Lots of girls to love!

There will not be two deaths!

(Visa Thorira Glacier)

The main forces of the "pansky Poland" were defeated by the troops of the "Third Reich a" in just eighteen days. Throughout the "lightning" Polish campaign and the winter of 1939-1940 that followed it, a complete calm reigned in the West. The Anglo-French troops, on the one hand, and the weak German units occupying the "Western Wall" on the other, stood opposite each other, separated by their lines of fortifications. By the way, this “sitting” war (also called “strange” or “ridiculous”) benefited the SS SR (then still a “friend and ally” of Nazi Germany). During the “strange war” in the West, Stalin managed to create a number of strongholds in the Baltic States, which had gone to the SS SR under the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”, and on November 26, 1939, unleashed the so-called “winter war” against Finland, which did not accept Soviet demands for “ changing the border" in the Leningrad region. When the Anglo-French learned about the creation in the city of Terijoki of the “Finnish People’s Government” under the auspices of the SS SR, which announced the beginning of a “people’s uprising” in Finland and called on the Soviet Red Army to “help the Finnish revolution”, they became worried. Although the actions of the Red Army, of course, immediately responded to the request of the "oppressed Finnish proletariat" for help, and hurried to "fulfill their international duty" as soon as possible, they wore on the Karelian Isthmus - despite the colossal superiority of the Soviet invasion army in forces and means! - to put it mildly, an extremely sluggish character, the Western powers decided to take advantage of the "winter war" and capture the Scandinavian Peninsula, under the pretext of "assisting a small democratic Finland against a huge totalitarian Soviet monster." In the British and French headquarters, "under the guise" began the development of plans to capture Scandinavia.

Shortly after the conquest of Poland, the freshly minted SS Gruppenführer (Lieutenant General) Paul Gausser led the Special Purpose SS Division as its first commander. A month later, he and his men left the city of Pilsen (Pilsen), located in the west of the former Czechoslovakia, to spend about six months in western Germany. There they underwent intensive training and preparation for the upcoming war with Britain and France. In the initial period of training, the “green SS men” under the command of Gausser learned to fight and interact as part of a single division.

In April 1940, the new division received reinforcements in the form of new units, designed to bring its strength to the level necessary to ensure that the new SS division could effectively participate in the invasion of Holland (Netherlands) and Belgium. Replenishment with fresh manpower and an intensive combat training regime did not leave the soldiers of the SS-FT division even a shadow of doubt that they were destined to play an important role in the implementation of the operational plan "Gelb" ("Yellow"). Not surprisingly, the SS men were highly motivated and ready to do their duty. During the preparatory period, they developed a strong sense of comradeship and loyalty to their divisional commander, familiarly called by them "Papa Gausser" (just as the white Cossacks of the XIV Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS just as affectionately, albeit familiarly, called their corps commander General - Lieutenant Helmut von Pannwitz "Daddy Pannwitz").

While the ranks of the SS Division of Special Purpose were undergoing combat training in western Germany, the governments of England and France made on January 27, 1940 the final decision on the occupation of Norway by the forces of two British and one French divisions. The joint command of the Western Allies hoped to capture the Norwegian city of Narvik with lightning speed, thereby blocking the Swedish ore region of Gällivare, the exploitation of whose deposits was vital for the smooth functioning of the German military industry, deprived of its own sources of raw materials and minerals. But “intelligence reported accurately”, and already on February 20, 1940, the “Führer and Reich Chancellor” informed General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst that he had reliable information about the intention of the British and French to land and gain a foothold in Norway. Hitler emphasized that if they succeeded, the consequences for Germany could be the most unpredictable, and his intention to get ahead of the British. Von Falkenhorst was placed in command of the army's "Group 21", formed to capture (now Germans) Denmark and Norway, and operationally subordinated directly to Hitler. The Fuhrer instructed General von Falkenhorst to prepare a combined landing operation, code-named "Weserübung" ("Teaching on the Weser"), issuing a directive on March 1, 1940. At the same time, Adolf Hitler and the top military strategists of the "Third Reich" were working on a plan for the lightning conquest of the countries of Western Europe. But even before the start of Operation Gelb (the code name for the plan to invade Belgium, Holland and northern France), on April 9, 1940, the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW) ordered a surprise attack on Denmark (Operation Weserübung-Süd) and Norway (Operation Weserübung-Nord). As expected, the capture of these Scandinavian countries by German landing forces “under the very nose” of the Anglo-French intending to do the same, Hitler and OKW, who successfully implemented the Weserübung plan, managed to timely deprive the British naval and air forces of the opportunity to get bases on Danish and Norwegian territory, as well as to prevent the British from capturing rich iron ore deposits on Norwegian territory and blocking the Gällivare area. Hitler managed to take over Denmark without encountering serious resistance (with the exception of a short exchange of fire between the German invasion forces and the guards of the royal palace in Copenhagen). With Norway, the Germans had to tinker longer. By the time of the German invasion, English and French troops had already landed on its territory. However, by the beginning of June 1940. Norway finally submitted to the Third Reich. In both cases, the Germans were greatly helped by the presence in the conquered countries of a strong "fifth column" - the Danish National Socialist Workers' Party (DNSAP) Frits Klausen and the Norwegian Nazi party "Nashunal Samling" ("National Assembly", abbreviated: NS) of the former Minister of War of Norway Vidkun Quisling (whose last name became a symbol of treason and collaborationism in the English-speaking world during the war years). National Socialist ideas enjoyed such wide popularity in both Scandinavian countries that there, in addition to the Nazi assault detachments that existed before the war (SA and Volksvernet in Denmark, Gird, and later Riksgird in Norway), immediately after the beginning of the German occupation, their own, national "parts of the SS for general purposes" were formed. In Denmark, the SS regiment Danmark (Denmark) and the SS training battalion Schalburg (which served as the basis for the formation of the Schalburg Corps). In Norway, "Norwegian SS". In addition, on the side of the Germans fought on the fronts of the Second World War, consisting of the Danes "Volunteer Corps Danmark (Denmark), as well as the" Norwegian SS Legion "and a separate" Norwegian SS Ski Jaeger Battalion ", not counting the numerous Norwegians and Danes who served together with imperial and ethnic Germans and representatives of other Germanic (or "Nordic") peoples in the divisions of the Waffen SS Nordland Wiking.

Plan "Gelb"

"We conquered many countries,

A new campaign will glorify us."

("Holger the Dane and the Giant Didrik")

The German plan for the invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France called for the participation of three army groups. In the south, Army Group C (C) "occupied positions along the" Western Wall "(" Siegfried Line "), which has already been discussed above, stretching from Luxembourg to Switzerland. This army group, under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Loeb, included two armies and was deployed along the border, just opposite the French fortified "Maginot Line", considered "irresistible" and indeed representing an impressive network of fortifications at first glance. structures erected by the French in order to prevent a new breakthrough of German troops into France across the Rhine River, similar to the one they committed in 1914. Nevertheless, running a little ahead, we note that the rumors about its "insurmountability" turned out to be no less exaggerated than the rumors about the "impregnability" of the German "Siegfried Line". Suffice it to say that, after the start of the German offensive in the West, the vaunted defenses of the "Maginot Line" were broken through by the Germans in just a few hours during the usual offensive of infantry units without any tank support. The German infantry advanced under the cover of aviation and artillery, which widely used smoke shells. It was soon discovered that many of the French long-term firing points could not withstand direct hits from shells and bombs. In addition, most of the fortifications turned out to be absolutely unsuitable for all-round defense, and they could easily be attacked from the rear and front and destroyed with hand grenades and flamethrowers. But all this happened a little later, and for now we will restore the interrupted thread of our story.

So, the German army group "C" had to hold the line along the German "Siegfried Line" in front of the French "Maginot Line", linking with its presence in the south a significant grouping of Franco-English troops, who feared a German attack from this side, while the other two German army groups were intended for offensive operations in the north.

Army Group A, stationed over a vast territory from Aachen to Luxembourg and including four armies, was under the command of Field Marshal Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt. The mission of Field Marshal Rundstedt's Army Group A was to pass through the Ardennes forest, break through the territory of Luxembourg and southern Belgium, then turn to the northwest and advance in a northwesterly direction until his panzer and motorized divisions will not reach the English Channel in the area north of the river. Somma. The OKW hoped that, if von Rundstedt's forces accomplished this task, they would be able to surround tens of thousands of soldiers of the French army and the British Expeditionary Force on the Atlantic coast near the port of Dunkirk.

On the right flank of the German invasion forces, Army Group B under the command of Field Marshal Fyodor von Bock prepared for the offensive, which included 29 divisions divided into two armies (6th and 18th). While the 6th Army had to break through the southern regions of Holland as quickly as possible, General Georg von Kühlerus with his 18th Army was to cross the Meuse River and help two German airborne divisions - the 7th Aviation (parachute rifle) and 22nd Airborne - capture the important port of Rotterdam and the capital of Holland, The Hague. A particularly responsible task was assigned to the 9th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht. She had to break through the "Pel Line" of the Dutch at Gennep, advance at maximum speed to Murdijk and along the large (almost one and a half kilometers long) bridge over the Meuse River (which by this moment should have already been in the hands of the German paratrooper shooters), wedge into the heart of Fortress Holland. On the important road that ran through the whole of Holland in a north-south direction, the airborne troops of the Third Reich were to capture the bridges over the Waal River near the city of Dordrecht and the bridges over the Lower Rhine River near the city of Rotterdam. The German airborne assault we mentioned above in the area of ​​The Hague would have been quite capable of capturing the Dutch government or, at least, thoroughly tying down the forces of the Dutch 1st Army Corps covering the capital. But Hitler did not rule out the possibility that the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina, after the very first shots, would come to terms with the occupation of her country by the German army - as the Danish king did immediately after the start of Operation Weserübung-Süd. In addition, the German invasion army expected possible support from the "fifth column" that existed in Holland - the "National Socialist Movement" (NSD) led by Adrian Mussert (so strong that in the subsequent years of World War II, little Holland, in addition to creating its own rear Dutch general purpose SS units in the Netherlands, replenished the ranks of the Wiking SS division with a significant contingent of Dutch volunteers and sent two fully equipped Dutch SS divisions to the Waffen SS front lines: the 23rd SS Volunteer Motorized Infantry Division Nederland (Netherlands) and the 34th Grenadier Be that as it may, the Fuhrer gave the German parachute troops, intended for dropping, as part of an airborne assault, in the area of ​​The Hague, the strictest order to render the Queen of Holland all due military honors, just in case. As for Paul Gausser and his Special Purpose SS Division, as part of the implementation of the Gelb operational plan, Paul Gausser and his Special Purpose SS Division were to operate as part of von Küchler's 18th Army. Von Küchler's troops in the course of the upcoming operation were to face off not only with the Dutch and Belgian armies, but also with twenty-six British and French divisions stationed in the vast space between Dunkirk and the Oise River.

Initially, Hitler and the OKW were inclined to transfer most of the divisions they had available to Army Group B, considering the maximum strengthening of the German right flank absolutely necessary condition a successful breakthrough through the Benelux countries, the defeat of enemy forces north of the Somme, the capture of Dunkirk and other important ports from a raid, striving for everything to be “according to Schlieffen” (who, even lying on his deathbed, continued to think about his plan for a victorious French campaign and died with the words: “Strengthen my right wing!”). But the chief of staff of Army Group von Rundstedt, Lieutenant General Erich von Manstein, managed to persuade the Fuhrer to place more divisions at the disposal of Army Group A, so that von Rundstedt's armies could invade France to a greater depth and prevent the enemy from launching an effective counterattack in the direction from the south to north. Manstein hoped that in this case it would be easier for the Germans to encircle the allied armies north of Sedan. Hitler approved this plan, leaving the Eighteenth Army with fewer divisions to conquer Holland and Belgium. But there was nothing to do - since the Fuhrer himself had spoken his weighty word.

As before the start of the Polish campaign in September 1939, the strength of the German army did not lie in numerical and material superiority (which the Germans never had throughout the Second World War - just look at the map - or even better, at the globe!) in the number of formations that were part of them, how much in their technical equipment and in the principles of combat use. In a stubborn struggle against the “old school” routiners, General Heinz Guderian, with great difficulty, managed to put into practice his idea of ​​\u200b\u200b“tank wedges”, which units of motorized infantry should relentlessly follow, not thinking about providing cover for their flanks. Guderian's tactics pursued the achievement of one priority goal - penetrating deeply into the enemy defenses, disrupting the activities of the enemy's rear services, disrupting his supply, introducing chaos and confusion into the activities of the enemy command apparatus and causing general panic in the enemy ranks. long outdated" linear tactics"The Anglo-French, still captivated by memories of the previous war and its positional nature, and therefore hoping to gain strength in the fight on a wide front and win by systematically exhausting the enemy, Guderian opposed the maneuverable tactics of shock tank units capable of breaking deep into the enemy rear. As a result, victory over the enemy, instead of a bloody frontal struggle, was achieved much faster and with much less expenditure of manpower and means, by striking at communications and breaking the arteries supplying the enemy. The supreme principle for the armies of the "Third Reich a", which, due to the limited nature of all types of their resources, simply could not afford a repetition of the four-year positional massacre of 1914-1918, as mentioned above, was speed and, as Georges Danton once said: Courage, courage and more courage! It was with this principle in mind that General Guderian (who was given the apt nickname "fast Heinz" by the soldiers for a reason!) developed the basics of driving armored troops. The "mobile troops" of the German ground forces during the hostilities were far ahead of the infantry units moving on foot, outperforming the infantry in speed by five to eight times.

The task of the aviation formations, which, as always, were to operate far ahead of their advancing troops, was to, by attacking enemy communications, positions and key points, paralyze, weaken and confuse the enemy to the maximum extent possible, preventing enemy aircraft from entering your airspace. To successfully complete the task, the short-range aviation formations of the Luftwaffe had the most modern and powerful aircraft at the time being described.

Unlike the Polish campaign, as part of the implementation of the Gelb plan by the Germans, as mentioned above, it was planned to use a third type of troops that was not used during the conquest of Poland. It was about the young German airborne troops. The OKW hoped that the airborne troops (later called "lightning troops") would be able to provide valuable services during the invasion, serving as a connecting link in ensuring interaction between air and ground forces. Airborne assault forces, thrown far ahead of the advancing German tank "wedges", were supposed to attack enemy fortifications, capture important river crossings and destroy enemy resistance centers.

Western Allied Defense Plan

"... the French field army was not a sword, but a broomstick."

(J. F. S. Fuller. "Second World War 1939-1945")

Stationed on the other side of the state borders of Belgium and Holland, the forces of the Western Allies were organizationally divided into two groups. Covering the territory from Dunkirk to the city of Montmedy, the 1st Army Group included the 1st, 2nd, 7th and 9th French armies and the British Expeditionary Corps, or, to be more precise, the British Expeditionary Force (BES, BEF), deployed in the area of ​​the city of Lille. The 2nd Army Group, stationed to the south, included the French armies that occupied the Maginot Line from Verdun to the city of Celeste. Near the Swiss border, the 3rd Allied Army Group was stationed, opposing the German 7th Army. In the event of a German offensive, the 2nd and 3rd Army Groups were to take up defensive positions, while the 1st Army Group was to launch a counteroffensive through Belgian territory.

Given the small size of their armed forces (eight infantry divisions, three consolidated brigades, one light motorized division and border guard units), the Dutch were forced to limit themselves to the defense of only the main region of their kingdom, located between the Zuider Zee and the Meuse River. The center and nodal point of the Dutch defense was the area of ​​Amsterdam-Utrecht-Rotterdam-Dordrecht. On the eastern flank of this main Dutch defense area was the heavily fortified Grebbe Line, bounded on the north by the Zuider Zee and on the south by the Meuse River.

Behind her, covering the area of ​​the Dutch capital of The Hague, passed the second fortified position, built just before the war and went down in history as the "line of water barriers." The IJssel position of the city of Arnhem and the "Pel Line" to the south of it, according to the plan of the Dutch command, were supposed to serve as a foreground and slow down the advance of the German troops on the "Fortress Holland" (the code name for the area of ​​powerful fortifications in the center of Holland, which included the cities of Utrecht, Amsterdam and Dordrecht), which will be discussed in more detail below, as well as cover the Grebbe-Maas line. To defend this line, the Dutch put up two army corps (which included colonial units). The Dutch Light Division and another army corps were stationed near Eindhoven and in the area of ​​the city of 's-Hertogenbosch. I Army Corps, which constituted the reserve of the Dutch High Command, was located in the area of ​​The Hague-Leiden.

The Belgians built their defenses along the Albert Canal, leaving an almost undefended strip fifty kilometers wide between the Dutch and Belgian fortifications, stretching from the sea to the very German border. This weak point in the Belgian-Dutch defense system did not escape the attention of the Anglo-French command, so the Western Allies planned, in the event of a German offensive, to immediately send the French 7th Army there through Antwerp in order to close this fifty-kilometer gap. The mobile formations of the French 7th Army (two fully equipped mechanized divisions) were able to arrive at the threatened area just a couple of hours after the start of hostilities to support the defending Dutch.

A few months before the German army groups crossed the borders of Holland and Belgium, the governments of both countries were already well aware of Hitler's invasion plan. In January 1940, their suspicions turned into a firm conviction, after a Luftwaffe plane with two German officers on board, due to a malfunction, made an emergency landing on Belgian territory. Both Germans were detained by Belgian soldiers who found papers from one of the Luftwaffe officers containing a detailed invasion plan developed by the OKW. Timely notified of this incident, Hitler and the German High Command decided to speed up the implementation of the Gelb plan, making only minor changes to it. After the incident with the SS-Verfugungsdivision and other units attached to the 18th Army, they had not yet completed their training when the Germans began their invasion of Holland.

