Junkers Ju.52/3m in Norwegian and Polish service

 

The Junkers Ju.52/3m is a German cargo plane which was manufactured by the thousands and saw service worldwide, in every continent. Among its many users, we're covering the following ones in this post:

• Norway: The Norwegian airline Det Norske Luftfartselskap (DNL - Norwegian national airline, forerunner of Norwegian Air Lines) acquired 6 float-equipped Junkers Ju.52/3m (according to some sources they were just four) in 1935. In June 1936 the first Ju.52/3m (which crashed shortly after making its first maiden voyage, on 16th June and had to be replaced by a new one two weeks later) was delivered to serve in a seasonal summer route between Bergen and Tromso with flights three times per week with stopovers at Alesund, Molde, Kristiansund, Trondheim, Bronnoysund, Sandnessjoen, Bodo, Narvik and Harstad. 
  In 1937 DNL moved the departure point to Gressholmen seaplane port, in Oslo, the Norwegian capital. 
  They kept on serving with DNL until the outbreak of the war when the Marinens Flyvevesen (Norwegian for Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service) took one into service in January 1940 (though some sources claim it was in December 1939) and fitted with a ventral defensive machine gun gondola, plus another one in a dorsal position. It served until 9th April. 
  When Norway was occupied, the Luftwaffe took over every aircraft from DNL. However, after the war, one that was originally registered as LN-DAH was taken back and served until 1956.
  Two ex-Luftwaffe Ju.52/3mg7es were taken over on VE-Day (8th May 1945) and, together with LN-DAH, they were incorporated into DNL's fleet. One Ju.52/3m registered as LN-LAB, crashed in May 1946 at Snaroya, close to Oslo. In August that year some Ju.52 were taken by the Kongelige Norske Luftforsvaret (KNL - Royal Norwegian Air Force) and served until September 1950 when they were sold to Portugal.
• Poland: On 16th November 1936, LOT (Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A.) received a single Ju.52/3m powered by Bristol Pegasus engines in exchange for nine Junkers F-13s. This Ju.52/3m was registered as SP-AKX and, from early 1937 onwards, it flew regular flights from Warsaw to Berlin, Rome and Salonique, in Greece. As this machine was powered by Pegasus engines, which were heavier than the original BMW's ones, an extra water tank was installed at the rear of the aircraft to get the right centre of gravity when in flight. 
  This machine was widely used, recording a total of 600 flight hours in 1937 and 843 hours in 1938 suffering no accidents or setbacks whatsoever. At the outbreak of World War 2, it was flown from Zabczyce, close to the city of Pinsk, in Polesie, to the Romanian capital, Bucharest on 12th September 1939 where it was planned to be sold to Turkey but, eventually, it was fictionally sold to Imperial Airways and received the registration G-AGAE.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Junkers_Ju_52_operators

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOT_Polish_Airlines

3. https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Det_Norske_Luftfartselskap (translated)

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Air_Lines

5. https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snarø-ulykken (translated)

6. https://www.polrail.com/Aerolot/history/ju52inlot.html

7. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 186 - Junkers Ju-52 in Action