Tecniques

Ju 88A-4 - German Multirole ÜberBomber
By -doku-

• Good: Big bomb load (4x500kg + 10x50kg), can dive fast, can take some damage
• Bad: Climbs slow, undergunned

I am not talking about bombing or divebombing here, because there are many good WB-sites of those skills in the web.

Ok, so you want to fly Ju 88? Here are some clues.
First at all remember Ju 88 is a slow climber in the full bomb load. You have to start far far away from your target to reach "safe" bombing altitude …………..higher the better. I use a minimum of 15000 feet (about 5km), but if you go over 20000 feet (6.5km) you are more in safe. Remember - altitude is your only defence if you got no escorts. With escorts and low enemy activity you can bomb from 8000-10000 feet (ca. 3km). I use climb angle of about 7-8 degrees in Ju 88 fully loaded. A 30% fuel load is enough for even longer mission, 20-25% if you are going for low altitude bombing nearby.

Going defence - when things go wrong:
if you meet a con you have only one choice: Run and scream for ack weenies and mama to help you! :) Ju88 is sure undergunned, and it´s only 12mm MG is on the top, where from it cannot shoot con climbing at you on your low six or six. If con anyway gets to your low six, you can try to outdive him. Drop your bombs and go to 30-40 degree dive, until you reach 500km/h, now start to pull up because on 600km/h your elevator will rip off. Use full trim down to keep Junkers on dive. Try to stay on speed where your wings are shaking, speed 580km/h is good. This should be enough for a while if con was on your low or long six.

Keep on diving towards friendly field, but if con starts closing, you still got one trick to use: divebrake! If con is closing you, at d8-d10 stop your engines and hit divebrakes on (key v). Now put full trim up! Do some manouvers, but don´t fly straight. Split-S or one barrel roll are nice moves. When your speed is dropped to 400km/h start engines and remove divebrake. You can only hope that con won´t hit you, but one thing is sure: con will pass you with high speed and you are able to brake off for a while. Now you can either start another fast speed dive to another direction con was going, or keep on diving on 90 degree dive 500km/h to the (almost) ground using divebrake for speed controlling. Pull up just before ground, call off your divebrake and head home fast and low. If con lost vis on you, congrats - you just evaded it successfully!

If con still catches you while you are low, you can try scissors and hitting dive brakes, hoping your top gunner puts some lead on cons plane while he/she is pulling up for another pass.

Use external view so much as possible when con is on the shooting position. Pumping up and down and tailslides with rudder are also good defences, and with good luck con comes to your high six d3 or so and 12mm-Otto kills him :)

Also if con hits your vital parts, don´t panic. I have landed Ju88 with no elevator, horizontal stab and rudder. ;) Con turned away thinking I was going down... With throttle and trims you can control Ju88 surprisingly much.

And last thing: practice offline starting altitude your are normally bombing from.

That´s all folks :)

-doku-