Junkers Ju.52/3m, part six

 

The Luftwaffe began to decrease its use of the Junkers Ju.52/3m from 1943 onwards, as interest on the type waned and the Reich Air Ministry started to show interest on the Junkers Ju.352 (a larger transport aircraft, somewhat resembling the Ju.52/3m) as the official successor. Actions were taken to switch Ju.52/3m's production lines into the Ju.352, but the end of the conflict in Europe in May 1945 made the effort worthless and the Ju.352 was left unfinished. Therefore the German production of the Ju.52 was terminated in late 1944 with 3.234 aircraft of various models having being built during wartime alone.

The Junkers Ju.52/3m was also employed thoroughly in the North African theatre of war. In fact, during this campaign the Ju.52 constituted the main reinforcement and supply aircraft for the Germans there. From February 1941, when the first resupplying flights took place, many Ju.52/3m began to airlift troops and supplies to the German Afrika Korps stationed in Libya. One Gruppe (group - squadron) of KgzbV1 flew these missions from Comiso, in Sicily, across the Mediterranean Sea, sometimes, flying up to three missions per day, with crews spending up to 12 hours in the air. During the period from February 1941 until November 1942, the transports flew up to 1.000 troops and 27.6 tons of supplies to North Africa each day. From November 1942, those flights were increased to 20-50 per day to Tunisia from Sicily, reaching up to 150 landings a day in early April 1943 as the Axis situation in Africa became more desperate and the Heeresgruppe Afrika/Gruppo d'Armate Africa (Army Group Africa) was set for evacuation to Italy. It was in this context that the Allied launched a counter-air operation over a two-month period, codenamed Operation Flax, on 5th April 1943, which lead to the destruction of 11 Ju.52/3m in the air near Cap Bon, Tunisia, and many more during aerial raids on Sicilian airfields, leaving only 29 serviceable in the North African continent. That was the starting point of two catastrophic weeks where more than 140 Ju.52/3m were lost in aerial interceptions, mainly because their slow speed made them very vulnerable to Allied fighters. On 18th April 1943, the "Palm Sunday Massacre" took place on which more than 24 Ju.52 were shot down, and another 35 staggered back to Sicily and crash-landed.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_52

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

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flax