#ww2 dive bombers

[deutschland-im-krieg]

A Staffel (squadron) of Junkers Ju 87B Stukas from 7./StG 77, Battle of Britain, 1940. For more, see my Facebook group - Eagles Of The Reich

[nocternalrandomness]

1944 Helldiver giving a look at it's bomb bay during a pass at the 2016 Wings Over Houston Airshow

[usafphantom2]

Helldiver 🇺🇸

@AcePilotAv via X

[theworldatwar]

German ground crew work on Ju87 Stukas as they are readied for action - Northern France 1941

[beautifulwarbirds]

JU 87 Stuka

[dronescapesvideos]

A formation of U.S. Marine Corps Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bombers from Marine Scouting Squadron 3 (VMS-3) "Devilbirds" in flight near the Virgin Islands. 1943.

➤➤HD IMAGE: https://dronescapes.video/SBD5

[usafphantom-2]

7 December 1941. Aichi D3A1 Type 99 Model 11 ‘Val’. The primary dive bomber of the Imperial Japanese Navy, it was involved in almost all their actions, including the attack on Pearl Harbour.

@ron_eisele via X

[usafphantom-3]

Painting l did in 2021.

Vought F4U Corsair of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm off the coast of Japan in July 1945.

Acrylic on paper 40 x 29cm

@PeteHill854 via X

[carbone14]

Douglas SBD Dauntless en formation au-dessus du Pacifique - Guerre du Pacifique - 1940's

©Life Magazine

[lonestarbattleship]

Loading drop tanks on Curtiss SB2C Helldivers aboard USS LEXINGTON (CV-16) before a search mission.

Photographed on October 25, 1944.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: 80-G-284381

[boanerges20]

Junkers JU 87 "Stuka"

[deutschland-im-krieg]

Junkers Ju 87A Stuka, unit, location and date unknown. Early model Stukas had these very large wheel coverings, which were removed from the B model onwards and replaced with more streamlined versions. Car ( the pilots?) is possibly a '37 Lancia Aprilla. For more, see my Facebook group - Eagles of the Reich

[nocternalrandomness]

A Helldiver watching the sunset at Ellington Field

[usafphantom2]

Stuka over Stalingrad

@AcePilotAV via X

[usafphantom4]

My latest acrylic.

French Morane MS.406 fighter engaging a Ju-87 over Sedan, May 1940.

Acrylic on paper 40 x 29cm.

@petehill854 via X

[my-vanishing-rad]

Woman of the Day the first woman navigator in the Soviet Air Force Marina Mikhaylovna Raskova of Moscow who died OTD 1943, creator and commanding officer of the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment - the Night Witches, the scourge of Nazi Germany.

Women were allowed to enlist during WW2 but not in combat roles, support only. That changed in June 1941 when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Germans were pressing on Moscow; Leningrad was under siege. Desperate times. As so often in war, needs must. Closed doors suddenly opened for women.

Marina was more than ready. She had letters from over 2000 women wanting to fight and finally, she had Stalin’s backing to form an all-female fighting squadron comprising three units of 400 women each. Most were students aged from 17 to 26 and they were put through compressed training as pilots, navigators, maintenance and ground crew at the Engels School of Aviation.

If Marina was prepared, the military was not. The women were allotted secondhand uniforms from the men, including boots that were too big. The women stuffed torn-up bedding in their boots to make them fit.

(This is when I warmed to them. Fast forward over forty years and just like every other woman prison officer, I was rolling up the legs of flame-resistant overalls and padding out riot helmets and safety boots with scrunched-up newspaper to make them fit because they were male uniform issue only. We didn’t even question it then. We were women, used to being treated as a flipping afterthought).

The Night Witches’ planes were no better: outdated two-seater open-cockpit biplanes made of plywood covered with canvas not meant for combat. Wooden planes, in other words. The women were not equipped with parachutes, radios, radar or guns. They used rulers, stopwatches, flashlights, pencils, maps and compasses to navigate and the planes could only carry two bombs, one under each wing. These weighed so much, the wooden planes could only fly at lower altitudes making them an easier target, which is why they only flew nighttime missions - and night flying meant freezing temperatures, wind and frostbite. The planes could become so cold that touching them could rip off skin.

If that didn’t sap the Night Witches’ morale, the outright sexism from male comrades should have. Marina tried to prepare her women for it but it was intense.

Impossible odds, wouldn’t you say? Yet on 8 October 1941, 28 year old pilot Major Yevdokiya Bershanskaya led the Night Witches on their first active bombing mission, thus making the Soviet Union the first to officially allow women to engage in combat.

Night after night, convoys of up to 40 two-women crews carried out between eight and 18 missions each, flying back at very low altitudes to re-arm between runs. The front planes would act as bait to act German spotlights, which provided illumination, and then release a flare lighting up the target. The last plane would idle its engines and glide in darkness to the bombing area. Stealth mode.

Their planes could manoeuvre faster than the enemy making them hard to target but other than that, they were defenceless. Almost none of the planes carried defence ammunition and if they were hit by tracer bullets, which carried a pyrotechnic charge, the wooden planes would burst into flames. Ducking and diving out of the way of enemy fire was the only tactic they had. These women were exceptionally highly skilled pilots.

The Germans nicknamed them Nachthexen or night witches because their wooden planes made a whooshing noise that sounded like a sweeping broom. The planes were too small for radar or infrared detectors to pick up and the women pilots didn’t have radioes so radio locators couldn’t pick them up either. In effect, they were ghosts, deadly ones. They were feared and hated so much by the Nazis that any German airman who downed one was automatically awarded the Iron Cross.

The all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment dropped more than 23,000 tons of bombs on Nazi targets. They carried out their last mission on 4 May 1945 when they flew within 37 miles of Berlin. Three days later, Germany officially surrendered.

Altogether, the Night Witches flew more than 30,000 missions, about 800 per pilot and navigator. They lost a total of 30 pilots. 24 were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, making them one of the most highly decorated units in the Soviet Air Force during WW2, but they were not included in the big victory day parade in Moscow because their planes were too slow.

The Night Witches were disbanded six months later. The Germans had two theories as to why the women were so successful: either they were criminals sent to the frontline as punishment, or they had been given special injections so they could see at night. Neither was true. What they had was determination, courage and skill. No witchcraft required.

Marina didn’t live to see it. She died on 4 January 1943 on the front line, aged just 30. Hers was the first State funeral of WW2 and her ashes were buried in the Kremlin.

The First Commandment of the Night Witches:

"Be proud that you are a woman."