Terror from the deep: Nazi Stuka dive bomber hoisted to the surface after 70 years at the bottom of the Baltic

Terror from the deep: Nazi Stuka dive bomber hoisted to the surface after 70 years at the bottom of the Baltic

• Salvage team now hopes to completely restore the plane
  
• Only two complete examples currently remain in existence
  
• Stukas fired the first shots of the Second World War, dropping bombs on the Polish town of Wielun

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 20:01 EST, 12 June 2012 | UPDATED: 05:03 EST, 13 June 2012

Its distinctive sirens would have been heard moments before it dropped the bombs over Poland that set the Second World War in motion.

But despite its important role in history, very few German Stuka dive bombers survive to this day.

There are currently only two complete planes still around - and neither on display in Germany.

But now German military divers are working to hoist the wreck of one of the single-engine monoplanes from the floor of the Baltic Sea.

Bombs away: German divers retrieve pieces of the Stuka dive bomber from the Baltic sea

Terror of the skies: The Stuka wreaked havoc over Europe as part of the Nazi war machine

Initial reports are that it is in good condition despite having spent the past seven decades lying on the seabed.

The wreck, first discovered in the 1990s when a fisherman's nets snagged on it, lies about 10 kilometers off the coast of the German Baltic island of Ruegen, in about 60 feet of water.

The divers have been working over the past week to prepare the bomber to be hoisted to the surface, using fire hoses to carefully free it from the sand.

They have already brought up smaller pieces and also hauled up its motor over the weekend.

Captain Sebastian Bangert, from the German Military Historical Museum in Dresden, which is running the recovery operation, said they were now working to free the main 30ft fuselage piece and expect to bring it to the surface on Tuesday, depending on the weather.

The German Military Historical Museum plans to eventually display the Stuka at its Air Force Museum, located at the former Gatow airport in Berlin.

Capt Bangert said: 'From my perspective there's a lot of damage - it's been under water for 70 years - but our restoration crew says it's in really good condition for being restored.

'That's our goal - a complete restoration and not conservation as a wreck.'

War machine: Workers unload the engine complete with wooden propeller from the striken 'Stuka'

Artefact: A penknife that was recovered out of the wreckage of the feared WWII plane

So far, little is known about this particular plane - when it crashed, who its pilot and gunner were and whether they survived the crash is still a mystery.

Once the plane is brought to the surface, researchers will use the serial number to track down this information.

The Junkers JU87 - known by most as the Stuka, which is short for the German word for dive bomber 'Sturzkampfflugzeug' - first saw service in the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, being sent by Hitler to help the fascists.

The only two known complete Stukas are on display at the Royal Air Force Museum in London and at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

Both are later models. Bangert said from the motor, the one just found is also likely a later model 'JU87D.'

Still, to find such a complete example is 'terrific,' said Andrew Simpson, curator of the aircraft collection at the RAF Museum.

'You are still talking about less than a dozen in the world, even if you include every back end and center section found on the Russian steppes,' he said. 'Any Stuka is good.'

Following its service in Spain, Stukas fired the first shots of the Second World War, dropping Nazi bombs on the Polish town of Wielun on September 1, 1939, killing some 1,200 civilians.

Find: The wreck which was first discovered in the 1990s when a fisherman's nets snagged on it, lay about 10 kilometers off the coast of the German Baltic island of Ruegen

German ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel claimed to have destroyed more than 500 tanks, mostly on the Eastern Front, and several ships including a Soviet battleship, primarily in the Stuka.

The Stuka was used throughout the Second World War, but for all its successes in the early days on the Western Front and in the later invasion of the Soviet Union, the aircraft was later outclassed by quicker and more maneuverable Allied fighter planes.

As museum pieces today, they're a big draw for visitors and also important for researchers and historians, said Kathleen McCarthy, director of collections at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. The museum's Stuka had been shot down over Libya in the last year of the War.

'The discovery and raising of a third Stuka from the sea floor will be a great asset for both scholars and the general public interested in learning more about historic military technology as well as this critical period in our world history,' she said.

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