#me323

[dronescapesvideos]

Messerschmitt Me 323 gigant, november 1943

VIDEO ➤➤ https://youtu.be/fCgmIL0w2Qs

[deutschland-im-krieg]

Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant (Giant) Mücke, six engined transport plane, probably Eastern Front, date unknown. For more, see my Facebook group - Eagles Of The Reich

[madkot]

Me323 Gigant

[theworldatwar]

Due to its size a German Me 323 E-1 C8+RP is forced to land in a farmers field - Romania, May 1943

[madkot]

[bmachine-blog1]

The me-323 in flight

[historyithaview]

A Gigant Glider somewhere on the eastern front. 

[rlimarjbr]

Um #total de 198 #unidades dessa #aeronave foi #produzida antes de sua #fabricação ser #encerrada em abril de 1944. #Me 323 - O #maior #avião de #transporte da #Segunda #Guerra #Mundial #ME323 #SegundaGuerra #WWII #WW2 #Ano1944 #Anos40 #AbrilDe1944 #198Unidades #AirPlane #Plane ... https://www.instagram.com/p/B9PThzLHWUG/?igshid=1xsliazl92lh3

[nebris]

"Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant" Painting by Jaroslaw Wrobel. The largest air transport aircraft of the war, Germany's Me323 'Gigant' ('Giant') was enormous. Essentially a converted freight glider with six captured French Gnome engines grafted onto it, the Me 323, had a 180-foot wingspan, a crew of five and could carry up to 130 soldiers or some 23,000 lbs of cargo, which could consist of virtually anything, including vehicles, loaded by driving directly into the nose of the aircraft, which opened like a gate.  

 It went into service in 1943 ferrying troops and cargo to Tunisia from Italy as the Allies had destroyed much of the Axis shipping capacity by sea by then.   Unfortunately for the Gigant, it made a Gigant target as well.  Slow and ungainly - with a top speed of 177 mph at best --- the Me 323 was easy meat for any allied fighter plane, as shown here -- presumably one of the runs to Tunisia, several of which ended very badly indeed for the Gigants involved.  (On at least one occasion -- not shown here -- a Me323 was intercepted and brought down by a B26 Marauder bomber)   Nevertheless, they were useful and saw extensive service until losses -- and only some 210 or so were built -- and attrition saw them withdrawn only a year later.

[dronescapesvideos]

The Messerschmitt Me 323 "Gigant", the Arado 232 "Millipede" and other advanced German WW2 Transport Aircraft [VIDEO]

[davidcashuk]

The Me323 Gigant. A giant transport plane that first flew in 1942 for the Luftwaffe (also had a glider variant Me321). The aircraft was able to carry large amounts of cargo but was vulnerable. It's top speed was only 136mph fully loaded, and this is 50mph slower than the Ju52 trimotor. The Gigant only carried 5 x 13mm machine guns as defence. These aircraft were incredibly handy but had to be heavily protected. They were easy pickings for anti-aircraft crews let alone enemy fighter pilots.

[wolf1933mar]

USN Recognition Training_M 1301 German Power Glider Transport ME323 Gigant_05111943

[madkot]

[bmachine-blog1]

Interesting version of Me-323 with two-bladed screws.

[superkimster]

via Twitter https://twitter.com/imola13640

[wickenbymuseum]

3 March 1945 - 5 mining in the Kattegat, part of a force if 31 Lancasters. Crew briefing 1500 hrs, take-off commenced at 1657 hrs. Conditions allowed accurate placement of mines. All returned safely to base. While out on a cross country training exercise, two aircraft became victims of "Operation Gisela" the last operation by German intruders over Britain. PB476 PH-Y was seen to crash in flames at Alford, F/O NA Andsell, F/O A Hunter, Sgt RO Parry, F/O HG Heath, Sgt RFD Shafer, Sgt AN Walker & Sgt W Mellor were all killed. ME323 PH-P crashed near to RAF Blyton, the attack was witnessed by the wife of the Station Commander and Blyton crash crew were sent to the crash site. P/O AG Thomas, F/Sgt RL Horstmann, F/Sgt GE Davis, F/Sgt WN Pridmore, F/Sgt T McCaffray, F/Sgt A Cryer & F/Sgt AH Weston were all killed. A total of 33 British and 34 German aircraft were damaged or destroyed during the operation.