- 1 day ago
For educational purposes
"Dive bomber"
It was a sight and sound that spelt terror from the skies, the Stuka was at the very heart of Blitzkreig - Hitler's lightning war.
Flown by skilful and highly motivated pilots, the full force of the Fuhrer's premier weapon of the air was felt by soldiers and all civilians all over Europe.
Featuring very rare colour footage of the Stuka in action also, includes brand new 3D graphics and new footage of the last surviving aircraft, housed at RAF Hendon.
"Dive bomber"
It was a sight and sound that spelt terror from the skies, the Stuka was at the very heart of Blitzkreig - Hitler's lightning war.
Flown by skilful and highly motivated pilots, the full force of the Fuhrer's premier weapon of the air was felt by soldiers and all civilians all over Europe.
Featuring very rare colour footage of the Stuka in action also, includes brand new 3D graphics and new footage of the last surviving aircraft, housed at RAF Hendon.
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LearningTranscript
00:23The sight and sound of the deadly Junkers 87 Stuka dive bomber as it screams towards
00:28its target.
00:33In World War II, the Stuka struck fear into the hearts of millions.
00:41No other warplane became so instantly recognizable, and no other warplane was a more effective instrument
00:46of precision attack.
00:48For the German commanders, it was their flying artillery.
00:56The Stuka was not solely valued for its ability to cause destruction and death.
01:01Equally important was its capacity to inspire terror in the hearts of an enemy.
01:08Hitler had used terror to seize and hold power in Germany, and no one understood better the
01:13use of terror in the pursuit of invasion and conquest.
01:16The small, single-engined Junkers monoplane was the perfect instrument of terror and has
01:21become the most chilling and enduring image of Nazi militarism.
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02:14Wherever Hitler sent his armies, in Europe, in Africa, in Greece, the Balkans, and deep
02:19into Russia, these fearsome dive bombers were always in the forefront.
02:26It is surprising to note that although thousands were built, less than 400 of the aircraft were
02:31ever in service at any one time.
02:35Despite their relative scarcity, the Stücke was to leave an impression on World War II
02:39out of all proportion to its numbers.
02:43Soaring above the claims of the more glamorous types, it is the Stücke that has become synonymous
02:48with the German Luftwaffe.
03:13This is the last surviving Stücke in Western Europe.
03:20Of all those hundreds of planes, this single machine, lying peacefully at rest in the RAF
03:25Museum at Hendon, is the last of its kind on the continent to which it once spelled terror
03:30for millions.
03:35The men who fought against the Stücke would recognize instantly the angular, gull-winged
03:39shape.
03:43Those who flew in them forever held the aircraft dear to their hearts.
03:49First flown in 1935, the Stuccas were already considered obsolete by the start of the war only four
03:55years later.
03:58But their commander, General Lieutenant Wolfram von Richthofen, was confident that his warplanes
04:04would prove their worth.
04:06Originally one of the many opponents of the dive bomber concept, Richthofen had been deeply impressed
04:11by the lethal accuracy of the handful of dive bombers available to the German Condor Legion
04:15in the Spanish Civil War.
04:35So, the Stuccas were given a reprieve which was to last the whole six years of the war.
04:58The overriding advantage of the Stucca was the accuracy of its bombing run.
05:05Conventional bombers of the time released their bombs at high altitude, aiming devices where
05:09rudimentary and accuracy was necessarily poor.
05:19Dive bombers swooped down on their targets and guided their bombs towards the target, allowing
05:23far greater accuracy.
05:26With the special dive break supplied, the Stucca could fly so low before pulling out of its dive,
05:31it could almost place the bomb on the target, and its cranked wings allowed excellent forward vision.
05:45But there was one major disadvantage.
05:48The Stucca was very slow and cumbersome.
05:51It was almost defenseless against modern fighters such as the Spitfire or the Hurricane.
05:56Time and again, this great weakness would come back to haunt the German Air Force.
06:03Even by the exacting standards normal for aerial combat, the men who flew the Stuccas had to be exceptionally fit.
06:11Coming out of a dive, the two crewmen were subjected to a centrifugal force up to five times that exerted
06:17by gravity.
06:18Blood was drained from the retina and brain, usually leading to a temporary blindness and loss of consciousness.
06:24It was found that short, stocky pilots in their 30s and 40s were best able to withstand the high G
06:30-forces involved in a dive bomb attack.