In the early morning of May 10, 1940, the German armed forces launched the Gelb plan. Two groups of German paratroopers jumped from their Junkers-52 transport aircraft, dotting the sky over Holland, covered with clouds of Dutch anti-aircraft artillery shells, with parachute canopies, and fell right on the heads of the Dutch. Under the cover of squadrons of fighters and dive bombers, soldiers of the 22nd Airborne Division landed in the designated area near the Dutch capital of The Hague, while paratroopers of the 7th Luftwaffe Division, also under the cover of military aircraft, landed in the Rotterdam area - largest port in continental Europe. The paratroopers captured the Rotterdam Walhaven airfield, ensuring the subsequent landing of German airborne troops on it. At the same time, the German shock detachment (11th company of the 16th airborne regiment), landed from "flying boats" that landed directly on the Rhine River, at the bridges over the Rhine in Rotterdam, captured the bridges and the island of Norder Eyland, the capture of which had crucial to the success of the entire operation, since the island in the center of Rotterdam was criss-crossed by highways and railways, cutting which the German invasion forces could easily paralyze the resistance of the Dutch. Since both airborne detachments, having landed in two different zones, were isolated from each other, the success of this parachute assault directly depended on the timely arrival of the 18th Army to help them - even before the Dutch had time to surround and destroy both groups of paratroopers.

In the area of ​​the Dutch capital of The Hague, the 22nd Division immediately found itself in a difficult position. At first, the German paratroopers managed, in accordance with their combat mission, to capture three airfields located around The Hague - Valkenburg (ten kilometers from The Hague and four kilometers northwest of Leiden), Eipenburg (located southeast, between The Hague and Delft), from which it was easy to cut the roads The Hague-Utrecht and The Hague-Rotterdam, and Okenburg (2 km southwest of The Hague). Soon, however, the I Corps of the Dutch army arrived from its base on the North Sea coast, immediately moving straight from the march into a powerful counterattack. The Dutch again took possession of all three airfields, after which they pressed the German paratroopers to the coast of the Gulf and captured about thousands of Germans, immediately sending them to internment camps located on the territory of the British Isles. It seemed that The Hague would remain in the hands of the Dutch.

In Rotterdam, the German 7th Luftwaffe Division managed to achieve more impressive success. Having captured the Walhaven airfield and part of the city, the German paratroopers successfully repulsed several counterattacks of the Dutch troops, supported by British bomber raids. With the support of German aviation, paratroopers of the 7th Luftwaffe division gradually consolidated control over the territories they held, after which they captured another area located to the east of those originally occupied by them. Thus, they laid a corridor that was supposed to facilitate the advance of the 18th Army through Dutch territory. Expanding the occupied territory, the German paratrooper shooters occupied both banks of the Meuse River and the city of Dordrecht. They also captured the strategically important bridges across the Meuse at Moerdijk, crossing the mouth of the river, preventing their destruction by the Dutch.

SS - FT in action

"Boldly we climb into the clang

Ice floes of the bloody stampede.

(Visa Harald the Severe)

While two groups of German paratroopers attacked The Hague and Rotterdam, the SS Special Forces Division and other formations of the 18th Army involved in the operation to occupy the Netherlands crossed the Dutch border. At this early stage in the implementation of the operational plan "Gelb", the units that were organizationally part of the SS division acted in isolation from each other, as during the period of the Polish campaign. From September 1939, the Der Führer Regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the Artillery Regiment of the SS Division, an engineer company and a motorized column were attached as reinforcements to the 207th Infantry Division. At the same time, the reconnaissance battalion of the SS Division for Special Purposes and a platoon of armored vehicles from the Deutschland Regiment were attached to the 254th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht.

In order to link up with the German paratroopers fighting in Rotterdam as soon as possible, the 18th Army had to break through several lines of defense in depth of the Dutch troops. The terrain was extremely favorable for its defense, and the Dutch fortifications were significant obstacles for the advancing German troops. The task of the latter was further complicated by the need to overcome several rivers and numerous canals. The first obstacle in the way of the 18th Army units was the strongly fortified Dutch defensive position mentioned above between the rivers IJssel and Meuse near the cities of Arnhem, Nijmegen and Malden, not far from the German-Dutch border. The second obstacle consisted of two sets of fortifications. On the territory stretching from the Zuider Zee to the Meuse River, the II and IV Dutch corps held the line along the heavily fortified "Grebbe line". Positioned directly behind this position, the Dutch III Corps defended the Pel Line, which reached the city of Werth in the south. The task of the III Corps, which occupied this sector, was not to contain the German onslaught indefinitely. The troops that were part of the corps were deployed on the Pel Line in order to hold back the onslaught of the German 18th Army until the Anglo-French forces came to the rescue of the Dutch, who, having arrived in the indicated area, were to go on the counteroffensive.

The third defensive line of the Dutch army entered the history of the Second World War under the name "Fortresses Holland". This area consisted of a number of long-term gun emplacements and other fortifications located in a line starting east of Amsterdam and going south to Hertogenbosch, then turning west along the Waal River, covering the cities of Dordrecht and Rotterdam and reaching the coast of the North Sea. As a last resort, which was supposed to stop the German advance, the Dutch army planned to open the floodgates of coastal dams in the threatened region, intending to flood this part of Holland with sea water (as the area under the city of Leiden was flooded in due time, which led to the removal of its siege by the Spaniards in XVI century).

Paul Gausser and other high-ranking officers of the 18th Army understood that only the highest possible speed of their advance through Dutch and Belgian territory could ensure the success of Operation Gelb. If the Dutch had managed to hold off von Bock's armies long enough to destroy the important bridges and dikes themselves, they could have surrounded the 7th Luftwaffe division and bought enough time to allow the French and British troops to arrive in battle area. Therefore, as soon as the paratroopers landed in the landing zones near Rotterdam and The Hague, on May 10, von Küchler's divisions crossed the border, trying to reach the coast of the North Sea as soon as possible.

On the site of the 18th German Army, the hour of baptism of fire came for the Der Fuhrer regiment, attached to the 207th Infantry Division of the X Corps and which was at the forefront of the German invasion. Behind the back of the Der Führer regiment, the rest of the SS Special Forces Division, along with many other parts of the army, waited for the advance elements of the 207th division to invade the Netherlands. Due to the large size of the 18th Army, the rearguard units of Gausser were still on the banks of the Rhine, advancing in one of the marching columns, when the invasion of Holland had already begun

In the very first hours of the invasion, the ranks of the Der Führer regiment demonstrated their courage and enthusiasm in achieving the task. Within two hours, the 3rd battalion of the regiment reached the eastern bank of the IJssel near the city of Arnhem. But, despite this quick success, he failed to arrive in time to the combat area and prevent the destruction of the bridges across the river by the Dutch troops stationed on its banks. Not embarrassed by this failure, the 2nd Battalion of the Der Führer Regiment crossed the IJssel River, and by evening his sapper company was able to create a bridgehead on the other side. To top it all, the regiment captured a fortified point in the city of Westerworth, and later occupied the city of Arnhem. During the fighting, the defending Dutch threw out a white flag several times, after which they opened fire on the “green SS men” approaching them, suspecting nothing. True, such deceit was shown exclusively by the colonial units of the Dutch army.

Decline in morale among the Dutch

Looked and sees - crowds without number

Out of the city gates

(John Milton. Paradise Regained)

The senior military officials of the Dutch armed forces hoped that their troops would be able to hold this territory for at least three days, until the main Allied forces arrived. When the soldiers of the Der Führer regiment managed to capture Westerworth and Arnhem in just a few hours, they brought the Dutch army into a state of shock with their offensive impulse and stamina. By the end of the day, thanks in part to the actions of this part of the "green SS", the 18th Army had advanced more than a hundred kilometers deep into Dutch territory. Fully satisfied with their successes achieved during the first day of Operation Gelb, the units of the Der Fuhrer regiment bivouacked near Renkum, prepared for an attack on the Grebbe Line. The assault on this fortified line was part of their combat mission, set for the next morning.

While the Der Führer Regiment fought across the IJssel, Gauser's reconnaissance battalion operated in the area further south, in a formation known as the Grave Group. In addition to this regiment of "green SS", the "Grave Group" included two battalions of the 254th Wehrmacht Infantry Division. One of the two battalions was machine gun, the other was artillery. Divided into two separate detachments, the Grave Group was to play a role similar to that of the Der Führer regiment. In order to help the main forces of the 18th Army in its advance through Belgium and the Netherlands, these units were intended to capture the bridge that crossed the Waal River near the city of Nijmegen, as well as a number of bridges over canals near Hatert, Heyman, Malden and Neuerbosch.

Unlike the soldiers of the Der Führer Regiment, the soldiers of the SS reconnaissance battalion and their colleagues from the Wehrmacht survived a hard day. Although one of the units that were part of the "Gruppe Grave" managed to secure the bridge over the canal near Heyman, other units met with fierce resistance from the guards intended for the capture of targets and suffered heavy losses. In the battle for the bridge at Hathert, every single rank of the German assault detachment that took part in the operation was killed or wounded. However, the wounded managed to recapture the bridge before the retreating Dutch could seriously damage it.

In the areas of other targets, the enemy forces managed to destroy the bridges before they fell into the hands of the Germans. Despite these failures, the Germans managed to destroy the line of fortified enemy bunkers in the area of ​​​​the city of Neerbosch, thus providing the 18th Army with the opportunity to force the Meuse-Waal Canal without meeting resistance from the Dutch troops operating from well-fortified shelters. After completing this combat mission, the reconnaissance battalion again joined the main forces of the SS Special Purpose Division.

On the second day of the offensive, the Der Fuhrer regiment returned to combat work and continued to show good results. On this day, he wedged into the location of the II and IV Dutch corps and cracked their defenses on the "Grebbe Line" - the second echelon of defense created by the Western Allies in Holland. Not surprisingly, when the 18th Army followed this vanguard and continued its advance westward towards the coast, the situation for the Allied armies in Belgium and Holland became much more difficult. While three Dutch corps were driven back from the "Grebbe Line" and the "Pel Line", the Belgian army holding the defense to the south retreated from its defensive positions along the Albert Canal and took up new positions in the area stretching from Antwerp to the city of Louvain. These maneuvers left the 1st Light Mechanized Division of the French 7th Army isolated, under attack by the German 6th and 18th armies, and forced the French to retreat from the Netherlands.

On May 12, 1940, the 92nd Panzer Division reached the southern end of the Fortress Holland fortified area and came into contact with units of the 7th Parachute Division in the area of ​​the Moerdijk Bridges. To the north, other elements of the 18th Army advanced on Amsterdam. Impressed by the successes achieved by the Der Fuhrer Regiment on the IJssel and on the "Grebbe Line", the commander of the X Corps gave this part of the SS the honor of leading the assault on the eastern line of the "Fortress Holland". This area was the only important obstacle still remaining between the Germans and the ancient capital of Holland.

With great enthusiasm, "puffing with the spirit of the military" (as the ancient Russian chroniclers expressed it in such cases), the ranks of the Der Fuhrer regiment swiftly attacked the Dutch troops occupying the eastern end of the "Holland Fortress", and again made their way through the enemy lines, clearing the way for the X Corps, which as a result managed to pass at full speed through the city of Utrecht and enter Amsterdam. After the successful implementation of the operation, this part of the SS continued to advance until it reached the coastal cities of IJmuiden and Zandvoort. Although the troops of the garrisons of these cities resisted fiercely, they could not prevent the Der Führer regiment from breaking through their positions and capturing both cities. Two days later, the regiment joined the main forces of the SS Special Purpose Division in Marienburg.

Although the Der Führer Regiment received enormous recognition for its actions in Holland, the rest of the SS Division of the Special Forces never had to sniff gunpowder in Holland. During the initial period of Operation Gelb, the main body of Gausser's division arrived early in the offensive in two motorized columns at Hilvarenbeek, a Dutch town north of Antwerp. In case it was necessary to repel the British and French counteroffensive, the High Command of the German Ground Forces sent a division to this area in order to cover the left flank of the 18th Army. In the event that the expected Allied counteroffensive actually took place, the divisions were to hold their positions until the German infantry units arrived to help.

When it became clear that the Anglo-French offensive would not take place, the OKH ordered Gausser's division to attack the Allied forces in Northern Belgium in a lightning-fast, "blitzkrieg" style. True, the “green SS” division soon became convinced of the impossibility of completing this task, because it got into a military traffic jam that clogged the main roads between Holland and Belgium. In search of an alternative route to Belgium, Gausser sent reconnaissance parties. Their mission was to identify rural roads, using which the division could carry out a combat mission. Although some patrols found similar opportunities, the division received a new task before it could move south. This time, the High Command of the Ground Forces demanded that the SS Division of Special Purpose attack the Allied troops occupying the western tip of Holland.

Located near the Beveland peninsula, north of the mouth of the Scheldt (Scheldt) river, and connected to Beveland by a narrow concrete dam, the island of Walcheren was the last Dutch territory still in the hands of the Western Allies by mid-May. Since the rest of the country was already overrun by the German 18th Army, the demoralized Dutch army capitulated. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands fled with her government on a warship to Great Britain. Thus, the garrison of the island of Walcheren was cut off from the main forces of the Anglo-French troops, located at a considerable distance from the southern provinces of Holland, and could only escape from the Germans by sea. Encouraged by the results of the fighting, which ended throughout the country with the defeat of the opponents of the Third Reich, the Germans were confident that they could easily cope with the small Walcheren garrison with the help of Luftwaffe air raids and attacks by well-trained assault battalions, as they had done in previous fights.

Despite the menacing prospect of facing 21 heavy artillery battalions and enemy aircraft (six squadrons of dives and five squadrons of heavy bombers), the garrison of Walcheren refused to give the Germans a gift, surrendering to them without resistance. Little of! The Allied troops stationed on the island preferred to fight until evacuated by the British Navy - they wanted to force the Germans to take this piece of land with a fight. The command of the garrison was confident that its troops, supported by the artillery batteries of Antwerp and the warships of the British Navy, cruising off the coast of the Beveland peninsula, would make the Germans pay dearly for the capture of the island.

Battle for the island of Walcheren

Glory is the sun of the dead.

(Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French)

The garrison was also inspired to defend the island of Walcheren by its convenient geographical position for this purpose. It was not only that the Beveland peninsula was a narrow strip of land that did not allow an attacking force of any size to launch an offensive against the island in two or three columns, but also that most of the peninsula was flooded. This forced Gausser to throw his battalions across a cramped, narrow, bottle-necked isthmus, under dagger artillery and machine-gun fire. Allied gunners didn't even have to use their sights, they could aim right through the barrel. At the end of the peninsula, the Germans had only one overland route to reach the island. This single route led through a solid, concrete dam, a high embankment with a double-track carriageway and shoulders on either side no more than half a meter wide, descending steeply directly into the bog that connected the Beveland peninsula with the island of Walcheren and wide enough so that the Dutch were able to lay before the war on it, along with a two-lane asphalt highway, also a single-track railway.

For the planned attack on Walcheren, Paul Gausser selected two battalions from the Deutschland Regiment (1st and 3rd), considering these forces to be quite sufficient to cope with the garrison of the island. The 1st battalion was commanded by SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Witt, the 3rd battalion was commanded by SS-Sturmbannführer Matthias Kleingeisterkamp. Although Witt and Kleingeisterkamp initially planned to reach the island of Walcheren at the same time, acting in parallel, with two assault columns, the territory of the Beveland peninsula lying in their way was so flooded that Witt's 1st battalion was forced to form a 2nd echelon, standing in the back of the head of the soldiers of Kleingeisterkamp.

Having finally reached the island of Walcheren in the afternoon of May 16, 1940, the SS assault battalions ran into fierce resistance from the garrison. In the Westerdijk area, the ranks of the 3rd battalion had to make their way through a minefield, additionally reinforced with barbed wire, moving through swampy, well-shot enemy terrain, under heavy fire from enemy troops defending positions along the entire perimeter of the dam. At the same time, enemy artillery batteries based in Antwerp and British warships cruising off the island of Walcheren also fired on the SS assault columns. As the veteran of the Das Reich division, Paul Schurman, from the 9th company of the 3rd SS battalion of the Deutschland Regiment, later recalled: “We fired at a hurricane, but the enemy did not skimp on ammunition either. I was lying behind the dam to the right of the crossing. Machine guns fired furiously to my left as shells howled over our heads. The roar of the guns merged into an eerie rumble, and the clouds of smoke, dust and fog soon thickened so much that almost nothing was visible two or three meters away. I lay and, peering through the smoke, watched as our first comrades, crouching, as if walking against a strong wind, with rifles at the ready, approached the dam. One of them began to descend, the others still hesitated, as if waiting for something. Suddenly they turned back, instinctively trying to hide from the destructive fire of the enemy. I jumped up and ran downstairs. Several of our men had gathered in the recess overlooking the dam. We intercepted those retreating, turned around and drove them back - and some even had to be led by the hands! - until they were forced to move towards the dam again. During the landing on the island of Walcheren, the SS battalions lost sixteen people only killed and at least a hundred wounded, and the attack would certainly have bogged down if all the officers had not personally led the fighting of their units.

Dam attack

“To whom is memory, to whom is glory,

To whom - black water.

