Luftwaffe Bombers Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Trumpets of Jericho

The Stuka when diving on targets rarely achieved a 90 degree dive angle. The added strain on the pilot and airframe were not worth the miniscule increase in accuracy, usually a 75 to 85 degree angle was all that was needed.

Answer: Junkers 86R

The JU-86 flew at altitudes of over 40,000 feet, the Germans thought that it was untouchable, even though it had a maximum speed of around 200mph at those altitudes. The British gave the Germans a rude awakening when a specially modified Spitfire IX climbed up to the German aircraft and put a few holes in it. The Ju-86 got away but operations were curtailed shortly thereafter.

Answer: Walter Wever

Wever died a couple of years before the war began and the concept of heavy bombers died with him, dive bomber proponents now had the floor.

Answer: Dornier 217

The Dornier was one of the few night fighters in Germany that was unpopular with its crews. It was sluggish in the climb, could not turn very well, and lacked the speed of the 88 or the 110.

Answer: Elimination of the evaporative cooling system

The He-177 would have been a great aircraft if only the RLM minded its own business. The elimination of the evaporative cooling system combined with the demand that the B-17 sized bomber make medium dive angle attacks doomed the He-177. With the added weight of structural strengthening, the aircraft was slowed to around 338mph, still very fast for a heavy bomber.

However, the absence of the cooling system caused many inflight fires, in fact the gearing system of the engines seem to have been designed to fail. Oil from the gearing system frequently dripped onto very hot engine surfaces causing even more fires.

Answer: Heinkel 111, Dornier 17

Most may think that the JU-87 could carry the least amount of ordnance over a short distance, as it had only one engine. This was not the case, however, the JU-87 could carry upwards of 2,200lbs of bombs (B-2) over a short distance, ableit, very short.

The fast Dornier could manage just over 1,700lbs, the Junkers 88 could carry ~2,200lbs of bombs, while the hefty Heinkel could carry more than 5,000lbs of bombs.

Answer: Arado 234

The Arado 232 was a sturdy well-armed transport, the Heinkel 111P was the predecessor to the Battle of Britain 111s, and the Junkers 388K was a high speed late war variant of the Junkers 88 with a top speed of 398 mph.

Answer: Landing gear taken off B-24's

The Junkers 287 was not without diffuculty however. The reverse swept wings required a very large amount of structural strengthening and this was overcome just as the war was ending. The B-24 landing gear was good for the rudimentary field that the Germans were relying on in the latter years of the war.

Answer: The flying armoured car

The Hs-129 was a small armoured box with a wings, lots of guns, and two engines. This aircraft did Soviets huge amounts of damage out of proportion to their number. At Kursk they destroyed over 400 Soviet tanks!

Answer: Fi-167, Ju-87C

The last biplane that the Germans planned to have in their frontline squadrons was the Fiesler 167 torpedo bomber, like most torpedo bombers it was tough, but aside from that it was also maneuvorable and fast (compared to the Fairey Swordfish of Britain). The Ju87C was a carrier model of the Ju87B model that was standard issue in the Luftwaffe in 1939-1941.