Junkers Ju 87 Stuka was obsolete in what was now a fighter-bomber's war. The Bf 109 and Fw 190 could at least fight enemy fighters on equal terms after dropping their ordnance but the Stuka could not. The Ju 87's vulnerability was demonstrated on 11 November 1942, when 15 Ju 87 Ds were shot down by United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Curtiss P-40Fs in minutes. By 1943, the Allies enjoyed air supremacy in North Africa. The Ju 87s ventured out in "Rotte" strength only, often jettisoning their bombs at the first sight of enemy aircraft. Adding to this trouble, the German fighters
Junkers T 29 L1a inline engine cowled with its cylinder heads slightly exposed. Pilot and passenger sat side by side over the wing in a cockpit open apart from a longitudinal arch over their heads to protect them like a roll bar, set perpendicularly to the similar cross-fuselage device only used directly "behind" the cockpit on the Junkers J 2, the Junkers J 7 experimental duralumin-structure monoplane and production Junkers D.I fighter of the late World War I years. This unusual feature reminded observers of a handle and earned the J 29 the nickname "Bügeleisen" (en: flat iron). The fuselage tapered to the