The 'terror weapon' of the invasion of Poland, the assault on Scandinavia and the
Blitzkrieg through Western Europe, the Ju87
Stuka had had its reputation severely dented during the Battle of Britain, where
its vulnerability to fighter aircraft in hostile skies was savagely exposed.
Licking their wounds, the Stukageschwader were sent south-east from their bases
in France to the warmer climes of the
Balkans in early 1941. In mid-1941, again frustrated at the inability of the
Italians to defeat numerically inferior Allied forces, the Germans arrived in
North Africa. Included in the force were Ju87s.
However, like operations on the African continent, their efforts were doomed to
failure, and from mid-1942 onwards the Stuka proved to be little more than
cannon fodder for Allied fighters.
Contents
From the English
Channel to the Sicilian Narrows * 'Picchiatelli * Operations Marita and Merkur
* Campaigns in North Africa * Operations in Southern
Europe * Appendices
