Hi Gang I have a question regarding the historical flying practices of the average Stuka while on a bombing run. Were Luftwaffe pilots strictly trained to vertically dive most of the time during a typical bombing run? Or could there have been times (depending upon the circumstances) were they could have flown more or less level? Thank You .....
The Stuka dive bombing roll was to make for more accurate bombing at the time in question. So I would imagine it did level bombing runs as required even though it would be susceptible to groundfire. However as you know later in the war it was not deemed so effective as it was in the early Blitzkrieg era Plus later in the war it was developed into a tank buster Junkers Ju 87 - Wikipedia
Theres a clue in its name - Dive bomber - it would I think be difficult to line up the target without diving, and also level flight negates the effect of the siren, which was an integral part of its makeup for Blitzkrieg. As CL1 - I guess there were times when it was necessary to bomb from level flight, perhaps low cloud etc but I suspect as a 'dive' bomber it would be far less effective in level flight. As a tank busting gun platform ? thats an area of research that might interest someone, unless it already has TD
I'm not sure that when carrying a normal bombload that it would be able to carryout a level bombing run. The main 550lb bomb was held in a 'U' shaped cradle and at the moment of bomb release the cradle moved the bomb away from the fuselage so as it didn't hit the propeller. In a level bombing run the cradle release may actually caused the bomb to hit the propeller, in which case the only way it would be able to level bomb would be if it just carried the 4 110lb bombs under the wings.
