The Worst Aircraft of WWII

Of all belligerent nations in the Second World War, few were as creative and prolific in their pursuit of exotic weapons technology as the Third Reich. From jet aircraft to ballistic missiles, air-independent submarines, and infrared detection, German scientists and engineers pioneered many of the key technologies that would shape the course of late 20th-century warfare. Yet despite their cleverness, none of these so-called wunderwaffe – many of which we have already covered on this channel – did much to improve Germany’s fortunes during the war. In many cases, this failure was due to political and economic factors rather than the skill of German designers. Chronically short of raw materials and manpower and with its cities and factories being bombed round-the-clock by Allied air forces, Nazi Germany simply lacked the industrial capacity to produce even conventional weapons in sufficient quantities. Certain designs were also hamstrung by the limitations of existing technology. For example, despite being a marvel of engineering that would later pave the way for manned space travel, the A-4 ballistic missile – better known as the V-2 – was too complex, expensive, unreliable, and inaccurate, and carried too small a warhead to be an effective weapon. It was also produced using slave labour under horrific conditions, making it the only weapon in history to kill more people in its manufacture than in actual combat.

All this was further exacerbated by the dysfunctional, divide-and-conquer structure of the Nazi state, which pitted the various branches of the government and armed forces against each other in a bid to win the Führer’s favour. This led to multiple groups simultaneously pursuing largely-identical projects, resulting in massive duplication of effort and the further squandering of already-scarce resources. And then there was the Führer himself, Adolf Hitler, whose wrongheaded and often delusional micromanaging crippled many a promising weapons project. For example, as previously covered in our video What Actually Defines an Assault Rifle, and Who Invented Them? Hitler’s interference significantly delayed the introduction of the Stg.44 Sturmgewehr, the world’s first modern assault rifle. He also greatly reduced the effectiveness of the Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe, the world’s first operational jet fighter, by insisting it be used as a bomber instead of an interceptor.

…on the other hand, many German wunderwaffe failed because they were just really bad ideas. As we’ve previously covered in our videos The German Rocket Fighter That Dissolved its Pilots Alive and The Bizarre Tale of the Spontaneously Exploding Submarines, some designs were so horrifically hazardous to their operators that it’s a wonder they ever got off the drawing board. Still others were based on laughably outdated or ill-conceived ideas, with few weapons epitomizing this latter category like the Messerschmitt Me-323 Gigant. Begun as a far-sighted attempt to bring heavy-lift cargo capacity to the modern battlefield, the Me-232 project ended up producing one of the very worst aircraft of the Second World War. This is the story of Nazi Germany’s aerial white elephant.

In the spring of 1940, Germany stunned the world by launching some of history’s first large-scale assaults by airborne troops. German paratroopers, known as Fallschirmjäger, were deployed during the invasions of Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands to capture bridges, crossroads, and other key objectives ahead of advancing ground troops. Yet despite their pioneering nature, the Fallschirmjäger suffered from a number of tactical and equipment shortcomings which significantly hampered their effectiveness. For example, their standard parachute, the RZ 20, suspended its wearer from the small of their back instead of their shoulders, causing them to descend face-down and land on their hands and knees. Not only did this result in parachutists being scattered widely over the drop zone, but it forced them to wear thick knee and elbow pads to avoid injury and limited the equipment they could carry. Indeed, most Fallschirmjäger jumped into combat carrying little more than a pistol and a small gravity knife used to cut away tangled parachute shrouds on landing. Rifles, machine guns, and other heavy equipment were dropped separately in special containers, forcing newly-landed troops to spend the first few minutes of an assault scrambling around the battlefield looking for weapons and squander the precious element of surprise.

A far more effective tactic was to use assault gliders, which were towed into the air by transport aircraft and released near the target area. The standard German assault glider, the DFS 230, allowed 9 paratroopers along with all their weapons and equipment to be landed in a very small area, greatly increasing their combat effectiveness. Indeed, on May 10, 1940, the use of gliders allowed just 78 Fallschirmjäger to capture the seemingly impenetrable Belgian Fortress of Eben Emael in only 20 minutes.

