>Jim
I was astonished to read
about the BC-348 in a JU-52 aircraft ( did i read
that here, or where ? ). I thought, what an
abomination. But i thought before i shot my mouth
off with my opinion, i’d have a look at JU-52
subject online. I was surprised that something like
545 were built AFTER WWII end, and that Swiss
military operated them
until, get this, 1982. For a machine, that is
longevity. So that pairing after all, is not so
unlikely.
It was interesting for me
to read up on the JU-52 as it always seemed to me
like a horribly obsoleted design. I read about 18
April 1943 when Allies shot
down 24 and another 35 had
to crash land. That is not sustainable, to say the
least. The very interesting Wiki article also
mentioned Cape Bon, Tunisia,
which my father mentioned
when he recalled the North Africa campaign. He told
me they passed by a trashed Axis airfield, but his
convoy was not
stopping for any souvenir
shopping. I also now reading a really hair-raising
account by a JU-52 pilot taking off from Stalingrad,
his plane barely
clearing wreckage on the
field. And i recall reading about Soviet tanks
overrunning an airfield supplying Stalingrad, the
JU-52s struggling to get under
way and escape the Soviet
tanks – pure pandemonium; some shot down, some
colliding in air, some escaping.
I have the front panel,
only, of a FuG10 transmitter recovered at
Stalingrad. It’s permanently jammed on 5990 kHz. Was
on one of some 500 aircraft lost
in that affair.
Excuse the digression,
please.
-Hue Miller