The Stuka fighter-bomber is one of the best-known aircraft of the Second World War. A well-preserved specimen was found in the Mediterranean a few years ago - and has still not been recovered.
Countless objects of military-historical significance lie at the bottom of the seas. Each individual object is something special that needs to be discovered and deciphered. It is often fishermen who provide the first clues through the use of bottom trawls - by accidentally catching loose or broken objects or through repeated unexplained net markers in sea areas that are actually considered "clean". Recreational and professional divers sometimes discover unknown historical objects, especially when diving outside of known dive sites. It often takes a long time for such information to reach the relevant authorities. But even then, there is no guarantee that all the levers will be set in motion immediately to solve the case. A lot of things have to come together to turn such clues into a success story, especially underwater with the particular difficulties involved in finding, discovering and identifying objects.
During the Croatian war in mid-September 1991, the Dalmatian coastal town of Šibenik was heavily attacked by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian paramilitary troops. Although they had significantly fewer weapons at their disposal, the Croatian armed forces and the population of Šibenik managed to defend the town.
To commemorate this memorable event, which went down in the history books as the Battle of Šibenik, the Ruža Hrvatska Defence Association organises a traditional commemoration ceremony every year.
It took place on the Dalmatian island of Žirje in September 2014. As a highlight of the celebrations, several dives were to be carried out around the island, organised by the Department of Underwater Archaeology of the Croatian Institute for Restoration, a Zagreb diving club and the Military Museum of the Ministry of Defence. In addition to visiting already known historical sites, the plan was to check several new locations that had been reported in previous years. One of these sites was to be an unknown aircraft wreck discovered during a harpooning competition.
As soon as the divers had descended to the named spot on the south side of the island, a Junkers Ju 87 from the Second World War, better known as a dive bomber, or Stuka for short, appeared at a depth of 28 metres. Standing upright on its wheels, the whole scene looked as if the Stuka had just made a soft landing on the seabed. Everyone involved immediately realised that this was an extremely valuable historical find. The area was immediately closed to divers and extensive investigations and research into the wreck were carried out.
The misfortune
Experts from the military museum quickly identified the wreckage as a Ju 87 R-2 Stuka. The aircraft of this series were equipped with two additional jettisonable tanks instead of bombs under the wings in order to increase their range. These aircraft were primarily used in the Mediterranean region.
According to available reports on military operations and losses during the Second World War, the German Reich Aviation Ministry also provided the allied Royal Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) with aircraft of this type. On 12 April 1941, three Italian Stukas from the 239th Squadron of the 97th dive bomber unit (239th Squadriglia, 97 Gruppo Bombardamento a tuffo) attacked several torpedo boats of the Second Torpedo Boat Division and the Yugoslav Navy's seaplane squadron, which belonged to the Jadrtovac naval base near Šibenik. The aim of the mission was to support the German Wehrmacht, which had attacked the kingdoms of Yugoslavia and Greece shortly beforehand on 6 April 1941 as part of the Balkan campaign in order to prevent an Italian defeat against Greece. Two Stukas were hit by Yugoslavian anti-aircraft fire, one of which crashed, taking the crew with it to their deaths. The second aircraft was only slightly damaged, but had to ditch in the Adriatic and sank to the bottom of the sea near the island of Žirje. It is not known whether the crew survived. However, the well-preserved wreck, which was only discovered over 70 years later, is missing the canopy over the cockpit and no human remains were found. Presumably the crew were able to save themselves.
The crashed Stuka near Žirje with the typical bent wings, photo: Archive Dr Nehring
The story
The Junkers Ju 87 was a German-made single-engine fighter aircraft that was produced in several series and different versions from 1937 to 1944. Developed by Junkers Flugzeugwerke and built primarily by Weser Flugzeugbau, based in Bremen, the low-wing monoplane with articulated wings, rigid undercarriage and two-man crew was used by the German Air Force and the air forces of allied countries. The Stukas were first deployed at the front in February 1938 in the Spanish Civil War with the Condor Legion. Its main task was to carry out precise daytime bombing raids as part of tactical missions as a dive bomber. Stukas were particularly effective in attacks on sea targets. Later versions of the D and G series were mainly used as ground attack aircraft.