In the summer of 1940, the German armed forces turned their attention to Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of the British Isles. As the Allies would later learn the hard way, amphibious assaults are incredibly difficult to pull off, requiring truly herculean feats of logistics. Operation Sea Lion, however, would be a particular challenge. Having largely geared their war machine towards ground combat, the Germans had a relatively weak surface navy, and lacked the ships necessary to carry their invasion force across the English Channel. Worse still, this fleet would have to contend with the might of the Royal Navy – at that time the most powerful in the world. As a result, the Germans planned to transport the majority of their troops to Britain by air. But this plan soon ran into two major roadblocks. First, the Luftwaffe lacked sufficient transport aircraft and assault gliders to carry all the invasion troops. Second, such an airborne invasion required the attainment of total air superiority, otherwise the Royal Air Force would cut the slow-moving transports and gliders to pieces. Unfortunately, the Luftwaffe’s air campaign to destroy the RAF on the ground – what has since become known as the Battle of Britain – ended in a British victory, and in September 1940 the High Command postponed Operation Sea Lion until the following spring. Not only did this postponement free up troops and other resources for Operation Barbarossa, the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union, but it was hoped it would allow for the development of specialized equipment to increase Sea Lion’s chance of success.

To this end, on October 18, 1940, the German Air Ministry or RLM issued a tender for the development of a Grossraumlastensegler or high-capacity assault glider. The specifications called for a truly enormous aircraft capable of carrying an unheard-of 20 tons of cargo – the equivalent of 100 fully-equipped troops, a Panzer IV tank, or a towed 88mm anti-tank gun with its crew. Emphasizing the urgency of the project, prospective manufacturers were given only 14 days to submit their proposals. In the end, only two companies – Junkers and Messerschmitt – submitted their bids on time. The project was given the codename “Project Warsaw”, with the Junkers’s design being dubbed “Warsaw East” and Messerschmitt’s “Warsaw West.”

First out the gate was Junkers with their Ju-322 Mammut or “Mammoth.” Measuring a whopping 62 metres wide and 30 feet long, the Mammut was a strange-looking beast, effectively a giant flying wing, its tail unit appearing comically small in comparison. The 11×14 metre cargo bay in the centre of the span featured a drop-down ramp to allow troops, vehicles, and cargo to be easily unloaded, while the pilot’s cockpit was offset to the port to clear the cargo bay and maximize capacity. While being towed into the air, the Mammut rolled on an 8,000-kilogram wheeled trolley which was jettisoned immediately after takeoff. Upon reaching the target, the glider landed on a set of sprung skids. Finally, for self-defence, the Mammut was armed with three MG-15 machine guns mounted in turrets on either side of the cargo bay and at the front of the tail unit.

Yet despite these impressive specifications, right from the start the Ju-322 project was plagued with difficulties. Most of these problems stemmed from the RLM’s insistence that the Ju-322 be built as much as possible from non-strategic materials – namely wood. Junkers, which had pioneered the construction of all-metal aircraft, had very little experience working with wood. Worse still, when the lumber for the first 100 Ju-322 was delivered, much of it turned out to be rotten or otherwise defective. Indeed, while the main spar was designed with a safety factor of 1.8, when the first prototype was load-tested it failed at only 90% of the design value! Later, during cargo loading tests, a Panzer VI tank pitched forward off the loading ramp and crashed right through the floor of the cargo bay. Reinforcing the floor, along with other modifications, resulted in the cargo capacity being reduced time and time again; by the time the first prototype rolled out of Junkers’s factory at Merseburg, it could only carry around 12 tons – a little over half of the RLM’s original specifications. And all the while, the supposedly top-secret project was being closely followed by Allied Intelligence, who learned so much about it that in March 1941 the BBC broadcast a news report on the so-called “Merseburg Giant.”

And then there was the unusual design of the aircraft, which many feared was aerodynamically unsound. Indeed, upon first laying eyes on the Mammut, Generaloberst Ernst Udet, head of research and development for the Luftwaffe, declared:

“This aircraft will never fly. The proportions of the empennage are wrong. The machine will never be stable!”

