomber and
eventually led to the adoption of the Junkers Ju-87, which Udet was believed to have favored
from the very beginning of the competition.
Ironically, Wolfram Richthofen's new
assignment was to take a field command in the Condor Legion - a Luftwaffe unit sent to
support Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. And it was to the Condor legion that the very
first models of the Ju-87 were soon sent to test their capabilities in real combat conditions.
To be fair, Richtofen, while in Spain, should be given credit for thinking outside the box. At
first, his initiatives found little understanding in the minds of the Luftwaffe's high command, who
were hypnotized by Douhet's doctrine and believed that all bombers should operate primarily
far beyond the front line. On the contrary, Richthofen most often used his Ju-87s closer
to the front line as direct support for ground forces', where the Ju-87's incredible bombing
accuracy became extremely useful. The aircraft s ability to hit small targets even earned the
new bomber the nickname "flying artillery".
Being capable of providing close support to the
rapidly advancing troops, the Ju-87 eventually became a vital part of the Blitzkrieg concept
and one might say that the German offensive in Europe in the initial period of World War
Two might have developed quite differently if the Junkers-87 opponents, who tried every
opportunity to cancel the plane, had succeeded in their efforts. And it was just 2 weeks before
the outbreak of the war when one tragic accident seemed to create yet another doubt regarding
the capabilities of the Ju-87 dive-bomber.
In August 1939, Germany was on the final
stretch in its preparation for the war. As a part of the process, the Germans decided to
hold a demonstration exercise for the Luftwaffe, the conclusion of which would be a
spectacular attack performed by dive bombers. The Ju-87s from the Dive-Bomber Wing 76 were
to hit the training targets at the Neuhammer training area in front of the Luftwaffe commanding
officers. By the way, Wolfram Richthofen was also among those officers on the ground. The
demonstration of the dive bombers' impressive capabilities was supposed to instill confidence
in the hearts of the generals regarding the latest dive-bomber that was to provide support
to German troops in the war soon to come.
The choice of the flight unit for
the demonstration was not accidental: the Sturzkampfgeschwader 76 was the first
Luftwaffe unit that received new dive bombers. According to the task, the 1st Group of the Unit,
consisted of 27 bombers, was to take off from the Cottbus airfield, fly to the Neuhammer training
area, and drop their bombs on the given targets right in front of the generals' gaze. On any
other day, such a task would hardly have caused any difficulties for Group commander Hauptman
Siegel, but on that day right before the take-off, he was informed that there was cloudiness right
over the training area with the upper edge at an altitude of 2000 meters and the lower one at 900
meters. Normally the maximum safe altitude for the Ju-87 to pull out of the dive was around
500 m, so the commanders thought that having the cloudiness over the field was even better.
Unsuspecting generals would look up at the sky, from which all of a sudden, the German bombers
would swiftly fall out, magnificently hitting the targets with their bombs, and then swiftly
disappearing into the clouds. Isn't that a great-looking show you wouldn t forget?
Hauptman Walter Siegel personally led his unit in that flight. To his left and right were the
bombers piloted by his adjutant and the group's chief tech officer, while behind him in close
formation flew all three squadrons of his Group. As in all previous training flights, after
having reached the destination point, the commander put his Ju-87 into a deep dive
quickly disappearing in the cloud. The rest of the unit, one after the other, followed
the commander roaring through the clouds.
Later, Walter Siegel recalled that he sensed
something was wrong when the clouds did not end for quite a long time, and then the whiteness
in front of him, instead of dissipating, all of a sudden began to darken. As a highly experienced
pilot, he immediately understood that he was seeing the ground and Siegel pulled the stick
abruptly, trying to get his plane out of a fatal dive. At the same time, he screamed into his radio
to his wingmen: Abort! Pull up! Pull up! .
According to eyewitnesses, Siegel managed to pull
his Ju-87 out of the dive right over the ground flying at barely 1 or 2 meters high. Meanwhile,
the pilots following him did not have enough time to react to this command. First, both Siegel's
wingmen crashed into the ground almost vertically, followed then by all nine Ju-87s from
the 2nd squadron. The pilots of the 3rd squadron were a bit more fortunate, only
two planes crashed into the forest trees, meanwhile, the rest of the squadron managed
to pull their planes out of the dive just above the ground. The 1st squadron, which
flew the last in the order, had heard Siegel's command and had enough time to cease the dive.
Meanwhile on the ground, it was hard to describe the experience of the German generals who
witnessed the raining Junkers. The stricken spectators silently watched 13 fires and
black puffs of smoke over the forest. The show indeed became an unforgettable one.
An investigation of the accident conducted on the same day found that the cause of the disaster was
a sudden heavy fog, which arose just about an hour before the appearance of the Siegel s group
over the training field. Touching the lower part of the clouds, the fog actually lowered the
bottom edge of the cover to a bare 100 meters. The personnel on the training field did not
have direct communication with the airfield, so there was no way for them to report
the sudden changes in weather conditions. According to the results of the investigation,
the commander of the group, Hauptmann Siegel, was officially found not guilty of the tragedy.
Unfortunately for other European countries, the disaster that occurred did not crack
the Luftwaffe's confidence in Junkers-87, and soon the bomber would make its bloody
contribution into the horrors of World War II, taking part in the German campaigns in Poland,
Norway, France, and the USSR. But to be fair, starting with the Battle of Britain, it became
clear that the high performance of the Ju-87 was only possible when total superiority in the
sky is provided. Otherwise, the Ju-87 bombers encountering enemy fighters suffered significant
losses. But even in this case, during the whole period of war there were just a few days when
Ju-87 encountered the loss of 15 or more planes in a single day. And even in those cases, the losses
of the bombers were spread out in hours throughout the day. Meanwhile on August 15th, 1939, without
encountering enemy forces, the Luftwaffe lost 13 Ju-87s and 26 pilots in less than one minute.
Making the accident at Neuhammer the worst one-time loss in the entire Ju-87 history.
Another interesting detail about that accident is that the leader of the first squadron was Dietrich
Peltz who would soon become the youngest general of the Wehrmacht and one of the German bombardment
aviation commanders, whose task during the war, in particular, was overseeing the strategic
development of the German bomber arm. And who knows how the history of the Luftwaffe
would have turned out if, on August 15th, 1939, Dietrich would have been among the first
pilots to follow Siegel's dive into the fog.
As for Siegel himself, despite feeling guilty for
the tragedy, it did not stop him from successfully fighting during World War Two. As a commander of
the quickly reinforced Dive-Bomber Wing 76 Walter Siegel was among the very first pilots to
drop the bombs on Poland on September 1st, 1939. He later took part in the French campaign,
then in the Battle of Britain, he flew over Greece and Crete, and fought in North Africa
as well, until his appointment as a Commander of the German Air Force in Norway. On May 8th,
1944, Walter Siegel went on an inspection flight to check the camouflage of the battleship Tirpitz
in the Trondheim Fjord. Right before the take-off, a thick fog suddenly appeared over the fjord, as
a result of which Siegel's aircraft accidentally caught the power line wires and the plane crashed.
Walter Siegel was killed in the accident. The deadly fog, which he miraculously escaped in 1939
at the Neuhammer, eventually overtook him too.
And that's the story!
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TLDW:
They thought the cloud layer was at 900m was really at 100m they pulled up to late 13 crashed.
Nazis called it a disaster. For the rest of the world, it was a miracle.
Learn to use your altimeter you Nazi !