The two wing-mounted radial engines of the Ju.52/3m had half-chord cowlings and in planform view (from above or below), they seemed to be splayed outwards, being mounted at an almost perpendicular angle to the tapered wing's sweptback leading edge, in a similar way other airplane of the time had like the Mitsubishi G3M or the Short Sunderland. In the case of the Ju.52 this was to make straight flight easier, in the case one of the engines failed.
The three engines had NACA cowling or Townend ring to reduce drag from the engine cylinders, however, a mixture of both was the most common set-up, with deeper-chord NACA cowlings on the wing engines and a narrow Townend ring on the central engine as a NACA cowling was harder to fit there because of the widening fuselage behind the engine.
Production models flown by Lufthansa before World War 2 as well as those flown by Luftwaffe during the war, used an air-start system to turn over to their trio of engines, using a common compressed air supply that operated wheel's brakes too.
Used in a military role, the Ju.52 could carry up to 18 fully-equipped soldiers, or 12 stretchers when used as an air ambulance. Transported materials was loaded and unloaded via a side door which also contained a ramp. Air dropped supplies were jettisoned through two double chutes. Supply containers were dropped by parachute through the bomb-bay doors and paratroopers jumped using the side doors. Small vehicles like a Sdkfz.2 Kettenkrafträder and supply canisters for parachute drops were secured under the fuselage at the bomb bay exits and could be dropped with four parachutes. A tow coupling was built into the tail-skid for towing freight gliders, of which, could tow up to two DFS.230.
Another major military campaign the Ju.52 was involved was the Operation Fall Gelb (Plan Yellow), the German invasion of Western Europe, on 10th May 1940. On that day, many transports, some of them towing the DFS.230 glider, successfully performed an airborne assault on the Belgian fortress of Eben Emael, while others were employed in the first massive airborne operation of history, the Battle for The Hague. During this battle, around 500 Ju.52 took part. They acted not only deploying paratroopers, but also landing straight into enemy territory, like it happened at Ypenburg airport and on public highways around The Hague. It was during this battle that Dutch anti-aircraft defenses took their serious toll on the Ju.52 shooting down a total of 125 and damaging 47 of them.
Although Fall Gelb was a success, in the entire operation almost half of the Ju.52/3m assigned to the invasion were lost forcing the Luftwaffe to curtail aerial transport operations, though the type kept on supplying forward ground troops. Due to those heavy losses, the Luftwaffe was forced to replace them with new Ju.52s or taking them from Lufthansa.
During August 1940 several Ju.52 were stationed in the Lyon, Lille and Arras areas of France, where they were held at an state of readiness for Operation Sealion, the German invasion of England, that never took place, because Germany couldn't secure aerial supremacy over the Royal Air Force.
After 1940 the Ju.52/3m MS (a mine sweeping variant) was the only Ju.52 that saw service in the Western Front. The first MS missions were flown in September 1940 off the coast of Holland and later, as war kept going on, they were also deployed on airfields along the Atlantic Ocean coast. All of them belonged to the Minensuchgruppe 1, which had also detachments in other theatres of the war and was created in November 1943 and was disbanded in May 1945, almost at the end of the war.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_52
2. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 186 - Junkers Ju-52 in Action
3. Osprey - Combat Aircraft 120 - Ju 52/3m Bomber and Transport units 1936-1941
4. https://www.ww2.dk/air/seefl/msgr1.html
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