(Alexander Tvardovsky. "Vasily Terkin")

The SS men who landed on the shore of the island of Walcheren were met with the measured sound of enemy machine guns. The attackers lay low, and soon rapid bursts of German light machine guns crackled in response to the enemy. But the enemy was in a more advantageous position - he fired from machine guns from shelters, on well-targeted terrain. Paul Schurman, a participant in the breakthrough through the Walcheren dam, mentioned above, recalled: “I saw one of ours fall, then two more fell to my right, and then I saw another comrade lying face down. Some of the fallen were still alive, and tried, with the help of their teeth, to open their individual first-aid kits in order to bandage wounds on their arms or chest. Meanwhile, "our machine guns ceased fire one after another, and their calculations remained lying near them - silent, bloodied and pale."

During the lull that followed during the assault, Schurman noticed even more dead and wounded. In one place he saw one of his comrades, without uniform and shirt. This seriously wounded soldier "had a huge bloody hole in his back, and through this hole I could see his lungs breathing." Shyurman recalls: “I look - and to the left of me another comrade is walking back, almost with a marching step, straightening up, ignoring the bullets whistling in the air ... and not paying attention to the impending death. He has blood on his neck, and the uniform on his chest is also soaked with blood. Wandering eyes wide open, gray face, he looks directly over my head, as if he sees something behind me. To his right, Shyurman noticed another dead soldier “lying on his back. His hands were raised to the sky with crooked fingers.

Despite fierce resistance, the SS battalions stubbornly continued to advance, with difficulty making their way through the flooded, muddy territory of the Beveland peninsula and trying to reach the Walcheren dam as soon as possible. Here the German attack once again faltered in the face of even more fierce resistance from the garrison. Hiding in hastily dug rifle cells or behind railway cars, the SS grenadiers held the territory they occupied, while enemy machine gun and artillery crews fired at them from the other side of the dam. During the battle, the Germans lost seventeen more people killed and thirty wounded. Finally, the garrison of Walcheren, apparently having "drank their fill of German blood" and quite satisfied with the losses that he managed to inflict on the Deutschland regiment that day, considered it good to evacuate the island.

While the SS Division secured German control of the western tip of Holland, other troops of Army Group B took the Belgian capital of Brussels, passed through Belgium and northern France, and then fought their way to the English Channel. After the surrender of the Dutch army, the main body of the 18th Army was able to join this offensive and help drive a wedge between the Allied forces in northern France and the Anglo-French forces along the Somme. During the operation, the 18th Army was intended to cover the flanks of this wedge and had to make sure that the forces of the Western Allies, surrounded in the Dunkirk area, could not escape from the "boiler", being pressed back to the English Channel.

On May 20, 1940, the 1st Panzer Division of the German Wehrmacht entered the Atlantic Ocean near the city of Noyelles. The best armies of the French Republic, the British Expeditionary Force and the entire Belgian army were surrounded and, if desired, could easily be destroyed by the victorious troops of the Third Reich. German tanks turned to Dunkirk, trying to deprive the enemy of the last opportunity to escape by sea. The commander-in-chief of the British expeditionary force, General Lord Gort, who received the order to advance on Cambrai, soon felt the unreliability of the communications through which his troops were supplied from Dunkirk, regrouped forces and released two divisions to protect it. In London, on the same day, they realized that the situation on the continent was developing extremely unfavorably for the British corps, and they began to pull warships and civilian ships from everywhere to evacuate the troops of the Western Allies by sea. The position of the surrounded formations very soon became critical.

On the evening of May 22, the command of the XII Corps ordered the Special Purpose SS Division to continue advancing, together with the 6th and 8th Panzer Divisions, towards the port of Calais to reinforce the German positions west and south of the Dunkirk perimeter and tighten the encirclement around the desperately resisting troops Western allies. The "green SS" was also given a special task - to force the La Base canal and prevent enemy forces from trying to break out of the boiler through the canal south of the city of Kassel. In addition, the Special Purpose SS Division was to create bridgeheads along the canal and drive the British troops out of the Nieppe Forest.

Although the soldiers of Paul Gausser were exhausted from many days of marches and battles, they still had high morale and rejoiced at the prospect of playing an important role in the battle for Western Europe. During their march to the La Base Canal, units of the "Green SS" covered the right flank of the XII Corps, moving towards the city of Eure. Gausser received a message from the headquarters of the 18th Army with the order to return to their original positions. Thoroughly exhausted parts of the SS settled down for the night in the open air a little to the south, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe city of St. Hilaire.

Unfortunately for the soldiers of the SS Division of Special Purpose, the enemy troops did not allow them to relax and rest. During the night, separate groups of defeated French mechanized and infantry units now and then fell upon Gausser's troops in an attempt to make a breakthrough from the Dunkirk "boiler". In the early morning of May 23, a mechanized French battalion overran the 9th company of the Der Fuhrer regiment. French tank formations surrounded the 10th and 11th companies of the regiment.

On the same day, but somewhat later, the 5th and 7th companies of the DF regiment were also attacked by the French, who had escaped from the "cauldron" in the Blessi area. The soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the Der Führer Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the SS Artillery Regiment settled in the area for the night to rest after participating in an unsuccessful battle for the Germans with a desperate enemy. They fought like animals driven into a corner. During the battle, Karl Kreutz, the rising star of the SS-FT division, witnessed the death of the careless commander of his battalion: “I saw Erpsenmüller. He stood next to me and calmly smoked a cigarette. Then he asked: “Kreutz, why are you shooting at them? They are already prisoners of war! The next moment, as I was reloading my rifle, I saw him fall, shot through the head. He was lying head first, face to the ground, and the unextinguished cigarette was still smoking between the fingers of his left hand. Wow prisoners of war!

After recovering from the shock caused by the sudden attack of the French, the Germans rallied and began to defend in earnest. Although surrounded on all sides by enemy tanks, a platoon of anti-tank guns from the 7th company of the Der Fuhrer regiment destroyed at least fifteen enemy combat vehicles. As the day progressed, the French attacks on St. Hilaire gradually weakened, and the Germans seized the initiative, conducting well-coordinated counterattacks with infantry and anti-tank units operating in close cooperation. By the end of the battle, the 3rd battalion of the Der Fuhrer regiment alone had thirteen destroyed tanks. The SS division - FT took more than five hundred prisoners of war. In this battle, the regiment fought against enemy tanks for the first time.

Other units of the SS also performed well during the battle, during which the division's front was broken through at the La Base canal. SS-Untersturmführer Fritz Vogt, who commanded a thirty-man motorcycle patrol detachment, noticed a mechanized column of French troops advancing east, in the direction of the city of Masingem. Fritz Vogt, who was an officer in the 2nd company of the SS reconnaissance detachment (battalion), had already received recognition for his skillful leadership of the troops during the assault on the Meuse-Waal Canal, which was defended by a strong Dutch garrison. In France, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his successful actions against a French mechanized column.

Convinced that his anti-tank gun crews were ready to open fire on the French column, Vogt ordered his men to fire first on the light armored cars that brought up the rear of the French column. Having shot these easily vulnerable targets, the anti-tank gun crews took under fire the tanks that were marching at the head of the column, which was cut off from the retreat. Demoralized and panic-stricken, the French soldiers chose to surrender to the mercy of the victors. So a sentinel detachment of only thirty people captured a whole mechanized battalion of the enemy.

Tough fights

In the power of the brave, it is an honor to be beautiful.

(Count Palatine)

Unexpectedly for the Germans, the battle near St. Hilaire ended. The remnants of the French assault group retreated to the other side of the La Base Canal and returned to the Dunkirk "boiler". Although the soldiers of the SS-FTU division successfully repulsed the counterattack, they were depressed by the unexpected difficulties they encountered in the course of the fight against the French Renault-35 tanks and other even larger and heavier enemy combat vehicles. The German anti-tank guns were not powerful enough, their the shells could not penetrate the armor of these enemy tanks, except for firing at close range, almost at point blank range.In some cases, the calculations of the German anti-tank guns had to let the enemy tanks up to a distance of five meters in order to be able to disable them for sure.That is why the main gun of the German anti-tank artillery - the 37-mm PAK cannon, somehow, at least from close range, capable of fighting against light English and French tanks, but subsequently turned out to be absolutely useless against the armored units of the Red Army during campaigns on the Eastern Front, was with gloomy irony nicknamed by the Germans themselves "mallet". The insufficient firepower of the German division was one of the reasons for the initially successful breakthrough of the French mechanized units through the battle formations of the division.

On May 24, the SS Special Forces Division crossed the La Base Canal, established bridgeheads along the canal, and advanced eight kilometers into enemy lines until they were stopped by British soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division. Despite fierce British counterattacks, the Germans held their ground and defended their bridgeheads. Even before the battle was over, the SS-FT division received orders to move northwest on 26 May and launch an attack on the British forces positioned in the Nieppe Forest.

The next morning, the SS Special Purpose Division began an assault on the forest. The German regiment advanced on the right flank, and the Der Fuhrer regiment advanced on the left. Meanwhile, the reconnaissance battalion moved forward, forming a center between the 1st and 3rd battalions of the Der Führer regiment. Not surprisingly, the woodland made it easier for the British defenders of the forest to defend themselves. They also made full use of the defensive capabilities of well-designed field fortifications.

When the SS battalions began to storm the Nieppe forest, the enemy riflemen inflicted heavy losses on them. On the right flank of the advancing units, snipers from the British Her Majesty the Queen's Own West Kent Regiment met the German SS Regiment with a hail of deadly lead. Despite these difficulties, the "Green SS" did not relax their efforts to drive the British garrisons out of the forest, using their superior numbers and fighting in an extremely aggressive manner.

At the end of this eventful day, the soldiers of the Germany regiment fought their way to the city of Haverskerk, while the Der Fuhrer regiment broke through the Bois d'Amon and reached the Nieppe Canal. In these areas, the SS men found anti-tank rifles abandoned by the hastily retreating enemy soldiers. Having tested this weapon at a shooting range arranged from auxiliary means, the Germans came to the conclusion that armor-piercing bullets fired from captured anti-tank rifles strongly deviate from the target. This conclusion turned out to be incorrect, which was later proved by the use of similar weapons by the British near Dunkirk.

On May 26, it became clear to the British and French that attempts to break out of the "cauldron" to the south were completely pointless and could not bring any success. The resistance of the Belgians soon completely weakened, and the only way out was surrounded - a retreat to the sea. Operation Dynamo began (code designation for measures to evacuate allied forces surrounded by the Germans in the Dunkirk area). The British Expeditionary Force, abandoning all their equipment (three thousand and artillery pieces, six hundred tanks, forty-five thousand vehicles and many other military equipment) rushed to the English Channel to seek salvation on board the British ships.

The day of May 28 brought great relief to the armies of the Third Reich advancing on the Dunkirk pocket. On this day, the Belgian King Leopold III capitulated with his entire army. The surrender of the Belgians allowed the German 6th and 18th Armies, which had previously acted against them, to hit the eastern edge of the perimeter occupied by the Allied forces. This surrender, combined with the successful advance of von Kleist's and Hoth's panzer groups south and west of Dunkirk, drove the retreating Allied forces into a small and narrow patch of land between the city of Ypres in the east and the Franco-Belgian border. Since the Nieppe Forest was now located in the territory of the wedge aimed at isolation and encirclement, the command of the British Expeditionary Force withdrew other regiments from this threatened sector of Her Majesty's Own West Kent Regiment and withdrew them to positions in the immediate vicinity of the English Channel.

While Regiment Germania, Regiment Der Führer and the reconnaissance battalion fought the British in the Nieppe Forest, Steiner, at the head of his Regiment Deutschland, as part of the 3rd Panzer Division, advanced on Merville. On May 27, this part of the "green SS" ran into a new British defense line along the Lissky Canal. After artillery preparation, which weakened the defense of the enemy positions, Steiner threw his 3rd battalion on the defending British and put them to flight. On the same day, but somewhat later, two battalions crossed to the other side of the Lissky Canal and created bridgeheads for the main German forces following them to cross.

By this time, the SS Division Totenkopf was supposed to have arrived in the area long ago to help consolidate German control over this section of the canal, but in reality it was still at a distance of several kilometers from it. Meanwhile, the SS Regiment Deutschland was counterattacked by British mechanized units. Despite the valiant resistance of the SS soldiers, their rifles and grenades could not penetrate the armor of the British tanks advancing on them. Having suffered huge losses, they were saved from final destruction only by the arrival of a company of anti-tank guns from the Totenkopf Division, who repulsed the British tank attack with concentrated fire. Under the cover of nearby artillery batteries, the surviving British tanks finally retreated.

The general conclusion that the commanders and ranks of the SS units made for themselves from the course of the fighting in the West, judging by the memoirs of the surviving veterans, was basically the following. The German 37-millimeter anti-tank guns-"mallets" turned out to be ineffective against the tanks of the Western Allies - especially against the heavy (infantry) British tanks of the "Matilda", "Vallentine" and "Churchill" types (which had to be shot almost point-blank or with the help of 88 -millimeter anti-aircraft guns - where they were in service!) and against medium (cruising) tanks "Cruiser" and "Cromwell". As for the light tanks of the enemy - for example, the English "Tetrarchs", then (as Walter Rosenwald, a veteran of the Der Führer regiment, recalled in a conversation with the author), when German thirty-seven millimeter shells hit them, they "lit up like matches."

Long-awaited vacation

"Dare - and you will become who you want to be"

(William Shakespeare. "Twelfth Night")

After the end of the fighting for the Lys Canal and the Nieppe Forest, the SS Division of Special Purpose was withdrawn to the Cambrai region, where it was given a short rest, after which it was to resume the pursuit of the retreating British troops on May 31. While the Germany regiment was advancing through the Mont de Cat, the Der Fuhrer regiment entered the city of Kassel. Standing on top of the hill that dominated the city, the soldiers enjoyed the magnificent view of the Dunkirk perimeter that met their eyes. They did not have the opportunity to take part in the final blow to tighten the knot at the throat of the encircled Anglo-French troops, crowded in the boiler awaiting evacuation to England. On the evening of June 1, 1940, the SS Special Purpose Division received an order to withdraw from the Dunkirk area and redeploy to the Bapoma area, where it was to take on reinforcements.

At this time, the Gausser division received about two thousand officers and lower ranks to replenish the losses suffered by the division in battles since the start of Operation Gelb. Thanks to the arrival of reinforcements, most of the companies of the division were finally fully staffed, so that now the guard duty and other not very attractive duties for each individual rank of the division had to be carried out not as often as before. When the Germans finally occupied Dunkirk on June 4, 1940, the SS Special Forces Division and other formations were already in full swing preparing for the start of Operation Mouth (Operational Plan Red, developed by the OKH with the aim of conquering the rest of France).

This operational plan provided for the advance of three groups of German armies to the south in three operational directions. North of Reims, Army Group B embarked on Operational Plan Roth, launching an offensive on June 5 over a wide area stretching from the Atlantic coast to the River Ain. Four days after von Bock's forces launched this offensive, Army Group A followed them, moving into the corridor between the river and the Franco-German border. While the French divisions garrisoning the Maginot Line turned their full attention to the enemy looming over them from the West, Army Group C crossed the frontier and attacked the Maginot Line from the east. As a result, the French soldiers of the 2nd and 3rd Army Groups were surrounded, squeezed like a vise by two powerful German groups.

Although the French army still had at least sixty divisions stationed south of the Somme, it was weakened by huge losses and bled dry by Luftwaffe air strikes. All this played into the hands of the German Army Groups "A" and "B", which broke through the defensive line hastily created by the French General Maxime Weygand, who replaced General Gamelin as Commander-in-Chief, along the Aisne River. Having quickly broken through the "Weigan Line", the Germans continued to move rapidly south without slowing down. On June 14, the troops of Army Group "B", without meeting resistance, entered Paris, abandoned by the government of the French Republic and declared an "open city". The Kolovrat flag flew over the Eiffel Tower.

Decline in French morale

Every Frenchman felt like a victim in advance.

(Emmanuel d'Astier. "Seven days of defeat")

It is not surprising that the actual surrender of the capital led to a sharp drop in the morale of the French soldiers and inspired the Germans to intensify the onslaught in all directions. Three days later, the encircled French Army of the East was thrown into complete disarray when the powerful armored spearheads of Army Groups A and C, supported by squadrons of heavy and dive bombers, crashed into the pocket south of the city of Nancy. On June 22, 1940, all French forces concentrated in the area capitulated.

During the implementation of the operational plan "Rot", the SS Division of Special Purpose operated as part of the von Kleist Panzer Group and participated in the advance south of the Somme River as part of Army Group "B" in the west. On the night before the start of the operation, the division was subjected to fierce but ineffective artillery fire, while suffering minor losses. The next day, the SS regiments counterattacked. Despite the destruction of the bridge, which they intended to use to cross the river, the calculations of the SS artillery regiment and heavy weapons companies began shelling the enemy positions on the opposite bank. Meanwhile, the grenadiers of the Deutschland regiment crossed the river and immediately forced the defending French into a hasty retreat.

As the Germans approached Paris, the French began to offer more stubborn resistance to the advancing SS division. Although Der Führer's regiment succeeded in crossing the River Ain, concentrated enemy fire forced Gausser to withdraw his forces and take a more easterly route for them, where French resistance was not so stubborn. After the troops of Army Group B entered Paris, the SS Special Forces Division and other parts of Panzergruppe von Kleist continued their offensive in a southerly direction, trying to penetrate as deep as possible deep into French territory, as enemy resistance weakened. While the XVI Panzer Corps in the southeast reached the city of Dijon, units of Gausser, as part of the XIV Motorized Corps, continued to advance through southwestern France.

