Messerschmitt Me 323 "Gigant", Arado 232 "Millipede" And Advanced German WW2 Transport Aircraft
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Published 2023-01-19
Overall, the transport planes of Germany played a crucial role in the war effort but the heavy losses sustained by these aircraft greatly hindered their effectiveness. Despite their advanced designs, many of these planes proved to be no match for the superior technology and tactics of the Allied forces.
During World War II, Germany utilized a variety of transport planes to move troops and supplies across Europe. However, many of these planes were lost during the war due to intense combat and strategic bombing campaigns by Allied forces.
One of the most widely used transport planes by Germany during the war was the Junkers Ju 52. This aircraft was known for its versatility and was used for a variety of roles including transport, reconnaissance, and even as a bomber. However, many Ju 52s were lost during the war due to heavy anti-aircraft fire and attacks by fighter planes.
Another transport plane used by Germany during the war was the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor. This aircraft was primarily used as a long-range transport and was also used for reconnaissance and anti-shipping operations. However, many Fw 200s were lost to Allied fighters and naval vessels.
The German military also utilized several other transport planes during the war such as the Heinkel He 111 and the Dornier Do 17, but these aircraft also suffered heavy losses.
The Arado Ar 232 Tausendfüßler "Millipede", sometimes also called Tatzelwurm, was a cargo aircraft, designed and built in small numbers by the German firm Arado Flugzeugwerke during World War II. The design introduced, or brought together, almost all of the features now considered to be standard in modern cargo transport aircraft designs, including a box-like fuselage slung beneath a high wing; a rear loading ramp (that had first appeared on the December 1939-flown Junkers Ju 90 V5 fifth prototype four-engined transport via its Trapoklappe); a high-mounted twin tail for easy access to the hold; and various features for operating from rough fields. Although the Luftwaffe was interested in replacing or supplementing its fleet of outdated Junkers Ju 52/3m transports, it had an abundance of types in production at the time, and did not purchase large numbers of the Ar 232.
The Me 323 was the result of a 1940 German requirement for a large assault glider in preparation for Operation Sea Lion, the projected invasion of Great Britain. The DFS 230 light glider had already proven its worth in the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael in Belgium (the first ever assault by gliderborne troops), and would later be used successfully in the invasion of Crete in 1941.
However, in order to mount an invasion across the English Channel, the Germans would need to be able to airlift vehicles and other heavy equipment as part of an initial assault wave. Although Operation Sea Lion was cancelled, the requirement for a heavy air transport capability still existed, with the focus shifting to the forthcoming Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
On 18 October 1940, Junkers and Messerschmitt were given just 14 days to submit a proposal for a large transport glider. The emphasis was still very much on the assault role; the ambitious requirement was to be able to carry either an 88 mm gun and its half-track tractor, or a Panzer IV medium tank. The Junkers Ju 322 Mammut reached prototype form, but was eventually scrapped due to difficulties in procuring the necessary high-grade timber for its all-wood construction, and as was discovered during the Mammut's only test flight, an unacceptably high degree of instability inherent in the design.
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All Comments (21)
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Click the link to watch more aircraft, heroes and their stories, missions: youtube.com/@Dronescapes
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I am also a great friend of historic aircraft, in 2015 I had the opportunity to fly with a Ju52, it was the former "Ironie Annie", now the "Tempelhof"of the German Lufthansa. Now this aircraft is unfortunately out of service. My father was rescued by a Ju52 out of the Stalingrad pocket under heavy flak fire together with other wounded soldiers end of 1942. Thats part of our history, great video. Greetings from Austria.
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Most of the planes i have never seen before. Thanks too the uploader !
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Thank you all for this engaging look at some of the interesting workhorses of aviation.
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Eric Brown is the man. When he's in a documentary you know it's gonna be good 👍🏻
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Great video! History seems to focus on the German fighters and bombers, but almost never on the heavy lift aircraft.