06:34To combat the disastrous possibilities of the crew losing consciousness, the Stucca was fitted with an automatic pull-out and
06:40bomb release mechanism,
06:41which prevented loss of control during this critical part of the dive bombing manoeuvre.
06:48In other respects, the controls were surprisingly simple.
06:52Early versions had only two instruments, a compass and a turn and bank indicator.
07:05Slowed down by the fixed undercarriage, top speed was less than 250 miles an hour.
07:18The Stucca was armed with two fixed forward machine guns and a third rear-facing gun, operated by the navigator,
07:24who sat with his back to the direction of travel.
07:31The Stucca carried either a single 1,000-kilobomb under the fuselage or one 500-kilobomb plus four smaller bombs
07:39under the wings.
07:55The Stucca carried either a single 1,000-kilobomb under the fuselage or one 500-kilobomb plus four smaller bombs
07:56under the wings.
07:57Strong German forces had been assembling clandestinely on the borders of Germany and East Prussia.
08:06Hitler's surprise attack on Poland, codenamed Operation White, was about to commence, and with it, the Second World War.
08:23Overhead, 200 fighters, 650 bombers, and over 200 Stuccas flew eastwards through the dawn skies.
08:31It was three Stuccas from three Stucca Geschwader I, which dropped the first bombs of the war at Dershow.
08:38It was a Stucca of STG-2, which first shot down an enemy plane.
08:46The prime objective of the Luftwaffe was to destroy the small Polish air force, on the ground if possible,
08:52in order that the Stuccas and medium bombers could carry out their deadly work unimpeded.
09:02By the end of the first day, the Luftwaffe had lost 14 aircraft. The Poles had lost half of their
09:07air force.
09:13The Luftwaffe commanded supremacy in air, and the Stuccas were able to range with impunity,
09:18attacking the Polish communications, rail and road links, supply depots and relief columns.
09:26As the Germans advanced, they built improvised airstrips, allowing the Stuccas to operate from close behind the front line.
09:33All leading army units were accompanied by Luftwaffe liaison officers in direct radio contact with their aircraft.
09:50This sophisticated level of cooperation between army and air force was unique to the Germans and proved devastatingly successful.
09:58Besides the Stuccas, the Germans also used a number of old Henschel HS-123 dive bomber biplanes.
10:05They knew that the harsh, high-pitched snarl from the Henschel's engine could also create fear amongst those on the
10:11ground.
10:13The Germans quickly found that by bombing towns and villages, the hordes of civilian refugees crowding back from the front
10:18seriously interfered with the movement of Polish forces.
10:22The object was not destruction, but terror.
10:28Warsaw was already encircled by the Germans.
10:31The Polish defenders put up a fierce but hopeless resistance.
10:35A prolonged, ferocious bombardment by heavy artillery and from the air left buildings of the capital in ruins,
10:41and the streets littered with the dead.
10:45On the 29th of September, all resistance in Warsaw ended, and Poland as a state ceased to exist.
10:54A new word was added to the English language, Blitzkrieg.
10:59German mastery of the powerful new technique of Blitzkrieg, lightning war, gained Hitler a dazzling triumph,
11:06and opinion was unanimous that throughout the campaign, Richthofen Stuccas had made a contribution far disproportionate to their numbers.
11:13The cost in military charms had been light.
11:16Thirty-one aircraft lost, mainly through gunfire.
11:22The victory parade was followed by a lavish distribution of medals and promotions.
11:28Goring, the Luftwaffe commander, basked in new glory.
11:32By any standards, the Luftwaffe's rise from a clandestine organization in 1933 to supremacy in 1940 was a remarkable feat.
11:40Banned by the Treaty of Versailles from building warplanes in Germany,
11:44Junkers, Messerschmitt, Heinkel, and Dornier had built factories abroad.
11:50The Junkers 87 was first penned in 1933 by Herman Polman.
11:55The distinctive inverted gull wings allowed the shortest undercarriage to reduce drag.
12:00Winning a dive bomber design competition in January 1935,
12:05the first prototype had taken to the air in September 1935,
12:08powered ironically by a Rolls-Royce V12 Kestrel engine.
12:13By the outbreak of war, the 87 B-1 boasted a 1,100 HP YUMO-21 engine,
12:19and the cumbersome undercarriage fairings had been replaced by lightweight spats.
