Entire Ju87 squadron lost.

[stevef]

Does anyone have any information regarding an entire Ju87 squadron being lost on a mission (possibly the Ardennes, 1944) when they apparently mistook ground fog for cloud and dived into the ground?

[RETDPI]

Something rather similar certainly happened on an early Ju 87 exercise and happened directly in front of attending staff officers.

[henry crun]

I was under the impression that the Stuka had an auto pullout, so unless the pilots dialled in the wrong altitude, how could this have happened ?

[RETDPI]

My father, having flown on evaluation in a Ju -88 (no wisecracks about which side please) informed me ,as I recall, that there was an interlock that ensured you couldn't pull out of a dive attack with the brakes out, until after you had released the ordnance:
A sort of reminder I guess.

[Rallye Driver]

Ulrich Steinhilper relates a similar incident in his book 'Spitfire on my tail'. 13 aircraft from I/StG 76 dived into the ground on an exercse from Cottbus in 1939.

The cloudbase was forecast to be 900 metres, but turned out to be 100 metres. The group commander managed to escape by flying down a firebreak in the forest and alerted the following aircraft, but too late for many already commited to the dive.

[stevef]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I believe that the incident is in fact the one mentioned by Rallye Driver and most probably the same referred to by RETDPI ; the details gave me enough information to get a Google result, albeit in Spanish. 13 aircraft were lost.
Henry Crun is quite right about the auto-pullout device. The g-forces involved in manually recovering from the near-vertical dives (normally levelling at 450m) would have incapacitated the pilots, hence the coupled autopilot, contact altimeter, bomb release gear, dive brakes and elevator trim.
Again, many thanks.

[Gainesy]

The Stuka also had a second set of rudder pedals which were some height above the normal ones. These were used in the dive, therefore raising the pilot's legs and thereby increasing his g tolerance on the pull out, same idea as in the F-16's reclined seat.

[virgo]

Didn't an American aerobatic team do much the same sort of thing fairly recently?.....following the leader into the Nevada sand while practicing for an airshow ?

[treadigraph]

Virgo, that was 1982 - Thunderbirds when they still had T-38s. From memory a problem the leader's elevators?

[Sultan Ismail]

Formation CFIT
Another sad tale is the formation collision with Devils Peak, a part of Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa.
26th May 1971, a 3 ship formation of DH(HS)125 flew into the mountain while practising a flypast for the upcoming Republic Day celebrations.

[er340790]

Wouldn't have thought there were (m)any Ju87s left on the western front by 1944.......

[ICT_SLB]

"Wouldn't have thought there were (m)any Ju87s left on the western front by 1944......."

On Ken Burns' "The War" last night on PBS there was some footage of a Stuka apparently attacking Utah Beach so some may have been active. The Ju87 raids on Portland in 1940 got mauled but if any survivors were still in Luftflotte 11... Ken might have been using old (Dunkirk?) footage to fill out the story - elsewhere he used Typhoon footage to illustrate Thunderbolt ops (and completely overlooked the Tiffie's role at Falaise Gap).

In "The Longest Day" Pips Priller & his wingman were portrayed as the only Luftwaffe around but that was over the sands of Gold or Juno.

[hoodie]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

Virgo, that was 1982 - Thunderbirds when they still had T-38s. From memory a problem the leader's elevators?

That's correct - a mechanical failure of the elevator control linkage is how Aviation Week reported it at the time. The manoeuvre was a line abreast loop, I believe.