Editing Dive bomber (section)

== European theatre ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-646-5188-17, Flugzeuge Junkers Ju 87.jpg|thumb|left| Ju 87D Stukas over the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]], December 1943]]

On 10 April 1940, 16 British Royal Navy [[Blackburn Skua]]s flying at extreme range from [[RNAS Hatston|the naval air station at Hatston]] in [[Orkney]] led by Lieutenant Commander William Lucy sank the German cruiser [[German cruiser Konigsberg|''Königsberg'']] in Bergen harbour, whilst trying to prevent the [[German invasion of Norway]].<ref>Mondey, David: ''The Hamlyn Concise Guide to British aircraft of WWII''. Chancellor Press. London 1994. {{ISBN|1-85152-668-4}}</ref> On the German side Stukas augmented or replaced artillery support for the [[Wehrmacht]]'s lightly armed parachute and airborne troops.

The [[invasion of Poland]] (September to October 1939) and the [[Battle of France]] (May to June 1940) saw the Stuka used to devastating effect. German ''[[blitzkrieg]]'' tactics used dive bombers in place of artillery to support highly mobile ground troops. The [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]] had set up strong defensive positions on the west bank of the [[Oise River]] to block rapidly advancing German armour. Stukas quickly broke the defences, and the Wehrmacht forced a crossing long before German artillery arrived.<ref name="Weal, John 1997"/>

On 12/13 May 1940, Stukas flew 300 [[sortie]]s against strong French defensive positions at the [[Battle of Sedan (1940)|Battle of Sedan]]. This enabled German forces to make a fast and unexpected breakthrough of the French lines, eventually leading to the German advance to the Channel and the cutting off of much of the Allied army.<ref name="Weal, John 1997"/>

The skies over Sedan also showed the Stuka's weakness when met with fighter opposition; six French [[Curtiss H-75]]s attacked a formation of unescorted Ju 87s and shot down 11 out of 12 without loss.<ref>Ward, John. ''Hitler's Stuka Squadrons: The Ju 87 at war, 1936–1945''. London: Eagles of War, 2004. {{ISBN|1-86227-246-8}}</ref> The Stuka was even more vulnerable to the [[Hawker Hurricane]] with its {{convert|100|mph|abbr= on}} speed edge and eight machine guns, which it first met over France and then in larger numbers in the [[Battle of Britain]] (July to October 1940). Losses were such that the Luftwaffe rapidly withdrew Stukas from operations over the United Kingdom. A similar fate befell unescorted RAF [[Fairey Battle]]s over France.<ref name="Weal, John 1997"/>

The Stuka had [[MG 17 machine gun|7.92mm]] [[machine gun]]s or [[MG 151 cannon|20mm]] [[Autocannon|cannon]]s mounted in the wings. Some were modified to destroy tanks with [[BK 37|heavy calibre, 37mm ''Bordkanone'' BK 3,7 autocannon]]s mounted in [[gun pod]]s below the wings. They were very successful in this role in the early days (1941) of [[Operation Barbarossa]] before the [[Soviet Air Forces#World War II|Red Army Air Force]] countered with modern fighters, such as the [[Yakovlev Yak-1]] and later the [[Yakovlev Yak-3]].<ref>Bergström, Christer. ''Barbarossa – The Air Battle: July–December 1941''. London: Chevron/Ian Allan, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-85780-270-2}}.</ref>

