Junkers Ju 88
medium bomber

Junkers Ju 88

Junkers Ju 88
Type: medium bomber, dive bomber, close support aircraft, night fighter, heavy fighter, torpedo plane, reconnaissance aircraft and pilotless missle.
History: Probably no other aircraft in history has been developed in so many quite different forms for so many purposes - except perhaps, for the Mosquito. Flown long before World War II as a civil prototype, after a rapid design process led by two temporarily hired Americans well-versed in modern stressed-skin construction, the first Ju 88s were transformed into the heavier, slower and more capacious A-1 bombers which were just entering service as World War II began.

Junkers Ju 88 A-4 of I/KG 51 'Edelweiss' on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1941.

The formidable bomb load and generally good performance were offset by inadequate defensive armament and in the A-4 the span was increased, the bomb load and gun power substantially augmented and a basis laid for diverse further development. Though it would be fair to describe practically all the subsequent versions as a hodge-podge of lash-ups, the Ju 88 was structurally excellent combined large internal fuel capacity with great load-carrying capability, and yet was never so degraded in performance as to become seriously vulnerable as were the Dornier and Heinkel bombers.
Indeed, with the BMW radial and the Jumo 213 engines the later versions were almost as fast as the best contemporary fighters at all altitudes and could be aerobatted violently into the bargain.

Junkers Ju88 of IIIrd group of KG 51, bearing the yellow fuselage band to show the aircraft was operating on the Eastern Front.

A basic design feature was that all the crew were huddled together, to improve combat morale; but in the Battle of Britain it was found this merely made it difficult to add proper defensive armament and in the later Ju 188 a much larger crew compartment was provided. Another distinctive feature was the large single struts of the main landing gear, sprung with stacks of chamfered rings of springy steel, and arranged to turn the big, soft-field wheels through 90° to lie flat in the rear of the nacelles.

In 1940 to 1943 about 2,000 Ju 88 bombers were built each year, nearly all A-5 or A-4 versions. Twenty-three Ju 88 A-4s were supplied to Finland in 1943, 52 A-4s and D-1s to the Regia Aeronautica, and other A-4s and Ds to the Hungarian and Romanian air forces.

Ju 88 A-4 in transfer to Italy.

After splitting off completely new branches which led to the Ju 188 and Ju 388, bomber development was directed to the streamlined S series of much higher performance, it having become accepted that the traditional Luftwaffe species of bomber was doomed if intercepted, no matter how many extra guns and crew it might carry. Indeed even the bomb and fuel loads were cut in most S sub-types, though the S-2 had fuel in the original bomb bay and large bulged bomb stowage (which defeated the objective of reducing drag).

Ju 88 A-4 equipped with flare guards and an AB 1000 canister which held 610 B-1 incendiary bombs for one of the 'Steinbock' attacks on England in early 1944.

Final bomber versions included the P series of big-gun anti-armour and close-support machines, the Nbwe with flame-throwers and recoilless rocket projectors, and a large family of Mistel composite-aircraft combinations, in which the Ju 88 lower portion was a pilotless missile steered by the Bf 109 fighter originally mounted on top.

Altogether bomber, reconnaissance and related Ju 88s totalled 10,774, while frantic construction of night fighter versions in 1944-45 brought the total to at least 14,980. The Ju 88 night fighters (especially the properly designed G-series) were extremely formidable, bristling with radar and weapons and being responsible for destroying more Allied night bombers than all other fighters combined.

Users: Bulgarian, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania.

3d model of Junkers Ju 88.

This 3d model is a current element of the WW2 game WW2 Total. The data for production, movement and combat of the Axis and Allies units are here !