Stukas (1941 - Germany)

The Ju87B “Stuka” dive-bomber was a much feared weapon in the German armoury against Crete and the Allied Naval forces. The variant used against Crete was the Ju87B of which pre-production examples flew in late 1938, but it was in volume production by 1941. With its thick “gull wing” and screaming near vertical dive it was feared by the Navy who saw how effective these aircraft could be against large naval vessels, when free of any defending air force fighter patrols.

Third Reich-era classic.

Young, vigor and aggressive German pilots battle their French arch-enemy during the Nazi campaign in the West, May-June 1940. Real aerial footage; close-ups on J-87 and other German hardware of the period; life cycle of a Stuka pilot on the frontlines; “Death for the Fatherland is so sweet” motto; French tanker from hell trying to humiliate captured pilots, and other assorted propaganda perks; Carl Raddatz as an archetypical Luftwaffe officer, role model for J-87 aces like Ulrich Rudel and others.

--
Length: 1 hour 31 min. German, occasional Czech subtitles.

Director: Karl Ritter

Writers: Felix Lutzkendorf, Karl Ritter

Theatrical release: June 27, 1941 (Germany)

Cast: Carl Raddatz - Hauptmann Heinz Bork; Hannes Stelzer - Oberleutnant Hans Wilde; Ernst von Klipstein - Oberleutnant "Patzer" von Bomberg; Albert Hehn - Oberleutnant Hesse; Herbert Wilk - Oberleutnant Günter Schwarz; O.E. Hasse - Oberarzt Dr. Gregorius; Karl John - Oberleutnant Lothar Loos; Else Knott - Krankenschwester Ursula; Marina von Ditmar - Junge Französin; Egon Müller-Franken - Oberleutnant Jordan; Guenther Markert - Oberleutnant Hellmers; Josef Dahmen - Feldwebel Traugott; Erich Stelmecke - Feldwebel Rochus.

Producer: Karl Ritter

Original Music: Herbert Windt

Cinematography: Walter Meyer, Heinz Ritter, Walter Roßkopf, Hugo von Kaweczynski

Editing: Conrad von Molo

Production Design: Anton Weber

Costume Design: Carl Heinz Grohnwald

Production Management: Wilhelm Karras - unit manager, Gustav Rathje - production manager, Fritz Schwarz - unit manager, Arthur Ullmann - unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director: Carl Merznicht - trainee assistant director, Conrad von Molo - assistant director

Sound: Werner Maas

Special Effects: Gerhard Huttula, Theo Nischwitz

-----------

In his diary entry for June 2, 1941, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels recorded his opinion of "Stukas" after attending a preview:

"New Ritter film, 'Stukas.' Quite good, with some wonderful air footage, but a typical Ritter production. He cannot lead people. Rather too noisy."

The American perspective was decidedly more negative. The broadcast journalist Howard K. Smith offered this scathing description in "Last Train From Berlin:"

"It was a monotonous film about a bunch of obstreperous adolescents who dived bombed things and people. The bombed anything and anybody. That's all the film was - just one bombing after another. Finally the hero got bored with bombing and lost interest in life - so they took him off to the Bayreuth music festival where he listened to a few lines of Wagner's music; his soul began to breathe again, he got visions of the Fuhrer and of guns blazing away, so he impolitely left right in the middle of the first act and dashed back and started bombing things again with the old gusto."

Smith was understandably horrified, but 60 years later the real horror is not in the films depiction of bombing, but in its death-worshiping dialogue.

"Stukas" is the story of a dive bomber squadron during the Battle of France in May-June 1940. The primary characters are the commander, played by Carl Raddatz, who here and in "Wunschkonzert" is the epitome of a Luftwaffe officer, and the flight surgeon, played by O.E. Hasse, best known as the confessed killer in Hitchcock's "I Confess." The pilot Smith described as "bored" is played by Hannes Stelzer, who ironically was killed later in the war.

Although the action focuses on dive bombing, the real theme of the film is the willingness, indeed the necessity, to risk death in the service of Germany. In the moral universe of "Stukas", there is no finer death in the world. Hauptmann Bork (Raddatz) salutes the fallen: "Yes, one does not think about their death, but instead about what they have died for, and remembers them like the young gods that they are." Deeply moved, Doctor Gregorius (Hasse) recites lines from a poem titled ""Death for the Fatherland." The verse reads in part:

"O take me, let me join that circle, so that I will not die a common death! I do not want to die in vain; but I would love to perish on a hill of sacrifice"

"for the Fatherland, to bleed the blood of my heart, for the Fatherland - and soon it is done! To you, dear ones! I come , to join those who taught me to live and to die!"

This ode to death must rank as one of the most chilling speeches in any film, especially given the nature of the cause that it honors.

For further insights into "Stukas" and other films of the period, I highly recommend Jay W. Baird's "To Die for Germany" from which the above quotations were drawn. This is perhaps the best book ever written on Nazi aesthetics and their integral cult of death.

----

From: IMDb/wikipedia/nazi.org.uk