Wreck of German WWII plane in Baltic Sea turns out to be a JU88
In the the past week German military divers have been recovering a rare World War II aircraft in the Baltic.
German Military Historical Museum spokesman Capt. Sebastian Bangert said Friday that enough of the plane has now been recovered to make clear it is not a single-engined JU87 Stuka divebomber they first expected, but a twin-engine JU88 aircraft.
The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft.
The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft.
The aircraft became one of the Luftwaffe's most important assets. The assembly line ran constantly from 1936 to 1945, and more than 16,000 Ju 88s were built in dozens of variants more than any other twin-engine German aircraft of the period. Throughout the production, the basic structure of the aircraft remained unchanged, proof of the outstanding quality of the original design.
The recovery operation is wrapping up on Friday, but with more than half the plane still buried at the bottom of the Baltic, Bangert said the hope is that they will be able to return to the site at a later date to complete the job.
It will eventually be displayed at the German Historical Museum’s Air Force Museum at the former Gatow airport in Berlin.