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Fascinating video. I had never heard of the BV 238. Great stuff!
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this documentary was well made and well executed… There is a lot of things here that a lot of us have never seen before and they were really interesting. Good work
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Absolutely brilliant video....totally captivating. Thank you DroneScapes.
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This was an excellent survey of Luftwaffe transport types - thank you! Regarding losses, I don't think there was a transport of substantial size in any air force which could defend itself from fighter attack. The October 1943 Schweinfurt-Regensburg raids proved that even the legendary B-17 'Flying Fortress' bristling with guns was subject to unsustainable losses from defending fighters without a long range fighter escort. One can only imagine how vulnerable Me-232 or BV-222 transports would have been without fighter protection. As always this shows how ingenious the German aeronautical engineers were. The Ju-52 which first flew in 1930 was a direct descendant from the Junkers J-3 of 1915 - which I believe was the first metal aircraft to see service. 'Tante-Ju' was the end of the line of the corrugated duralumin skin construction paradigm Hugo Junkers had pioneered in his invention of the metal aeroplane. It was very strong and needed less (or no) longerons than the later, smooth monocoque construction seen in the Douglas DC-3/C-47, but it was clearly very 'dirty' aerodynamically. Consequently the Ju-52, while slow and vulnerable, was also pretty tough and reliable. Remember too that the Ju-90 was developed from the Ju-89 that Gen. Walter Wever had called for in the mid 1930s as a long range strategic bomber that could deliver a significant bomb load over the Urals. It and the Do-19 were both cancelled under Goering's direction in order to produce more twin engine bombers, leaving Germany without a strategic bomber, which didn't seem terribly important to the top leadership as they saw the Luftwaffe more in tactical terms anyway (which also led to the He-177 fiasco). When the Battle of the Atlantic broke out, the Focke-Wulf 200 airliner hurriedly adapted into a long range convoy raider, a task for which it had not been designed and after some initial success had to be withdrawn. One can only wonder how the Ju-90 and Focke-Wulf 200 would have fared in long range passenger service had the war not happened. A great video, thanks. The one respectful suggestion I would make is to try and maintain the original film aspect ration when dealing with historic footage - some of these shots look laterally stretched from 1:1.37 to 1:1.78. This is a common problem with archival footage on YT.
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In 1964 I built, from my own plans, a BV-238 & Me-323, both powered by six Cox .020 glow plug engines. Span was 6 feet for the Me-323 and 6 feet, 6 inches for the Bv-238. My largest project was an 9 foot length flying (floating?) model of the R-101, the UK airship that crashed in France on October 5, 1930. Those models were somewhat large for their day.
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Excellent doc, very well done. And with E. Brown on top of that ! Thanks a lot. PS: never heard of the Ar 232 before, you got me interested
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Thank you! There are quite a few aircraft in this video that I've never heard of before.
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What an excellent video, thank you, 👍👊✌️🌍.
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Good video that reviews aircraft that don't get much coverage elsewhere. i'm tired of YT videos about how great the me109, etc. were. Tri motor heavy bombers, 6 engine gliders, good stuff!
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Excellent footage..
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Great footage 👍
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Currently, the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, in Winnipeg, houses the only extant example of a single-engine Junkers Ju-52 (Registration CF-ARM). The first six "Iron Annies" were built with a single BMW engine. In 1931, after acquiring one of these early single-engine Ju-52s, Canadian Airways Ltd. swapped this out with an 850-hp Rolls-Royce Buzzard. This aircraft came to be known in Canada as "The Flying Boxcar". The aircraft at the RAMWC is a replica, built in 1985, though Transport Canada certified it as airworthy, and it did make one flight.
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Lovely hearing from “Winkle” Brown 👍 what an incredible log book he must have had ,! Grea to see so many aircraft I had never seen before. Splendid video 🙏👍
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Wow....fantastic presentation...could listen to him for hours.
