(ArtKramr) wrote in message ...
Subject: #1 Piston Fighter was British
From: nt (Gordon)
Date: 6/29/03 8:32 AM Pacific Daylight Time

the Ju 88 was arguably the best bomber in
service in Europe in 1940.

You have just pinpointed Germany's problem in WW II. One of many.
Arguably? Very arguably.


Then which European bomber do you think outclassed the Ju 88 in 1940? Not
looking for an argument, Art, just your opinion. RAF pilots sure make it
sound
like the Ju 88 was more of a problem than, say, a 111. In contrast to the
Hampden Is and other RAF mediums in 1940, was the Ju 88 really all that
awful?

v/r
Gordon



No no no. It was a good bomber. A very good bomber. But it has taken on a halo
since the war it doesn't deserve.. It couldn't outrun fighters. It couldn't
withstand heavy attacks like a B-26 could.. And the sad part is, that if it was
the best bomber Germany had, it wasn't good enough. because they may have
invaded England if they had long range heavies to destroy the RAF bases on
the ground. None of the German bombers could do the long range job Germany
needed done..German thinking about bombing basics was just wrong. The Americans
and the Brits had it right from the get-go.

Arthur Kramer
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

By the end of 1942 Ju88 production shifted from mainly being a bomber
to that of night fighter or long range fighter to try and give a
little protection for the u-boats from air attack. Only 1000 Ju88
bombers were built in 1943 while about 4000 fighters were.

When the 1100hp Jumo 211 was replaced with a BMW801 radial or the Jumo
213 of about 1750hp the speed went up to 388mph for the streamlined
1944 Ju88S bomber and 360mph for the Ju88G-7 nightfighter with
microwave radar (it also had a ventral gun pack) or 340mph with the
draggy lichtenstein radar antena.

The Germans had intended to replace their bombers with 'Bomber B'.
The Ju288 was the winning proposal and would begining in 1942 have
carried 4 tons of bombs up to 408mph up to 2300 miles.

Clearly a powerfull weapon.

It was armed with 6 pairs of remote control guns in the tail, ventral
postion and dorsal postition. The tail guns were the Mk151/15 which
was the 15mm version of the Mk151/20 20mm cannon firing a narrower
bullet with the same cartridege to over power and outrange even the US
50 caliber Browning.

Bomber B failed becuase of technical difficulties on the Jumo 222 in
line star engine. I don't know why, as the engine doesn't look that
challenging. They apparently did get it in to production in 1944 for
a very short time.

The result was that some of the ideas of the Ju288 were taken and the
Ju88 was modified to become the Ju188 in the interim. It was only a
little faster at 320mph but was better armed yet clearly incapable of
penetraing enemy airspace alone on either the basis of speed or
armament.

It is invalid I think to directly to compare the Ju88 to the B26
Marauder. The German equaivalent was the Do 217. An aircraft more
lightly armed but faster (320mph with BMW801s or 340mph with DD603
engines).

Even if the Germans had beaut planes like Marauders I think they would
have been shot down in daylight raids. Without long range escorts all
bombers except the Mosquito would accumulate intollerable losses.

The Ju88 however was an accurate dive and slant bomber that with its
computing stuvi bombsight and automatic pullup could deliver big
1000kg bombs within 10 meters without dropping below 2000 meters
altitude. It was also considered manoeverable and could be thrown
fairly briskly around the sky. Another advantge was that it could
work on rough muddy fields; those big wheels rotated into the engine
pods. All things a B26 couldn't do. The B26 was considered less
suitable than the B25 in the pacific because it needed a pretty solid
runway.

The Ju88 also formed the basis of the Ju388. This was supposed to
become a high altitude night figher (to interecept B29s), high
altitude bomber and high altitude reconaisance machine. It had remote
controlled tail armament. Only Some 300 of the Ju388 reconaisance
version were built. They used a turbo supercharged version of the
BMW801 the BMW801TJ with a 5 piece intercooler behined the big radial.
Speed was something like 390mph at 40,000 feet.

Incidently the Ju88 was designed, in the detail by a Brit and an
American. Germany was short of sufficient engineers so Junkers hired
some on contract.