As World War 2 kept going on, the Junkers Ju.52/3m saw itself involved in most operations executed by the German Army in the Eastern Front. This way, the Ju.52/3m took part in the evacuation of the 17th Army from the Kuban area, located north of the Caucasus region in the spring 1943. From 19th April 1943 Ju.52/3m-s aided in suppressing the Jewish revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto, as they dropped leaflets and bombs against the resistants. This was effectively, the last time the Ju.52/3m was used as a bomber, albeit in a much smaller scale.
The final large-scale operation of World War 2 the Ju.52/3m was involved in was the attempt to resupply the besieged German troops at the city of Breslau (nowadays Wroclaw, in Poland). Those aircraft began their missions to Breslau in mid-February 1945 and the last three Ju.52/3m landed in the city on 7th April 1945. Most of the 165 Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed during the relief attempt were Ju.52/3m. After that, sporadic flights were made to Berlin while it was surrounded by the Soviet Army. In fact, the last supply mission into the German capital took place on 29th April 1945 by Ju.52/3m of the Transportgeschwader 3 (TG.3), just the day before Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. The airplanes dropped supplies over the Tiergarten near the Reichskanzlei (Reich Chancellery).
Luftwaffe's main transport units, Transportgeschwader 1, 2 and 3 plus Transportgruppe 20 (an unit formed in 1943 in Norway from elements of KGrzbV 108) had in total 190 Ju.52/3m on strength on 25th April 1945. Those machines were taken over by various countries after V-E Day on 8th May 1945. Very few of the original 3.400 Ju.52/3m survived the conflict.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_52
2. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 186 - Junkers Ju-52 in Action
No comments:
Post a Comment