Why was the Ju 87 Built

[Masterdj83]

Hia

I'm a fan of WW2 Aviation but i can't understand why the Ju87 was Built! I mean you might as well explode the plane before the mission instead of getting shot out of the sky my rubbish AA Guns.

[Masterdj83]

Please reply if you have any answers to why the ju 87 'stuka' was built

[Gnomey]

At the time that it was built a slow accurate dive bomber was a much more effective form of delivery than the inaccurate medium/heavy bombers. At the time of its inception it was a good plane although with inadequate defensive armament (this was improved slightly). It was only when it met much superior fighters such as the Spitfire's and Hurricane's that it became completely obsolete and was removed from the frontlines (at least on the Western Front). On the Eastern Front it continued to serve for the remainder of the war and did a lot of damage to the Soviet war effort (read up on Rudel).

[Denniss]

The Ju 87 has not become obsolete during BoB . But to operate the Ju 87 it had to be protected by fighters so you had to have some form of air superiority. As the Luftwaffe was struggling to achive this over England the Ju 87 was relegated to antishipping missions over the channel as it was easier to protect there.
The Ju 87 continued to successfully serve as antishipping bomber especially in the Med and as dive bomber, ground attack and tank destroyer on the eastern front. During 1843/1944 it was gradually replaced by heavily armored Fw 190F fighter-bombers/ground attack and continued to serve as night nuisance bomber. As the Ju 87 was able to fly at a very slow speed the allied night fighters did have problems to kill them as they were often too fast to manouver in position once they detected them.

[delcyros]

In terms of payload, the Ju-87 was one of the most effective single engined bomber in ww2. It was also very rugged, and had for it´s time an excellent cockpit, engine and fuel tank protection. Finally it was easy to mainten and had full grass landing abilities.
The basic concept to deliver heavy payload at pinpoint accuracy is not flawed per se, esspeccially in a time prior to the more sophisticated gyro stabilized, computing bombsights but it is a concept to lead into a number of compromisses, which eventually doomed the Ju-87 later.

[Nikademus]

The Germans needed a tactical airforce given their geographical situation. I believe it was recently mentioned in another recent thread that at the time of development, no nation had any real Heavies developed yet and the US was one of the few doing so given it's geographical situation (a seperate continent seperated by wide oceans) So a tactical DB made sense for the Luftwaffe. I've read that the Stuka's excellent stability which made it such an effective attack platform also made it the ultimate sitting duck target. I suppose one could accuse it of being over-engineered for it's task. Still....when well protected or when in an envirnment where the Luft had air superiority, it was a deadly precision weapon. Put alot of enemy fighters within reach though....and aieee.

[Erich]

do a bit of research in it's nocturnal activities of lat 44 till wars end. A slow beast but did it's job well till the end

[machine shop tom]

It's ability to drop bombs very accurately was it's greatest asset. It was actually inferior to the Hs 123 in close support, but with fighter protection it remained effective as a dive bomber and later as an anti-armor weapon. It's greatest drawback was that it was used in situations that left it vulnerable to fighter attacks.

tom

[Catch22]

The funny thing was, it was originally designed to be able to protect itself without fighter escort, but we all know how well that worked.

[evangilder]

Originally Posted by Catch22

The funny thing was, it was originally designed to be able to protect itself without fighter escort, but we all know how well that worked.

So was the B-17...

[Nikademus]

Originally Posted by evangilder

So was the B-17...

[mkloby]

Think mobile air arty that didn't need to be trucked. It was an excellent aircraft when flown within its intended design constraints.

[SoD Stitch]

Originally Posted by mkloby

Think mobile air arty that didn't need to be trucked. It was an excellent aircraft when flown within its intended design constraints.

As mkloby said, it's original mission was, essentially, to be extremely accurate artillery. Nowadays, we have GPS satellites, and extremely accurate gyroscopes, but back then (1935) artillery wasn't so accurate; half the time you ended up putting rounds on your own guys. The Germans saw a need for extremely accurate tactical artillery and, since it wasn't technically feasible to put a round within 100 yards (let alone 100 feet!) of a target back then, something else had to be developed. Hence, the Ju 87. Yes, it was a sitting duck vs. much faster and more maneuverable single-engine fighters; but in Poland, with complete Luftwaffe air supremacy, it proved it's worth.

[Njaco]

When the Luftwaffe came about in the 1930s, it was seen as an extension of the Army. With the seeds of Blitzkreig developing, the aircraft was made a part of the ground force's weapons - hence an aerial artillery. At that time there were two strong individuals with ideas for the Luftwaffe and its relationship to the army. General Udet visioned a dive-bombing plane that would decimate the enemy strongpoints and rear-guard. He came to champion this idea after going to America and flying in several dive-bombers produced by the USA at the time. General Wever visioned a fleet of heavy bombers that would carpet bomb key points (much like what was tried in Spain).

Two things then brought about the dive-bomber and the Ju 87. General Wever died in an air crash and his heavy bomber concept was left at the wayside. And it was decided that with the material it was decided that instead of one heavy bomber, they could make several smaller bombers such as the Ju 87.

The Ju 87 was quite handy through out the war. Its speed was never a great part of it but in the hands of an experienced pilot and gunner it could hold its own. One trick used by Stuka pilots was when being attacked from the rear, they would suddenly slow or side-slip allowing the Spit or whoever to overshoot...into the Stukas gunsights. Planes would stick together and provide mutal firepower ...not unlike the boxes used by B-17s.

I'll probably be hammered but this was just a quick reference and quite possibly not very accurate but that is the jist of why the Ju 87 was made.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by Masterdj83

Hia

I'm a fan of WW2 Aviation but i can't understand why the Ju87 was Built! I mean you might as well explode the plane before the mission instead of getting shot out of the sky my rubbish AA Guns.

Because it was actually a damn good Dive Bomber.

Like any Dive Bomber it relied on aerial superiority, however the aircraft itself was actually very rugged and a very accurate dive bomber and later a great tank killer.

Originally Posted by Catch22

The funny thing was, it was originally designed to be able to protect itself without fighter escort, but we all know how well that worked.

When it was originally designed it was a realistic thing. It was faster than most of its oposition at the time.