The Ju-188 bomber was supposed to replace the Ju-88. After the outbreak of World War II, his project was already approaching the prototype stage, but in 1941 there were unexpected delays: and it became clear that an intermediate model should appear between the Ju-88 and Ju-288. This aircraft turned out to be the Ju-188, created on the basis of the Ju-88B prototype and first flown in 1940.

Ju.188 E - the first production version with BMW 801C-2 engines. The deliveries of the E series to the troops began earlier than the A series due to the presence of a sufficient number of BMW-801 engines. The pre-production Ju.188e-0, in contrast to the Ju.188a-0, retained the air brakes. They were also on the first serial E-1 with BMW-801ML engines, which differed from the BMW-801MA, which were on the pre-production cars, only by the propeller control system. Their takeoff power was 1600 hp. and 1380 liters. from. at an altitude of 4600 m. The bomb load was the same as on the A series, but instead of a 20-mm cannon, an MG-131 machine gun was installed in the upper turret.

Ju.188 E-1 differed from the pre-production machines initially only in engines, but soon enough they were replaced by BMW-801D-2 or G-2 with takeoff power of 1700hp and 1440hp at an altitude of 5700m. The Ju.188e-2 was a torpedo bomber modeled on the A-3. Several of these machines were produced without the EDL-131 upper turret.

Ju-188 began to enter service in 1942, about 1100 of these aircraft were produced, including the Ju-188A bomber with two Yumo 212A engines with a capacity of 1776 hp each. and its reconnaissance version Ju-188D; 6th bomber Ju-188E with the installation of radial air-cooled engines instead of V-shaped water-cooled engines and its reconnaissance Persia Ju-188; The Ju-188S is a high-altitude attack aircraft and the Ju-188T is a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. In addition, the aircraft had options for an all-weather and night fighter.

Armament. 20 mm cannon in front, one 13 mm machine gun in the upper turret and one at the rear, two coaxial 7.92 mm machine guns in a gondola under the bow cockpit and bombs up to 3000 kg.

Photo	Description
	Drawing Ju 188 E1
	Ju 188 E2

Serial production of reconnaissance aircraft began in mid-1943. The aircraft were built at the Junkers (Bernburg), Allgemeine Transportanlagen (ATG, Leipzig), Siebel (Halle) and SNCASE (Toulouse, France) factories. Since 1944, only reconnaissance versions have been produced. A total of 570 scouts were released. Reconnaissance versions of the Ju 188 were in service in Germany since 1943.

The Ju 188 scouts first appeared in the 5th Air Fleet in the Arctic at the beginning of 1944.Since the spring of 1944, these machines have already been massively used on the Eastern and Western Fronts: in France, Northern Italy and the Baltic States. At the beginning of 1945, a total of more than ten squadrons flew on them.

The Ju 188 was withdrawn from production in August 1944. These machines were used in combat operations until the end of the war. One copy of the Ju 188D-1 in January 1945 was captured by Soviet troops in Hungary, but was not tested.

Armament. One 13 mm machine gun in the upper turret and two coaxial MG-81Z machine guns.

Modifications

• Ju 188 D. With Jumo 213A-1 engines and armament 1 × 13 + 2 × 7.9, crew - 3 people, variants D-1 (ground reconnaissance) and D- were produced 2 (marine, with radar), there were several alternative sets of photographic equipment for day and night shooting.
• Ju 188 F. Analogue of Ju 188D with BMW 801D-1 / G-2 engines, crew - 4 people, F-1 / F-2 variants similar to D-1 / D were produced -2.

Bibliography

• "Aviation of Luftwaffe" /Viktor Shunkov/
• "Encyclopedia of military engineering" /Aerospace Publising/