Junkers Ju 52/3mg3e

The Ju 52/3mg3e grew out of a decision taken before the Luftwaffe officially existed. In 1933, under the so-called Rhineland Programme of rearmament, Junkers received an order for 450 "auxiliary bombers" (Behelfsbomber) based on its three-engined airliner. The point was to exploit an aircraft already in production: the Ju 52 had been laid out from the start with a split undercarriage that left the belly free for a bomb-release installation, a subdivided hold and an upper hatch where a gun position could be fitted. The conversion hardly changed the aircraft's appearance, so it could be built quickly without reworking the assembly lines. The g3e was preceded by an interim bomber version, the Ju 52/3mge; the g3e was its improved form and the one built in large numbers.

Trials of the trimotor as a bomber apparently began only in the second half of 1933 with two aircraft, works numbers 4032 and 4034, and under heavy time pressure, since series production under the cover name ABC Programme was due to start in May or June 1934. To reach the planned output, Junkers subcontracted major assemblies to ATG in Leipzig and to Weserflug and kept only final assembly for itself. By the end of 1934, 192 auxiliary bombers had been delivered, whereas only 17 Ju 52/3m had been built in the whole of 1933. ATG began its own series production in 1935 and delivered 154 aircraft up to 1937. Between 1934 and 1937 a total of 1027 auxiliary bombers were delivered, after which production switched to the Ju 52/3mg4e transport.

The g3e was powered by three BMW 132A-3 radials of 725 hp, an improved development of the Pratt & Whitney Hornet, and introduced an improved radio and bomb-release mechanism. Two bomb bays held up to 1500 kg: six 250 kg bombs, twenty-four 50 kg bombs, or smaller loads of 10 kg bombs and incendiaries in containers. Defence relied on 7.92 mm MG 15 machine guns, one in an open dorsal position and one in a retractable ventral "dustbin", the so-called Eimer, which was winched down by hand to cover the lower hemisphere; some sources add two more firing through the windows. The crew numbered three to five, and the aircraft could easily be returned to the transport role. Its top speed was around 275 km/h.

The first unit to receive the g3e was bomber wing KG 152 "Hindenburg"; in 1936 the aircraft of its 1st Staffel were flying from Tutow. Conceived as a stopgap until the Dornier Do 11 arrived, the trimotor ended up being bought in far larger numbers than planned because the Do 11 was a failure, and it remained the Luftwaffe's main bomber until the He 111, Ju 86 and Do 17 entered service.

Its baptism of fire came in Spain. Germany delivered 20 Ju 52/3mg3e bombers to the Nationalist side within a week of the outbreak of the civil war, the first arriving eight days after 20 July 1936. Their first job was the airlift that carried Franco's Army of Africa from the Moroccan protectorate to the mainland, bypassing the Republican naval blockade. Not all of them reached their destination: on 9 August 1936 D-AMYM, after a navigation error by its pilot, von Bastian, and the resulting fuel shortage, landed at Republican-held Badajoz. The crew was arrested and later released; the aircraft was sent to Madrid in Republican markings and was eventually destroyed in its hangar during a raid by other Nationalist g3e bombers.

Once the airlift was over, the trimotors were fitted with bombing equipment and passed to the three Staffeln of Kampfgruppe 88, the Condor Legion's bomber group formed in November 1936; one of them, still in natural metal, carried the code 22-76 at the end of that year. The Spanish nicknamed them "Pablo". Between November 1936 and January 1937 they bombed Madrid and attacked Mediterranean ports, and a 250 kg bomb put the Republican battleship Jaime I out of action. Twenty-one Ju 52s took part in the raid on Guernica. The arrival of Soviet fighters first pushed them into night operations and, once He 111s and Do 17s took over, they were handed to Spanish units, forming Escuadra No. 1 of the Brigada Aérea Hispana. Their low speed made them vulnerable, and it soon became clear that as bombers they were only marginally suitable.

In Germany, too, the g3e was overtaken. In 1937 Weserflug was contracted to convert 404 auxiliary bombers into transports, and from 1938 the type served the Luftwaffe as a transport aircraft. Portugal was the other major user: nine Ju 52/3mg3e joined its air force in 1936 as FAP 6300 to 6308, and two more followed in 1956; the Portuguese Ju 52s were progressively retired between 1966 and 1972. Two survivors are on display today: 6304 at the Museu do Ar in Sintra and 6306 at the Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø.