Junkers Ju 88 - Survivors

Survivors

Only two complete aircraft exist. They both share the fact that, during the war, they were flown into British hands by defecting crews.

• Ju 88 D-1/Trop, Werk Nr. 430650

This is a long-range, photographic reconnaissance aircraft that was in the service of the Romanian Air Force. It is displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. On 22 July 1943, it was flown to Cyprus by a Romanian pilot who wanted to defect to the British forces on the island. Four pilots (Flt Sgt Thomas Barker Orford, W/O Arnold Kenneth Asboe, P/O Joseph Alfred Charles Pauley, Flt Sgt H.M. Woodward) in Hurricanes from No. 127 Squadron escorted it to the airfield at Tobruk. Given the name Baksheesh, it was allocated the RAF serial number HK959 and test–flown in Egypt. By this point in the war, the RAF had already acquired three Ju-88's in flying condition. "Baksheesh" was handed over to the U.S. Army Air Forces, which flew the aircraft across the South Atlantic to Wright Field.

In the US, it was registered as FE-1598 and used for examination and test flying from 1943 to 1944. In 1946 the aircraft was placed in storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. It was shipped to the US Air Force Museum on 6 January 1960. It was previously painted in spurious Luftwaffe markings of an Aufklärungsgruppe (reconnaissance group) while on unrestored, outdoor display; however it is presently finished in its original-style Romanian military insignia and on protected indoor display in the museum's World War II Gallery.

• Ju 88 R-1, Werk Nr. 360043

This aircraft is though to have been built in mid–1942 as a model A–1 bomber, before being converted to a model R–1 fighter in early 1943. It was flown to Scotland by its defecting crew in May 1943; two of the three crew on board (who may have been British agents) had taken the decision to defect after being ordered to shoot down a civilian BOAC Mosquito courier flight from Sweden to the UK,

The aircraft took off from Aalborg, Westerland, Denmark at on 9th May, landing at Kristiansand, Norway for refuelling, it then took off again, supposedly for a mission over the Skagerrak. The defecting crew in fact flew west to Scotland while holding the third crewmember at gunpoint. The aircraft was detected by British radar as it approached the Scottish coast and two Spitfires from 165 Squadron were scrambled. They intercepted 360043 one mile inland, whereupon the Ju 88 lowered its undercarriage, waggled its wings and dropped flares, signalling the crew's intent to surrender. The Spitfires escorted 360043 to RAF Dyce, where it received slight damage from the airfield's anti-aircraft guns while attempting to land. The Spitfire pilots (an American and a Canadian) were Mentioned in Dispatches for taking the risk not to open fire on the Ju 88 upon interception.

The capture of this aircraft was of great intelligence value at the time, as it was fitted with the latest UHF-band FuG 202 Liechtenstein BC A.I radar, for which a new form of the Window radar interference method was developed soon afterwards. The Ju 88 was operated by the RAF's No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight and evaluated in depth by various British groups, including the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Fighter Interception Unit. It was used to assist in teaching enemy aircraft recognition skills prior to the D-Day landings, and was last flown in May 1945. In September 1954 and again in September 1955, it was displayed on Horseguards Parade for Battle of Britain week. The aircraft was restored in 1975 and fitted with reproduction radar antenna as all its radar equipment had been removed during the war. In August 1978 moved to the RAF Museum, its present home.

Several reasonably intact aircraft have been recovered from underwater and remote land crash sites in recent years; some of these aircraft are under restoration for static display. Notable examples include:

• Ju 88 A-1, Werk Nr. 0880119, with Geschwaderkennung of U4+TK

This aircraft is the subject of a long term restoration project at the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection at Gardermoen, near Oslo, Norway. It first flew in January 1940 and served with 2.Staffel/Kampfgeschwader 30, under the call sign U4+TK during Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. In April 1940, it was operating from the frozen surface of the Jonsvatnet, a lake near Trondheim in Norway. The lake was being used as an improvised airfield by the Germans, who were conducting operations against and Allied naval ships and against the towns of Namsos and Narvik Towards the end of April, warmer weather made the frozen lake surface unusable for flying operations and a number of aircraft were abandoned on the ice, sinking into the lake when it melted completely. The Ju 88 was recovered in late 2003, in an operation that also saw the recovery of a Heinkel 111 (Werk Nr. 2320) and the tail section of a second Ju 88.

• Ju 88 A-4, Werk Nr.0881478 4D+AM (ex-Stammkennzeichen of BH+QQ)

This aircraft is displayed at the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum, the Norwegian Aviation Museum at Bodø Airport. On the 13 of April 1942, it was returning from an attack on Soviet ships when it ran out of fuel. The crew bailed out in the vicinity of Snefjord but the aircraft continued its flight and, remarkably, was left comparatively intact after crash-landing on a hillside at Garddevarre in Finnmark in the far north of Norway. It remained there until recovered by the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum in 1988.

• Ju 88 A-5, Werk Nr. 0886146 with Stammkennzeichen of CV+VP

This aircraft is held at the Deutsches Technikmuseum near Berlin. It was delivered to the Luftwuffe in June 1940 and assigned to the bomber unit Kampfgeschwader 54, who flew it in the Battle of Britain and during the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

By June 1942 it was serving with a training unit, Kampffliegerschule 3 based on the German Baltic coast. On the night of the 29 June, it was stolen by two German personnel who intended to fly to Britain and defect to the Allied side. The attempt failed and the aircraft came down in Kilsfjord, a fjord near Kragerø, Norway. One man drowned but the other, Willi Voss, was rescued by Norwegian civilians. However, he was subsequently captured, returned to Germany and executed in January 1943, even though some accounts claim Voss was forced by the other man to fly at gunpoint. The aircraft flew was recovered in August 2000. Restoration work was carried out in Norway between 2000 and 2004; it was moved to Germany in August 2006.