Junkers Ju 87 provided close-shore artillery support at Waalhaven and the Afsluitdijk. The British "Valentine" was crippled, beached and scuttled while "Winchester", "Whitley" and "Westminster" were damaged. "Whitley" was later beached and scuttled after an air attack on 19 May. The Ju 87 units were also instrumental in the Battle of France. It was here that most of the Ju 87-equipped units were concentrated. They assisted in the breakthrough at Sedan, the critical and first major land battle of the war on French territory. The "Stukawaffe" flew 300 sorties against French positions, with StG 77 alone flying 201 individual missions. The Ju 87s
Junkers J 2 1916 Hugo Junkers had come to the realization that the continued use of sheet electrical steel was no longer practical for aircraft construction, writing in his diary that: ""As a result of the first (J 1) and second (J 2) aircraft, one would ascertain that the aerodynamic efficiency was very good. We thought we" [the Junkers designers] "were over the hill. This, unfortunately, was not the case. We had to start again from the very beginning. The reason was that in spite of the favorable horizontal speed, the aircraft could not meet the military climb specifications...we had to develop an