Ju 88. The most underrated aircraft of WW II. Did it all. Dive bomber, bomber, torpedo bomber, recon, night fighter.
You would think the different performance requirements would make this almost impossible. Especially the torpedo bomber/fighter combination.
I agree. Don't forget that it also served as essentially a cruise missile, well flying bomb at the very least. They strapped a Fw190 on top of an explosive laden 88 and would drop them on targets in the last desperate days of the war. These attacks were called Mistel attacks. Here's an account by Leutnant Eckard Dittmann of II./KG200 on a Mistel attack against a bridge over the Oder at Kustrin.
Suddenly, a river bend shimmers through the haze - the Oder! I had memorized the map of this area and recognized at once that I was a few miles too far south. Right - another 270 turn; that should lead me to the railway line and the bridges at the end of it! The haze and closed in and all ground detail disappeared once more. Mistel was now way below 1,000m and must have been clearly visible to the Ivans who were blazing away at me like mad.The rest happened very quickly. The ground features appeared like shadows from out of the haze and then there was a darker line - the railway. I had flown past it. Then in the next moment I caught sight of a bridge, then several. The target! I banked steeply to starboard, switched on the steering controls, uncaged the gyro, made a quick correction - there was no time for a really 'clean job' - then I had to release the Ju 88.
There was a band and I felt a blow from beneath me. My Fw 190 suddenly went into a roll to port and I thought they had got me. But the aircraft simply needed retrimming and I soon had her under control again. With the haze and all the tracer, for a while I could not tell which way was up and which was down. I turned towards the lighter, redder part of the sky - that must have been the low-lying sun. The flak followed me all the way.
Price, Alfred. The Last Year of the Luftwaaffe: May 1944 to May 1945. p. 167, 169.