Me-323 massacre

I was reading in one of my many aircraft books that on April 23 1943 16 Me-323 of Transportgeschwader 5 , fully laden with supplies and fuel for the Afrika Korps , were caught off cape Bon, Tunisia by too squadrons of RAF Spitfires and four squadrons of South African Air Force Kittyhawks. 14 Me-323's were shot down with 240 tons of fuel and of the 140 aircrew of TG5, only 19 survived.......


Boy, that must have been a field-day.......I bet Rommel was really mad..but, I dont get the fact that there was no aircover for the Me-323....The germans should've know that it was slow and could be picked off easily. DOes anyone have any photos of this incident

 

Thanks for posting this B-17. I must admit that it is the first time I hear about this event. It must have been an absolute massacre. Gigants with fuel loads, I'm surprised there was no escort. I suppose the survivors balied out before the inevitable explosions , all the others must not have had any chance. It must have been like shooting zeppelins. For the time being I cannot confirm nor infirm these huge figures, but you arosed my interest and I will google a bit about the matter.

 

I'm surprised 2 escaped, considering 6 fighter squadrons involved!

We used to have a guy here whatiffing about Me 323 ferrying Pz IVs to Afrika. He should have read this. Might have become sober.

 

I found this excerpt from the book,
Messerschmitt Me 321/323: The Luftwaffe's "Giants" in World War II. by Hans Dabrowski

The enemy fighters estimated the size of the Me 323 formation at 20 aircraft instead of the actual 14. Once attacked, the Me 323s took evasive action and the wedge-shaped formation disintegrated. The huge, cumbersome transports had little chance of even reaching the African coast. Usually able to sustain a great deal of battle damage, on this day the Giganten were carrying volatile cargoes and most caught fire or exploded after a few hits. Though they put up stiff resistance, shooting down five to seven enemy fighters, the Me 323s were shot down one after another until the last Gigant crashed into the sea in flames. The escort fighters from Tunisia were still with the Ju 52s and were too far away to intervene. In any event, it is likely that they could have done little to alter the outcome of this uneven battle.

 

Well I'm afraid I didn't find much more on Google about this massacre but I just saw Bigfun was luckier.

 

Yea......

 

Me-323 Motorized Gigant read the text, I cant find any pictures...Also, It says Marauders were involved.....wow a medium bomber shooting down a Me-323 thats pretty sad

 

Way to go! This is getting interesting. I have pictures of Gigants if interested but not of this particular unit

 

Would you mind posting them? I would like to see them. There is a show called "Wings of the Luftwaffe" It had actual footage. It showed a B-26 coming from in from 9 o'clock and blowing out 2 of the engines. Then a Spitfire came in at 6 O'clock blew it up. The rounds from the Spit hit the oil tanks. That crew had no chance

 

Alright, I just found that they lost 700 drums of fuel on that mission, it also said that they DID have fighter escorts. But obviously, it did nothing. One of the 2 surviving planes crash landed and was beyond repair the other landed safely but was straffed and destroyed.

This is a real account from a pilot that was there and shot one down

"



On 23 April, 260 Squadron was in position to take part in the operation. That day Eddie's B flight off Cape Bon didn't spot any German aircraft, but A flight spotted and shot down four Me-110s. The next day in the same area the Americans massacred 59 transports and 16 escort fighters. They called it the Palm Sunday Massacre. The day after it was the South African's turn to find the Germans and they claimed 15 shot down. Three days later Eddie was over the ocean leading 239 Wing when the South Africans intercepted 20 of the lumbering Me-323s near Zembra Island. They dove on the nearly helpless transport aircraft. Eddie and the Kitty Wing arrived just in time to witness the results.

"When 239 Wing reached the Bay of Tunis the bay seemed to be on fire with burning aircraft on the water." Then ... "Flying through the smoke at approximately 500 feet I saw a large aircraft directly in front. At approximately 250 yards, I fired a long burst and the Me.323 folded up like a stack of cards and fell into the sea. The SAAF wing ahead of our formation had shot down 23 of the transports. Twenty-plus Me.109s were patroling high above but did not attack - it looked like they lost heart."​

Transportgeschwader 5 was wiped out on their first mission, along with a lot of men and material. Each massive plane could carry a half-track and 88 mm gun with crew and ammo, or up to 54 men with all of their equipment. It was a serious blow to the German reinforcement plan. This was the last victory of 260 Squadron in North Africa, and the Germans flew transports at night after that"

 

Wow, straight from the horses mouth! That's amazing! I wonder if there is a pilot account from the german side? I would really like to know why the escorts didn't attack!
Thanks B-17!

 

Yes, I would like to know why the escorts didnt attack I will see what I can find....Well the escorts were Me-109's. From what I am reading they were Italian pilots. They said they stared to attack but then one of the fighter squadrons jumped them they were Kittyhawk airplanes. They broke off and flew like hell for home. Leaving the Me-323's to fend for themselves.

Though the 109 is way more superior to the Kittyhawk. The dogfight would've been in the Italians favor. Maybe they were rookie pilots with only a few flying hours and were put on what was suppose to be an easy mission?

 

I'm just reading the site and apparently Germany blamed Italie for the massacre.

Seems that British intelligence knew about the transposrt because they decoded a message saying that the Me-323 were on their way.

 

Yep, thats what I read too

 

The British intelligence did a good job on decoding the secret message, the Italians couldn't have prevented it , but the Germans had someone to blame I suppose.
On the other hand, if the escorts fled that's another matter, but I doubt they would have sacrificed so many to save their asses, or woud they really have? If theyewere rookies, those to blame would have been the commanders, as it would have been suicide to send those to escort such a valuable load. Therefore I focuss on other theories such as: orders to abandon, petrol shortage, a simultaneous attack at a diffrent place, a delayed escort that left the Gigants alone, a navigation mistake ?
Me-109s from Italian units you say.

 

Thats what I read

 

it remains strange. Couldn't it be that the Jerries thought that those airplanes where capable to defend their own?


I see some machine-guns over there.

 

I was reading this other thread and saw that Tomcat had posted a nice link with a diorama which featured the entire Berlin tempelhof airport and a Gigant being loaden with oil barils !

YouTube - Diorama with German Luftwaffe Planes of WW2: Me 323 Gigant

 

this one is nice to: YouTube - Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant

 

nice one Arneken,

Here is one with an original soundtrack and English explanations. You can see and hear the rockets used for take off.

YouTube - Me 323