129 Ju 87D-G Stuka vs T-34 Eastern Front 1942-1945 (e).pdf

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Ju 87D/G STUKA
T-34
Eastern Front 1942–45
ROBERT FORSYTH
Ju 87D/G STUKA
T-34
Eastern Front 1942–45
ROBERT FORSYTH
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chronology
Design and Development
Technical Specifications
The Strategic Situation
The Combatants
Combat
Statistics and Analysis
Aftermath
Further Reading
Index
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7
9
22
33
39
51
75
77
79
80
INTRODUCTION
In the wake of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, it was with
both considerable alarm and irony that as early as August that year the German Army’s
Chief of General Staff, Generaloberst Franz Halder, confessed, ‘The whole situation
makes it increasingly plain that we have underestimated the Russian colossus, which
consistently prepared for war with that utterly ruthless determination so characteristic
of totalitarian states. This applies to organisational and economic resources . . . and,
most of all, to the strictly military potential’.
Indeed, it would be only a few weeks later, as the savage grip of a Russian winter
clawed at exhausted German divisions to the west of Moscow, that they encountered,
for the first time, a new threat – a low, angular, fast enemy tank – the superlative T-34.
As one historian has commented, it ‘came as a nasty shock to the Germans’. In a
further irony, however, that this ‘shock’ happened at all was, to a great extent,
remarkable, for the T-34 had materialised only at the end of a long and difficult
gestation.
Just under ten years earlier, on 7 November 1931, the Soviet leader, Josef Stalin,
had stood watching down as a column of Soviet-adapted British Vickers and American
Christie tanks clattered through Red Square on parade. This was a symbol of the
ambition burning in the ‘Five Year Plan’ which promised mass production of tanks
and more tanks – thousands of them. There were those within the Soviet high
command, led by the then General Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who had wanted to
promote a concept of ‘Deep Battle’ – an offensive strategy for the Red Army in which
large numbers of new tanks would ram an enemy’s lines and penetrate his rear area to
cause havoc and defeat. As he saw it, Tukhachevsky’s priority was ‘the task of
reconstructing the armour forces, taking into account the newest factors of technology
and the possibility of mass military-technical production’.
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By late 1932, however, any such strategic dreams were dogged by economic realities
– a poor harvest and ensuing hunger among the population, as well as a significant decline
in industrial productivity, forced Stalin to review national policies and military budgets.
But he was pragmatic in the face of adversity, dismissing the lack of output in hardware.
‘Concerning tanks and aircraft’, he proclaimed, ‘industry has not yet sufficiently rearranged
itself to (our) tasks. Never mind! We shall press and support it to adapt’. And ‘support and
adapt’ it did, for by 1936 there were no fewer than four heavy tank brigades, six tank
regiments in cavalry divisions and 83 tank battalions and companies in rifle divisions.
By the time of the German invasion, combined with its masterminding of mobility,
Soviet Russia had developed force mass. When the Wehrmacht invaded, it had to face an
enemy whose resources were almost bottomless. The Soviet Union comprised a population
of 194 million, compared to the 75 million of Germany, and it fielded an army of around
five million men, plus some 24,000 tanks, 8,000 of which could be described as more
modern main battle-tanks. Hitler’s Operation
Barbarossa
duly became an epic clash.
Unlike German procurement policy, which saw orders for tanks being placed with
several manufacturers, from 1941 the Soviets focused their output (ultimately some
60,000 examples) and subsequent design refinements on just one model of main
battle-tank for much of the war and deployed it in mass. This policy worked because
the T-34 was simple in design and build – in some respects even rudimentary – and
thus easy to manufacture. And yet, at 28 tons, it was mechanically efficient, mobile
with a maximum speed of 53 km/h, well armoured and armed with a 76.2mm gun.
By comparison, later German designs – represented by the heavier Tiger and
Panther – while also undoubtedly impressive in terms of firepower and in many
respects superior to their Soviet opponents, simply could not compete against the
numbers of tanks which the Red Army could field. As the Chief of Staff of the German
4.Armee and a key planner of
Barbarossa,
General Günther Blumentritt contended
that the appearance of the T-34 on the battlefield was responsible for what was known
as the great ‘tank scare’ of the winter of 1941–42.
Many consider the T-34, of relatively simple but robust form, to be possibly the
greatest and most influential tank ever built in World War II. Certainly, its wide tracks
meant that its weight was evenly distributed, and this feature went a long way in allowing
it to function in terrible weather and terrain conditions. To the envy of the German Panzer
crews, the T-34 could usually extricate itself when it became stuck in mud and soft ground.
In answer to the threat of the T-34, Germany was able to respond with air power,
and with one type of aircraft in particular – a crank-winged, single-engined dive-
bomber. The Junkers Ju 87, known widely at the time and since the war by its generic
sobriquet ‘Stuka’, an abbreviation for
Sturzkampfflugzeug
(dive-bomber), gained a
reputation as an (to use an overused, but in this case quite accurate term) iconic
symbol of German
Blitzkrieg.
Purpose-built, the Ju 87 made its operational debut with the Luftwaffe’s
Legion
Condor
in Spain’s catastrophic civil war. Despite initial scepticism amongst some
senior German air commanders, it was used to devastating effect where pinpoint
accuracy was required against Republican positions and ships. With tactical experience
gained in Spain, from 1939 the Ju 87 went on to specialise in attacking similar targets
in Poland, the West and the Balkans, its howling dive-bombing earning the aircraft a
fearsome reputation amongst enemy forces. Quite literally, the Ju 87 was the airborne
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