Udet’s suspicions were soon confirmed when, on March 12, 1941 the first Ju-322 prototype prepared to make its maiden flight. Despite the Mammut being unloaded, the four-engine Junkers Ju-90 towplane – one of the largest transports in the Luftwaffe’s arsenal – struggled to gain sufficient airspeed, using up the entire runway in the process. Finally the giant glider lifted from the runway…only to rise above the towplane, lifting up its tail and threatening to crash it. Thinking quickly, test pilot Hans Hasselbach released the tow cable, allowing the towplane to land safely. As for the Mammut, it was so unstable and its massive control surfaces so heavy that Hasselbach struggled to control it, only barely managing to set it down in a nearby field. Due to the glider’s enormous size, it took two weeks to tow it back to the airfield using tanks. Subsequent flight tests with a second prototype revealed further major problems, such as the wheeled dolly bouncing so high it threatened to destroy the glider. Finally, in May 1941, the RLM deemed the design unworkable and cancelled the project. The lumber for the remaining 98 airframes was cut up and used as fuel for wood-powered vehicles. All told, the disastrous Ju-322 project had cost 45 million Reichsmarks – or around $380 million today.

With Junkers out of the race, the contract for the Grossraumlastensegler passed to Messerschmitt and their Me-321 Gigant or “Giant.” Smaller and more conventional than the Junkers Mammut, the Gigant

was built of steel tubing and wood covered in fabric, weighed 35 tons fully loaded, and measured 28 metres long with a wingspan of 55 metres. However, it could carry a full 23 tons of cargo – 3 more than the RLM specification – in its cavernous 11x3x3.4-metre cargo hold. This space was designed to match the dimensions of a standard German railway flatcar – meaning anything that could travel by rail could travel by Me-321 – and was accessed via a pair of large clamshell doors in the hose – an innovation that would see widespread use in many postwar transport aircraft. Like the Mammut, the Gigant took off on a wheeled dolly that was jettisoned shortly after liftoff, with the glider landing on a set of extendible skids. Self-defense was provided by 2-4 machine gun mounted in positions atop the wing.

The prototype Me-321 made its maiden flight at Leipheim on February 25, 1941 with test pilot Karl Bauer at the controls. Though the aircraft was loaded with only 3 tons of ballast, the Junker Ju-90 towplane struggled to lift it into the air. Once airborne, Bauer found the controls heavy and sluggish, but managed to make a safe, controlled landing. Based on this experience, the cockpit was enlarged to fit a copilot and radio operator and electric servo motors were fitted to the control surfaces. A braking parachute was also added to reduce the glider’s landing distance. As the Ju-90 had proved inadequate Messerschmitt decided to tow the Gigant using three Bf-110 heavy fighters connected to the same tow cable. For additional thrust, the glider was also fitted with a number of Walter HWK 109-500 Starthilfe rocket-assisted takeoff or RATO pods mounted under the wings. Known as troika-schlepp, this scheme proved exactly as dangerous as it sounds, requiring near-superhuman concentration and flying skills on the part of the towplane pilots. On May 28, 1941, a test flight carrying a full load of 100 soldiers ended in disaster when some of the rocket pods failed to ignite, causing the Gigant to slew to one side and the towplanes to collide with each other. The resulting crash resulted in 129 deaths – the deadliest aviation accident in history until the New York mid-air collision of December 16, 1960. In the wake of this crash, Messerschmitt began looking for an an alternative to the troika system. The solution came in the form of the bizarre Heinkel He-111Z Zwilling or “twin” – effectively two Heinkel He-111 light bombers joined together at the wing with a fifth engine added.

