The last two surviving Stukas........

[big ned]

The wheel spats were removed on Ju 87's in some theatres of war as they were prone to picking up a lot of mud, sand, clay, grass and snow from unmetalled airstrips. This could cause major problems, especially if it froze solid during flight, which was not uncommon, and seizing the landing wheels, which could overstress the already notoriously weak undercarriage. Another reason was that they could dig into soft ground during the take off/landing run of the aircraft and cause it to ground loop or even worse, flip over.

[unimarc]

Amazing aero plane , one of my all time favorites :-)
By the way there is a German sub a little way outside Kiel in northern Germany , next to the memorial of all the dead u-boot personelle !
It is put on land and an door has been made for and after, that way you can walk/crawl trough the complete boat ! Amazing experience, and the oppersite to the Stuka, a very small boat !

Mfg
Marc