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Old 24th Aug 2018, 23:40
  #12166 (permalink)  
Chugalug2
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Sussex
Age: 82
Posts: 4,762
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Indeed they do, Danny. It looks as though they've cleared those many deferred defects from the F700! Can't say I've ever thought of the Stuka as anything other than the epitome of Nazi nastiness. Its use against undefended civilians be they in Warsaw or fleeing ahead of the Wehrmacht in Belgium or France does not lend itself to much admiration. Admittedly it's military utility in Russia proved of some use in that doomed adventure. It was perhaps though most useful as a propaganda tool for the good Doctor in his countless newsreels, with its Jericho trumpets shrieking loudly. Ironic that after the early successes of Blitzkrieg it still carried on until the bitter end. One has to admire the courage of its crews in doing so given its sitting duck vulnerability.

It seems amazing now that the cream of the Luftwaffe flight schools did not go to the 109 but to the Stuka, for it was a vital part of the triumvirate that was Blitzkrieg, along with the Panzer and the Radio net. If he'd come as he'd promised us he would then he could have won his war and his lebensraum, but Blitzkrieg stumbled at the Channel coast and the Stuka met its nemesis.

Not a nice aeroplane and not a nice concept in my view, with all due respect to Captain Brown. In contrast the VV was bought in a hurry and their Airships regretted it immediately. Banished to India along with all the other obsolete kit, it found its natural hunting ground in Burma. As Danny says, it should have been allowed to go on doing its excellent work there until the drawing of stumps, but their Airships acted in haste again. One wonders sometimes how we ever prevailed!
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