STUKA DANS LA BLITZKRIEG - 1re partie

RELEASE ON APRIL 21, 2023!

The famous Junkers Ju 87, better known by the abbreviation of Stuka, is the subject chosen for this issue 104 of Air Battles. More specifically, it is about its use during the Blitzkrieg or Blitzkrieg. The concept of dive bombing was hardly new. From the 1920s and then during the 1930s, the main world powers developed aircraft capable of dive bombing. It was mainly the Japanese and American navies who put such devices into service, as it was obvious that the bombardment of a ship by conventional means was difficult. The French Navy, like the Royal Navy, was not left out, but on a lesser scale. What characterized the Stuka was therefore not its novelty as a dive bomber but much more its use above the battlefield, simultaneously with that of the Panzer. Poland was the very first of these battlefields and even if, as the author points out, the way of using the Stuka was not yet well defined, the German command was quick to understand all the advantage that represented this type of bomber. The author limited the Blitzkrieg to Poland and Western Europe; this issue will therefore be followed by a second part devoted to the use of the Stuka against France.