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by Dr. Marshall Michel
86th Airlift Wing Historian
***image2***One of the most famous yet underappreciated of all World War II aircraft is the German Junkers Ju-52/3m, which could correctly be called the “Godfather” of tactical and strategic airlift. But when one looks at the Ju-52/3m, this seems to be quite a stretch. Its three engines, its fixed landing gear, huge flaps and corrugated aluminum fuselage — which gave it the appearance of a flying shed roof — almost seems intended to generate amusement rather than appreciation. The Ju-52 was designed and built as a single engine airliner in the early 1930s, a development of the very successful Junkers G 24 that was the mainstay of the German airline Lufthansa and other European airlines. While the single engine Ju-52 was successful, in 1932 the Junkers design team developed an even better three engine version, the Ju-52/3m (3-motoren), which was delivered to airlines all over Europe, South America and the Middle East. At about this time, the resurgent German military air force, the Luftwaffe, began to look for aircraft to build its inventory, and the Ju-52/3m was a perfect candidate. Initially a bomber version was developed by the simple expedient of adding bomb racks under the fuselage for six small bombs and two manual defensive gun positions, but as more modern pure bombers were developed it became clear that primary role of the Ju-52/3m would be as a transport aircraft.
The military Ju-52/3m played a major role in the beginning of the in the Spanish Civil War when Ju-52/3ms carried the bulk of Fascist General Francisco Franco’s army from Morocco to Spain, thus enabling the Spanish Civil War, which some say eventually led to World War II. When World War II started, the Ju-52/3m was ubiquitous as the workhorse of the first airborne assaults in history, when German paratrooper and glider attacks surprised and overwhelmed Norway and later Belgium and Holland. The Ju-52/3m proved to be not only extremely reliable but could operate easily out of small, unprepared fields and was exceptionally good at a variety of missions, notably as a glider tug. Wherever the German Army went, the Ju-52/3ms were close behind providing airborne resupply and medical evacuation, exploits which earned it the sobriquet “Tante (Auntie) Ju” from the grateful ground forces.
However, the Ju-52/3m was slow and vulnerable to both fighters and anti-aircraft fire, and as the war progressed this took its toll. The zenith and nadir were in Russia, when its reliability in the incredible cold and ability to operate with minimum maintenance out of small mud or ice strips to resupply the German armies burnished its reputation. But, at the same time the fleet suffered huge losses and ultimately failed to resupply German forces at Stalingrad, USSR − a task, that given the number of Ju-52/3ms available, was impossible. It is interesting to compare the Ju-52/3m with the Allies’ main airlifter, the Douglas C-47. The C-47 with its retractable landing gear was faster by 50 miles an hour, had twice the range and could carry more paratroopers (27 v.18), but the Ju-52/3m could carry 10,000 lbs of cargo as opposed to 6,000 lbs by the C-47. The Ju-52/3m also had a much better capability to operate out of short and/or unprepared fields. Reliability and serviceability are impossible to compare, but in the event, they were both “Hall of Fame” airlifters that were much appreciated by their users.
(For questions and comments, e-mail marshall.michel@ramstein.af.mil)
