Stuka Ju 87 Wreck Diving: Croatia's Rare Dive Bomber

Most wreck dives are ships. This one is a pike-shaped dive bomber on sand, south of Žirje in the Šibenik archipelago, in water shallow enough that Advanced divers can actually read the airframe.

The aircraft is a Junkers Ju 87 R-2, the long-range Stuka. Divers call her the pike. She flew in Italian colours, almost certainly in April 1941, and she is one of very few Stukas you can dive anywhere. The fuselage, wings, and tail are still together. The engine tore off on impact and now lies nearby.

Depth is about 28 metres. That is an AOW dive, not an Open Water sightseeing stop. It is also a protected Croatian cultural asset. You do not drop in from a private boat. You go with a licensed concession holder.

If you are already looking at Adriatic wrecks, she sits next to deeper hulls like Francesca da Rimini and the region's famous passenger wreck, Baron Gautsch. This one is smaller, shallower, and stranger.

---

Image by Martin Str

The Story of the Žirje Stuka

The Ju 87 was Germany's two-seat dive bomber, famous for the cranked wing and the howl of a diving attack. Italy bought them too. The Regia Aeronautica called the type Picchiatello. The R-2 variant carried extra fuel in drop tanks so it could reach further across the Mediterranean.

In April 1941, during the invasion of Yugoslavia, Italian Stukas of the 97th dive-bomber group operated from the Adriatic side of the war. The 239th Squadron was in that fight. On or around 12 April 1941, Ju 87s attacked Yugoslav naval targets near Šibenik — torpedo boats south of Žirje, and other aircraft against shipping in the port.

Yugoslav anti-aircraft fire hit more than one aircraft. The Žirje wreck is the one that ditched. The fixed undercarriage of the R-2 did not make a gentle belly landing easy. The usual reconstruction is that the gear caught the surface, the aircraft flipped, and the engine ripped away.

The canopy was found open. No human remains were reported on the wreck when she was documented. Stories about the crew still disagree: some local research names the airmen and concludes they did not get out in time; other write-ups assume they escaped because the cockpit was open. Dive the aeroplane. Do not invent a tidy ending for the men.

The wreck was found in September 2014 during a spearfishing competition, after 73 years on the sand. Croatia listed her as a protected cultural asset the same year. Collectible pieces — including the rear MG 15 and a control column — were removed for conservation. Plans to raise the whole aircraft were dropped. She stays on the bottom, which is why you can still dive a Stuka.

---

Depth and Dive Profile

• Depth: about 28 metres on sand and seagrass
• Profile: compact aircraft, readable in a single no-stop dive
• Ascent: blue or along the shot, with a standard safety stop

PADI Open Water is 18 metres. You will see a dark shape and not the Stuka. PADI Advanced Open Water is 30 metres. That matches this site. You do not need a Deep specialty to be legal here, though Deep training is never wasted on a 28-metre wreck that sits in open water.

Bottom time is kinder than a 40-metre cargo. It is still a 28-metre dive. Gas, narcosis, and no-stop time are all in play. Nitrox is a bonus, not a requirement.

Because the airframe is small, people overstay "just circling one more time." Plan a first pass for shape and a second pass for details, then leave. The fish will not mind. Your computer might.

For how 18, 30, and 40 metres sit on the PADI ladder, see how deep you can scuba dive.

---

Accessibility and the Concession Rule

This is a boat dive from the Šibenik / Murter / Tisno area. Žirje sits in the archipelago; the Stuka is on the south side of the island. Transit is a proper run, not a five-minute hop from a city harbour.

The wreck is not a free site. Croatia protects underwater cultural property and issues diving concessions to a limited number of operators. Only those licensed centres may take guests to the Stuka. A skipper with a GPS and a good reputation is not enough if they do not hold the permit.

Book the dive as a named product. Ask, before you travel, whether the centre's concession for this wreck is current. Permits are periodic. They expire. Do not arrive in August and discover the boat you hired cannot legally splash you here.

Independent diving, spearfishing, and souvenir hunting are how protected wrecks get closed. The Stuka was shut to divers at first while specialists examined her. Access now is a privilege sitting on that decision.

---

Skills, Certification and Who Can Dive It

Minimum card that makes sense: PADI Advanced Open Water or equivalent. French N2, CMAS 2-star, and similar 30–40 metre recreational cards are the same conversation.

