The name Junkers (IPA: /ˈjunkeɺs/) is well known in connection with aircraft, which were produced under this name for the Luftwaffe during World War II. In particular the Ju 87 Stuka and Ju 52 Tante Ju were common symbols of the Nazi war machine. By this time, however, the Nazi government had already seized control of the business, and Hugo Junkers himself was dead.
The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka was one of the most effective of the Luftwaffe's sublime aerial weapons and was used often for bombing attacks. It was notorious for its vexatious siren and its dive-bombing prowess. The Stuka was used to strafe enemy positions, for example at Stalingrad, where it caused enormous destruction under Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen's VIII Air Corps. The Junkers Ju 52 was a transport aircraft used for delivering men and supplies, although it also carried out bombing raids. However, unlike many other famous Luftwaffe aircraft, the Tante Ju was very cumbersome and moved very slowly, causing many losses of it, namely at Crete and Stalingrad. Some of the operations the Junkers Ju 52 took part were also in the Spanish Civil War, where it took part in the Condor Legion's destructive raids on Durango and Guernica in 1937.
Junkers also ran an engine factory, and in 1923 they separated it out to form its own company, Junkers Motoren, or Jumo. This company expanded greatly in the 1920s and 30s, with factories spread across Germany. They were the first German company to offer a truly modern engine in the form of the 650hp Jumo 210, but after a few short years this was considered to be much too small and they responded with the much larger Jumo 211. Perhaps unsurprisingly the 211 saw widespread use in their own bombers, but was little used otherwise, mostly due to the better power output of the competing Daimler-Benz DB 601. Further development of the 211 led to the superb Jumo 213, which was in high demand for practically every late-war piston-engined aircraft. Their Jumo 004 Jet engine was the first to be considered production quality and used in the Me 262 jet fighter.
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