12:31After Poland, Hitler now had to deal with Britain and France, who had spurned his offers of peace.
12:36He was impatient to strike down France as soon as possible,
12:39but the German armed forces needed time in which to reorganize and build up their strength.
12:43The projected attack on France, codenamed Yellow, was repeatedly postponed.
12:49In the ensuing months, the Stuka squadrons were honed to a new perfection of battle readiness.
12:55The aura of glamour which the aircraft had acquired guaranteed that there was no shortage of volunteers anxious to fly
13:01in it.
13:06On May 9, 1940, the Western Front erupted.
13:10As Operation Yellow began, the Germans had thoroughly analyzed the successes of the Polish invasion,
13:15and the arc of Blitzkrieg had been raised to a state of ruthless proficiency.
13:24A central tenet of Blitzkrieg was the sudden deployment of overwhelming force
13:29where it was least expected by the enemy.
14:04It was a much focused on the dock of the enemy.
14:05and if we could be the first teknoload,
14:07theiÄŸi the helix of meter would be charged to a certain setting.
14:07from a strange view for the Russians.
14:07But it was worth making the country.
14:07you might have been ignored as far as people that have been praised.
14:08It was a big surprise when you saw the retreat,
14:09The last time it had been organized,
14:09so, apparently it wasn't an observation which,
14:10the force was stuck on the side of the road.
14:11Though it was a little bit more Transportation,
14:33In Poland, the Germans had learned the effect produced by the mere sound of a dive bomber
14:38going into attack, and Stukas were now fitted with sirens, soon to be known as the Trumpets
14:43of Jericho.
14:47Perhaps no device in the history of warfare was so simple, yet instilled such paralyzing
14:52fear.
14:55The high-pitched shriek unnerved even some of the Germans.
15:02It was heard above the cries of the wounded and the crash of explosions.
15:07The French troops were subjected to an ordeal beyond the limits of endurance.
15:13The Germans had established their bridgehead into France.
15:17With gathering momentum, the German armoured spearheads drove westwards to the sea, wreaking
15:22havoc with the Allied communication and supply lines.
15:34The Stukas, operating with strong fighter protection, were again consistently to the
15:38fore, bombing, strafing and harrying.
15:41The rapidity of the advance meant that the Stukas were flying from new, hastily constructed
15:45airstrips almost every day.
15:48Specially adapted trucks laid telephone cables at up to 20 miles per hour, keeping the new
15:53bases in touch with headquarters.
15:55Fuel and ammunition was brought in by continual relays of Junkers transports.
16:02Behind the Allied lines all was confusion.
16:07The roads were choked with the fleeing, severely hampering the movement of British and French
16:11forces.
16:15Now, the mere sight of the Stukas distinctive contours was enough to create panic.
16:26Recognising the inevitability of defeat, the British resolved to evacuate their surviving
16:30trips from France.
16:48¶¶
16:59¶¶
17:02The Stukas proved highly successful against Allied shipping,
17:07especially the smaller craft.
17:09But when bombs fell on the beaches, sand absorbed most of the blast.
17:19As Goring attempted to obliterate the British expeditionary forces on the beaches of Dunkirk,
17:23for the first time the Stukas encountered serious opposition in the air.
17:31The bulk of the RAF's fighter force had been conserved for the defence of Britain.
17:36Now, squadrons of Spitfires and Hurricanes flew across the channel to intercept the German bombers on their way to and
17:42from the Dunkirk beachhead.
17:49The British fighters could spend only a short time over France, but they did enough to expose the Stukas as
17:54alarmingly vulnerable when not well escorted by measures with fighters.
18:02By the 4th of June, the evacuation was complete.
18:07For the Germans, Dunkirk was an unplanned setback, but one far eclipsed by the splendour of their shattering victory over
18:13France,
18:14which formally capitulated on the 22nd of June.
18:24In Germany, the celebrations were long and jubilant, and the Stuka airmen were among the most fated of the heroes.
18:34The Stuka aces had become a glamorous new elite.
18:39Dr. Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, was quick to recognise the value of the Blitzkrieg victories,
18:45and soon German citizens were held enthralled by film vividly depicting the exploits of the Stuka squadrons and their intrepid
18:52pilots.
19:08The maker's original designation for the aircraft was the Junkers 87,
19:12and Stuka was simply an abbreviation of Stürkampflugsug, meaning dive bomber.
19:21But for friend and for like, the name Stuka became inexorably linked with one aircraft alone.
