Junkers Ju.88

At the beginning of 1935, a requirement was issued by the RLM for a high-speed bomber with three man crew.

The RLM required an armament of a mg 15 and 700-800 kg of bomb load, short wave radio, oxygen breathing plant, radio telephone system, special navigation equipment, UKW landing aid, de-icing equipment. A take-off distance of 700 m, and landing distance of 400 m was required. The time to 7000 m was to be 25 minutes, and a 1300 km range was required.

 

Goering, in the autumn 1938, assigned an order for mass production on the Ju 88. The Junkers-Werke at Schönebrck began the manufacture of production tooling and jigs early in 1938, by which time contracts had been placed for 20 pre-series Ju 99A-0 and 50 series Ju 88A-1 bombers, these shortly being followed by a further contract for 100 more Ju 88A-1. Manufacture was highly dispersed and by the late spring of 1938 contracts had been placed for a total of 1060 Ju 88As and by 1 October 1938, 53% of the total German airframe industry workforce was committed to the programme. At that time the Ju 88 still was in the development stage, and at the end of 1939 only 69 were delivered.

The prototype of the destroyer variant was the Ju 88 V-7, which completed its first flight on 27 September 1938. Three further prototypes followed up to 3 February 1939.

 

Early operational deployment showed that despite good performance and a worthwhile bombload, defensive armament was totally inadequate, leading to the Ju 88A-4 with increased span wings, structural strengthening to carry greater loads and gunpower increased substantially. This formed the basis for further diverse development of the type, ultimately in so many versions that a detailed listing of them is not possible: for example, the Ju 88A series extended over Ju 88A-1 to Ju 88A-17 sub-variants. While the Ju 88A was in production an improved Ju 88B was planned, with a more extensively glazed nose and power provided by two 1193kW B.M.W. 801MA radials, but flight testing showed only marginal performance improvement and only 10 pre-production Ju 88B-0 aircraft were built.

 

The Ju 88 was almost as fast as contemporary fighters, and such performance coupled with excellent manoeuvrability brought development of the Ju 88C series. The planned Ju 88C-1 with B.M.W. 801 MA engines was abandoned because the new Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter had priority for this powerplant. As a result the first production version was the Ju 88C-2, this being the Ju 88A-1 converted on the production line to have a solid nose mounting three 7.92mm MG 17 machine-guns and a 20mm MG FF cannon. Defensive armament comprised two additional 7.92mm MG 15 machine-guns. The Ju 88C-4 was a heavy fighter/reconnaissance model, the Ju 88C-5 an improved heavy fighter, the Ju 88C-6a an improved Ju 88C-5, the Ju 88C-6b and Ju 88C-6c night-fighters, the Ju 88C-7a and Ju 88-C7b intruders, and the Ju 88C-7c, a heavy fighter.

In early spring of 1942, two Junkers 88 night fighters equipped with the Lichtenstien B.C. 409 Megacycle radar entered operational service with Nachtjagdgeschwader No.1 in Holland. The antennae mounted in the nose of the aircraft reduced the plane’s speed by as much as 25 mph, the first radar-directed victory being attained by Hauptmann Becker in the summer of 1942. Many night fighters being manned by a crew of three; pilot, radar operator, and radio operator – tail gunner.

Alphabetically out of sequence were the Ju 88R-1 and Ju 88R-2 night-fighters, which were developed and powered by B.M.W. 801 MA engines when the supply position of this powerplant eased.

The Ju-88R-1 night fighter had radar aerials projecting from the nose.

The Ju 88D series was long-range reconnaissance aircraft based on the Ju 88A-4, in Ju 88D-1 to Ju 88D-5 variants that differed in engines, and detail. The Ju 88G series represented definitive night-fighter versions that from the early summer of 1944 replaced the earlier Ju 88C and Ju 88R aircraft. Equipped with airborne interception radar and bristling with weapons, the Ju 88Gs were extremely formidable night-fighters, taking a heavy toll of Allied night bombers. They were followed by small numbers of Ju 88H aircraft which had a lengthened fuselage to provide increased internal fuel capacity, providing extra long-range Ju 88H-1 reconnaissance and Ju 88H-2 fighter aircraft. The tank-busting Ju 88P was developed from the Ju 88A-4, the Ju 88P-1 with a 75-mm PaK 40 cannon and the ensuing Ju 88P-2 to Ju 88P-4 with different combinations of heavy anti-tank weapons.

The increasing capability of Allied fighters meant that losses began to rise, leading to the higher-performance Ju 88S bomber and Ju 88T photo-reconnaissance aircraft that represented the final production versions. When production ended almost 15,000 had been built, this total emphasising the significant role that the Ju 88 had played in Luftwaffe operations.

The designed developed into the Ju.388 and the Ju.188, with more powerful engines and improved performance.

During World War II Junkers and DFS (Deutsches Forschungsinstitut fur Segelflug) developed the Mistel (Mistletoe), which comprised an unmanned bomber packed with explosive and a pick-a-back fighter whose pilot would fly the missile to its target. Tests began in 1942, using a DFS 230 glider as the lower component, with Klemm and Focke-Wulf lightplanes as carriers. For full-scale trials a Junkers Ju 88A-4 bomber was selected as the missile, fitted with an armour-piercing warhead containing 1725 kg (3803 lb) of impact-fused high explosive. The mother ship (the Germans called it Vater or Father) was a Messerschmitt Bf I09F-4. In normal flight a three-axis autopilot steered the combination on command from the fighter pilot whose control inputs were made on two thumb-buttons (rudder and aileron were linked), but for coarse control inputs or large course corrections the Bf 109’s control column and rudder pedals could be used to operate the surfaces of both aircraft. The fighter separated from the bomber over the target by means of mechanical or explosive links. A number of different Mistel composites were developed, using Junkers Ju 88s and various marks of Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190, and others were planned which were to have used Messerschmitt Me 262, Arado Ar 234 and Heinkel He 162 jets as the upper components.

The first operational use of Mistel was to have been an attack on the Royal Navy anchorage at Scapa Flow from an airfield on the coast of Denmark, but the Allied in-vasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 brought a hasty transference of 2/KG 101's Misteln I’s (Ju 88A-4/Bf 109F-4) to St Dizier, whence five Mistel composites attacked invasion shipping on the night of 24 June (all Misteln were operated under cover of darkness be-cause of their lack of defensive armament). Four successful hits were claimed, the fifth Ju 88 having to be jettisoned. Some 82 Misteln were ready for operation by March 1945, and were employed primarily in bridge attacks (the warhead was capable of penetrating up to 18 m/60 ft of concrete), their final sortie taking place on 16 April against Soviet bridgeheads.

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