Junkers Ju 352

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Junkers Ju 352 Hercules
Drawing of the Ju 352
Type: Transport plane
Design country:

German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire

Manufacturer:

Junkers aircraft and engine plants

First flight:

August 18, 1943

Production time:

1943-1944

Number of pieces:

approx. 50 (depending on the source)

The Junkers Ju 352 Herkules was a three-engine transport aircraft produced by the German manufacturer Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke . Its first flight took place on August 18, 1943 at Fritzlar Air Base. This low-wing aircraft was the successor to the Ju 252 , which was not pursued due to the prevailing material shortage.

production

The aircraft was built at JFM in Dessau and at Fritzlar Air Base. The still existing sources indicate different numbers of items. JFM delivered 19 development aircraft from August 1943 to June 1944 and 26 production aircraft from June to August 1944. The monthly aircraft deliveries indicate 43 BAL inspections in the period from November 1943 to September 1944 and only refer to pre-series and series aircraft. A compilation from December 1944 lists 40 BAL inspections (including nine destroyed aircraft) up to November 30, 1944. This means that the production is 40 to 45 aircraft, the lower number being the more likely, since use can only be proven for 30 aircraft (see below under "Use").

The RLM paid Junkers a total of RM 9.1 million for the development and manufacture of the V1 to V5, RM 8.15 million for the V6 to V20 and RM 458,000 for the preliminary test aircraft V0 (conversion from Ju 252 W. No. 2520001) RM.

commitment

The Luftwaffe received a total of 28 Ju 352s in the period from May to September 1944. These went to the chief of medical services (5 Ju 352s) and the XIV. Fliegerkorps or the general of the transport pilots (21 Ju 352s). The remaining two were delivered to VersVerbOKL in May 1944 and KG 200 in July 1944.

First, the ErgTG was equipped with a total of 12 Ju 352s for training purposes in the period from May to July 1944. These aircraft were assigned to IV./TG 4 from July 1944 , which also received 13 new aircraft from August 1944 and the Ju 352 from the head of medical services. As a result, almost all Ju 352s were concentrated in IV./TG 4 from September 1944. By December 1944, only three planes were lost, one of them due to enemy action. In January parts of the IV./TG 4 were renamed the Großraumtransportgruppe. This flew until the end of the war, including in April 1945 to supply the enclosed Berlin. The group suffered on the night of 24/25. April 1945 four losses while supplying the 9th Army with supplies. These losses cannot be taken into account in the inventory report of the Großraumtransportgruppe on April 25, 1945, when they reported a inventory of 23 Ju 352s stationed in Tutow (Mecklenburg). Two planes left on the night of 25/26. April 1945, another lost on April 27, 1945 while supplying Berlin.

In addition to the Luftwaffe's 28 Ju 352s, the Fuhrer's Fliegerstaffel (FdF) took over the two W.-Nr. 100003 and 100010 on September 20, 1944. Of these, the 100003 KT + VC was lost on April 21, 1945 during an emergency landing in Börnersdorf (Saxony) on the flight to Salzburg, killing three crew members and four passengers.

At the end of the war, the RAF captured a total of twelve Ju 352s and one more in Denmark in Großenbrode (Schleswig-Holstein), where the large-capacity transport group had relocated. Nine of them were scrapped and four were used as AM8 (W. No. 100010), AM18 (W. No. 100015), AM 109 and AM110 for their own purposes until 1946.

As armament, two MG 151/20 were arranged in a rotating turret on the back of the fuselage.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
length 24.20 m
Wingspan 34.20 m
Empty mass 12.5 t
Max. Takeoff mass 19.6 t
Top speed 370 km / h
Service ceiling 6000 m
Range 1700 km
Engines three 9-cylinder radial engines Bramo 323B-2 each with 1,000 HP (approx. 740 kW), three-blade propeller

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b JFM sales documents from the National Archives , Washington
  2. ^ BAL approvals from the Federal Archives-Military Archives Freiburg and the National Archives, Washington
  3. ^ Federal Archives / Military Archives Freiburg, holdings RL3
  4. ^ Federal Archives / Military Archives Freiburg, holdings RL3: Aircraft take-over from August 1943 to March 1945; Inventory RL2III: aircraft inventory and movement reports
  5. ^ Günther Ott: Company Reich Chancellery , in: Jet & Prop 4/95, pp. 43–58
  6. ↑ Werner Bittner: Lufthansa at War - the years 1939–1945 , Emmen 2013, p. 163
  7. ^ Günther Ott: Enterprise Reich Chancellery , in: Jet & Prop 3/95, pp. 59–62
  8. ↑ Air Britain: Aeromilitaria, 3/1981, p. 80; Phil Butler: War Prizes , 1998