… over the headsets of WWII Stuka dive-bomber pilots?
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The Stuka was a single engine, single crewed vehicle. I seriously doubt it came with a means of playing a recorded musical piece on it’s own (either vinyl record or audio tape).
It would probably have to be transmitted via radio by a ground station to the aircraft for the pilot to enjoy.
That’s what I meant, but I always wondered if it were true that they actually bombed cities listening to that music over their headsets or if it’s just an unsubstantiated legend. Wagner was one of Hitler’s favorite composers, I believe.
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Also, you didn’t really think I thought they had an 8-track on board, didja? 
Not that far gone yet, thank goodness! 
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Have you heard the quality and fidelity of radio broadcasts over such headphones? My suspicion is that it wouldn’t have the desired effect.
And if it did, after listening to it over and over, I’d be sorely tempted to bomb Bayreuth.
Shame on you.
Legend has it that the mechanical Fafner for the first Ring was addressed to Beirut.
Dual crewed. Tailgunner could have hummed it over the intercom I suppose.
Crap. Now I feel stoopid.
I suppose they could have made a movable baffle for their dive brakes that played the opening notes.
That must suck, looking out the back of the aircraft in a power dive.
I think I may have seen that in a movie (The Ride of The Valkyries being played, I mean). I can’t find anything to substantiate that they did this.
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I’ve only seen it in movies were the lone British destroyer goes up against an entire German battle group.
I believe you’re thinking of Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in the Hueys. Shall we dance?
No. Really, I don’t think I was, sorry 11811.
I know about Apocalypse Now, but I don’t think there is where I picked it up.
But as I stated before, I could not find anything on the net to substantiate what my OP asked.
Thanks very much you guys!
Quasi
I have read Hans Ulrich Rudel’s memoir Stuka Pilot, and there was no mention of it. He was one brave fuckin’ Nazi!
The Stuka did have a siren on it, so as to intimidate the people they were bombing, however.
I believe they rigged something on the fuselage to create that siren sound when they went into their dive. And yeah, I’d hate to have been the tail gunner on those things. Did the allies have anything comparable at that time, y’all?
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I believe the Shturmovik was a similar idea to the Stuka, don’t know if the other allies had something similar though.
While we’re talking about the Ju 87, one of its coolest features was how much of the procedure which was automated. Initiating a dive caused the aircraft to automatically go into a 180° roll and then into the dive, and after the bomb was manually released the aircraft would perform an automatic recovery.
The Stormovik was primarily a ground attack plane, but wasn’t a dive bomber. It was significantly faster and better armed, and far better armored. The Stuka had to be withdrawn from the Battle of Britain and the western Front because it could not survive in the presence of British fighter defenses, yet there are cases when German pilots emptied their guns into Stormoviks and still couldn’t shoot them down. In that sense they were probably more similar to the American P-47 Thunderbolt, which was also famous for being able to absorb damage and keep flying.
The Americans had a pretty close analog to the Stuka with the Douglas Sauntless, a dedicated dive bomber known best for sinking all the Japanese carriers in the Battle of Midway. Later came the Curtis Helldiver as a replacement for the Dauntless, but it had all kinds of problems and was never as well accepted.
Also, the Grumman Avenger was built as a torpedo bomber, but did a credible job as a dive bomber as well. It couldn’t dive quite as steep, wasn’t quite so accurate, but was also very robust and was good enough. George Bush I was an Avenger pilot and was shot down during a dive bombing mission.