19:37On July the 16th, Hitler signed Fuhrer Directive Number 16, laying down his plans for the invasion of England.
19:46The brunt of the initial fighting was to be borne by the Luftwaffe, which was assigned an onerous series of
19:51tasks.
19:53Among the first of these was to overwhelm British coastal defences and to close the channel to British shipping.
20:00Later, airfields and other targets further inland were to be struck.
20:08Goring's second and third air forces were based in France and Belgium.
20:12Their main adversaries were the hurricanes and spitfires of RAF Fighter Command.
20:21The Luftwaffe commanders were acutely aware of the relatively short range of their fighters.
20:29The deeper into Britain they had to penetrate, the shorter the time available for combat.
20:33The commanders hoped to destroy as much as possible the fighter command during the fighting over the channel.
20:42On the 10th of July the channel battle began in earnest, when Stuka's badly damaged two unwary Royal Navy destroyers.
20:51Over the next weeks the trumpets of Jericho sounded often and loud.
20:56British coastal convoys were repeatedly hit, as was the destroyer base at Dover and other harbour installations.
21:06The Stuka pilots had all had specific practice in attacking shipping.
21:10Judging altitude above the sea was difficult, especially when the water was smooth.
21:20The Stuka pilot forced to ditch in the sea faced an unpleasant dilemma.
21:26Coming down in the water, the fixed undercarriage pulled the aircraft nose down violently,
21:31making death almost certain, whereas if the crew bailed out, their raft and survival equipment was left in the cockpit.
21:41The resources of Fighter Command were stretched almost to breaking point,
21:44and Stuka losses were light compared with the damage they inflicted.
21:50By the end of July the Admiralty was compelled to forbid destroyers to sail the channel by daylight.
21:55What remained of the flotillas at Dover was moved to safer bases more distant
21:59from the Germans' proposed invasion area.
22:08The Stukas had fulfilled the role for which they had been designed.
22:12But Goring then made the fateful decision to employ them as a strategic, not tactical force,
22:17against inland targets.
22:19It was a role for which they were manifestly unsuited.
22:32Against Fighter Command's hurricanes and Spitfires, the Stukas were at a severe disadvantage.
22:42They were inferior in speed, ceiling, and armaments.
22:46Usually the cockpit was without protective armor.
22:49These weaknesses were well known to the British fighter pilots.
22:53During the Battle of France, Curtis Hawkes of the French Air Force had encountered a formation of Stukas attacking a
22:59French armored column,
22:59and had destroyed 16 of them.
23:02Now, whenever the Stukas were caught without a strong shield of accompanying fighters,
23:06the result was invariably a massacre.
23:09The RAF pilots relished nothing better than what they called a Stuka party.
23:17Throughout the first part of August, Stuka losses mounted at an appalling rate.
23:21On the 19th of August, on their personal orders of Hermann Goring,
23:25the dive bombers were withdrawn from frontline operations.
23:28The Stukas were moved to Pate-Calais area to rest and regroup in preparation for the coming invasion.
23:44To Goring's intense frustration, Fighter Command remained unbroken.
23:49Forcing the cancellation of the invasion and the Luftwaffe turned to the intensive bombing of British cities.
23:59The failure was also of grave concern to the Luftwaffe's commander of armaments, General Ernst Uday,
24:05an ace pilot from the First World War.
24:11Uday owed his important post to Hitler's patronage.
24:14Goring had long distrusted his capabilities, and for all Uday's charm, he proved to be a poor administrator.
24:23Goring himself was idle, and the two men were ill-equipped to prepare the Luftwaffe for the new challenges to
24:28come.
24:32Hitler was adamant that the war would soon be won, and with the existing weaponry.
24:39It had been Uday's admiration of the American Curtiss dive bomber, which had prompted German development of a similar machine.
24:45But by 1940, the Stuka design was showing its age, and the Reich Air Agency originally intended to phase it
24:51out in early 1941.
24:55Even though the Stuka had sustained heavy losses during the Battle of Britain, by any standards it was an undeniable
25:00success.
25:04Stukas remained in production, and although a variety of improvements were incorporated into successive versions, the basic design remained unchanged.
25:13Variations were produced to meet specific demands or conditions.
25:19A few 87B Stukas destined to work in ice-covered fields were fitted with skis.
25:24For desert conditions, the 87B-R Trophisch had supercharger filters.
