AP 118 · No. 11 Section II · Aircraft Plate 156 / 370

Plate 156 of 370 · Second World War · Medium bomber

Junkers Ju 188 E-1

Ju 188 E-1 NF+KQ, painted as Junkers Ju 188 E-1 ‘NF+KQ’, a Junkers-built bomber known from two wartime photographs taken in flight in about 1943: a twin-engined medium bomber developed from the Ju 88, with a rounded, fully glazed nose and cabin, a gun turret on the cabin roof, a ventral gun gondola under the nose, two BMW 801 fourteen-cylinder radials in power eggs driving three-bladed propellers, a long-span wing of 22.00 m with pointed tips and a large angular fin and rudder, shown tail down on its wheels: dark green splinter camouflage on the upper surfaces, light blue underneath, fuselage sides and fin under a dense soft dark mottle, dark cowlings, hollow white-outline crosses on the fuselage and upper wings, black ‘NF’ and ‘KQ’ either side of the fuselage cross, black-and-white crosses and the code letters under the wings and a white-edged black swastika on the fin; no Ju 188 survives, the photographs are black and white and show the port side and underside, so the greens are the standard ones and the starboard codes follow Luftwaffe practice (shape from a Ju 188 three-view scaled to the published span and length, checked against a second three-view, a cutaway and photographs).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Junkers Ju 188 E-1 ‘NF+KQ’, a Junkers-built bomber known from two wartime photographs taken in flight in about 1943: a twin-engined medium bomber developed from the Ju 88, with a rounded, fully glazed nose and cabin, a gun turret on the cabin roof, a ventral gun gondola under the nose, two BMW 801 fourteen-cylinder radials in power eggs driving three-bladed propellers, a long-span wing of 22.00 m with pointed tips and a large angular fin and rudder, shown tail down on its wheels: dark green splinter camouflage on the upper surfaces, light blue underneath, fuselage sides and fin under a dense soft dark mottle, dark cowlings, hollow white-outline crosses on the fuselage and upper wings, black ‘NF’ and ‘KQ’ either side of the fuselage cross, black-and-white crosses and the code letters under the wings and a white-edged black swastika on the fin; no Ju 188 survives, the photographs are black and white and show the port side and underside, so the greens are the standard ones and the starboard codes follow Luftwaffe practice (shape from a Ju 188 three-view scaled to the published span and length, checked against a second three-view, a cutaway and photographs). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.8 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Ju 188A & E); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Ju 188 E-1 NF+KQ modelled here.

History

The Ju 188 E-1

When Junkers entered the Ju 88 for the Luftwaffe’s fast-bomber contest in 1936, it also offered a Ju 88B with a smooth, rounded nose in which the whole crew sat together under some three dozen curved glazed panels, instead of the Ju 88A’s stepped cockpit and separate nose glazing. The Air Ministry thought the idea too radical and ordered the Ju 88A. Junkers tried again as a stop-gap when the engines for the ‘Bomber B’ programme ran late: the first Ju 88B flew with BMW 801 radials in early 1940, and ten pre-production B-0s followed, though the ministry judged the gain over the Ju 88A too small and most became reconnaissance aircraft.

By 1942 the Ju 288, Junkers’ Bomber B, was clearly not going to be ready, and the ministry asked for an improved Ju 88B as the Ju 188. It combined the glazed nose with a longer wing with pointed tips, a large angular fin and rudder, a gun turret on the cabin roof and a gondola under the nose for a rear-facing gunner, and it could take either the Jumo 213 or the BMW 801 as a complete bolt-on ‘power egg’. It was ordered in October 1942. Because the Jumo 213 was late, most were E-series aircraft with BMW 801s; the Jumo-powered A-series followed in smaller numbers, and torpedo, radar and reconnaissance versions were also built.

The first three production Ju 188 E-1s were delivered in February 1943, and the type’s first operation, an attack by three of them on a factory in Lincoln, came on 18 August 1943. Ju 188s took part in Operation Steinbock, the ‘Baby Blitz’ on London and other British cities in early 1944, some of them as pathfinders marking targets for the bombers behind. Production ended in the summer of 1944, when German factories turned to fighters; about 1,100 had been built, some 500 of them A and E-series bombers and most of the rest reconnaissance aircraft. The RAF and the French Navy flew captured Ju 188s after the war, but none survives.

This airframe

Ju 188 E-1 ‘NF+KQ’

NF+KQThe airframe modelled

‘NF+KQ’ is a Junkers-built Ju 188 E-1, identified by its Stammkennzeichen, the four-letter code German aircraft carried from the factory until they joined a unit. It is known from two wartime photographs in the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s archive, from the Nowarra collection, taken in flight in about 1943: one from below and one of its port side. It is modelled because no Ju 188 survives, and ‘NF+KQ’ is the only Ju 188 found photographed from two angles with its markings legible; its Werknummer cannot be read and is not painted. None is in a UK museum. The model shows it standing tail down on its wheels: dark green splinter camouflage on the upper surfaces, light blue underneath, the fuselage sides and fin under a dense, soft dark mottle, dark cowlings, hollow white-outline crosses on the fuselage and upper wings, black ‘NF’ ahead of the fuselage cross and ‘KQ’ behind it, black-and-white crosses and the code letters under the wings and a white-edged black swastika on the fin. It has the 20 mm cannon in the nose and the gun turret on the cabin roof of the production E-1. Its shape comes from a Ju 188 three-view scaled to the type’s span and length, checked against a second three-view, a cutaway and photographs. The photographs are black and white, so the two greens are the standard ones and their splinter pattern follows factory practice; the starboard codes, which cannot be read, follow Luftwaffe convention, and the starboard side of the fin mirrors the port.

Where to see one

Not on charge

No Ju 188 survives.

All 370 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.