In this region, the SS - Verfugungs division defeated the enemy forces concentrated around Orleans, Tours and Poitiers, after which they allowed themselves a short rest. At that time, participation in the invasion became increasingly difficult for the troops of Gausser, as they moved towards the Franco-Spanish border, due to the ever-increasing heat. Near the city of Angouleme, Felix Steiner, a company of the Deutschland regiment and a group of SS artillerymen, in search of suitable apartments, suddenly noticed an approaching column of retreating French soldiers who mistook German soldiers for English.

Noticing these troops and allowing them to freely enter the city, parts of the "green SS" surrounded Angouleme. The German commanders met with the mayor of the city and warned him that they would destroy the city with artillery in case of the slightest resistance. Meanwhile, the SS Division of Special Purpose entered the city. The mayor accepted the ultimatum without hesitation. The Germans disarmed the city's small garrison and escorted French prisoners of war to Steiner's headquarters. In the final period of the campaign, the SS division carried out several more similar operations. During this time, SS units took a total of thirty thousand prisoners, losing only thirty-three people killed, wounded and sick during their march through southwestern France.

On June 25, Operation Roth ended. The new French government is no longer the French Republic, but the French State (Etat Francais)! - led by the hero of the Great War - the eighty-four-year-old old man Marshal Henri Philippe Petain (the famous defender of the famous fortress of Verdun in 1916) agreed to the terms of the peace dictated by the Axis powers (by that time France had declared war and emboldened fascist Italy, which seized the area of ​​Nice). Under the terms of the armistice, France was divided into two zones. The southern zone, not occupied by German troops, was under the control of Marshal Petain, as a nominally independent, friendly state to the Axis powers, with its capital in the small resort town of Vichy. The northern, much larger part of France came under German control. In addition, a narrow strip of the Atlantic coast, reaching the Franco-Spanish border, belonged to the zone occupied by German troops. The Special Purpose SS Division and the Dead Head Division guarded this territory until the beginning of July 1940. According to the memoirs of Otto Skorzeny, who served at the time described in the ranks of the SS-FT division, she, along with other German and Spanish units, was to participate in planned by Hitler, but canceled due to too long hesitation of the Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco, who did not want to quarrel ahead of time with the powerful British Empire, the operation to capture the English naval fortress of Gibraltar - "the key to the Mediterranean Sea".

During the campaigns in Western Europe, the Germans lost about twenty-seven thousand people killed, one hundred and eleven thousand wounded and more than eighteen thousand missing. The French lost ninety-two thousand killed, two hundred and fifty thousand wounded and no less than one million four hundred and fifty thousand prisoners, while their western allies got off with lighter losses. The British lost only 3,000 and 457 killed and about 16,000 wounded. The Dutch lost two thousand and eight hundred and ninety men killed and six thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine wounded, while the Belgians lost seven thousand five hundred men killed and fifteen thousand eight hundred and fifty wounded.

For the ranks of the Waffen SS divisions, the fighting in Western Europe was a new opportunity to demonstrate their combat skills and military prowess. After the completion of the conquest of France, many of them were awarded and promoted for their bravery and courage in battle. Among the ranks of the SS Special Forces Division were awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, Obersturmführer Fritz Vogtiz of the reconnaissance battalion, SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Wittiz of the 1st battalion of the Deutschland regiment and SS-Hauptsturmführer Ludwig Kepplingerie of the 11th company of the Der Führer regiment. In addition, Felix Steiner received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for the successful command of the Deutschland Regiment, and Georg Keppler for the equally successful command of the Der Führer Regiment.

Notes:

Pentagram, or pentkal (pantacle) - a five-pointed (in heraldry - "five-stinged") star (first encountered on Sumerian-Akkadian clay tablets) is a magical figure that personified the goddess of the "morning star" Ishtar (Istara) among the ancient Chaldeans, whose name literally means "(five-pointed) star" (the Chaldean Ishtar-Istara corresponds to the Phoenician Astarte, the Canaanite Asherei of the Parthian-Armenian Astghik-Astlik); considered the emblem of the Pythagoreans ("pentalph") and related - along with the hexagram (the six-pointed "seal of David" or the "star of Solomon") - among the most common magic symbols in witchcraft practice of late antiquity and the Middle Ages, gradually penetrating into heraldry. In the era of the European Enlightenment (XVII century), it established itself as one of the favorite symbols of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons, becoming, in particular, one of the main figures of the state emblem and flag of the United States of America (whose founding fathers were a separate Masonic lodge). The inverted pentagram (as a schematic representation of the head of a goat, in the form of which Lucifer appeared to his adherents at the "black masses") still symbolizes the satanic (Luciferian) anti-church. Perhaps that is why the stars on the shoulder straps and buttonholes of the German army, the SA and SS assault detachments under Hitler (as, indeed, many soldiers of the white volunteer corps - for example, the Russian-German "Baltic Landeswehr" in 1918-1919) were not five-pointed, but quadrangular. Despite all these indisputable facts, the red five-pointed star has remained with us in Russia a comprehensive symbol of the "glory of our weapons", since the founding by L.D. Trotsky in 1918 of the Red Army (on the first order of which - the Order of the Red Banner of War - exactly the inverted pentagram was depicted) and for many of our compatriots, being in their minds distorted by decades of Bolshevik propaganda, firmly associated with the concepts of loyalty to military duty, heroism and victories in the fields Great Patriotic War. However, the lack of a unified historical and philosophical approach to the traditional historical national Russian symbolism that is now reviving in our country inevitably and almost everywhere leads to an unexpected, absolutely chimerical combination in one of its attributes (for example, on the field of the coat of arms, the flag or battle banner) completely antagonistic and mutually hostile to each other, in their deepest essence, symbols. So, for example, the ancient symbol of Russian statehood, inherited from the Orthodox Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), inherited from us of the same faith, at least since the time of the Grand Duke of Moscow and the sovereign of all Russia Ivan III - the double-headed eagle - was placed on the banner of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation along with ... five-pointed stars (!), under the sign of which, quite recently, a merciless, bloody struggle was waged on Russian soil not only with the cultural-historical and religious-moral Russian identity, but also with the very ethnic integrity of the Great Russians!

Just before the end of World War II, in the spring of 1945, the XV Cossack Cavalry Corps of the German Wehrmacht under the command of General Helmut von Pannwitz was included in the SS troops under the name XIV Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS, which, however, in the conditions prevailing by that time was purely formal in nature (so , for example, none of the ranks of the corps, except for von Pannwitz himself, had an SS rank, did not wear an SS uniform and personal numbers, mandatory for all SS ranks, tattooed under his arm).

Freikorps; for some reason, in Russian-language literature they often write about these white German detachments in the singular - "Volunteer Corps" - although we are talking about more than two thousand units and subunits that never had a single command or a single organization!

Norwegian: Nasjonal Samling (NS); a similar (ZBOR) name was given to the Serbian Orthodox-monarchist fascist organization of Dmitry Letich, who collaborated with the German occupation authorities during World War II, from among whose members the "Serbian SS Volunteer Corps" (Serbisches Freiwilligenkorps der SS) was formed.

German: Macht mir den rechten Fluegel stark!

English: British Expeditionary Force (BEF); in Russian-language literature, the expression "British Expeditionary Force" (BEC) is also accepted.

All the more impressive, given the small size of the Dutch army, is the fact that in the future, the Waffen SS fought two divisions completely manned by the Dutch plus a significant Dutch contingent as part of the SS division "Viking", not counting the Dutch ("German") territorial "SS units general purpose in the Netherlands", or "Dutch parts of the SS general purpose" (Algemeene SS in Nederland / Nederlaandsche SS).

Perhaps, to tell in this group (VK: WWII) lovers of the history of the Second World War about such well-known moments in history is trite. On the other hand, there are such amazing versions about the fatefulness of dirty underpants here that a small educational program is quite useful. Yes, besides - to general confusion, and the Gelb plan itself is not just one document, but a whole bunch of options for an offensive plan, the first and last of which are radically opposite in essence.
So, even before the end of the complete occupation of Poland - September 27, 1939 - the development of a plan for an offensive against France began. The purpose of the operation was: destroy, if possible, large associations of the French army and allies on its side, and at the same time capture as much of the territory of Holland, Belgium and Western France in order to create a springboard for the successful conduct of air and sea war against England and expand the buffer zone of the vital Ruhr areas».
On 19 October, the plan for Operation Gelb was presented to the OKH. Army Group "A" advanced through Luxembourg and the Ardennes, Army Group "C" demonstrated an attack on the Maginot Line, Army Group " N ”was advancing in northern Holland. And the main blow to this plan was delivered by Army Group B: it was supposed to defeat the armies of Belgium and Holland, as well as the Anglo-French troops that would come to the aid of the Belgians. The end result of the operation was to be an exit to the river Somme.

OKH plan of October 19, 1939
Here it is necessary to make a small digression and explain why the Germans were sure that the Anglo-French troops would meet them in Belgium. Of course, "everyone knows that the French screwed up by building the Maginot Line." But in fact, the construction of the Maginot Line was supposed to prevent a German attack on France along the shortest route. And in this regard, the Maginot Line fulfilled its task: the Germans no longer even thought of delivering their main blow here. For Germany, there was only one available way to attack France - through Belgium and Luxembourg, this was obvious to both the Germans and the French. Naturally, the French had prepared a plan in advance to repel the German offensive through the Benelux countries: the French troops marched to Belgium and there, in pre-prepared positions, together with the Belgian troops, met the German troops.
The first version of the Gelb plan did not suit anyone. In his analysis, it was obvious that the French had time to reach Belgium and join the Belgian army - i.e. the plan did not at all guarantee the defeat of the enemy, but threatened to turn the war into a "positional stalemate." October 29 was created new version plan "Gelb"


OKH plan of October 29, 1939
According to the new plan, the forces of Army Group "B" were significantly strengthened by pouring into it the army group " N ", as well as 12 divisions from army groups "A" and "C". The start date of the offensive was also set - November 12. But even this version of the plan did not at all guarantee the defeat of the enemy forces and was subjected to criticism and revision. And the date of the offensive was postponed due to adverse weather conditions (subsequently, the start of the offensive was postponed another two dozen times).
And it was here that Manstein appeared in the history of the emergence of the Gelb plan. At that time he was the chief of staff of Army Group A and he really did not like the already available options for the plan. On October 31, he sent his proposals to the OKH headquarters to change the offensive plan. Although Manstein's proposals were rejected, they were reported to Hitler.


Manstein plan
The essence of Manstein's proposals was that the main one was inflicted by Army Group "A", while Army Group "B" tied up the enemy forces in Belgium. Manstein believed that when the most combat-ready Anglo-French forces advanced to Belgium, the Dinan-Sedan sector would be weakened and the French troops there would not be able to resist the invasion, and the French troops already in Belgium would not have time to return in time. It turned out that all the enemy troops in Belgium would be cut off by the offensive of Army Group A from the main forces and rear, falling into the actual encirclement.
Manstein's plan promised the complete defeat of the Belgian enemy grouping and the capture of northern France, but why was he rejected by the OKH headquarters? The fact is that despite the fact that “everyone knows that the Germans fought in World War II according to the theory of blitzkrieg,” the Germans at the beginning of World War II fought the old fashioned way. Among the German generals there were supporters of new methods of warfare - when mechanized formations were to be the main striking force of the offensive, and the infantry followed, gaining a foothold in the occupied territories and finishing off the enemy troops dissected by "tank wedges". But most of the top German generals considered such ideas dubious. And, although the elements of the "blitzkrieg" were quite successfully tested in the Polish company, this did not convince them: the German command still considered the infantry to be the main striking force.
Therefore, the headquarters of the OKH considered that the Ardennes - a mountainous and wooded area, with a minimum of roads - would slow down the pace of the German offensive, thereby ruining the whole plan. In fact: 170 km of mountain roads (of which there are only four) infantry units with an average rate of movement of 20-25 km per day, with battles and inevitable traffic jams, will pass in 9-10 days. During this time, the French will be able to bring their troops to the Ardennes, and the advancing German infantry units will be demoralized by constant bombing from the air. Manstein's idea to strike with tank and motorized formations (with an average rate of movement of 15 km per hour) and pass the Ardennes in 4-5 days was considered a gamble.
Hitler agreed with the OKH, although he suggested that "every preparatory measure be taken to shift the direction of the main attack of operations from the Army Group B zone to the Army Group A zone, if there, as can be assumed from the current deployment of forces, it is possible to achieve faster and more global successes than that of Army Group B.
Manstein, however, did not calm down and continued to send his proposals to the OKH headquarters. He also consulted with Guderian and convinced the commander of Army Group A, Rundstedt, to support his proposed plan. In the end, the restless Manstein was removed from the post of chief of staff and appointed to command an army corps, emerging in Stettin. Formally, this was a promotion, but in fact, Manstein, who was annoying the OKH, was obviously decided to be pushed further to the rear, thereby preventing him from participating in the discussion of the Gelb plan.
While Manstein bombarded the headquarters of the OKH with his proposals, adjustments to the plan of October 29 continued there, new dates for the start of the offensive were appointed and canceled. And on January 10, the “Mechelen Incident” happened (those same “dirty underpants”), as a result of which the German plans were in the hands of the enemy. In addition to Hitler's fury, this event led to another correction of the Gelb plan and another postponement of the start date of the offensive. The new plan - dated January 30, 1940 - again proceeded from the previous ideas of the OKH, although it assigned a large role in the offensive to mechanized formations.


OKH plan of January 30, 1940
In the first half of February, for the final running-in of offensive plans, the OKH held operational map games. The analysis of the results of the games was disappointing for the Germans: the plan did not at all guarantee success, and the disruption of the offensive as a result of enemy counterattacks was very likely. Even Halder, the author of the basic concept of the OKH plan, stated in his diary: doubts about the success of the operation as a whole».
And it just so happened that just at that time Manstein was in Berlin - he came to introduce himself to the high command on the occasion of his appointment as corps commander. On February 17, 1940, he met with Hitler and did not fail to tell him about his ideas. Whether Hitler had his own strategic ideas is hard to say, but the fact that he was very dissatisfied with the already existing Gelb plan is absolutely certain. The Manstein plan, for all its adventurism, promised the possibility of a decisive victory. And the already existing OKH plan, at best, promised a successful start of a positional war - this was understood not only by Hitler, but also by most of the generals in the German high command. However, not all: the same Von Bock fiercely criticized Manstein's plan to the last. But the Germans nevertheless decided to take a chance, and the final version of the Gelb plan, approved on February 24, was created on the basis of Manstein's plan, who nevertheless pushed through his line.


The final version of the Gelb plan

According to the plan, Army Group B attacked Belgium and Holland. Its main task was to assure the enemy that the Germans undertook to carry out the same Schlieffen plan, and to lure Anglo-French troops into Belgium. But the main blow was dealt by Army Group A: its vanguard - the Kleist tank group (in which 7 out of 10 German tank divisions participating in the offensive were concentrated) - had to break through the Ardennes in the shortest possible time and capture the crossing across the river Meuse. The further offensive of Army Group A - from Sedan to the English Channel - cut the front of the German opponents in two, cutting off the Belgian enemy grouping from the rear. Well, Army Group C was supposed to demonstrate with all its might the desire of the Germans to storm the Maginot Line and not allow the French to transfer troops from there.

On May 10, 1940, at 5:35 a.m., German troops began to carry out the Gelb plan.
The Germans' calculation of the inertia and inertness of the thinking of the French command was fully justified - the French did not have time to prevent the German march through the Ardennes in time. The advanced units of the German troops managed to cross the Ardennes and reach the Meuse River by the middle of the third day of the offensive - in just 57 hours. By this time, the Anglo-French troops had already managed to enter Belgium and get involved in the fighting. In addition, after the Mechelen incident, the French command almost doubled the grouping advancing to Belgium - up to 32 divisions. Including the French 7th Army, which was previously intended for the strategic reserve and stationed just opposite the Ardennes, went to Belgium. H German troops cut off the Franco-British forces that had gone to Belgium, defeated their rear and supply lines, forced them to fight on two fronts - against Army Group B advancing from the German-Belgian border and Army Group A, advancing from the rear.
Having defeated the enemy in Belgium and Holland, the Germans regrouped their forces and hit France in several directions. Organized by Weygand (the new French commander), the mobile defense lasted a little over a week, and then the French asked the Germans for a truce, in fact capitulating.

Manstein's ideas proved their worth and led the Germans to victory.

Three-engine passenger Ju 52 / 3m were operated in many countries of the world. The largest number of cars served in the German airline Deutsche Lufthansa. She received the first Ju 52 / 3mce aircraft on May 1, and the second on September 10, 1932. From November, the Junkers entered the Munich-Milan-Rome line, and a few years later became the most common aircraft in German civil aviation. They served both domestic and international lines. Ju 52/3m flew to all European capitals. In 1934, pilot Untukht flew from Berlin to Shanghai on a Junkers. From 1936, the Germans began flights to Kabul in Afghanistan. One of the longest routes of Lufthansa was the line Berlin - Rio de Janeiro via Seville and Bathurst.

All German civil aircraft had their own names, which were applied on board near the cockpit. They were given in honor of various prominent figures. About a dozen cars before the war were assigned as personal to the top leaders of the Reich. Hitler flew the Immelmann plane, Goering flew the Manfred von Richthofen, and Field Marshal von Blomberg flew the Hermann Goering. Ju 52 / 3m formed the backbone of the Lufthansa fleet until the end of World War II.

