Stuka's used on precision strikes on London during the Blitz?

Coulsdon Eagle

Monthly Donor
Carl Schwamberger said:
Cant remember the unit, which is unfortunate since there are several different versions. But, one is that during the first couple days of the Polish campaign a small attack group of dive bombers tried diving through clouds and all hit the ground. A variation on this is the attack leader tried diving through a gap in the clouds but the mist closed in as they dove obscuring the relationship to the ground. A third version is they were not in a attack dive but the flight leader was defending in the hope of finding the cloud ceiling and then identifying the target. But the cloud had no ceiling, extending to the ground.

I've read & listened to two or three dozen stories of pilots trying to locate the ground and any land marks when visibility at night or in cloud was near zero. Even on clear Moonlite nights visually estimating a accurate altitude or general relationship to the nearby planet seems problematic.
Click to expand...
An old (1970s) book on the Luftwaffe suggested this happened at some trial of exhibition put on for some top brass.
 

MKD

Surely the Stuka would be hacked to pieces. Can they survive in the prevailing air combat environment of the time without even air equality let alone supremacy ?
 

fastmongrel

MKD said:
Surely the Stuka would be hacked to pieces. Can they survive in the prevailing air combat environment of the time without even air equality let alone supremacy ?
Click to expand...

Probably more humane to just line up the aircrews and shoot them before the mission
 

Garrison

Donor
The Stukas obviously won't work as the OP wants and I've been trying to think of any plausible option that might. 1940 is far too early for any radio guided weapon and even if the Luftwaffe were willing to sacrifice some obsolete medium bombers for the purpose would Mistel actually be effective at striking precision targets? By which I mean things like power plants or oil storage tanks rather than political or cultural ones.
 

Capt Thunderbolt

Giant Man Eating Rabbits said:
Inspired by this video


What if during the London Blitz Stuka's were used during the night to launch precision strikes on targets such as power stations, Buckingham Palace, Downing St etc.

This would involve a Staffel of He-111's, Ju-88's or Do-17's bombing a certain area with bombs and flares to light up the target allowing a staffel of Stuka's to then attack a surgically hit the target.

Would this work?
Would it be effective enough?
What if this was used against the docked ships in Portsmouth and other ports within the Stuka's range thus crippling the RN?
What would the effects on the morale on the populace be seeing Buckingham Palace or Downing St carpet bombed like this?
Click to expand...

Even if the human eye could actually see enough to dive bomb at night, the barrage balloons would trash this whole idea
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top