25:29The long-range 87R version, designed primarily for use against shipping, had two extra 300-litre tanks in place of
25:36the outer wing bomb load, and it had extra radio equipment.
25:45The Stukas' achievements impressed many in the Luftwaffe, and in consequence, the twin-engined Junkers 88 was adapted to operate
25:52as a dive bomber.
25:55Perhaps more remarkably, amongst other design changes, a dive-bombing capability was even specified for the four-engined Heinker 177.
26:07Amongst young German airmen, enthusiasm for the Stuka remained as strong as ever.
26:14Stuka Aces, of which the most famous was Hans Ulrich Rudel, became national heroes, and both men and machines were
26:21idolized.
26:31After Western Europe, the next great theatre of conflict in which the Stuka displayed its lethal preeminence was the Mediterranean
26:37and North Africa.
26:40A strong Luftwaffe strike force, of which the Stukas formed a significant component, was transferred to Sicily and Romania in
26:47late 1940.
26:48This 10th Air Corps immediately commenced a running campaign of harassment against British convoys and warships.
26:56In a brilliantly planned and executed attack, Stuka's crippled HMS Illustrius, the Royal Navy's only available aircraft carrier in the
27:03Mediterranean.
27:05Britain's previously assured domination of the Mediterranean was broken, and for two years, the eastern Mediterranean was effectively closed to
27:12British warships.
27:14Operations were confined to the so-called Stuka Sanctuaries, areas out of reach of the aerial predators.
27:32In North Africa, Italy's entry into the war had resulted in an embarrassing series of defeats at the hands of
27:38the British and Commonwealth forces.
27:42In February 1941, General Rommel arrived in Tripoli with the first units of the Africa Corps.
27:49Almost immediately, Rommel took the offensive.
27:58His armed columns benefited immeasurably from the aggressive support provided by the Air Corps Africa, which included a contingent of
28:0550 Stukas.
28:10The all-pervading desert sand presented both sides with formidable problems of aircraft maintenance.
28:16The difficulties were further compounded by the great extremes of temperature.
28:20The inevitable breakdowns often put more machines out of commission than enemy action.
28:30Most of the area fighters were still committed to the defense of the homeland, and for a time, the Luftwaffe
28:35encountered limited resistance from them.
28:41Again and again, the desert air resounded to the malevolent wail of the dive bombers as the British forces were
28:46driven back eastwards in rapid retreat.
28:48A German general commented,
28:51The British dread of the Stukas is equaled only by our soldiers' love for them.
29:04The Africa Corps' surging advance left the strategic garrison port of Tobruk cut off and encircled.
29:09For weeks, repeated Stukas raids subjected the hapless defenders to a daily ordeal of terror until the British garrison finally
29:17surrendered.
29:28On the 6th of April 1941, Hitler launched a sudden invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece.
29:38600 Luftwaffe aircraft, including two squadrons of Stukas, were deployed, and air opposition was negligible.
29:47The speed with which the German forces could be moved and made operational was still far beyond Britain's capabilities.
29:53The Stukas, protected by any 109s, preyed upon villages, transport columns, railways, bridges, artillery, tanks, troops and defenses.
30:02The cumulative effect was devastating.
30:05After 12 days of blitzkrieg, Yugoslavia was finished.
30:10Greece lasted until the end of May.
30:13The 60,000 strong British and Commonwealth reinforcements were hurriedly evacuated to Crete,
30:18which itself succumbed shortly thereafter to a dramatic airborne assault.
30:31Throughout the evacuations, the British ships were hurried mercilessly from the air.
30:35The four squadrons of hurricanes were soon overwhelmed, and Stukas claimed the troopship Slamat and the destroyers Diamond and Reineck.
30:42260 died on the cruiser Orion.
30:46With Crete secure, Stukas and bombers launched a punishing aerial offensive against Malta,
30:52Britain's last major Mediterranean fortress, and against convoys attempting to supply the beleaguered island.
31:13With only a handful of elderly hurricanes to contend with, the Stukas, with fighter support, were able to bomb at
31:19will.
31:19In 1942, Malta endured 150 successive days of continuous bombing.
31:40In North Africa, the bitter struggle continued.
31:42But with the threat of invasion of Britain now lifted, REF fighters were arriving in the desert in ever-increasing
31:48numbers.
31:49And it became too dangerous for the vulnerable Stukas to continue operations as before.