Since 1934, the Junkers have been operated by the Soviet-German company Deruluft on the Moscow-Berlin line. It owned three cars, which had the names "Condor", "Cormoran" and "Milan". The liners were registered in Germany. Landing in Moscow was carried out at the Central Airfield, but at one time they also landed in Bykovo. In winter, "Deruluft" cars were put on skis.

In general, Ju 52 / 3m were in the fleet of 30 airlines from 25 countries, in particular: Aero (Finland), AGO (Estonia), Olag (Austria), Sabena (Belgium), DDL (Denmark) and others. Junkers were bought even by states with their own developed aircraft manufacturing. For example, one car flew in the colors of British Airways. IN Latin America Ju 52 / 3m were part of the fleet of three companies in Brazil (Varig, VASP and Condor Syndicate). They were also available at Aeropost Argentina, LAB (Bolivia), CAUSA (Uruguay), SETA (Ecuador). In Peru, the Junkers used the local branch of Lufthansa.

Many Latin American companies were wholly or partly owned by German capital. In September 1941, under US pressure, Ecuador requisitioned two Ju 52 / 3m from the Condor Syndicate. One of them was handed over to the Americans as a trophy at the beginning of 1942. The American crew accepted the aircraft in Talara (Peru) and flew it to the Albrook Field base in the Panama Canal Zone. "Junker" became part of the US Army Air Force as C-79. The entire engine setup has been replaced. The place of the “native” BMW 132 engines was taken by the American R-1690-23 (also “hornets”) with a power of 525 hp each. The hoods were taken from the DC-2. The C-79 was operated by the 20th transport squadron until the end of 1943. Then it was sold to Costa Rica, and from there in 1948 it was resold to Nicaragua. A year later, the plane crashed on landing and was never recovered.

In Africa, Ju 52 / 3m served in Mozambique (DETA) and the Union of South Africa (South African Airways). In China, they were flown by German crews of the Eurasia Joint Society.

Baptism of fire

The first war in which the Ju 52/3m was used was in South America. Colombia fought with Peru. In August 1932, Peruvian troops captured the border port of Letizia in the upper reaches of the Amazon. Three "Junkers" of the Colombian Air Force deployed reinforcements to the border, which managed to stop the advance of the enemy. The conflict ended in July 1933.

Then the Bolivian-Paraguayan War began. In 1928, the American company Standard Oil found oil in the sparsely populated frontier region of Chaco. Perhaps this is what spurred the neighbors to conflict. In the same year, the first armed clashes took place on an ill-defined border. The lukewarm skirmishes escalated into something more serious when, in June 1932, the Bolivian president declared war on Paraguay.

In October 1932, the Bolivian company LAB received the first Junker from Germany. From the end of the year, he began regular flights to the front. Weapons, ammunition, food, and medicines were brought to the forward airfield of Villa Montes. They even moved cannons; at the same time, their carriages had to be disassembled. The wounded were evacuated on return flights. In 1933, two more planes arrived to the Bolivians, they were not even registered as civilians.

But the LAB crews, consisting of Germans, both local and hired in Germany, flew on all three machines. I had to work in difficult conditions. Heat during the day and rather cool nights, dust, primitive airfields without any equipment. Nevertheless, before the end of the war in July 1935, three Junkers transported up to 40,000 soldiers and 4,850 tons of various cargoes. True, this did not help the Bolivians - they still lost the war.

The last Bolivian Ju 52/3m crashed in November 1940.

Revival of the Luftwaffe

The Treaty of Versailles prohibited Germany from having military aircraft. The Germans constantly tried to circumvent this limitation. After the Nazis came to power, these attempts became even more active.

Under the guise of a Lufthansa flight school, the training of bomber aircraft crews began. Formally, the school was subordinate to ... the railway department. It taught mainly navigation and blind flight techniques. Pilots practiced cross-country instrument flight at night and in the clouds. The school received both new Junkers from the factory and old cars from Lufthansa. All aircraft carried civil designations.

On April 10, 1934, the Reich Commissar for Aviation Goering gave a secret order to form the first bomber squadron in Nuremberg by October 1. It was supposed to consist of three squadrons.

It began with the creation of the Auxiliary Bomber Squadron. It was the first bomber aviation unit in Germany after the end of the World War. She disguised herself as the Lufthansa Line Inspectorate. The squadron was tasked with training flight and technical personnel. By April 1, 1934, she received 24 ordinary passenger Ju 52 / 3mge and three new Dornier Do 11 C bombers. But the latter were not very reliable in operation, so they were quickly removed from service. Only Junkers remained in the squadron.

Meanwhile, the appetites of the Nazis grew rapidly. At the end of 1934, the formation of four bomber squadrons began at once. Now, according to the state, the squadron included three groups (regiments). The group included two squadrons of 12 aircraft. Since the new Ju 86, He 111 and Do 17 bombers (created for political purposes as dual-purpose vehicles - passenger and military at the same time) existed only in the form of prototypes, these squadrons began to equip the Ju 52 / 3m and Do 11. At the same time, more reliable and better mastered "Junkers" accounted for more than two-thirds of the park.

The KG 152 Hindenburg squadron was the first to be completed, followed by KG 153, KG 154 and KG 155. Their squadrons were located at the airfields of Giebelyitadt, Tutov, Greifswald, Merseburg, Finsterwalde and Fasberg. Ju 52 / 3mg3e with full armament already arrived there.

In March 1935, the German government officially announced the revival of its Air Force - the Luftwaffe. The Reich Commissariat for Aviation was renamed the Reich Ministry. A rapid quantitative growth of military aviation began. It was on the Junkers that the most experienced Luftwaffe personnel were trained. Then came the stage of rapid introduction of a new generation of bombers. Nevertheless, Ju 52 / 3mg3e and Ju 52 / 3mg4e carried bomb weapons until 1937-1938. By the spring of 1938, the re-equipment of bomber aircraft was over. The old "Junkers" remained in service in only one group - IV / KG 152 in Finsterwalde. It became the core of the German military transport aviation.

Ju 52 / 3m were used as bombers in civil war in Spain.

In Spain

In July 1936, the Spanish generals rebelled against the government of the republic. After the death of General Sanjurjo in a plane crash, General Franco, who arrived from the Canary Islands, became the leader of the rebels. The troops supporting him were mainly in that part of Morocco, which was then a Spanish colony. They needed to be thrown across the strait. The fleet, for the most part, remained loyal to the republic. The soldiers decided to transport by air. But Franco also had few planes. However, the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany came out on his side.

On July 19, the rebels sent their representatives to Rome and Berlin. Three days later, Franco sent a telegram to Hitler asking for ten transport aircraft with crews. On July 24, after a meeting with representatives of the rebels, the Fuhrer ordered to give 20 Junkers.

The Luftwaffe headquarters received an order on the 25th, and a day later the first aircraft took off from Berlin's Tempelhof airfield. In total, until August 9, ten vehicles went to Morocco by air - Ju 52 / 3mg3e with weapons removed. German civil designations were applied to their sides and wings. Formally, these Junkers were sold to Hispano-Morocco de Transneptes (HISMA). The crews were recruited in the squadrons of the Luftwaffe and replenished with experienced pilots from the Lufthansa. All the staff, of course, were dressed in civilian clothes.

Lieutenant R. von Moro was appointed commander of the transport unit. The already mentioned E. Milch, who by this time had become a general, was watching the dispatch of equipment to Spain.

They flew through Italy with a landing in Sicily. One Junker entered Republican-controlled territory and landed at Barajas Airfield. Convinced of a mistake, the Germans immediately took off, but again sat down at the Republicans for the second time. The aircraft was requisitioned, and it began to be converted into a bomber. The work was stopped due to the protest of the German embassy, ​​and in October the Francoists bombed the car itself.

Ten more "Junkers" arrived in Morocco by sea. They were sent by steamer from Hamburg on 29 July. At the destination, the cars were unloaded on August 11.

Immediately after their arrival, German pilots began regular flights from Tetouan (Morocco) to the Tablada airfield near Seville. In the very first days they transferred 500 soldiers. This allowed the rebels to go on the offensive and move north of the city.

Aircraft made up to four sorties a day. At the same time, instead of 17 people, the norm was taken on board up to 40. The record was set by the pilot Henke (from Lufthansa), who transported 243 soldiers and officers in a day. Together with the troops, the aviation transferred ammunition and weapons, including machine guns and small cannons.

From the beginning of August, Italian aircraft also began to operate on the "air bridge" from Morocco. By the end of the month, 7,350 people had already been airlifted to Spain. These included units of the Foreign Legion and Moroccans. On August 5, under the cover of Italian aviation, sea transportation began. Therefore, the importance of the air route gradually weakened. Flights stopped in mid-October. In total, during the operation, 868 flights were made, 14,000 soldiers, 44 guns and 500 tons of various cargoes were transferred. Hitler said: "Franco must erect a monument to the Ju 52. The victory of the revolution in Spain is due to this aircraft."

On August 20-21, the Junkers used to dump food, ammunition and medicines to the rebels defending the Alcazar fortress in Toledo.

But the Ju 52 / 3mg3e was used in Spain not only as military transport aircraft. Since the beginning of August, they began to work as bombers. On August 3, 1936, the German crew bombed for the first time on the accumulation of Republican troops. Ten days later, two Junkers attacked the battleship Jaime I near Malaga. The leader of the pair, Lieutenant von Moro, could not hit the target, but the crew of his wingman, the already mentioned pilot Henke, achieved two hits with 250-kg high-explosive bombs. On the battleship, 47 sailors were killed and wounded.

Success led to the decision to create an impromptu bomber squadron, simply called "Moro's squadron". By the end of August, the Germans had installed machine guns and cluster bombs on six aircraft.

By this time, the Spanish rebels themselves were also already armed with Ju 52 / 3m3e. Apparently, they received all the cars that they sent by sea. In August 1936, Group B was formed in Salamanca under the command of X. Diaz de Lecea. It consisted of three units of three aircraft each. Specialists from the "Moro squadron" helped in the training of the crews.

On August 14, bombers from group "B" had already attacked the republican airfield of Getafe near Madrid, and two days later another - Cuatro Vientos. On 27 and 28 August they bombed the capital of Spain. The raid on Getafe on October 4 turned out to be very effective. A pair of "Junkers" destroyed nine aircraft on the ground.

In the meantime, in Stettin and Swinemünde, they were loading onto ships of the Condor Legion, a German air force created specifically for military operations in Spain. Its main strike force was the K88 group. Initially, it was divided into three squadrons of 12 bombers. The group mainly received improved Ju 52 / 3mg4e, but there were also earlier "g3s". The equipment was distilled to Salamanca through Italy. After arriving in Spain, K88 absorbed the Moro squadron. She was reorganized, forming four squadrons of nine cars.

The Junkers took an active part in the battles near Madrid in the autumn of 1936. While the Republicans were flying on all sorts of junk, low-speed three-engine bombers worked quietly during the day. But in October, Soviet I-15 and I-16 fighters were unloaded from the ships. Pilots arrived for them. On November 4, I-15s shot down the first Junker over the suburbs of Madrid. The pilot Lieutenant Kolbitts died, the rest of the crew escaped with parachutes.

On the same day, Soviet pilots intercepted in the clouds a flight of Ju 52 / 3m, flying to Madrid, and attacked the last bomber. The damaged car turned back, but did not reach its airfield. I had to sit where I needed to. The navigator died of his wounds.

The next day, according to Soviet data, two "Junkers" were shot down, on November 6 - another one (it is interesting that the enemy on this day recognizes the loss of not one, but two bombers; the first, with a Spanish crew, died, the second, on which the background flew Moreau, was forced to sit not far from the front, the German pilots were not injured).

Soviet pilots rated the Ju 52/3m as a fairly serious opponent. Here is what Ya.I. Chernykh fighter pilot, who returned from Spain, to Alksnis: “The machine is very tenacious. We came close, shot at her, you feel that the bullets are flying into the car, but it does not fall and does not burn. High combat survivability was ensured by a multi-spar wing, thick tubes of rudder control rods, and distribution of fuel over a large number of protected tanks. If the motor mount was damaged, the engine was held by safety cables.

Nevertheless, the losses of the "Junkers" grew. They were destroyed not only in the air, but also on the ground. According to Soviet data, the first five bombers were put out of action at the airfield in Seville, which on October 28 came under attack from the republican SB and Pote 54. On November 11, bombs fell on aircraft parking in Avila. There, among other aircraft, two Junkers were destroyed.

But the Ju 52 / 3m continued to fly during the day, dropping bombs on Madrid from medium altitudes. So, on November 19, almost 40 tons of deadly cargo were brought down on the city, and the republican fighters in response shot down one Junker and damaged two.

At the end of December, the "Junkers" from K88 began to operate on the Northern Front, in the area of ​​Santander and Bilbao. There were few Republican planes there.

Basically, these were "motley" obsolete cars. This allowed the Ju 52 / 3m to continue to operate fairly confidently during the day. But on January 4, 1937, two bombers became victims of the republican I-15s at once. One, shot down by S. Bulkin, fell near Bilbao, the second, attributed to S. Petrukhin, crashed on the way to the Vitoria airfield.

Near Madrid, Francoist aircraft tried to reduce their losses by increasing fighter escort, but this did not give significant results. Already in October 1936, the first cases of the use of "Junkers" at night were noted. During several raids on the San Javier airfield, they damaged a total of eight SBs, two of which had to be written off. On the night of January 11, 1937, enemy planes bombed Madrid and the Campo Real airfield in the dark. However, Junkers groups with a powerful escort (three to five or more fighters per bomber) met during the day until April 1937. As Ju 52 / 3m day bombers, they participated in the battles on the river. Jarama and in Guadalajara.

Later, in the central part of Spain, the Junkers switched exclusively to night operations. By the beginning of the battles for Brunete, the Francoists had 12 Ju 52 / 3m (groups 1-G-22 and 2-G-22), the Condor Legion had 25 (group K88).

On the night of July 26, 1937, Republican fighters carried out the first night interception. The Soviet pilot M. Yakushin on the I-15 at an altitude of 2000 m attacked a single Junker from squadron 3 / K88 near the front line. The bomber caught fire and crashed. The entire crew was killed.

The next night, A. Serov discovered at an altitude of 3000 m a Ju 52 / 3m illuminated by a searchlight. He fired at it, but the bomber got away. Almost immediately, Serov noticed the second plane and joined him in the tail. Despite the fire of the top gunner of the Junkers, after the third round, the Soviet fighter set fire to the German. Four members of the bomber's crew bailed out and were taken prisoner. After that, Serov chased after the third car, but burned all the fuel and was forced to sit down at the front line.

I. Eremenko won another victory on the night of September 14-15. He shot down the Junkers of the rebels. Interestingly, the captured aircraft commander turned out to be a Russian white émigré.

On October 15, more than 60 Republican fighters stormed the Garapinillos airfield. The smoke from the fires was visible almost 100 km away. Managed to destroy a significant number of aircraft various types. Three Ju 52 / 3m burned out completely, several more were damaged.

In the north, the "Junkers" longer adhered to the practice of conducting operations during the day, and, despite the weakness of the Republican air force on this front, they periodically paid for it. On April 13, 1937, anti-aircraft gunners shot down one of the three planes that bombed Bilbao. The car crashed in the Mondragon area. On July 19, two Junkers fell on republican territory, shot by fighters.

It was on the Northern Front that the well-known massive raid on the small town of Guernica took place, which became a symbol of fascist barbarism. On April 26, 1937, German and Italian planes practically wiped it off the face of the earth. At the same time, both the nearby bridge and the military factory on the outskirts remained intact, and more than 1,500 civilians died. 18 Junkers from K88 took part in the raid. The lead car was driven by Major Fuchs. When the noise arose in the foreign press, at first the Francoists blamed everything on the republican sappers, who allegedly blew up the town during the retreat, then they began to talk about a navigational error. Now it is already known that it was a deliberate act of intimidation, plus the development of tactics for the destruction of cities by aviation.

From February 1937, K88 units began to rearm new technology. In mid-May, two squadrons were already flying the new He 111B bombers. The last time the Junkers were actively used in the north of the country was in October (and during the daytime), by the end of the month the re-equipment of the group was completed.

The Germans handed over most of the Ju 52 / 3m, which had become redundant, to the Francoists, the rest were used as transport aircraft. In mid-August 1938, according to Republican intelligence, the enemy had about 25 Junkers left. It is known for sure that on December 23 in two groups of night bombers (1-G-22 and 2-G-22) there were 13 vehicles; three more were in the Condor Legion.

The Francoist Junkers made their last sortie on March 26, 1939, the day the republican government capitulated. In April, all the surviving cars were assembled at the airfield in Leon. There were 23 of them. In total, according to various sources, the Germans sent from 55 to 61 Ju 52 / 3m to Spain, including two vehicles on floats.

One aircraft, captured by the Republicans at the end of 1936, was delivered to the USSR at the beginning of the next year, tested and studied.

"Junkers" Chiang Kai-shek

In February 1930, Lufthansa and the Chinese government agreed to establish a joint Eurasia airline. From September 1934 to September 1938 she received nine Ju 52/3mge. These planes flew on domestic and international (to Southeast Asia) lines. The crews were recruited mainly from Lufthansa personnel. After the Japanese attack on China in July 1937, Eurasia continued to function.

