Response to Glider and Juha.

[Nick Beale]

I suggest you take a look at the experiences of the Ju 87s sent against the Remagen bridge in daylight. They missed and they lost many aircraft to Flak.

Summarised from Heinz Jirousek's »Flieger Schicksal immer noch nicht geklärt« (Jägerblatt, February/March 1991) regarding an action by NSG 1 on 8 March 1945:

"Late afternoon (while still light) Ju 87s approach Remagen at low level from the south east, in the face of heavy AA defence. Two were shot down immediately while two more pulled away smoking over the [Erpeler] Ley. A further attack was similarly a failure.

NSG 1 losses: 3 missing from 1. Staffel; 1 from 2. Staffel; 1 from 3. Staffel. One a/c each from 1. and 2. crashlanded at base with the crews unhurt."

NSG 2 fared no better when they tried it, incidentally. In fact the German bridge-busting efforts in 1944–45 were hardly a triumph: Ranville, Pontorsson, Nijmegen (damage inflicted at least), Remagen, Stolzenau, Lauenburg. Granted a Mistel got one Oder Bridge (Steinau?) but that was it IIRC.

BTW there's talk in this thread of a Ju 87 with an 1800 kg bomb — can you imagine how slowly that would fly? Sonderverband Einhorn tried the same load on Fw 190 F-8s but rapidly gave up in favour of 1000 kg weapons.