31:59The speed and distance of Rommel's advance left the Luftwaffe with huge logistical problems with fuel supplies.
32:06Many aircraft were transferred from the Mediterranean for more important work elsewhere.
32:11The Africa Corps fought on with unabated vigor, but without effective air cover, its fate was already sealed.
32:22Allied ground and air strength eventually grew overwhelmingly,
32:25and the Africa Corps was comprehensively defeated in October 1942 by Montgomery's 8th Army at the Battle of El Alamein.
32:33The final defeat of the Axis forces in Africa paved the way for the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy.
32:39Before these events unfolded, however, Hitler's forces had been assigned a task of magnitude far exceeding anything so far attempted.
32:57Operation Barbarossa was aimed at overthrowing Stalin's Soviet Union.
33:02Germany's giant eastern neighbour had territory straddling one-sixth of the Earth's land surface.
33:09The vast bulk of these lay far out of the range of any of Göring's aircraft.
33:15Hitler's Directive No. 21 instructed the Luftwaffe first to eliminate the Red Air Forces and thereafter to provide ground support
33:22for the German army.
33:24For this stupendous enterprise, Hitler amassed over three million men,
33:28but the total number of warplanes available was somewhat less than that assigned for the campaign against France a year
33:34previously.
33:55At three p.m. on the morning of June the 22nd, 1941, Operation Barbarossa commenced.
34:01Stalin had ignored the warnings of Hitler's intentions, and the Soviet forces were caught not only by surprise, but hopelessly
34:08ill-prepared.
34:10Seventy percent of Soviet frontline aircraft were amassed on airfields near the frontier.
34:15Many lined up wingtip to wingtip, offering perfect targets.
34:19The Luftwaffe's Stukas and bombers achieved their most extraordinary success ever.
34:24By the end of the first day, 1,811 Soviet aircraft had been destroyed, nearly all of them on the
34:30ground.
34:32Within one week, the toll had risen incredibly to over 4,000.
34:38The Germans lost only 35 planes.
34:46In Berlin, Goring refused to believe the statistics.
34:51Hitler, in his command bunker in East Prussia, received the reports from the front with mounting excitement.
34:57The land offensive was also proceeding astonishingly well.
35:01Under the shattering impact of the German blitzkrieg assault, the Soviet defenses were reeling in disarray.
35:08With air superiority emphatically established, the Stukas reverted once more to their well-practiced role of tactical support.
35:15Screaming down to obliterate target after target ahead of the fast-moving German armored spearheads.
35:25The landlines on which the Soviet military depended heavily for communications were also singled out for punishment.
35:31The most dramatic progress was made by the army driving from Moscow.
35:36The collaboration of tank and dive bomber was efficient and lethal as never before.
35:41The Luftwaffe liaison officers, equipped with UHF radio, played a major part in numerous attacks.
35:47And time after time, the Stukas were called down to swing the balance in the Germans' favor.
35:53Throughout the autumn, the advance continued.
35:56The Germans took prisoners by the hundreds of thousands and destroyed or captured immense quantities of Soviet guns and tanks.
36:02Although disturbingly, the Red Army seemed to possess inexhaustible reserves of men and machines.
36:16Although their loss rate was low, the Luftwaffe had never had to fight a campaign of such sustained duration.
36:22The combination of mechanical wear and tear with prolonged attrition began to cut deep into the fighting strength and the
36:29sources of supply were ever lengthening.
36:33Stuka pilots had no defined tour of duty and crews were flying six or more missions a day for weeks
36:39on end.
36:40Worse was to come.
36:43The first frosts were welcomed as firming up ground made swampy by autumn rains.
36:49Operation Typhoon, the great final onslaught on Moscow, was able to get underway, but the temperature continued to fall.
36:57The freezing Russian winter was a certainty for which the Germans were inexcusably unprepared.
37:03High explosive bombs no longer detonated, but merely shattered on impact.
37:07Metal buckled and snapped.
37:09Ground crew continuously at risk of frostbite were driven to desperate measures to keep the aircraft functioning.
37:18The engines had to be started and warmed up at least every 30 minutes.
37:31As the offensive ground to a halt and the Luftwaffe struggled to keep flying in the intense cold,
37:37the Luftwaffe's director of armaments, Ernst Uday, slid deeper into alcoholism and depression.
