Battle of Stalingrad: Ju 87 questions

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NETSCAPE
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Joined: 06 Apr 2017, 06:28
Location: Oregon

Battle of Stalingrad: Ju 87 questions

#1

Post by NETSCAPE » 26 Apr 2017, 08:12

#1 - August 23rd was the official start of the battle... "Six hundred attack aircraft from Fliegerkorps VIII, mainly Ju87 Stuka
dive-bombers, were active over the city that night, bombing indiscriminately over a wide area. Some specially-designated targets were knocked out, including the water works and the telephone exchange. The power station was also hit and would eventually be destroyed."

My question is where did the stuka's take off from during this time frame? Various sites all have the same information listed as to bases of flight groups for example StG1, second group:

8.42 - 9.42 Gorlowka
9.42 - 10.42 Obliwskaya
10.42 - 11.42 Karpowka-Waet
11.42 - 12.42 Obliwskaya & Morosowskaya

Gorlowka seems quite far away from Stalingrad... did they fly from there? did they land and refuel or load up bombs in Obliwskaya or Morozovskiy ect? I'm asking these questions because I'm making a Stalingrand campaign for the pc game IL2. On the game map the farthest major airfield to the west is Tatsinskaya. I would like to kick the campaign off on Aug 23rd and have it run through Christmas week.

#2 - What were the most common bomb load outs? How often were the more "exotic" SC1000/SC1800 bombs used and for what purpose (antishipping?)? For the Stuka the game has SC70, SC250, SC500, SC1000 and last but not least the miniature nuclear warhead; the SC1800. :D I am greatly assuming by photos I've seen over the years that the SC500 or SC250 with 4xSC70's was the most common bomb load out. Chris Bishops encyclopedia states the SC250 is the most common bomb used generally.

#3 - When flying on a mission how many Stuka's would typically fly a sortie together in formation? What formation was most common? By reading a couple books I can't seem to get a clear picture on this, numbers vary (just 2, 4, 6 ect), perhaps this reflects reality. Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated. The interview with Heinz-Georg Wilhelm Migeod gave me some insight into defensive tactics like how the formation would purposely form up at slightly different altitudes for MG coverage.

#4 - How much fuel would the Stuka's typically carry? Would they always be filled up completely or would they sometimes carry less to make the plane lighter/faster/increase climb? The flight from Karpowka to Stalingrad is so short I know they had to circle the airfield in order to get altitude.

#5 - What was the typical Altitude for a dive-bomb attack? I recall reading or hearing that they would pull out of the dive around 1km. In the game I personally find diving from 4km to work perfect. sub-question: what if the clouds were so low and heavy that a proper dive attack was impossible? Would they just do shallow dives of 30 or 40 degrees like a Ju 88?

#6 - How often was fighter cover/escort given to the Stuka's sorties? And what kind of (ballpark) ratio are we talking here? I know the air war kind of had a dramatic shift from late summer '42 into winter...so I know there probably isn't any one answer to this, but any input would be awesome.

#7 - How often, if ever, would Stuka's go on patrol looking for enemy tanks/columns ect rather than attack a specific designated target or have a clear mission?

#8 - How often was the Waffenbehälter 81 (machinegun pods) used? It appears they would be relatively easy to put on and take off, much like a bomb. Though I am no expert and do not know if some special modification had to take place to enable their use. Was it practical to take on and off or were some stuka's just assigned this roll specifically? The weapon practically has no use in multiplayer but in singleplayer I like to mess around with it. The sound of 14 mgs firing is just.....beautiful :milwink: and it would be a blast to implement it in my campaign. But if it's highly unrealistic I won't.

Thanks again for any help guys. I know these are really basic questions. But sometimes it's the most basic information that most of my history books leave out. They always focus on the "big picture" too much...

kiwiwreckdiver
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Posts: 4
Joined: 25 Aug 2012, 17:44

Re: Battle of Stalingrad: Ju 87 questions

#2

Post by kiwiwreckdiver » 12 May 2017, 03:20

Dam thats a lot of Questions, Id love to know what were the Ju87 Losses around the Stalingrad sector, must have been staggering


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