The most successful dive-bomber pilot, [[Hans-Ulrich Rudel]], made 2,530 sorties. He contributed to the sinking of the [[Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1911)|Soviet battleship ''Marat'']] at [[Kronstadt]] on 23 September 1941 using {{convert|1000|kg|abbr= on}} bombs. Later, flying a tank-buster Stuka with 20mm cannon, he claimed over 100 Soviet tanks destroyed, mostly at the [[Battle of Kursk]] in July 1943. The Ju 87G ''Kanonenvogel'', equipped with two 37mm BK 3,7 anti-tank guns, as suggested by Rudel, proved to be a lethal weapon in skilled hands. In the Soviet counter-offensive, [[Operation Kutuzov]] (July to August 1943), which concluded Kursk, the Luftwaffe claimed 35 tanks destroyed in a single day.<ref>Bergström, Christer ''Kursk – The Air Battle: July 1943''. Chevron/Ian Allan 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-903223-88-8}}</ref> Rudel co-wrote a post-war book about his experiences and consulted with the US Air Force.<ref>Just, Günther. ''Stuka Pilot Hans Ulrich Rudel''. Atglen, Pennsylvania: [[Schiffer Publishing]]. 1986 {{ISBN| 0-88740-252-6}}.</ref>

When Italy joined the war (10 June 1940) on the Axis side, the [[Regia Aeronautica]] shipped [[Breda Ba.65]]s to North Africa for use against the British but they also proved vulnerable. By February 1941 British fighters had shot down most of the Italian planes.<ref>Mondey, David. "Breda Ba.65". ''The Hamlyn Concise Guide to Axis Aircraft of World War II''. New York: Bounty Books, 2006. {{ISBN|0-7537-1460-4}}</ref> In Morocco on 11 November 1942, American [[Curtiss P-40 Warhawk]]s shot down 15 Ju 87Ds in one encounter.<ref>Weal, John. ''Junkers Ju 87 Stukageschwader of North Africa and the Mediterranean''. Oxford, UK: Osprey, 1998. {{ISBN| 1-85532-722-8}}</ref>

The [[United States Army Air Forces]] took delivery of a few [[North American P-51 Mustang]]s from a British order but, as there were no funds to buy more fighters, they were modified as dive bombers with a new wing and with dive brakes. First flown in October 1942 as the [[North American A-36 Apache]], they arrived in Morocco in April 1943 to assist with driving the [[Afrika Korps]] out of Africa. The aircraft was very fast at low altitude. It was also accident-prone, achieving the highest casualty-rate during training of any USAAF aircraft and was officially restricted to no more than a 70-degree dive.<ref>Freeman, Roger: ''Mustang at War'', New York, Doubleday, 1974 {{ISBN| 0-385-06644-9}}</ref> The Apache did not fly with the RAF, but served with US squadrons in Sicily, Italy and, by late summer of 1943, was based in India for use over Burma and China. It proved to be an excellent dive-bomber and a good fighter: one ace in Italy shot down five German fighters<!--he isn't otherwise noteworthy so no need to include his name-->.<ref>Gunston, Bill and Robert F. Dorr. ''North American P-51 Mustang: The Fighter that Won the War. Wings of Fame Vol. 1''. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1995. {{ISBN|1-874023-68-9}}</ref>
 
The Royal Navy's [[Fairey Swordfish]] and [[Fairey Albacore]] torpedo-dive bombers and [[Blackburn Skua]] fighter-bombers were replaced by [[Fairey Barracuda]] torpedo-dive bombers, which made repeated diving attacks on the German battleship ''Tirpitz'' which lay protected by [[torpedo net]]s in a Norwegian fjord during 1944. On 3 April 1944, in [[Operation Tungsten]], 42 aircraft flying from the carriers [[HMS Victorious (R38)|HMS ''Victorious'']] and [[HMS Furious (47)|HMS ''Furious'']] scored 14 hits with {{convert|500|lb|abbr= on}} and {{convert|1600|lb|abbr= on}} bombs and put the battleship out of action for over two months.<ref>
Gunston, William: ''Classic World War II aircraft cutaways''. Osprey, London, 1995 {{ISBN|1-85532-526-8}}
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The [[Soviet Union]] [[Soviet Armed Forces|Armed Forces]] deployed the [[Arkhangelsky Ar-2]] from 1940 to 1944 and the [[Petlyakov Pe-2]] from 1941 to 1954.