37:43He had for long felt increasingly inadequate for the pressures of an office for which he was manifestly unfitted.
37:49It was now plain that there would be no blitzkrieg victory in the east.
37:55The shortcomings of the Luftwaffe's aircraft in a lengthy war of attrition were starkly visible.
38:00That November, whilst in a drunken stupor, Ernst Uday, the man who gave Germany the dive bomber, took a revolver
38:07and shot himself.
38:10By superhuman efforts, despite the atrocious conditions and fierce Soviet counter-attacks, the German forces survived the winter, but precious
38:18time had been lost.
38:22Moscow was now well defended, and the chance of capturing Stalin's capital was lost.
38:29The Germans had encircled Leningrad, but the defenders received valuable artillery support from the heavy guns of the Baltic fleet
38:36riding at anchor.
38:38The Stukas were ordered in to attack the ships, and Hans Ulrich Rudel succeeded in scoring a direct hit on
38:44the battleship Marat,
38:45with a new armor-piercing bomb, tearing off the bows of the 23,000-ton vessel.
38:56By his great courage, diving faster and lower than anyone else in the force, through ferocious anti-aircraft fire,
39:03Rudel was able to add a battleship to the fantastic tally of tanks destroyed by this fearless aviator.
39:16In 1942, the major German military effort was switched to the south in the Caucasus, where Hitler hoped to cut
39:22off Stalin's supplies of oil.
39:28Although huge tracts of territory in the Crimea were taken, greater resistance was encountered than had been anticipated.
39:37For many weeks, the Germans lay siege to the great fortress port of Sebastopol.
39:42Naturally, Stukas were called upon to take part as the town itself was heavily bombarded.
39:56Eventually, Sebastopol fell, but the delay disrupted Hitler's timetable for conquest.
40:03Before many months, a complete and humiliating withdrawal from the Caucasus was underway.
40:20By this time, the tide of battle was running inexorably against Hitler.
40:25And the fall of Stalingrad in early 1943, with the loss of an entire German army, marked a crucial and
40:31irreversible turning point in his fortunes.
40:35Yet he still commanded enormous force in the field, and resolved that the Germans would fight a trial of strength
40:41with the Red Army.
40:52The Soviets were entrenched around the city of Kursk.
40:56In Berlin, the German general staff began planning Operation Citadel, a huge pincer attack intended to cut off the Kursk
41:04salient.
41:12By now, the Soviet commanders were well acquainted with their enemies' methods, and correctly anticipated the coming attack.
41:29Both the military and civilian population threw themselves into desperate preparations.
41:43The Germans had been increasingly alarmed at the quantity and quality of the new Soviet armour.
41:48Some Stukas were therefore adapted specifically for use against tanks.
41:53One of these was flown by Hans Rudel, who now embarked on an extraordinary campaign as a tank destroyer.
42:06The tank buster version was equipped with two 37mm Flak 18 armour-piercing cannons slung under the wings, and proved
42:13highly successful.
42:19Its distinctive appearance soon earned it the nickname, Stuka mit den Langensteinen, or more graphically, der Panzernacker, the tank cracker.
42:32Rudel destroyed over 500 enemy tanks in his machine.
42:38Fittingly, the last surviving Stuka is also a tank buster, although the two underwing cannons have since been lost.
42:52After some delay to allow delivery of the latest German tanks, Operation Citadel began in early July.
42:58Hitler knew that never again would Germany be able to assemble a force on the scale deployed at Kursk.
43:03He knew, too, that his enemy was all the time growing stronger.
43:08He told his generals,
43:09My stomach churns at the thought of this battle, but I see no alternative.
43:18Impressed by the earlier achievements of the Stuka, the Soviets had successfully deployed their own dive bombers and ground attack
43:23aircraft.
43:31The Stuka's were frequently frustrated by the dense cloud of dust and smoke hanging over the battlefield, and by intense
43:37Soviet anti-aircraft fire.
43:39But when conditions allowed, the Stuka tank busters showed themselves formidably effective, claiming up to 60 Soviet machines destroyed in
43:47one day.
44:02In a single action, Rudel knocked out an entire column of 12 tanks.
44:07Yet, it was not nearly enough.
44:09The battle raged for nearly 50 days.
44:12The battle raged for nearly 50 days.
44:19The battle raged for nearly 50 days.
44:27with anrix and a half,
44:41horses on and a half whose raven did not happen.
