Bruce Dickinson Warplane Diaries: Stuka JU87

Warplane Diaries from Bruce Dickinson return, this time with the Stuka Ju87

Follow us on

Twitter:

[jaypaxton]

*during the creation of the first JU87*

Engineer 1: Ze plane needs to strike more fear.
Engineer 2: I could add ze spooky siren thing.

[CHEESYHEAD]

There's an awesome interview on youtube of a Stuka pilot and he and his 3 or something wingmen got ambushed by 5 Spitfires. His wing leader ordered them to dive as hard as they could and the Spitfires followed them. Thanks to the Stuka's automatic airbrakes, the Stuka's pulled up out of the dive fine but the Spitfires slammed right into the ground and only 1 survived.

[yetanotherjohn]

Allow me: The Stuka had a small window in the floor so the pilot could see his target as he flew over it. The fixed landing gear was fitted with explosives to jettison one leg if the other was destroyed in combat; landing with no wheels was much safer than landing with only one. The g-force induced by the rise of the plane after dropping the bomb could cause momentary blackout of the pilot, so many Stukas were fitted with an "automatic pull-out" device to assist in exiting the attack after bomb deployment. Although they were almost scrubbed from the air-program after the Battle of Britain, they had a "second wind" in Russia, where they were fitted with huge cannons under their wings and used for attacking tanks.

[Daylon]

Should have at least mentioned Hans Ulrich Rudel. The tank terror

[eduardonunez]

Discovery Network should give Bruce Dickinson a TV show to teach about second world war airplanes. They gave a chance to Brian Johnson and his show about cars is a sucess. I hope someday can watch the Bruce Dickinson's show at Discovery Chanel, saludos desde 🇲🇽

[harryholleran]

He's just giving us a brief rundown, not the unabridged history and aircraft specs of each plane. That's perfect for these videos. It gives us a glint into the world of warplanes. Not enough info? Do some research if this topic interests you.

[SuperMozzman]

Bruce could have done a better air-raid siren

[lmyrski]

"Shot down it droves?" Hardly. The Stuke was ill suited for most operations in the Battle of Britain where it gave good account in convoy and coastal attacks. They were much harder to shoot down than video games indicate since they could take evasive action that made them hard for a fighter to hit, and the did rely on mutual protection and an ability to target fighters that flew past them. Unlike the video games if 12 fighters attacked a large group of Stukas not every fighter got a kill or two. Only 59 Ju87's were lost over Britain and that occurred between 2nd July to 19th August, although their losses had risen significantly. At that time it was withdrawn from the Battle at Kesselring's urging due to the fact that the Battle was entering a period where level bombers would be the main thrust, not dive bombers. he believed the Ju87 units should be held in reserve for when air supremacy was gained and could be used to strike at the RN when Operation Sealion was implemented. They continued to plague the allies in other theaters inflicting significant losses until the allies achieved nearly complete air domination, even so they continued to kill a lot of Russians until the last days of the war by which time they were hopelessly outdated, but still not "shot down in droves."

[gungriffen]

He's talking in a cadence he normally doesn't speak with which leads to me to believe he's reading cue cards. Granted his knowledge of aircraft is pretty renouned so I don't doubt he wrote them but it seems like he is reading them.

[ericscottstevens]

My Opa's most difficult Stuka missions.
1. Ravens Day August 18th 1940 Poling Island, barely made it back.
2. Dunkirk, too much smoke, too much air traffic, too much confusion to drop payload
3. A rookie officer pilot getting the 3. wing lost eastern front, EAST of Soviet lines. Once they saw no roads below they knew it was a problem. A veteran flight NCO cut the officer off and turned the wing around and got them back to lines before they ran out of fuel.
4. Sevastopol, cracking the Soviet coastal fortress.
5. Ground attack supporting the FJ attack on Eben-Emael Canal.
St.G 77 Kliene Fische "Small Fries"

[ivar]

My final wish would be to hear one of these diving with my own ears

[Bayan]

There was an anti-tank version that was used on the Eastern Front that had two large cannons. It was the JU-87G Kanonenvogel and it had two 37mm guns, one under each wing in large pods. It proved to be very successful as an anti-tank aircraft. That particular version of the JU-87 Stuka became the inspiration for the A-10 Warthog.

[Ockenfels]

just 1:30 for one of the most iconic planes EVER MADE ... wow -.-

[poppavein]

These are getting shorter and shorter ...

[tonymerritt]

Read an interview with a Battle of Britain pilot. He said the Stuka was easy to shoot down if you got the jump on them. He said you never wanted to try and dive with them or out turn them as they could turn on a pin.

[ukchris]

So WoW's has Sabaton and Bismarck, WoT's has both Sabaton and The Offspring, and WoW's has this leader of Iron Maiden, i think we need more of an Iron Maiden themed tank, maybe Eddie as Commander xD

[lordbyron]

Ummm this is Stuka, it's a plane there I'm done. You're better than this.

[Gaz-xl]

Must have been a scary ride for the gunner in the back!. Whilst in a dive he would be back to the ground, legs in the air falling at some rate!!!

[mrrolandlawrence]

its also worthy to mention that US general Doolittle advised the Germans before WW2 that "dive bombing was the only way to assure accuracy".

[conradoramos]

Awww these vids are getting short, we demand more