At the beginning of 1940, the Italian Air Force put 108 of them into service, with more following later. In Italy, the aircraft were called Picchiatello and were used by four dive bomber units. The Ju 87, which sank off the island of Žirje in 1941, belonged to the R series (long-range version) and was therefore suitable for long-range flights to be used against shipping traffic throughout the Mediterranean. A total of 721 of these were built, 472 of which were the R-2 version discovered at Žirje, which had a more powerful engine than the R-1 version. A total of 59 aircraft of this Stuka version were in service with Regia Aeronautica.
Despite the high total number of up to 5800 Stukas built, only two complete Ju 87s are known to exist. One is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. This is a Ju 87 R-2 with the additional designation "/trop.", which was specially built as a tropicalised version for the African campaign. The aircraft was found by the British in Africa in 1941, shipped to the USA during the war and restored there in 1974. The second aircraft, a Ju 87 G-2, is in the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon. This Stuka was captured by the British in May 1945 near Eggebek in Schleswig-Holstein. All other finds are more or less badly damaged aircraft wrecks. In 1989, two Ju 87 Bs were discovered in 90 metres of water near St. Tropez, one of which was salvaged and can be seen in the Sinsheim Car and Technology Museum. In 1990 and 1994, the German Museum of Technology in Berlin also acquired two wrecks that had been found in the Russian tundra near Murmansk. One (version R-2) is on display in Berlin, while the second Ju 87 (version R-4) was sold to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Flying Heritage & Combat Armour Museum in Washington, where it is to be fully restored to flying condition. In October 2006, a Ju 87 D-3/Trop. was recovered from the sea near Rhodes. The aircraft had been shot down by the British on 9 October 1943 and is now on display at the Greek Air Force Museum in Acharnes near Athens. The Aviation Museum in Belgrade owns a Ju 87 B-2, which was used by the German Wehrmacht against the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army in 1944 during the "Rösselsprung" operation to capture its leader Tito. In October 2015, parts of a Ju 87 B-3 were unearthed near Krościenko Wyżne in Poland after an eyewitness recalled the 1944 crash of a Stuka there.
Some of the displays on the instrument panel can still be read, photo: Archive Dr Nehring
Compared to the damaged museum specimens, the condition of the Stuka wreck from Žirje is remarkably good. The fuselage, wings and tailplane are largely intact. When the divers removed the fouling from the planking in various places in 2014, they found bare aluminium that had hardly been affected by corrosion. Even the rivets are in excellent condition. Unfortunately, there are three major areas of damage. The dome above the cockpit is missing and the rudder is torn off at the base, possibly only after the emergency ditching due to snagged fishing nets. The engine also tore off and was found in a neighbouring bay. The engine was probably lying on the seabed near the Stuka after the ditching and was later transported further away by trawling nets. Today, the engine has been repositioned right next to the wreckage of the aircraft. It is not known whether there is still ammunition in or near the wreckage.
The future
To date, the idea of salvaging the Stuka wreckage in order to restore it and exhibit it in a military museum has not been realised. However, in order to make it accessible to the public again, experts have removed some parts that are popular collector's items, including the head of the control stick from the cockpit and the MG 15 mobile machine gun. These items have been professionally stored so that they can be exhibited in a museum in due course. The aircraft wreck has been officially declared a cultural heritage site and is a protected monument. Since the end of April 2015, diving on the bomber has once again been permitted for diving centres that have acquired a corresponding licence. During dives by diving guests, at least one person from the respective diving centre must be present to ensure that no one damages or removes parts of the wreck. Only time will tell whether the military-historically significant wreck can withstand all adversities under water in the long term.
Dr Stefan Nehring is an independent environmental consultant and expert on subaqueous contaminated sites.
Stefan Nehring
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