JU 87 R-2 STUKA AIRCRAFT
The Junkers Ju 87 R-2 Stuka is a strike bomber from the Second World War, it was discovered in 2014 on the southern side of the island of Žirje during an inspection of some of the fishing positions. This underwater find represents a rarity on a global scale, and was therefore declared a protected cultural asset of the Republic of Croatia in the year of its discovery, following a summery procedure. With several concession approvals granted to interested diving centers, the wreckage of this plane soon became one of the most attractive and tourist-visited underwater locations on the Croatian side of the Adriatic
Authors:
ZORAN DELIBAŠIĆ, BORIS GREGURIĆ
In 2014, during the weekend of September 12 to 14, a traditional commemoration of the anniversary of the Battle of Šibenik from the Patriotic War was held on the island of Žirje in the organization of the "Ruža Hrvatska" Defense Cooperative. It was more modest than in previous years, due to catastrophic weather conditions that caused great material damage to the coast and islands of Šibenik-Knin County. On that occasion, however, several planned dives were carried out in the undersea Žirje, organized by the Department of Underwater Archeology of the Croatian Restoration Institute, led by Igor Miholjek and Zoran Delibašić from the Diving Club ZG - SUB from Zagreb (today's Wreck Hunters Adriatic), and Davor Purić from the Military Museum of the Ministry of Defense.
Airplane Ju 87 R-2 Stuka
In addition to the already known localities, it was planned to check several new positions pointed out by the fishing community. To the great surprise of the divers, an extremely valuable find was
discovered at one of the sites on the southern side of the island – a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka crash bomber from the Second World War! The plane is without an engine, but other than that it is completely intact and in very good condition, and even supported by its wheels, as if it landed smoothly on the seabed.
The engine was not lost either
Seven years earlier, it was found by the manager of the "Ruža Hrvatska" defense cooperative Željko Šižgorić while diving at the outer cape of Tratinska bay. The engine and some smaller parts of the aircraft of an unknown type were located at a depth of about 40 meters. Šižgorić lifted the engine with a diving parachute and dragged it deeper inside the bay, in order to avoid the possibility of it being caught in trawl nets and dragged further offshore. The plane's kite (fuselage and wings) rests at a depth of 28 meters, some 700 meters away from where the engine was found. An examination of the Ju 87 indicates that, probably when it hit the sea, the entire nose of the
aircraft (engine with mounts and radiator) broke off and was thrown behind the fuselage, damaging the windshield and the glass cover of the cockpit. The engine undoubtedly sank immediately, while the remaining part of the aircraft floated for some time carried by the mistral and waves, gradually filling with water, and then, having sunk, landed very neatly on the seabed in its current position.
Museum exhibit
Along with the "Flying Fortress" B-17 near Vis, this is only the second aircraft in the underwater world of the Republic of Croatia that was found practically intact. The value of this find in a global context is underlined by the fact that, out of a total of 5,709 produced, only two Ju 87s have been preserved in museums in London and Chicago, while two wrecks of this type of aircraft have been retrieved from the seabed of France and Greece and exhibited and both in far worse condition than the "Žirjan" Junkers. There is no doubt that this exceptional find needs to be secured until the conditions are created for the →
→ careful restoration of the aircraft and its display as a particularly valuable museum exhibit.
