Bomber Aircrafts of WWII

Bombardments, for their requirements such as well-skilled pilots, well-designed and efficient 

aircrafts and etc. have always taken big places at any war, especially at WWII. In this writing, we will take a look at aircrafts which are considered as the bests at bombing.  

A photo from Budapest bombardment.

1. Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless : Considered as one of the mainstays of the U.S dive-bomber fleets. With its capability of being able to fly from both carriers and land bases SBD-5 became a fundamental piece of the fleet. It was not the only skill of its, SBD-5 was also a high-speed diver and was doing it smoothly. SBD-5's design is inspired from Northrop-BT I and after serving with good rates it was replaced by a more powerful aircraft, SB2C Helldiver.

Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless

2. Junkers Ju-87 (The Stuka) : The nickname is derived from the German word "Sturzkampfflugzeug" which corresponds to dive-bombing in ENG. Stuka started to serve in Luftwaffe after the Junkers company won an award on a dive-bombing competition. After getting to service, Stuka, became a symbol of the German Blitzkrieg. Stuka was kind of showing-off at fronts with its almost perfect accuracy and decent speed. Also well-known with the sirens which are installed on the plane before it took off by the German soldiers. Sirens were used to distract the enemy and to identify the Stuka. 

Junkers Ju-87 "The Stuka"

3. Junkers Ju-88 : Besides being a bomber, it was used for discovery flights, supporting missions and so. Ju-88 achived its first flight in 1936. After that flight, Ju-88, served to the Luftwaffe till the end of the war. With its high speed records especially achieving 480 kph without any loads made its name heard all around the world. Ju-88 was as recognisable as the Ju-87 with its high speed bombing skills and the other features. 10.774 numbers of Ju-88 were built in total. 

Junkers Ju-88

4. Boeing B-29 Superfortress : Considered as the most modernist aircraft by many authorities. With various new technology systems, B-29, gave a new impulse to WWII. This model got to drop the first nuclear bombs to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They are also known with their Soviet copies. Soviets disassembled the B-29 that landed to Manchuria and copied them down to the last detail and produced under the name of Tu-70 and Tu-4.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress

5. de Havilland DH-98 (The Mosquito) : Despite being criticized a lot by the authorities due to its unarmed first design, DH-98, at its first prototype flight proved itself with its performance. Especially versus the Nazis, Mosquito, was very efficient since the Germans did not have any aircrafts to put against the Mosquito. DH-98 is still remembered as one of the most efficient ones of the WWII aircrafts.

de Havilland DH-98 (The Mosquito)

In this post, we took a look at the generally and well-known bomber aircrafts of the WWII. We hope you will get the information you are looking for or learn something. Hope to meet you at another post!