| Just because it shot down an aircraft, doesn't mean it was EVER used as a fighter.
I suggest you read Rudels biography. It clearly shows the capabilities of the Stuka and that with the proper tactics it could hold its own against enemy aircraft. That and a whole lot of luck meant that Rudel could fly his Stuka until the last weeks of the war!!
What you guys forgot to stress was that the dive brakes were removed because the Stuka changed its role. It was still an excellent dive bomber and dive bombing was still very effective but the Stuka was - as strange as it may seem to some of you - a tactical-strategical bomber, bombing the enemy behind their lines. From 1943 onwards it got used more as a Schlachtflugzeug instead of a Sturzkampfflugzeug. This meant it had to go down and attack the enemy directly. For this it got some necessary modifications: armour and cannons. Dive brakes were also no longer necessary which doesn't mean that the Stuka couldn't dive bomb any more, just no more vertical slow dives.
Kris
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