[king_tiger_tank]

anything about the infamous plane

[Pzt_Wruff]

Herman Goering was an asshole and a horrible chief of Luftwaffe (sorry. all I could think of off the top)

Cool plane though

[Pzt_Mac]

The original "Tank Buster". Perfected it's diving run in the Spanish Civil War. The early version supported 2 x 20mm auto cannons. I believe later versions of the model added a coule of mg's. And that's all I know off of the top of my head

[Pzt_Wruff]

That's very impressive mac. You're pulling from our first hand experiences flying stukas and busting russian armor in IL2 aren't you

[Pzt_Mac]

You know it, General! Video games taught me everything I need to know

[king_tiger_tank]

problem was that it was real slow but it made russians pee there pants when they heard the sirens

[Volksjager_cn]

Hey Mac,

I think Stuka has 7.92mm MG instead of 20mm. The later version did carry 37mm ATG gun-pod. Me109 has 20mm cannon though.

Stuke was very effective in Spain and France (Meuse Crossing anyone? ) but it was slow and vulnerable to enemy fighters. One thing about the Eastern front was that Russian soldiers were taught to fire toward the Luffwaffe aircrafts instead of seeking cover when under aerial attack. Resulting in heavy aircraft losses.

[dgfred]

One of my favorites : .

Another problem the Stukas had with ground fire was that thery were very
vulnerable and predictable when they were diving and pulling out of a dive,
they Russians quickly learned to take advantage of this.

[king_tiger_tank]

they really became ineffective during the battle for Britain.

[AA_WeeFunk]

heres some info about it nice plane tough. http://www.fighter-planes.com/

[AA_WeeFunk]

the german plane FW190 was also an very nice plane out performing many allied planes (correct me if im wrong)

[king_tiger_tank]

it did for a good portion of the war, but in 43-45 they were ineffected due loss of air supeority

[Pzt_Wruff]

Listening not long ago to some FW190 vets talking about their experience in WWII. They were having good success for a long time .... until the Mustang came along.
The Spitfire was a wicked fighter as well, only that the british fighter tactics were poor around that point (Battle of Britain).
Of course by 1943/44 all the inexperienced german pilots resulted in a turkey shoot for allied pilots.

Funny about Goering and Hitler. When their man and materials were far superior things were real rosy. They squandered it. Once the allies turned the tide then neither (Hitler nor Goering) couldn't tie his frikkin' shoes.
Typical of shitty military commanders.

[king_tiger_tank]

that's about the same as how the French lost WW2. they could have wiped out the germans, but their tactics and their leaders didn't get the job done.

[king_tiger_tank]

hitler also didn't jump on new aircrafts and tanks until it was too late.

[God4Saken]

Evening all! Yes, the Ju-87 was an good aircraft in it's role as a ground-attack bomber. But it had a lot of inherent problems. The least of which was it's low speed and poor manuverabilty. This made it extremely vulnerable to faster enemy fighters (The only way for a Stuka to outrun an attacking enemy was to dive and use it's airbrakes to pull out at the last moment, enemy fighters that followed often flew into the ground as they had insufficient brakes). It would have been faster with a more powerful engine, retractable landing-gear and without the rear gunner. But the fixed landing gear was robust enough to allow it to operate from grassy airstrips close to the ever changing front-line, allowing it to fly in close support of the army. Like most other attack aircraft of it's time, it had a rear gunner which was only excess weight as they were armed with a piddly little 7.92mm MG (how many Stuka gunners became aces in WW2?). When armed with twin 37mm AT guns, it was far more effective, however by then the Luftwaffe had lost air superiority.

Another Luftwaffe ground attack aircraft that could have done better was the Henschel Hs 129 "Panzerknacker", especially when fitted with a 75mm AT cannon. But the Luftwaffe preferred dive bombers, so insufficient resources were given to the developement of the Hs 129. Probably the most unothadox ground attack aircraft the Germans used was the Heinkel 177 "Grief" heavy bomber (See below). Armed with a 75mm AT cannon in the nose, this lumbering giant would roar in at treetop level attacking Soviet tanks with some success, but it's size made it an easy target for AAA. Still none of them come close to the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik as an AT aircraft.

[rufus]

hi all,about 5.700of these planes were built the majority after 1940 even by then they were outmoded,some intresting variations were buit, there was a torpedo model with longer wing span intendid for the aircraft carrier graf zeppelin but the ship was never completed so they were converted back to standard.

there was an experimental one with a pod above each wing both capable of carrinying 2 persons and intended to be used 2 drop agents behind enemy lines,the pods were designed 2 be realesd in a shallow dive and 2 drop by parachute,although i dont think they were ever used.cant think why!!

[pvt_Grunt]

[schrecken]

[b]Junkers Ju 87 G-2, flown by Stuka Colonel Hans-Ulrich Rudel[/b



He flew 2530 missions against the enemy. Whilst doing so he destroyed 519 Russian tanks, a battleship, a cruiser, a destroyer, 70 landing craft, over 800 motorized vehicles, over 150artillery, anti-tank and anti-aircraft positions.

Furthermore he destroyed important bridges, supply lines and bunkers. (One can increase these numbers since many of his missions were flown without the knowledge of the Reich’s leadership and the tallies were assigned to the Geschwader. Hitler forbade his flying because he did not want him lost to the propaganda machine). Rudel was shot down 30 times, and he was wounded 5 times. He also saved six crews downed behind enemy lines and escaped once from Russian captivity.

He was decorated with the highest award for bravery in the German armed forces. He received the golden oak leaves with swords and diamonds to the Knights Cross. His iron will was remarkable.

[Arg0n]

Hey people I sometimes play Il-2 Sturmovik and let me tell you: there's no easier target than the stuka. Every other target you must take on with boom-n'-zoom but with this one you can take your time and get on his tail and boom.
The Stuka was grat against tanks but as long as the fighters didn't appear.
On the other hand the Il-2 has a strong rar MG and taking it head-on is simply stupid: Il-2 has 5 times stronger weapons than any other fighter except maybe Me-262 which had 4 30mm cannons!