By the summer of 1941 Operation Sealion – the mission for which the Me-321 was designed – had been postponed indefinitely, so the giant gliders were formed into three Luftwaffe transport squadrons and sent to Russia in support of Operation Barbarossa. As few airborne assaults were carried out on the Eastern Front, the Gigants were mainly used to carry heavy cargo to forward airfields. They proved less effective than hoped, for the primitive conditions at these airfields made the giant gliders difficult to land and maneuver on the ground. In early 1942, the Gigants were withdrawn from the Eastern Front and sent to the Mediterranean in anticipation of Operation Hercules, the planned airborne invasion of island of Malta. However, in May of that year, the Germans launched Operation Mercury, the airborne invasion of Crete. The largest invasion ever conducted entirely for the air, Mercury proved a pyrrhic victory, with the lightly-armed Fallschirmjäger suffering horrific casualties at the hands of the Cretan defenders. This near-disaster convinced the German high command that Hercules would meet a similar fate, and the operation was cancelled. But even if the invasion had gone ahead, a chronic shortage of towplanes would likely have prevented the Gigants from participating. Instead, the gliders were sent back to Russia in an attempt to resupply the encircled German Sixth Army at Stalingrad. But by the time they arrived there were no longer any German-held airfields in range of Stalingrad, so the plan was abandoned and the remaining Gigants sent back to Germany.

By this time it had become apparent that the giant assault glider was an outdated concept no longer suited to Germany’s current strategic situation. Consequently, Messerschmitt set about converting the Me-321 into a self-propelled cargo transport. As nearly all German-made engines were earmarked for other projects, Messerschmitt selected the French Gnome-Rhone 14N 1,140-horsepower radial, hundreds of which had been captured during the 1940 invasion of France. The first prototype, designated the Me-321C, was fitted with four engines, but this was soon increased to six. The final version, re-designated the Me-323, could carry two more tons of cargo than the Me-321. However, the six engines increased the aircraft’s gross weight by more than 25% and gave it a lumbering top speed of only 283 kilometres per hour – less than half the speed of most Allied fighters. It was also just as exhausting and sluggish to control as its unpowered predecessor.

Nonetheless, 201 Me-323s were produced between 1942 and 1944, with some being converted from Me-321 gliders and others being built from scratch. Several different versions were produced, including the E-1, which added two turrets armed with 20-millimetre cannons for added defence; the E2, which featured more streamlined turrets and more powerful Junkers Jumo 211R engines; and the E-2WT, which added yet another defensive turret in the aircraft’s nose. In the spring of 1943, two squadrons of 16 Gigants each were sent to the Mediterranean to support Germany’s faltering North African campaign. The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel – AKA “The Desert Fox” – had been in retreat since their defeat at the Second Battle of El Alamein in November 1942. Trapped in Tunisia by the Allied forces, they were quickly running out of ammunition, food, medicine, and other supplies. The German Kriegsmarine had attempted to resupply Rommel by sea, but most of its transport ships had been sent to the bottom by Allied aircraft based in Malta. The German High Command hoped that the Gigants with their enormous cargo capacity could break the blockade by creating an air bridge between Italy and Tunisia.

But the Mediterranean was not the Eastern Front, where the Germans had enjoyed air superiority; and the lumbering, heavily-laden Gigants proved to be sitting ducks against the marauding fighters of the Royal Air Force. On April 22, 1943, 16 Me-323s of Transportgeschwader 5 were approaching Cape Bon in Tunisia when they were jumped by seven squadrons of RAF Supermarine Spitfires and South African Air Force Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks. Within minutes, all but two of the Gigants were shot out of the sky, sending 120 German airmen to their deaths. In the wake of this disaster, the Gigants were withdrawn from the Mediterranean and sent once more to the Eastern Front, where they finally proved their worth resupplying the Kuban Bridgehead on the Taman Peninsula. Operating from airfields at Bagerowo, Krasnodar, and Timashevskaya, Slavyanskaya, the Me-323s and their He-111Z towplanes flew badly-needed supplies to forward troop positions, carrying wounded troops to rear-line hospitals on the return flights. The last of these supply missions were flown in April 1944, whereupon the remaining Me-323s were withdrawn from service and scrapped. No complete examples survive today, though a complete wreck was discovered in 2012 off the coast of Sardinia, lying in 60 metres of water.

Thus ended the tragicomic saga of the Gigant, an aircraft that was obsolete before it even flew and, despite the best efforts of its designers, never managed to become much more than a lumbering death trap. Yet for all its failings, near the end of its rocky career the Gigant briefly succeeded in demonstrating the value of heavy air-lift capability on the modern battlefield. Today, such capability is vital to global military operations, and is capably provided by such legendary aircraft as the Antonov An-124 Ruslan, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, and Lockheed C-5 Galaxy.

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