On 10 May, 1940, the Wehrmacht launched the Westfeldzug, code-named 'Fall Gelb', the campaign in the West. All Ju 87 units (except I./St.G. 1) were committed over France, Belgium and the Netherlands, i.e. around 350 machines. The Ju 87s were quickly feared by their adversaries as they pursued their Blitzkrieg (lightning war) in close collaboration with German ground and Panzer forces. Flying up to four sorties per day, the Stuka units suffered about 30% losses. With barely any rest period they were then dispatched on missions over England. This dusty, slightly battle-worn Ju 87 of III./St.G. 51 was photographed at the end of the campaign. This Gruppe would soon be incorporated in St.G. 1.
"..with its distinctive cranked wing and vulture-like looks, the blood-curdling shriek of a Stuka in a near-vertical power-dive was certain to strike fear and panic into the most battle-hardened soldiers as well as defenceless civilians.." (Falconer, Haynes Workshop Manual, 2018)
Of course, by the time French, Belgian and Dutch refugees had started to flee southwards during May 1940, the 'Jehrico trumpet' sirens had been removed from the aircraft. And Ju 87 pilots had more than enough on their hands than setting out to massacre unfortunate civilians. As for flattening towns and cities, the Stukas' usual payload could at best barely penetrate a single building, far less collapse an entire block of flats/apartments. But worth noting perhaps - as per Marc Hazard in his 'Stuka in the Blitzkrieg' (Lela Presse, 2023) - that somewhere between 80-100 Stuka pilots who took part in the campaign of May/June 1940 went on to receive the RK, ie some 25% of all Stuka pilots who took part in the Westfeldzug. And that the defeated Allies (Britain and France) did much to 'demonise' the Ju 87 and its crews - the "Teutonic harbinger of destruction [... and] stylised figureheads of the invincible German war machine " (Falconer) - as part of the explanation for their rapid collapse and defeat in May/June 1940..
Below; a newspaper account published in a March 1942 issue of the NS Leipziger Tageszeitung newspaper written by Schlachtflieger ace Oblt. Dieter Pekrun relating his shooting-down (by Spitfires of course) on his second sortie of the day while piloting a Stab I./StG 2 Stuka on the third day of the Westfeldzug, 12 May 1940 - Pekrun managed to bail out and came down in a field of 'irate' cows at Geetbets, Belgium - behind the lines. With his BS dead, Pekrun evaded the various search efforts mounted to locate him and returned home some 24 hours after being presumed MIA. Pekrun was awarded the RK in June 1941.