On August 1, Japanese aviation destroyed one of the company's liners at the Kunming airfield. By December 1939, Eurasia lost four more aircraft from enemy actions and accidents. After the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which created the "axis" Berlin - Rome - Tokyo, the Chinese government ceased the company's activities, but until August 1941 its aircraft and crews continued to work as if they were in government service.

In September, the Germans left China, the vehicles were accepted by the crews of the Chinese Air Force.

Aircraft were used as transport aircraft, mainly for the transportation of high-ranking officials. President Chiang Kai-shek himself has repeatedly made trips around the country on them. In particular, on one Ju 52 / 3mge he flew to meet with the communist leader Mao Tse Tung.

Three Chinese Junkers were destroyed by Japanese bombers in Hong Kong on December 8, 1941. It is not known when the last Chinese Junker was written off.

At the origins of the German airborne troops

By the beginning of 1938, only one group remained in the Luftwaffe, armed with three-engine "Junkers" - IV / KG 152 in Fünsterwald. She was assigned to the 7th Airborne Division. On March 13, 1938, the group conducted its first combat operation - during the Anschluss of Austria, its planes landed a battalion of paratroopers at the Thalerhof airfield in Graz. 54 cars participated.

On April 1 of the same year, this unit became known as KGrzbV 1 - the 1st Special Purpose Group. At this time, she had 39 aircraft. Part of the equipment and crews were allocated as the core of the new KGrzbV 2 group in Brandenburg. Each of the groups in the state was to have four squadrons of 12 aircraft and a headquarters link of five vehicles. In the summer of 1939, two more such groups were created.

All of them were united in the KGzbV 1 squadron. At the end of August, the formation of the second squadron, KGzbV 2, and then the third, KGzbV 172, began. The latter, which consisted of two groups, received 59 Junkers requisitioned from Lufthansa along with the crews. During the invasion of Poland, it was planned to land a large landing near Poznan, but it was not needed. Transport aircraft were mainly engaged in the supply of advanced units and the removal of the wounded. So 19,760 people and 1,600 tons of various cargoes were transferred. To do this, it was necessary to hastily assemble three more transport groups at the expense of equipment and personnel of flight schools. On September 25, the "Junkers" in the role of bombers participated in a major raid on Warsaw. At the same time, small incendiary bombs of 2 kg each were loaded into the fuselage and thrown out of the doors manually. Polish fighters were no longer seen in the sky. Bombing was carried out as at a training ground. The Junkers dropped 72 tons of incendiary and 486 tons of fragmentation and high-explosive bombs. After the capture of the city, the Fuhrer personally examined its destruction from the board of a personal aircraft.

During the fighting, the Poles managed to shoot down a dozen Ju 52 / 3m, another 44 (according to other sources - 47) vehicles were written off due to various damages (including due to accidents). At the same time, several aircraft ended up on the territory occupied by the Red Army. On October 8, at least three Junkers were on our side: two in Lvov and one stuck in a meadow near the village of Shklo. All this equipment was returned to the Germans, although not in a complete set. The disappearance of the equipment was attributed to the Poles, although it was carefully packed and taken to the Air Force Research Institute.

Operation Weserübung

Following Poland, it was the turn of Denmark and Norway. The German General Staff called the operation to capture them "Weserübung" - "Teachings on the Weser". By its beginning, the forces of transport aviation had increased significantly. Only for the transfer of the first wave of airborne troops involved ten groups and four separate squadrons. At the same time, almost all military transport aviation in Germany was equipped with Ju 52 / 3m. Only one squadron had a mixed composition, and three groups were equipped with seaplanes. A total of 573 three-engine Junkers were involved in the operation.

On April 9, 1940, these machines landed on airfields in southern Norway. The sites were captured by paratroopers, after which German airfield teams arrived there by air. They ensured the unloading of infantry, various weapons and equipment. According to this scheme, the Germans captured the airfields of Forneby in Oslo and Sola in Stavanger. The landing in Sola, however, was not particularly successful - all Norwegian planes flew north just a few minutes before the arrival of German transport workers. But the paratroopers managed to prevent the explosion of an important bridge in Vordingborg.

Later, units that were rapidly moving north were also supplied by air. About 160 tons of fuel were transported alone. Reinforcements were also transferred by planes. At the same time, they had to land on any more or less suitable sites. On April 14, the Norwegian biplane Fokker C.V found 11 Junkers on the ice of Lake Hartvigvann, which landed a unit of mountain rangers. These planes from the group KGrzbV 102 got stuck on the lake due to lack of fuel on the way back. Six "Fokkers" dropped bombs on them, but missed - only a few transport workers were damaged by shrapnel. After refueling, the Norwegians carried out a second raid on stationary vehicles. This time two of them were burned and four more were damaged. By April 16, the Germans were able to deliver a certain amount of fuel to the lake, but the Norwegian pilots destroyed three aircraft with a new strike and completely disabled five. One "junker-su" managed to fly away, but the pilot got lost and landed in Sweden, where the car was interned. Soon the ice melted, and all the other planes went to the bottom.

In total, during the Norwegian campaign, Ju 52 / 3m transported more than 29,000 people, 2414 tons of various cargoes, plus 118 tons of aviation gasoline for aircraft at advanced airfields.

Plan "Gelb"

The next step of the Nazi strategists was an offensive in the west. According to the Gelb plan, the main blow to France was delivered through Belgium and the Netherlands. The airborne troops played an important role in the capture of strategic objects. The landing of parachute, glider and landing troops was provided by about 430 Ju 52 / 3m, consolidated into seven air groups.

The operation began on May 10, 1940. In Belgium, the Germans set the task of capturing an important transport hub in the Maastricht region. There were three bridges across the Albert Canal - at Veldweselt, Vroenhofen and Kann. All of them were controlled from Fort Eben-Emael - a powerful modern defensive structure.

Early in the morning, 11 Junkers delivered nine DFS 230 landing gliders to the target, two of them unhooked along the road due to problems. The gliders landed right in the courtyard of the fort. The paratroopers pierced the armored caps of the gun turrets with cumulative charges and threw grenades at the gunners. The Germans managed to paralyze the fort until the approach of motorized units. Paratroopers landing from other aircraft captured two of the three bridges.

Landing troops were widely used in the Netherlands. "Junkers" landed right on the airfields of the Dutch Air Force, at airports, and even on wide highways. Luftwaffe fighters and bombers were the first to appear, destroying enemy aircraft and suppressing anti-aircraft weapons. Immediately after this, the transporters were landing. The infantry was unloaded under fire, often while continuing to steer along the lane. Together with the soldiers, machine guns, small guns, small-caliber anti-aircraft guns were delivered by air. Dutch aviation diligently stormed the airfields captured by the Germans. For example, on May 10, 11 Dutch aircraft stormed Ipenburg and Valkenburg, where, according to intelligence, up to 50 Junkers had accumulated. They dropped bombs on the parking lots and fired on the transport workers and the landing force with machine guns. The Dutch lost five vehicles, but many Junkers remained on the ground to burn out.

The enemy and fighters were pretty battered. On the morning of May 10, several Fokker D.XXI monoplanes intercepted 55 Ju 52 / 3m from the KGrbzV 9 group. Dutch pilots shot down 18 cars one after another; Anti-aircraft gunners also made their contribution.

All landing operations in the Netherlands, including the capture of bridges over the Meuse at Dordrecht, were generally successful. But the losses were huge. Individual groups lost up to 40% of their composition. In total, the Luftwaffe lost 162 Junkers. Since the damaged vehicles remained in the hands of the Germans, some of them were restored. From two or three, one plane was assembled. A total of 53 transport workers were repaired.

The aircraft fleet was restored due to the new release and requisition of cars from Lufthansa. However, the most

the battered squadron KGzbV 1 had to be temporarily disbanded, as well as groups KGrzbV 11, 12 and 101. In total, until the surrender of France in June 1940, the Germans lost 242 Ju 52 / 3m.

On the other side of the front

Three-engine "Junkers" were used in World War II not only by the Germans and their allies, but also by opponents. After the declaration of war, the South African Air Force requisitioned 11 Ju 52 / 3mge from South African Airways. They became part of the bomber-transport group, assembled from former passenger aircraft.

In the autumn of 1940, South African soldiers were transferred to the border with Somalia. Then, already as part of the 50th squadron, the Junkers provided supplies for the troops advancing north and took out the wounded. They also periodically made flights to South Africa and Egypt. In 1942, the squadron was re-equipped with American C-47s.

in the mediterranean

In October 1940, Mussolini asked Hitler for help. He needed planes to transport troops to Albania. Italy, which at that time owned Albania, used it as a springboard to attack Greece. But the Greeks not only repulsed the attack, but also launched an offensive themselves. The Fuhrer came to the aid of an unlucky ally.

One group of Junkers (53 vehicles) was sent to Foggia in eastern Italy. On December 9, German planes began flying to Tirana from there. In 50 days they transported 30,000 soldiers and 4,700 tons of cargo. Return flights delivered 8346 wounded.

Since the flights were carried out far from the front, the Germans had no losses.

German transport aircraft returned to the Mediterranean at the beginning of 1941. From February they began to carry out flights to Libya for Rommel's Afrika Korps. The Ju 52 / 3m group was stationed at the Comiso airfield in Sicily. Aircraft made up to three flights a day, while the crews were in the air for up to 12 hours. Every day, up to 1000 people and 25 tons of cargo were delivered through the Mediterranean Sea. English fighters diligently hunted for the leisurely transporters, and the Germans constantly suffered significant losses.

April 6, 1941 Germany attacked Yugoslavia and Greece. In preparation for this campaign, three new transport groups were formed. They, along with other units, were concentrated in Plovdiv (Bulgaria), uniting them into the XI air corps. From there, part of the aircraft flew to Larissa in northern Greece, already captured by the Germans. There they refueled and took on board the landing force.

The task was to capture the bridge over the Corinth Canal. The operation involved six tugs with gliders and 40 Junkers with paratroopers. Parachute troops captured the surrounding heights and took up defense. The gliders had to take the bridge itself. One of the gliders hit the abutment and crashed; the rest sat down safely. The paratroopers managed to disarm the guards, but an English battery opened fire on the bridge. The shell hit the explosives planted in the support, and the bridge flew into the air.

The largest airborne operation carried out by the Germans in World War II, of course, was the occupation of. Crete. For this purpose, ten transport groups were assembled plus a separate squadron of glider tugs (also on Ju 52 / 3m) - a total of 493 serviceable vehicles.

Early in the morning of May 20, 1941, after being hit by bombers, the DFS 230 gliders disengaged from the tugboats and began to land in the designated places. The main task of the first wave was the destruction of anti-aircraft batteries. This was followed by the landing of paratroopers. They were thrown out in four places. In total, 10,000 people parachuted. This was not seen even at the pre-war maneuvers of the Red Army. Paratroopers were shot in the air, and on the ground they immediately had to engage in battle with English and Greek soldiers. The losses were very great.

By the end of the second day of fighting, paratroopers captured the Maleme airfield. Although the artillery fired on him, the "Junkers" landed one by one, unloading the 5th division of mountain rangers. The wrecked planes were on fire, they were extinguished, the wreckage was dragged to the side and new cars were taken. Aviation delivered everything necessary to the island - ammunition, food, medicines, as well as heavy weapons and vehicles. In total, more than 13,000 soldiers, 353 guns and 771 motorcycles were transferred to Crete during the landing. The latter were partially transported on an external sling between the landing gear.

The island was captured, but at the cost of heavy losses. By May 31, only 185 serviceable aircraft remained in the XI Air Corps, that is, less than half of the original composition. Some groups again had to be disbanded. By the time of the attack on the USSR, German transport aviation had not yet managed to fully restore its combat capability.

Plan "Barbarossa"

On June 22, 1941, German troops crossed the border of the Soviet Union. Large airborne landings were not planned here, but the rapid advance to the east often forced them to resort to supplying advanced units with aviation. The four transport groups sent to the territory of the USSR were clearly not enough. Already in December, Hitler ordered the formation of five new groups specifically for the Eastern Front. The personnel for them were assembled from instructors and cadets of flight schools.

At the beginning of 1942, the Red Army broke through the front south of Lake Ilmen and surrounded the 16th Army of General von Busch. About 100,000 German soldiers and officers ended up in the “cauldron” near Demyansk. The grouping of Lieutenant General von Seydlitz rushed to help. She managed to break through the narrow, 4 km wide, "Ramushevsky corridor" (passing through the village of Ramushevo). It was completely shot through by Soviet artillery. The only way to supply the encircled was by air. The Germans collected suitable aircraft along the entire front, pulled them from the rear, and even transferred a group of KGrzbV 500 from the Mediterranean theater. But even this was not enough. In Germany, five groups were hastily completed, two of which received Ju 52 / 3m, and in two they were combined with obsolete bombers.

On February 20, 1942, the first four Junkers landed in Demyansk. Only before landing, the intense fire of the anti-aircraft gunners cut off the Soviet fighters pursuing them. The whole armada began to run between Demyansk and the airfields behind the encirclement. In the Kholm area, cargo was dropped by parachute.

At first, German planes flew in small groups and singly, changing routes all the time. Ambush anti-aircraft gunners and fighters advanced to the forward sites were waiting for them. Only the 161st Fighter Aviation Regiment shot down 12 Junkers in a short time, including Lieutenant Usenko destroyed three aircraft in one sortie. The transporters were hunted not only by our fighters, but also by bombers and attack aircraft. IL-2s with cannon fire quite successfully dealt with clumsy three-engine vehicles. Stormtroopers went to hunt for the "Junkers" one by one or in small groups. Protected by powerful armor in front, the pilots, ignoring the fire of the enemy shooter, shot the transporters from cannons point-blank. Sergeant Ryaboshapka shot down four enemy planes in a short period of time. The record was set by Senior Lieutenant V. Oleinik, who accounted for six Junkers destroyed in the air and eight on the ground. German vehicles loaded with ammunition or fuel often exploded in the air. Sometimes attack aircraft worked as "beaters", directing groups of transport workers under the blows of our fighters.

Fleeing from the air threat, the German pilots began to fly close to the ground, descending to 15-20 m. But there the planes came under intense fire from small arms. Passengers shot back with machine guns and threw hand grenades. But soon heavy losses forced the Germans to build a bypass route. Fuel was spent on it more, but the route ran over snow-covered forests, bypassing settlements and roads. They flew into the encirclement already in the evening and returned at dawn. The Soviet 6th Air Army concentrated its efforts on strikes against airfields in the Demyansk area. After a large group of transport workers was discovered at some site during the day, at night it became a target for U-2 biplanes, which bombarded it with incendiary ampoules. Twin-engine bombers navigated through the fires, destroying the airfield with high-explosive bombs. When in the morning the German airfield teams hurriedly filled up the funnels and removed the burned-out aircraft, our Il-2 attack aircraft appeared and dispersed the workers with machine-gun fire and at the same time shot the equipment that was on the field. After such a combined strike, the airfield was usually inactive for several days. This tactic also ensured significant enemy losses in equipment. At the Glebovshchina airfield, aerial photography showed up to 70 crashed aircraft.

On the one hand, by the end of April, the Germans managed to deliver more than 65,000 tons of various cargoes to the surrounded, transport 30,500 reinforcements and evacuate 35,400 wounded. On the other hand, they lost 265 aircraft, mostly Ju 52 / 3m. Only attack aircraft shot down from March to November 1942, according to Soviet data, more than 60 Junkers. Nevertheless, the "air bridge" saved the 16th Army. In March 1943, she managed to break through to her own. At the airfields in the Demyansk area, the enemy abandoned 78 damaged aircraft, mostly transport aircraft.

For Rommel case

Another big problem for the German command was the supply of the African Corps. Allied fleets and aircraft hindered shipping between Italy and the North African coast. At the same time, everything needed had to be delivered from Europe. The more important became air transportation.

The transport aviation force stationed in Italy and Greece was constantly growing. "Junkers" usually flew across the Mediterranean in large groups (up to 25-30 cars) in close formation at low altitude. Fighter cover on the route, as a rule, was absent. To increase the defensive capability of the groups, they began to include "waffentregers" - converted Ju 52 / 3mg4e with enhanced weapons. All vehicles of this type belonged to the 11/KGzbV 1 group.

When in November 1942, under pressure from the British, the Italian army and the African Corps rolled back, and the Allied landings landed in Algiers, it was time to organize an "air bridge" to Tunisia. But no matter how hard the Germans tried, they failed to ensure the full supply of either their units, let alone the Italians. They only lost a large number of aircraft. But these losses could not be compared with what they lost during the Battle of Stalingrad ...

To save the 6th Army

On November 19, Soviet troops closed the ring around the 6th Paulus Army that entered Stalingrad. Surrounded needed to deliver approximately 750 tons of various cargoes per day. Goering promised the Fuhrer to do so. A large number of aircraft were concentrated at the Morozovskaya and Tatsinskaya airfields to the west of the city. These included 375 Ju 52/3m.

They began to fly to the sites inside the encirclement. Mass transportation began on November 23. They flew during the day. Transport workers acted in small groups and one by one. Sometimes they were accompanied by fighters, but more often they were not: there were not enough fighters for all. The destruction of transport aircraft became the main task of Soviet pilots and anti-aircraft artillery. They shot down up to 30-50 cars a day, about a third of all those flying across the front line. So, four Soviet fighters overtook a group of 17 Ju 52 / 3m and four Bf 109 fighters near Bolshaya Rossoshka. An unexpected attack deprived the Germans of five Junkers and one Messerschmitt.

