Yep, Za,

No Pz IV´s but originally, according to the film, two Mk 38 (t) tanks were meant to be taken with the glider but what would happen in real life...

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The beef with the blog originator was (many moons ago...) about flying PzIVs to Africa

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"As for Africa, I wonder if flying at night with a dawn landing would have been more successful. I'm sure they thought of that."

Yes that worked for a while. The down side was the transports and cargo were being loaded in daylight. The Allies had Italian spies and OSS teams with high powerred radios near the primary Italian airfields, plus frequent air reconissane flights. When they realized what the Germans were up to they watched for signs of loading operations - aircraft brought in from dispersal fields, cargo piling up on the primary fields... and air raided them. Several devastating air raids crippled some of the transport operations before they were ready. The Germans could get around that by operating dispersed from the secondary fields and loading during the previous nights, but this was much harder to coordinate, incurred more delays, slowed support operations, and required more fuel.

The bottom line here was, the Axis had lost air superiority and could no longer protect their Line of Communication at the level required.

Look up "Operation Flax" and the "Palm Sunday Massacre"...

"Just before sundown on Palm Sunday, 18 April 1943, P-40s on anti-transport patrol spotted over 60 Ju-52s escorted by 21 fighters off of Cape Bon, making their way to Sicily. Elements of the 57th and 324th as well as the British 92 Squadron intercepted. 11 Spitfires covered 46 P-40Fs as they pounced on the Axis formations, ripping them to shreds. The carnage ended with 59 Ju-52s and 16 fighters crashing into the sea or Tunisian soil for the loss of only 6 P-40s. "

Another one: "April 22, 1943 was a black day for the TG S's. Four days previously the Luftwaffe had lost 24 Ju 52's over the Mediterranean, and 35 other "Aunties" were so severely damaged that they broke up after emergency landings. Then the last sixteen aircraft of No. 5 Transport Squadron took off from Trapani for Tunis, with crews totalling 140 men. The "Giants" were carrying fuel for Rommel's Africa Corps.

The North African coast came into view. The planes were due to fly over Cape Bon, and it was there that British fighters attacked the formation. The more maneuverable "Spitfires" and "Marauders" massacred the Germans, and only two "Giants" escaped. The fourteen remaining aircraft either crashed in coastal waters or were destroyed after emergency landings. Two days later, the fifteenth "Giant" was destroyed on the Tunis airport during an air raid. Only nineteen out of 140 pilots, radio operators, air gunners and flight mechanics were rescued; the others were killed or drowned. In one fateful month a great idea which had been turned into reality was irrevocably destroyed.

A single Me 323 returned to its base at Trapani, filled with wounded from Rommel's Africa Corps."

Not such a good prospect, is it? And some people still believe in the tooth fairy

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Even today, if there is no air superiority, there must be effective fighter escort for transports. Nevertheless, the Gigant is an amazing feat of engineering much like today's C-5 and the even larger Russian Antonov 225. These are more effect because of the payload they are able to carry. As for the Gigant, I would say flying in bulk supplies would be more effective than carrying a single (or double) Mk II tank. Great thread. Happy posting.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!