The Ju 87D-3 had a 1400 hp Jumo 211 J 12 Cylinder liquid-cooled inverted vee and carried 1600kg of ord of Various loads up to a maximum 3,968 lbs. This version is haevier then the d1 and less manuverable. The d3 had no dive Siren.
The Ju 87D-3 introduced even more additional armour for the crew and vital parts of the aircraft reflecting the Ju 87s increasing use as a Schlachtflugzeug (close-support aircraft). From the D-4 model onwards the 7.92 mm window guns were replaced by the 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon. The Ju 87D-4 was a torpedo-bomber version capable of carrying a single torpedo with only a few example built. The Ju 87D-5 model had a longer wing span, with pointed wing tip extensions for use as a dedicated close-support version with jettisonable landing gear and no dive brakes. An interesting development was the Ju 87D-7, a night ground-attack model converted from Ju 87D-3s and Ju 87D-5s with a 1,500 hp (1119 kW) Jumo 211P engine with exhaust pipes extending back across the wing. The Ju 87D-8 was a day version of Ju 87D-7 without night-flying equipment and flame-dampers. The wing mounted machine-guns replaced by 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon and dive brakes were omitted. The Ju 87D-8 was the last aircraft type in production when in September 1944, all aircraft production other than fighters, was terminated.
About the D5
The Ju 87 D-3 had been found too slow and not maneuvrable enough by the crews. Learning from that, this new version (d5) of the Stuka had lengthened wings and more armement. The dive brakes were abandonned in the course of this series: the plane was almost never used as a dive bomber any more and only as ground support plane.
The d3 became the g1 witrh added 2 37mm Rheinmetall-Borsig BK 3,7 (Flak 18 or Flak 36) anti-tank cannon and the deletion of the 7mm and dive breaks.
The D5 became the G2
Ju 87G (G-1/G-2) - The Ju 87G was the final version of the Stuka. It abandoned the dive attack in favour of an armament of two 37mm Rheinmetall-Borsig BK 3,7 (Flak 18 or Flak 36) anti-tank cannon weighing over 800 lbs (363 kg). These weapons fired special armour-piercing ammunition, with tungsten cores, at a muzzle velocity of 2,790 ft (850 m) per second. They were installed in gun pods fitted outboard of the landing gear legs. The ammunition was in six-round clips. The first operational trials were made in March 1943. The normal 7.92 mm or 20 mm wing guns were deleted. Dive bombing was not possible with the additional weight of the guns, so the dive brakes were also deleted. The Ju 87G could still drop bombs, but not in a dive. Initially, the Ju 87G was seen as quite dangerous to its crews. The additional weight and drag of the wing guns adversely affected performance and handling, and low-level attacks in the face of the Russian AAA and fighters seemed suicidal. But true as that was, it remained that the Ju 87G was extremely effective. The 37 mm gun was in 1943 considered obsolete as an anti-tank gun on the ground, but from the air it was still effective, because the Ju 87G could attack tanks from the rear or from above, were their armour was much thinner. Not that the Germans refrained from trying out bigger cannon on anti-tank aircraft, but the Ju 87 could not possibly carry these, and larger aircraft such as the Ju 88 were not agile enough to operate successfully against tanks. There were two versions, the G-1 and the G-2, with short and long wing spans, respectively with the G-2 based on the long-wing D-5 model. Production of the Ju 87 was halted definitively in October 1944. The greatest exponent of the Ju 87G-1 was Hans-Ulrich Rudel who was personally credited with the destruction of 519 Russian armoured vehicles. He flew 2,530 combat missions and continued to lead Stuka formations in daylight long after the other Stukagruppen had replaced their vunerable aircraft with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
We can get multiple uses from the d3 due to its gun load out. It also allows for the G1. Just add the 37mm and delete the 7mm wing guns. HT we also need to adjust the hard points for the limited bomb load of the g.
The D3 was the last "dive bomb" version of the Stuka. The d3 provides ht with the ability to get 2 fer 1.