Identification
After the Ju 87 was found near Žirje, the question of its identification arose. Information that aviation enthusiasts from Zagreb and Opatija found in the literature and collected on forums confirmed that a total of five Junkers Ju 87 aircraft were shot down in the wider area of
in the April War belonged to the Italian Air Force. The Military Airforce of Italy purchased a total of 52 Ju 87 B-2 and 50 Ju 87 R-2. Ju 87 R planes could operate from bases in Sicily over Malta and even bomb Allied forces in Libya. Aircraft delivered from August 1940 to July 1941 were given military registration numbers (Matricola militare / M.M.) 7047 to 7098, those delivered later 8009 to 8058. The last Ju 87 R was received in October 1942. During the April War, the 97th group of attack bombers of the AF of Italy operated over Yugoslavia. Both of its squadrons, 238 and 239, were stationed in Albania since October 1940 for operations on the Italian-Greek front in Epirus. At the beginning of the attack on Yugoslavia, they were given the task of operating over Yugoslavia as well. Already on the first day, April 6, 1941, a Ju 87 R-2 (Werk Nummer 5773 / Matricola militare 7086) from the 239th squadron was shot down near Boka Kotorska. The very next day, the squadron moved to the Jesi auxiliary airfield in the hinterland of Ancona to protect the Italian enclave
of Zadar. Yugoslav naval and air forces for action against Zadar were concentrated primarily in the area of
→ a Ju 87 R - namely, flying with a full load of bombs to Šibenik and back, with the necessary maneuvering over the target, the version B planes would reach the very limit of the action radius, and the slightest deviation from the course or a head wind would make it impossible for them to return to the base. The assumption about the R-2 was confirmed during the next dive, when the fuel distribution connection points for connecting the supplementary tanks were observed on the underside of the wing, and a plate was found in the cockpit with a warning that the supplementary tanks should only be discarded in horizontal flight. The question of the exact identification of that Ju 87 R-2 remains. Neither the serial number nor the military registration number, nor the squadron number, have yet been found on the aircraft. The various data on the Ju 87 that participated in the attack on Šibenik on April 12, 1941 are often contradictory, but ultimately the following
conclusion emerges with great probability: – one Ju 87, damaged by Yugoslav PZO fire, made a forced landing in the wider area of
Conservation
So far, several dives have been carried out on two occasions at the location of the Ju 87. The decision to remove part of the cockpit with the basic flight instruments and the MG 15 machine gun of the radio operator-gunner proved to be correct; namely, the competent Conservation Department of the Ministry of Culture issued a ban on diving, but its implementation in practice is questionable. The lack of supervision, as in many similar cases, is taken advantage of by domestic and foreign divers - recently it was noticed that the control stick was missing from the cockpit. The interestingness of the find and the price that parts of the Ju 87 can fetch on the collector's market clearly indicate that this is only the first such incident, and that the looting of the site will not stop. We can only hope that the very beginning of the devastation of the aircraft by unscrupulous visitors will encourage the →
→ competent authorities of the Republic of Croatia to ensure the removal of the aircraft and initially - its storage for desalination, and ultimately its restoration and display in the Military Museum of the Ministry of Defense, which is showed great interest in it.
Junkers Ju 87
Bombing from a steep dive / crash already in the First World War proved to be more accurate than that from a horizontal flight, and therefore particularly suitable for destroying small, "point" targets. The first planes built for this purpose appeared in the mid-1920s. During the 1930s, they were developed by all major air forces. The first German attack bomber, the Heinkel He 50, was commissioned by the Japan AF. However, tests and experiments on the Junkers K47 aircraft had already been carried out in secret in Germany. As a result of these tests, new devices were developed, among other things, intended specifically for attack bombers - a special aimer, and a device for extracting the aircraft from a dive into horizontal flight. The latter device turned out to be necessary
at higher speeds and the degree of descent, because it happened that the pilot lost consciousness for a short time due to the gravitational load. With the coming to power of the Nazi party, the rapid development of the armed forces was initiated in Germany. Among the new types of aircraft were also attack bombers. In the winter of 1933/1934. it was decided to approach the development of two types of dive bombers a light one-seater, and a heavy two-seater, with an all-metal construction. The heavy bomber (Sturzkampfflugzeug, abbreviated Stuka) was developed in the largest and most technically advanced aviation company Junkers-Werke AG as type 87. The Ju 87 prototype appeared in 1935, serial production began in 1937, and already in 1938 the aircraft was tested in combat conditions in the Spanish Civil War. The first version, the Ju 87A, could not carry more than 500 kg of bombs due to an insufficiently powerful engine. From 1938, version B was produced with almost twice as powerful Jumo 211 engine; payload of bombs doubled. The specific appearance, high effectiveness in conditions of air superiority, and the devastating effect on the
enemy's morale on the ground (the crash was accompanied by the sound of sirens mounted on the legs of the landing gear, and often by whistles on the bomb stabilizers) made the Ju 87 and the Stuka synonymous. The relatively small radius of action of the Ju 87B was initially solved by the R version. Already in the summer of 1941, the production of the most numerous model, the Ju 87D, began. The loss of air superiority led to the Ju 87 being increasingly used as a light bomber/attacker. Already in 1943, a new, specialized version was created: by installing 37 mm guns under the wings, the Ju 87D became the G. But the conditions on the battlefield became more and more unfavorable for the Ju 87, and the aircraft was gradually replaced by the Fw 190F fighter. However, the Ju 87 remained in front-line units until the end of the war. Production of the Ju 87 ceased in December 1944. As the Junkers facilities were busy with the production of other types of aircraft, most of the Ju 87, including the example at Žirje, was produced by the Weser Flugzeugbau company.