Heavy losses forced the enemy to change tactics. Small groups with strong cover were released forward, diverting Soviet fighters, followed by the rest of the machines. Having lost air supremacy, the Germans began to fly late in the evening and early in the morning, as well as in conditions of poor visibility, masking themselves with clouds. Enemy fighters covered only takeoff and landing inside the ring. Since mid-December, transport workers have generally stopped flying during the day.

Soviet aviation also destroyed transport aircraft at airfields. Tatsinskaya and Morozovskaya were regularly bombed. Every day they bombed and stormed all the sites in Stalingrad several times. Long-range aviation regiments worked at night, as well as light night bombers and pairs of U-2 illuminators and Il-2 attack aircraft. On November 30, 15 Junkers were burned on the ground, on December 1 - 13, on December 10 - 31 (including 22 at the Basargino airfield), on December 11 - 58! On December 30, six dive bombers from the 35th Guards Bomber Regiment destroyed about 20 aircraft in Tormosin.

The Germans managed to deliver no more than 90 tons of cargo to the city daily. This was clearly not enough. The encirclement was shrinking. The airfields were captured by the Soviet troops one by one. The Junkers took off and landed on them until the last moment, until the tanks burst into the airfield. In the end, only one airfield remained at the disposal of the 6th Army - Nursery, cluttered with broken aircraft. Our pilots managed to thwart the enemy's attempts to evacuate the command staff. So, in one of the downed Ju 52 / 3m, officers of the headquarters of the 376th Infantry Division, led by its commander, were killed.

By January 11, 1943, the enemy managed to deliver only 5227 tons of cargo to Stalingrad at the cost of huge losses. When transport planes lost the ability to land, they began to drop cargo with and without parachutes. "Parcels" often fell in the wrong place and were gladly picked up by the Red Army. More than half of the dropped “arrived” for other purposes. There was a case when a bag with orders fell right in the camp for German prisoners of war.

By the time Paulus gave the surrender order on February 2, 1943, the Luftwaffe had lost 266 Junkers and more than 1,000 aircrew. Interestingly, ours estimated their successes a little more modestly - 250 destroyed and captured Ju 52 / 3m. All airfields near Stalingrad were lined with abandoned aircraft of varying degrees of serviceability. Only in Bolshaya Rossoshka they counted more than 40, in Basargino -17. Retreating, the Germans tried to disable machines that could not take off. Sometimes planes that looked serviceable were mined. Some of the captured "Junkers" were later restored and used in the rear.

Eastern Front, 1943-1945

All further major operations of the German military transport aviation were associated with Eastern front, more precisely, with attempts to ensure the supply of one or the other encircled grouping. After Stalingrad, she was never able to restore her former power. In May 1943, the Luftwaffe had five transport squadrons, four of which were armed with Ju 52 / 3m.

In the spring of 1943, the "Junkers" were used for the export of soldiers of the 17th Army from the Kuban. Then they had to deliver goods to the blocked Crimea. For this, with mediterranean sea transferred the TG 2 squadron, which became unnecessary there after the defeat of the Axis troops in North Africa.

In April 1943 the Ju 52/3m was used for the last time as a bomber. During the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, they dropped bombs and leaflets on the city.

In March - April of the following year, four groups of "Junkers" tried to deliver the necessary cargo to units of the 1st Panzer Army, driven into a "bag" near Kamenetz-Podolsky. In May, the Germans organized an airborne assault for the last time. Paratroopers landed near the Yugoslav city of Drvar tried to capture the headquarters of Tito's partisans, but unsuccessfully - Soviet pilots took him to Italy.

Since the summer of 1944, the activity of the German transport aviation began to decline - there was not enough fuel. But sporadic attempts to help the encircled continued. In January 1945, the Junkers broke through into the besieged Budapest. The last significant operation was the "air bridge" in Breslau in February - April of the same year. They flew here only at night. Nevertheless, the Germans lost 165 vehicles (not only the Ju 52 / 3m type).

"Junkers" tried to fly to besieged Berlin. On April 29, an aircraft from the TG 3 squadron dropped cargo in the area of ​​​​the Reich Chancellery.

On April 25, the Luftwaffe had another 190 Ju 52 / 3m. They continued to come across to our pilots even after the official surrender of Germany. On May 8, Captain Dobrov and Senior Lieutenant Struchalin discovered two Junkers near Fr. Bornholm. They were heading towards Sweden. One transport was shot down, however, Dobrov's "yak" also received damage from return fire. The next day D.A. Matveev from the 486th Fighter Regiment shot the Junkers in the Brno region in Czechoslovakia. This may have been the last Ju 52/3m destroyed in World War II.

After the surrender, the allied armies got about 140 vehicles in various conditions.

"Maysi"

"Mausi" - "mice", such a nickname was given to minesweepers Ju 52 / 3m (MS) by German pilots. They were first used in combat conditions in September 1940 off the Dutch coast. The planes were supposed to destroy magnetic bottom mines dropped by British bombers.

Soon, six squadrons of minesweepers operating in the North, Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas, as well as off the Atlantic coast of France, entered service. After the appearance of mines with acoustic fuses by the enemy, the squadrons began to consist of half of the vehicles with magnetic windings and half of the carriers of the "K" containers.

The usual tactics of the Mausi looked like this. A link of aircraft with magnetic windings went in a wedge at a height of 10 to 40 m above the water. With an interval of 200 m, they were followed by a link with explosive charges.

In November 1943, the Luftwaffe had 74 minesweepers, united in a mine-sweeping group. Soviet pilots met them more than once over the Black Sea in 1943-1944. near the mouth of the Danube. At the end of November 1943, an IL-2 shot down one Ju 52 / 3m (MS) in the Ochakov area.

In April 1944, six aircraft of this type were sent to Hungary, where they trawled the Danube. From the beginning of 1945, most Mausi were laid up due to lack of fuel.

The allies of the Reich

The first six Ju 52 / 3m arrived in Hungary in 1937. They were operated by the Malert airline. During the war, they were transferred to the Air Force, to the 2nd Transport Squadron. In the summer of 1942, they worked on the Don, providing transportation for the 2nd Hungarian Army. In September, one Ju 52 / 3mg7e transferred by the Germans was added to them. For the most part, these aircraft were engaged in the evacuation of the wounded. In October 1944, five Hungarian Junkers burned American Mustangs at the Bergend airfield. The last aircraft remaining with the Hungarians in December of the same year participated in transportation to Budapest surrounded by Soviet troops.

The Germans sold a total of 33 Ju 52/3m to Romania. The first of them arrived in November 1941. In the winter of 1941/42, our pilots came across them near Stalingrad. Some of them were shot down. At the beginning of 1944, the "Junkers" took out the Romanian soldiers and officers from the besieged Crimea. After the transition of Romania to the side of the Allies in August of the same year, the Romanians captured German aircraft that were on their airfields. Among them were 11 Ju 52/3m; six of them were later taken to the USSR. In Romania, the last Junkers were operated until the early 1960s.

The Italian Air Force in 1940 requisitioned the Ju 52 / 3mlu of the Ala Littoria airline. It was used as a military transport. In September 1943, after a coup in Italy, the Germans captured the car. For some time she served in Lufthansa.

Bulgaria in 1939 acquired two Ju 52 / 3mg4e. Although they were registered as civilians, they were actually used by the Air Force. In 1943, two Ju 52 / 3mg10e were added to them. In September 1944 Bulgaria declared war on Germany. A month later, the grouping of Bulgarian troops was surrounded by the Germans in the Ratunda-Drenyak area.

Planes delivered various cargoes to the encircled. The Bulgarian "Junkers" made 13 sorties and dropped 14 tons of food and ammunition. In Bulgaria, Ju 52 / 3m were operated until the mid-1950s.

As already mentioned, at the end of 1936, the Spanish Republicans managed to capture a practically intact Ju 52 / 3mg3e. In January of the following year, he was already near Moscow, at the airfield of the Air Force Research Institute. Our car received the masking designation DB-29 (or DB-29 -3M-BMW). There was snow, and skis from TB-1 began to be fitted to the aircraft. After a test flight, the shock absorbers had to be strengthened. By March 10, the Junkers had already completed five flights.

Captain Stefanovsky was appointed the lead pilot, and military engineer 3rd rank Antokhin and captain Datsko also flew with him. In addition to them, the Junkers were tested by more than a dozen pilots, including the head of the Research Institute, Divisional Commander Bazhanov. In total, 70 flights were made by car with a total duration of 32 hours 45 minutes.

Testing ended in May. In general, the aircraft was declared obsolete. Although at low altitudes, the DB-29 was slightly superior in speed and rate of climb to the TB-3 with M-34RN engines, its flight data was considered insufficient for a modern bomber. At the same time, they noted the ease of piloting, the availability of the machine for pilots below average qualification. The report states: "The aircraft is very reliable and very easy to operate both on the ground and in the air."

Junkers could be quickly disassembled into knots, numerous hatches provided access to parts that needed to be checked, adjusted or lubricated. Gas tanks were easily removed from the wing through large hatches. It took only 15 minutes to fill the car with fuel, and even less with oil. If necessary, gasoline was quickly merged in flight through special valves. To prevent splashes from falling on the wing, canvas sleeves fell out under the necks. In general, 55 new products were found on the Junkers, which they considered useful for the domestic aircraft industry. They noted the successful design of welded gas tanks, wheels and their brakes, chassis shock absorbers, and many elements of electrical equipment.

The defense capability of the bomber was tested by air battles with both fighters and SB and DB-3 bombers. All of them could easily catch up with a slow-moving and not very maneuverable car. The "German" had a lot of non-shooting angles from which he could be attacked. Armament Ju 52 / 3m as a whole was considered completely obsolete.

The conclusion of the testers read: "Despite the outdated design of the aircraft as a whole, it deserves special attention."

After the tests, the head of the Air Force Alksnis ordered: “The aircraft should be kept as an exhibit for further study by workers of serial aircraft factories and designers of these factories ...” The car entered factory No. 156 in Moscow, where it was disassembled, measured and carefully studied.

Passenger Ju 52 / 3m in Moscow were not new - they regularly landed at the Central Airfield. Military vehicles again met our Red Army soldiers in Poland. Our mechanics even dismantled one of them on their own before returning it to the Germans.

After the Baltic republics joined the Soviet Union, two Ju 52 / 3m of the Estonian airline AGO entered the fleet of the Baltic Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet. We began to call them Yu-52. For some time they were operated on the line Riga - Velikiye Luki - Moscow.

Aircraft of the Luftwaffe, just like the Soviet ones, violated the border from time to time. So, on July 28, 1940, a single Junker passed over Kaunas. Two flights of I-15bis from the 31st Fighter Wing went up to intercept. In the area of ​​​​Mariampol, the German car was overtaken and given several warning bursts, after which the Ju 52 / 3m went towards the border.

At the end of 1940, the Soviet Union ordered 10 Junkers in Germany in a cargo version. In February - April of the following year, three of them flew around and took off. But these machines did not arrive in the USSR. This was due to the fact that the delegation headed by I.F. Petrov, having familiarized herself in Germany with the Ju 52 / 3m, converted into a flying laboratory for testing engines, asked to hand over five out of ten ordered machines in this version. The firm agreed to finalize only one aircraft with a deadline of October 1941.

After the start of the war, two Baltic Junkers were evacuated to Siberia, where they were used on the Moscow-Irkutsk air route. On July 14, 1942, the head of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet B.C. Molokov sent a letter to Stalin asking him to allow the use of captured German aircraft in the rear. In October of the same year, the first Junker was added to the Aeroflot fleet, and a month later, another one. But due to the lack of spare parts, out of four Yu-52s, only two could fly. All four cars at that time were registered with the West Siberian Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet (the administration of the highway was disbanded).

But at the beginning of the next year, the situation changed dramatically. Near Stalingrad, many German transport aircraft were captured. Brigades were sent there from the air repair bases for the selection and primary repair of vehicles. Upon closer examination, the Junkers turned out to be not as serviceable as it seemed to the infantrymen and tankmen who captured them. The fuselages, wings and engines were in place, but the tires were punctured, the engines were out of order, there were not enough instruments and radio stations. Yes, and a long standing under the snow did not benefit the technique.

The most suitable Yu-52s were brought “to condition” right on the spot, since there were enough spare parts around. What is not on one plane was on another. On April 1, 1943, the Civil Air Fleet already had 14 Junkers, and the NKAP had one more German transport. 11 of them were concentrated in the Moscow Department. Of the subsequent receipts, three more Yu-52s were given to the NKAP and two to an exhibition of trophies deployed in the Central Park of Culture and Recreation. Gorky in Moscow.

On some Junkers, Soviet radio stations MRK-005 appeared (only where there were no German ones). Rubber was used from TB-3, skis from Li-2. A tail wheel from the Il-4 was put on one aircraft.

Meanwhile, the collection of trophies continued. In May 1943, air repair base No. 405 sent a brigade led by engineer Pevzner to Stalingrad. A total of 29 vehicles were selected. 15 were considered suitable for restoration, and the rest were taken for spare parts. The Junkers were repaired by air repair bases No. 401, 403, 405 and plant No. 243.

Major alterations fell on base No. 405, which was considered the lead one. Among them, the project of replacing three BMW 132 engines with two domestic ASh-62IR should be mentioned. The drawings were developed by the engineers of base No. 405, and an experimental motor mount was also made there. By September 28, 1943, her static tests were completed. In October - November, one "Junkers" was reworked for a pair of ASh-62IR, but it is not known whether it was completed.

From the end of the spring of 1943, the Yu-52 began to be widely used for transportation in the European part of the USSR. At first, they acted on the air defense services like a red rag on a bull. When a characteristic silhouette appeared, the firing immediately opened. On April 29, anti-aircraft artillery fired on a plane flying from Syzran to Kuibyshev. There were no casualties, no holes. But on May 12, Yu-52, which was coming from Chelyabinsk, came under fire near the bridge in Ulyanovsk. The car made an emergency landing at the Strigino airfield. Mechanics found two decent holes in the right wing. Such incidents were not isolated.

Many planes were idle due to lack of rubber. On October 25, the Civil Air Fleet had 31 Yu-52s, including 23 serviceable ones, but six of them turned out to be “undressed”. It was even proposed to replace the German wheels with wheels from Li-2. On the basis of No. 405, a set of drawings was completed. True, things did not go further.

On September 21, Aeroflot resumed regular service on a number of airlines. Yu-52 worked on the Sverdlovsk-Krasnoyarsk and Kuibyshev-Tashkent-Alma-Ata routes.

By winter, the Junkers were put on skis. The skis were different: both from Li-2 (they were installed on base No. 405), and from TB-1, and special ones. The latter were developed at the Research Institute of the Civil Air Fleet. They were first mounted on the L-23 aircraft in October 1943.

In 1943, the task was to get 25 Yu-52s. The plan was overfulfilled: according to the documents of the Civil Aviation Air Force, 27 Junkers were handed over. As of January 1, 29 Yu-52s were in service (including 21 serviceable ones). Lost only one. On October 24, 1943, the plane with the number L-37 crashed and burned down near the Asha station. The crew died.

As the situation at the front changed, there were more and more trophies. "Junkers" continued to enter the Civil Air Fleet, making up for relatively small losses (in 1944 they lost three aircraft, in 1945 - two). The number of cars gradually increased, but there was never such a quantitative jump as after the Battle of Stalingrad. On June 1, 1944 there were 30 of them, on January 1, 1945 - 31.

According to the GKO decree of December 12, 1944, all captured Yu-52s were to be handed over to the Civil Air Fleet. But there were also exceptions. One "Junker" served for quite a long time in the sanitary detachment of the Air Force of the Baltic Fleet. Three flying minesweepers were operated after the war in the Black Sea. They destroyed magnetic mines off the Crimean coast, in the Odessa area and at the mouth of the Danube.

But most of the trophies still went to civil aviation. After the capitulation of Germany, planes, engines, various equipment and spare parts were sent to the Soviet Union by echelons. By October 1, 1945, the Civil Air Fleet already had 37 Junkers. Of these, five perfectly serviceable aircraft arrived from Romania - they were seized by order of the Allied Control Commission.

Now the "Junkers" worked not only in the Moscow Department. Already from 1944, the Civil Air Fleet, which had considerably replenished its composition with Li-2s and American S-47s, could afford to equip rear units with new vehicles. They began to push the Yu-52 to the outskirts of the country. Seven planes were sent to Turkmenistan to transport sulfur. They had to replace the obsolete and extremely worn-out G-2s. Four Yu-52s had been working there since the end of 1944. Or rather, three were working - the fourth was waiting for new engines for a long time. One of these planes (the pilot of Borovoy) crashed on March 15, 1945 during an emergency landing on two engines.

Two cars arrived in Yakutia. Two planes in Tajikistan served the line to Kulyab. Among the pilots there were two women. One of them, Komissarova, died in an accident in 1945.

In Central Asia, the Yu-52 engine installation was revised. German engines suffered greatly from sand dust. Even in winter, piston rings wore out in 15–20 flight hours. In the first days of June 1945, air filters designed by the Research Institute of the Civil Air Fleet were installed on the right and middle engines of the L-68 aircraft. On the left, at the suggestion of local craftsmen, the suction pipe was installed not under the engine nacelle, but above it. After successful tests on the Ashgabat-Tashauz and Ashgabat-Darvaza lines on all aircraft in Turkmenistan, medium-sized engines were equipped with new suction pipes. Later, another version of the pipe appeared, tested on the L-35 machine.

