Junkers Ju 87 near Sagan, 13 Ju 87s and 26 crew members were lost when they crashed into the ground almost simultaneously. The planes dived through cloud, expecting to release their practice bombs and pull out of the dive once below the cloud ceiling, unaware that the ceiling was too low and unexpected ground mist formed, leaving them no time to pull out of the dive. On 1 September 1939, the Wehrmacht invaded Poland, triggering World War II. "Generalquartiermeister der Luftwaffe" records indicate a total force of 366 Ju 87 A and Bs were available for operations on 31 August 1939. The first
Hugo Junkers Hugo Junkers Hugo Junkers (3 February 1859 – 3 February 1935) was a German aircraft engineer and aircraft designer. As such, he is generally credited with pioneering the design of all-metal airplanes and flying wings. As founder of what would become the Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG following the First World War's armistice, he was one of the mainstays of the German aircraft industry in the years between World War I and World War II. In particular, his multi-engined all-metal passenger- and freight planes helped establish airlines in Germany, as well as all over the world. Although his name is