Downed Ju 88 Displayed in Moscow as a Wartime Trophy

June 16, 2025 - Reading time: 4 minutes

Wreckage of Ju 88 F6+AK displayed publicly in central Moscow after being shot down near Istra during a reconnaissance mission.

July 1941, Moscow. Crowds gather around a wrecked Junkers Ju 88 reconnaissance aircraft, displayed boldly in the heart of the Soviet capital — on Sverdlov Square, in front of the Bolshoi Theatre. Just days earlier, this very plane had been patrolling the skies west of Moscow. Now it served a very different purpose.

Shot down on July 25 near Istra by pilots from the 3rd Soviet Fighter Air Corps, the German plane was forced to crash-land in a forest clearing. The aircraft, marked F6+AK (serial 0285), belonged to the 2.(F)/122 long-range reconnaissance squadron. It was on a high-altitude surveillance mission over the Moscow–Kaluga sector.

Soviet authorities quickly seized the moment. Within a few days, the aircraft had been recovered, transported, and publicly erected in central Moscow as a symbol of early resistance. People came to look — not just at the broken machine, but to see with their own eyes that the enemy could be struck down.

The Ju 88, widely used by the Luftwaffe for bombing and reconnaissance, appeared almost alien in the heart of the capital — riddled with bullet holes, one engine missing, its undercarriage ruined.

The fate of the crew remains unknown. Lt. Wilhelm Stuckmann, Feldfebel Wilfred Anders, Gefreiter Bruno Sievert, and Gefreiter Werner Ludwig are listed as missing in action in Luftwaffe records.

But to the Muscovites walking past the twisted aircraft in July 1941, this wreck was more than debris — it was proof that the enemy could bleed, and that the Soviet skies were not his for the taking.

📷 Technical photo data:
📸 Photographer: Alexander Ustinov
🌐 Source: www.vif2ne.ru
📅 Date: July 1941