RON DUPAS COLLECTION
No. 6. Junkers Ju 87 D-5 ("V8+JB" c/n 140736) Luftwaffe
Source unknown

Junkers Ju 87 D-5

06/18/2003. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "The Ju 87 became synonymous with the nickname "Stuka", an abbreviation of Sturzkampfflugzeug, the German word for dive-bomber."

03/06/2004. Remarks by Christian Möller: "This photo was taken on Wunstorf airfield, Germany, maybe in April/May 1945. Wunstorf is about 25km west of Hannover, Germany. It shows a Junkers Ju 87 D-5, c/n 140736 (I know another photo of that plane, where the last three digits can be clearly seen on the tail), code "V8+JB" (although only the letter "J" can be seen). The plane came from 1./Nachtschlachtgruppe 1-Nord (note the white band around the engine, which indicates "northern" planes of the Luftwaffe). This unit was a night ground attack unit equipped with the old-fashioned Stukas (note the flame dampers on the engine's exhausts).

Because of the vulnerability of the Stukas to enemy fighters and AAA fire they were used at night only. So, the Nachtschlachtgruppen mainly operated from dusk till dawn and attacked enemy targets such as traffic, artillery positions, etc. near the front line. However, I know of few occasions during the last days of war when such Stukas attacked enemy tanks, etc. during daytime. Sometimes with heavy losses then. NSGr. 1 had operated in southern Germany until it was divided into two groups in end of March 1945.

So, NSGr. 1-Süd still operated in the south until end of war (being in Mühldorf am Inn, about 65km east of Munich), while NSGr. 1-Nord saw its last combat missions in northern Germany and surrendered to the Allies in Husum (about 30km west of Schleswig in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany)."


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