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493 Ju 52s carry the airborne invasion of Crete
May 1941
In late May 1941, during the Battle of Crete, 493 Ju 52/3m aircraft carried most of the 22,750 troops flown onto the island in the Luftwaffe's largest airborne operation of the war. The German victory came at such a high cost that it ended large-scale German paratrooper operations.