You need:

• Buoyancy good enough to hover over an intact wing without finning silt or seagrass
• Comfort in mild current and on a shot line
• Discipline not to kneel on a protected aeroplane
• No urge to "just look in" the cockpit as if it were a swim-through

This is wreck diving on an aircraft, which means entanglement (fishing line, structure) and a fragile site. It does not mean penetration. There is nothing to penetrate that a recreational diver should enter. The cockpit is a look, not a room.

If your buoyancy is still the kind that needs a reef to rest on, do not book the Stuka yet. You will damage a rare airframe and have a worse dive than a simple wall.

A wreck specialty is useful background. It is not a licence to touch. Read wreck diving certification for what that course actually covers.

---

What You Will See

The gift of this site is completeness. Many aircraft wrecks are an engine, a wing, and a rumour. The Žirje Stuka still has fuselage, both wings, and the tail connected. The cranked inverted-gull wing that made the type famous is there to be read.

The engine is separate, now placed near the airframe after being recovered from a nearby bay and returned. You dive a plane and its powerplant, not a mystery gap at the nose.

Look for:

• The silhouette from 10 metres above — often visible on the way down
• Open cockpit area (canopy gone; some instruments removed for the museum)
• Wings and tail still in aircraft order
• Undercarriage geometry that explains the ditching
• Growth and fish that use the wreck as a tiny reef
• Posidonia around the sand, which you must not crop with fins

It is a small site. That is the point. You can understand the whole machine in one dive in a way you will never understand a 120-metre freighter.

Photographers should think stills, not a ten-minute cinema orbit that sandblasts the seagrass. Wide-angle close to the wing, then back off for the full pike shape. No kneeling. No grabbing the gun mounts. No "just moving" a loose piece for the shot.

This is also a war site. Even without a declared grave on the sand, it is an aircraft that went down in combat. Look. Do not collect.

---

How to Dive the Stuka

The centre will brief a model or a slate. Remember nose, tail, and where the engine sits relative to the fuselage. The wreck is compact; losing orientation still happens when six divers arrive at once.

Descend the shot. Do not bomb the site from mid-water. On the bottom, stay in the water column. Hover. Circle. Let the group spread so everyone gets a clear silhouette.

A clean plan: one slow lap for shape, one slower lap for the cockpit and wing joints, a look at the engine, then up. If vis is good you will be tempted to stay. Leave while the picture is still good.

Do not enter the cockpit. Do not poke into openings. Do not "stabilize" on a control surface. Aircraft aluminium and old fabric points are not grab handles.

Ascent with the group, safety stop, boat. Two dives on the Stuka in one day are rarely necessary. If you have time, spend the second dive of the day on a different site rather than grinding the same 28 metres.

---

Logistics: Šibenik Archipelago Without a Fake Shop List

Base in Šibenik, Murter, Tisno, or another town that already runs concession wrecks. Žirje is offshore. You need a boat operator who holds the paper for this specific site.

Season is the Croatian season: late spring through early autumn, with summer the warmest. The Adriatic can be clear and calm. It can also blow. Wreck days get cancelled. Build slack into the week.

Do not pick a centre from a "best of" paragraph on a travel blog. Pick one that can show they are allowed on the Stuka, that briefs no-touch, and that treats the concession as a conservation tool rather than a marketing badge.

Combine the Stuka with other licensed wrecks in the same archipelago. Francesca da Rimini is the deep, serious cargo with mines still on site. Baron Gautsch is the passenger-ship name people already know. Together they are a Croatia wreck week. The Stuka is the rare aircraft in the middle of that week. Add all three to any serious list of wreck diving in Europe.

Bring AOW (or equivalent), insurance, and the humility to be told no if the permit or the sea state is wrong.

---

Safety and Protection

Croatia's rule is simple: licensed operator, no souvenirs, no unauthorised boats. The Ministry of Culture treats this airframe as heritage. So should you.

Fishing gear can still appear. Watch for line. The usual habits apply: buddy, gas, computer, SMB if the boat wants one.

If you feel the urge to "tidy" the site or move a fragment, that urge is how wrecks lose their last original pieces. The machine gun is already in a museum so the rest of us can dive a plane that still looks like a plane.

---

Final Thoughts

The Žirje Stuka is a rare thing: a diveable Ju 87 with wings and tail still attached, in 28 metres of Adriatic, on a concession that exists because the state decided she was worth protecting.

Dive her with Advanced certification, a licensed boat, and buoyancy you would trust over a glass table. Do not go in, do not take, and do not treat a pike-shaped bomber as a playground. Then go deeper on Francesca if you have the training, or stay in this depth band and enjoy the fact that you have seen a Stuka the way almost nobody on land ever will.