44:43It was inevitable for the drivers to
44:44the rescue of the rest of
44:46the students at the peak again.
44:53Despite their vulnerabilities, the Stuka were still able to operate, being continually centered rates over far and their внутрен refreshed
44:57units.
44:57to bolster threatened sections of the front.
45:05The Luftwaffe committed every available aircraft,
45:08however obsolete to the fray,
45:10because there was nothing else.
45:13Slowly, and at stupendous cost,
45:15the war in the East was lost.
45:17The airmen were paying a heavy price
45:19for the complacency and misjudgments of Göring.
45:49In Italy, the Western Allies were fighting
45:51a grim, costly, and slow-moving campaign
45:54against a masterfully organized defense.
46:00The German general, Kesselring,
46:03was a former Luftwaffe commander,
46:04and when in January 1944,
46:07the Allies landed an amphibious force
46:09behind German lines at Anzio,
46:10Kesselring's response was swift and effective.
46:13In repeated attacks,
46:15German Stukas swooped down relentlessly,
46:17striking the Allied troops and ships.
46:22Heavy German reinforcements were quickly deployed,
46:24and the expeditionary force
46:26was very nearly driven back into the sea.
46:29And yet, the shortcomings of the German strategic planning
46:31were now laid bare.
46:33This surprise appearance
46:35was to be the last successful deployment of the Stuka.
46:42The tide had turned emphatically in favor of the Allied forces,
46:45who now enjoyed overwhelming command in the air.
46:53The airspace was virtually impenetrable
46:56to the best and fastest Luftwaffe fighters,
46:58let alone the slow and clumsy Stukas.
47:17After the D-Day landings in June 1944,
47:20Allied Typhoons and Mustangs,
47:22armed with bombs, cannon, and rockets,
47:24came in low and fast,
47:26homing in on targets
47:27before the defenders were aware they were under attack.
47:42In the three weeks of the invasion,
47:43they dropped 12,500 tons of bombs
47:46on airfields and communications alone.
47:51Three years previously,
47:53the Luftwaffe's Stukas and bombers
47:54had dealt fearful destruction
47:56to the retreating Red Army.
47:58Now, the German armies
47:59were to suffer unsparing devastation
48:01from the air in far greater measure.
48:05With the coming of 1945,
48:07the long war drew to an end,
48:09as Germany was crushed
48:10between the might of the Western Allies
48:12and the vast and ruthless Red Army.
48:15Although Nazi Germany was in its death throes,
48:18the bitter struggle went on.
48:20Short of pilots, mechanics, and planes,
48:22the Luftwaffe still flew.
48:28No more Stukas were built
48:29and production ceased in October 1944,
48:32but the surviving aircraft
48:34in the hands of men like Rüttl flew on,
48:36still doing their duty
48:37in the face of overwhelming odds.
48:49By April 1945,
48:51the Red Army was poised
48:52for invasion of Germany itself.
48:55The Oder and Neisser rivers
48:56were the last barriers
48:58on the Soviet road to Berlin.
49:00Under cover of a huge artillery barrage,
49:02Soviet engineers constructed
49:04Bailey bridges
49:04across the two great waterways.
49:08Against this tempting target,
49:11the last Stukas flew wearily
49:12into their final battle,
49:14a desperate attempt
49:15to destroy the bridges.
49:17For the last time,
49:18the trumpets of Jericho sounded,
49:20but the mission was a failure,
49:21and the Soviet forces
49:23surged across the bridges
49:24and onto Berlin.
49:43It was the proud claim
49:44of the Stuka men
49:45that where the infantry went,
49:47so did the Stukas,
49:48and as the remnants
49:49of Hitler's forces were destroyed,
49:51the Stukas at last fell silent.
49:56Standing in a quiet corner
49:57of the Royal Air Force's museum
49:59at Hendon,
50:00Britain's only Stuka
50:01has a chunky,
50:02almost friendly profile.
50:07Difficult now perhaps
50:08to visualise that in the air
50:09the distinctive cranked wing shape
50:11gave the aircraft
50:12the appearance
50:12of an evil bird of prey
50:13plunging to strike its victim.
50:32Obsolete when the war began,
50:34but in the right conditions
50:35and flown by the right men,
50:37the Stuka repeatedly demonstrated
50:38that it was one of the most lethal
50:40and feared weapons
50:41in the annals of war.
51:11The Stuka is a huge part of the
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