The last Yu-52 entered the Civil Air Fleet in 1946. After the Li-2 and S-47, released from front service, entered the line, there was no longer a great need to use German aircraft. On June 28, 1947, an order was issued by the head of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet on the decommissioning and further use of captured equipment. After fault detection, by the end of the year, nine of the most worn-out Yu-52s were written off, another one crashed in an accident. On December 1, there were 23 Junkers in total. From now on, they were ordered to be used only as cargo in remote areas. For example, in the East Siberian Directorate, Yu-52 entered the 10th transport detachment and began to carry food to the mines.

In 1948, ten more Junkers disappeared from the lists. According to the results of the aircraft fleet census conducted in May, two aircraft remained in stock - one was waiting for decommissioning, the second was flying a resource in Eastern Siberia. As of June 1, there was only one Yu-52 on the lists. By the end of the year, he was gone.

Captured Junkers were also operated by departmental aviation. In June - August 1945, the crews of the Moscow group of the Polar Aviation Administration (UPA) overtook from Germany one aircraft on wheels and one on floats. At plant No. 477 in Krasnoyarsk, a cab heating system and new engine hoods were designed for them. Designed, manufactured and with " a positive result» tested the skis. "Junker" with the number H-380 served for quite a long time in the Igarsk air group. In 1946, polar Yu-52s flew 351 hours. The last of them was written off in early 1949.

The NKAP (later MAP) also had German aircraft. The People's Commissariat received the first Yu-52s at the beginning of 1943. These vehicles ensured the urgent transportation of components from one plant to another. In April 1947, the ministry had six Junkers; later, the fleet increased due to the transfer of equipment from the Civil Air Fleet and the Air Force. On October 1 of the same year, it already included ten Yu-52s. Their write-off began the following year. On January 1, 1950, five vehicles remained in service. All of them were written off in the 1st quarter of the following year.

A certain number of aircraft were in the aviation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They served camps in remote areas. For example, in April 1947, two Yu-52s worked in the squadron of the Norilsk Combine (subordinate to the Main Directorate of Metallurgical Industry Camps). But even here they tried to get rid of them. By April 1949, only one "Junker" remained in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and at the beginning of 1950 he was also written off.

The Ministry of the Fishing Industry of the Western Regions in April 1947 had one aircraft based at the Izmailovsky airfield in Moscow. By the beginning of 1949, three such machines were operated by the Sevryba trust in Arkhangelsk. By April 1, only one of them was flying.

By 1951, not a single Yu-52 remained in Soviet aviation.

In Portugal and Switzerland

In November 1936, the Portuguese government asked Berlin to sell ten Junkers. The Germans supplied them with a batch of Ju 52 / 3mg3e under the designation Ju 52K. The machines were delivered by sea from Hamburg in 1937. They armed the bomber squadron at the Sintra airfield. Later, this unit was transferred to the Azores, where it was disbanded in January 1944. The aircraft flew to the mainland and were mothballed at the Ota base.

In September 1950, the Portuguese acquired two captured Ju 52/3mg7e from Norway. The planes were airlifted via Copenhagen and Brussels. At the end of 1960, the fleet was replenished with 15 French AAS.1. The cars were received in Oran (Algeria), and then they flew to Lisbon with an intermediate landing in Seville. These "junkers" served as transport. They were also used to train paratroopers. The last of them "survived" until 1968.

In October 1939 three Ju 52/3mg4e were sold to Switzerland. The aircraft were intended for air navigation training, but were also used as transport aircraft. After the war, the main wheels from AAS.1 were put on them, and the tail wheels were replaced with nose wheels from the English Vampire fighters. The Swiss "Junkers" were the last to be operated in military aviation. They were sold in September 1982 to a company in Germany, which uses these rare cars for demonstration flights.

Wars after the war

World War II ended, but the Ju 52 / 3m still had a chance to participate in several local conflicts. French "Toucans" fought in Indochina. In February 1946, a GT I/34 Bearn squadron arrived at the Bien Hoa airfield (northwest of Saigon). It included 16 AAS.1. The machines were equipped with bomb racks under the center section and consoles. "Toucans" were used to support troops on the ground. In addition to bombs, they carried canisters of combustible mixture, which were simply thrown from the doors. The aircraft have proven themselves well in terms of reliability and ease of maintenance.

In the summer of 1946, the squadron participated in the landing of several paratroopers - in Luang Prabang (Laos) and north of Haiphong. In December of the same year, its aircraft supported the advance of the French troops to Hanoi, and on January 6, 1947, they carried out a landing at Nam Dinh. The paratroopers were supposed to capture two bridgeheads for the landing of amphibious assault, but the fire of anti-aircraft artillery scattered the transport aircraft, and with them the paratrooper units.

More successfully was the landing of paratroopers near Hoa Binh in April of the same year, which contributed to the capture of the city. The number of "toucans" in Indochina gradually increased. In May, two squadrons of these machines operated there. In October, another dozen AAS.1s were delivered on the deck of the Diksmünde aircraft carrier.

Aircraft were alternately used either as transporters or as bombers. On May 27, 1949, 30 Tucans dropped a parachute battalion near the Dong Khe post besieged by the Vietnamese. The post was saved. But in October of the following year, two battalions had to land in the same area. The Vietnamese smashed them to smithereens. Despite the support of aviation (including AAS.1 with bombs), only 23 people left the jungle. In January - May 1951, "ersatz bombers" were actively working near Hanoi.

The last combat operation of the "toucans" was the landing at Hoa Binh on November 14, 1951. There they dropped three battalions. As auxiliary aircraft AAS.1 served in Indochina almost until the armistice in 1954.

In France, "toucans" were in service until the spring of 1960.

Spanish CASA 352 fought in Western Sahara. In February 1958, they dropped cargo to the Ifni garrison surrounded by partisans. There they also landed a paratrooper unit. Several vehicles were equipped with bomb racks and used to attack partisan positions. The Spanish "Junkers" operated in Western Sahara until 1969. The process of removing them from service began in 1965, but the last aircraft of this type were decommissioned only in 1978.

In civil aviation

After the war, Ju 52 / 3m were operated by civilian pilots in many countries. The British sold the captured cars to the BEA company. The Short factory in Belfast converted them into 12-seat passenger ones by sewing up the cargo hatch on the starboard side and replacing the radio equipment. 11 aircraft worked on local lines in Great Britain, in particular, on the London - Belfast route, until August 1948.

Float cars flew in Sweden and Norway. The Swedish company SAS scrapped them only in 1956. Three former military Junkers served in Bulgaria on the Vrazhdebna-Burgas line. In Romania, the same aircraft were operated until 1947.

The Ju 52/3m lasted the longest in New Guinea. In 1955, Gibbs Sepik Airways bought three Junkers from Sweden. The owner of the company, a former military pilot Gibbs, personally flew the first plane to the town of Goroka in October. In January 1957, two more cars followed.

The aircraft were equipped with additional gas tanks, and already on the spot the engines were replaced with Australian-made R-1340-SH-G (600 hp) and three-bladed Hamilton Standard 3D40 propellers were installed. German cars were able to take off and land where the American C-47s could not. They carried passengers and cargo throughout New Guinea and occasionally flew to Australia. One aircraft crashed during a forced landing in October 1959, and two more were scrapped in April 1960.

Plan
Introduction
1 Plan alternatives
2 Designation of strategic goals
3 OKH plan of October 19, 1939
4 Comments of the OKW
5 OKH plan of October 29, 1939
6 Criticism of the OKH plan
7 Remarks of Army Group "A"
8 Additions to the OKH plan
9 "Mechelen Incident"
10 "Long start"
11 OKH plan of January 30, 1940
12 Military staff games
13 Manstein Plan
14 Criticism of the Manstein Plan
15 Implementation of the Gelb Plan
16 Notes
17 Sources

Introduction

Plan "Gelb" or Gelb plan (German. Fall Gelb- Yellow plan) - the code name of the German blitzkrieg plan against the countries of the modern Benelux: Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France in 1940. Later it was partially implemented during the Nazi offensive, known as the French campaign. The plan became one of the stages of the "Strange War", which was skillfully used by the German command as a kind of strategic pause-respite. This allowed Germany to successfully complete the Polish campaign, implement the plan for the occupation of Denmark and Norway (the Danish-Norwegian operation), as well as prepare the invasion of France (the Gelb Plan itself), finally consolidate the results of the Anschluss (annexation of Austria) and the capture of the Sudetenland.

1. Plan alternatives

The first version of the Gelb military campaign, known as "OKH Plan", was rather theoretical, positional in nature. He was not destined to come true. Another option, known as the "Manstein Plan", was more successful and was successfully implemented on May 10, 1940 in the first phase of the French campaign. The result of the implementation of the plan was the occupation by German troops of the territories of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and northern France.

2. Designation of strategic goals

The development of an offensive against France began on September 27, 1939. At a meeting of the commanders-in-chief and military commanders of staffs, Hitler emphasized: "The purpose of the war is to bring England to its knees, to defeat France."

The plan was opposed by the commander-in-chief of the ground forces Brauchitsch and the head general staff Halder. They even prepared a plan to remove Hitler from power, but, not finding the support of the commander of the reserve army, General Fromm, they abandoned the attempt.

On October 6, 1939, German troops completed the occupation of Poland, and on October 9, the commander of the armed forces, Brauchitsch, Goering and Raeder, was sent a "Message on the conduct of the war on the Western Front." In this document, based on the concept of "blitzkrieg", the strategic goals of the future campaign were determined:

“3. ... for the further conduct of hostilities I order:

a) on the northern flank of the Western Front, prepare an offensive through the territories of Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland. It is necessary to attack with as many forces as possible and as quickly as possible; b) the purpose of this operation is to destroy, if possible, large associations of the French army and allies on its side, and at the same time capture as much of the territory of Holland, Belgium and Western France as possible in order to create springboard for successful air and naval warfare against England and to expand the buffer zone of the vital Ruhr area."

“3. … Für die weitere Durchführung der Feindseligkeiten bestellt:

a) auf der nördlichen Flanke des westlichen Front bereiten Offensive teritorrii durch Luxemburg, Belgien und Holland. Die Offensive sollte so viel Kräfte wie möglich und so schnell wie möglich;b) Der Zweck dieser Maßnahme - zerstören die Möglichkeit der großen französischen Armee und Verbündete auf seiner Seite, und gleichzeitig zu nutzen, so viel Gebiet der Niederland e, Belgien und Westen Frankreichs zu schaffen, ein Sprungbrett für eine erfolgreiche Luft-und Seeweg Krieg gegen England und erweitern Sie den Puffer Die Umgebung von entscheidender Bedeutung Ruhrgebiet.”

The highest German generals reacted to Hitler's decree with doubt. One of the generals even shouted: "France is not Poland!" But, despite fears about the failure of the operation, the commander-in-chief of the ground forces, Walter von Brauchitsch, ordered the General Staff (OKH) to develop "Guelb Directive on the strategic deployment of troops" .

The ground forces command (OKH) took the Schlieffen plan of 1914 as the basis for the operation plan, but unlike the Schlieffen plan, the OKH plan did not aim for a complete victory in Flanders, but had an exclusively positional character - its complete implementation only led to the establishment of a positional front along river Somme.

Army Group "B" (Fyodor von Bock) - 2, 4 and 6 armies (37 divisions)

Army Group "A" (Gerd von Rundstedt) - 12th and 16th armies (27 divisions)

Army Group "C" (Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb) - 1st and 7th armies (25 divisions)

Army group "N" - 18th army (3 divisions)

Reserve - 9 divisions

The main blow was to be delivered by Army Group B on both sides of Liège, with the aim of defeating the Anglo-French forces in Belgium, along with the Belgian and Dutch armies. To the south will be Army Group A. The 12th Army will cover the southern flank of Army Group B, the 16th Army will attack in the direction of southern Belgium and Luxembourg. After marching through Luxembourg, the 16th Army is to take up defensive positions north of the western flank of the Maginot Line between the Saar and the Meuse. Army Group C will operate against the Maginot Line. Depending on the political climate, army group "N" was intended to defeat Holland. The directive ended with an order to Army Groups "A" and "B" to concentrate their troops in such a way that in six night marches they could take up exit positions for the offensive.

4. Remarks of the OKW

On October 21, 1939, the commander of the Supreme High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW), Wilhelm Keitel, criticized Hitler about the "Gelb plan". They boiled down to the following:

· Army Group "N" has unreasonably large forces. She has equally little chance of breaking through the fortified Grebbe line.

· The left-flank 4th Army of Army Group "B", advancing south of Liège, should strike to the west, and only in extreme cases - to the north-west.

· It is worth reviewing the composition of the 6th Army, which strikes north of Liege. The three tank and one motorized divisions allocated to it are not enough to develop success.

· After the start of the offensive and the withdrawal of French troops from the Maginot Line, ten divisions from Army Group C can be transferred to reinforce the advancing group.

Thus, the headquarters of the operational leadership of the OKW proposed to further strengthen the northern flank, mainly with mobile troops.

In the strategic plan of October 29, 1939, a broader goal was set - to destroy the allied grouping in the area north of the Somme and reach the English Channel. The 18th Army was additionally included in Army Group B, and the number of its divisions increased to 43 (including 9 tank and 4 motorized). The composition of Army Group A was reduced to 22, and Army Group C to 18 divisions. The liberated divisions reinforced the northern wing of the front. Army Group B was tasked to break through with one strike force north of Liege, to the Brussels area, and with another - south of Liege, to the area to the west of Namur and then continue the offensive in the northwestern or southwest direction. Army Group "A" had an auxiliary mission - to cover Army Group "B" on the southern and southwestern flanks; Army Group C, as in the plan of October 19, took up a position against the Maginot Line. The border with Holland was covered by the 6th Corps District, which was subordinate to Army Group B.

It was planned to complete the sweep by November 5th. On November 12, 1939, the offensive was to begin.

6. Criticism of the OKH Plan

Adolf Hitler called the plan prepared by the OKH the height of mediocrity. At one of the meetings to discuss the operational plan, Hitler, referring to Keitel and Jodl, noted:

“So this is the old Schlieffen plan with a reinforced right flank and the main thrust along the Atlantic coast. Twice such numbers do not pass!”

The repetition of the Schlieffen plan of the beginning of the century, the attack on France with a crescent-shaped movement through Belgium, did not suit him. In 1939 it was clearer than in 1914 that if there was any fighting between Germany and the Allies, it would be in Belgium, since the Maginot Line along the Franco-German border reliably protected France. Compared to the Maginot Line, the Belgian fortifications were very weak. It is obvious that the French also understood this and expected such a development of events. However, although Hitler had a different point of view, he wanted the offensive to start as quickly as possible:

"Time works for the enemy ... Our Achilles' heel is the Ruhr ... If England and France break through Belgium and Holland into the Ruhr, we will be in great danger."

On November 5, Brauchitsch again tried to dissuade Hitler from invading France. Hitler, in turn, reaffirmed that the offensive must begin no later than 12 November. However, on November 7, the order was canceled due to adverse weather conditions. Later, the start of the operation will be postponed 29 more times.

7. Remarks of Army Group "A"

Even during the preparation of the OKH plan, the chief of staff of Army Group A under the command of Rundstedt, Erich von Manstein, noted that his plan was too obvious. Another drawback of the OKH plan, according to Manstein, was that the German troops would have to face English units, which will definitely be a heavier opponent than the French. Moreover, this plan did not promise a decisive victory.

Thinking about this problem, Manstein concluded that it would be better to launch the main attack through the Ardennes in the direction of Sedan, which the Allies could not possibly have expected. The main idea of ​​this plan was "luring". Manstein had no doubt that the Allies would certainly react to the invasion of Belgium. But by deploying their troops there, they will lose a free reserve (at least for several days), load the roads to failure, and most importantly, weaken the Dinan-Sedan operational sector by “sliding north”.

IN short time completely occupied the territory of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Northern France.

1. Definition of strategic goals

W. Brauchitsch, A. Hitler and F. Halder

The beginning of the development of a plan for an offensive against France was laid on September 27 of the year. At a meeting of the commanders-in-chief of the branches of the armed forces and their chiefs of staff, Hitler ordered the immediate preparation of an offensive in the west: "The purpose of the war is to bring England to its knees, to defeat France.

The commander-in-chief of the ground forces, Walther von Brauchitsch, and the chief of the general staff, Franz Halder, spoke out against. They even prepared a plan to remove Hitler from power, but, having not received the support of the commander of the reserve army, General Friedrich Fromm, they left him.

The main attack was to be made by Army Group B on both sides of Liège, with the aim of defeating the Anglo-French forces in Belgium, along with the Belgian and Dutch armies. Further south will be Army Group A. The 12th Army will cover the southern flank of Army Group B, the 16th Army will attack in the direction of southern Belgium and Luxembourg. After marching through Luxembourg, the 16th Army is to take up defensive positions north of the western flank of the Maginot Line between the Saar and the Meuse. Army Group C to operate against the Maginot Line. Depending on the political climate, Army Group "N" was intended to defeat Holland. The directive ended with an order to Army Groups "A" and "B" to concentrate their troops in such a way that they could take their starting positions for the offensive in six night marches.

3. Remarks of the OKW

5. Criticism of the OKH Plan

Adolf Hitler called the plan prepared by the OKH the height of mediocrity. At one of the meetings to discuss the operational plan, Hitler, referring to Keitel and Jodl, remarked:

"Yes, this is the old Schlieffen plan with a reinforced right flank and the main direction of attack along the Atlantic coast. Such numbers do not work twice!"

The repetition of the Schlieffenian plan of the beginning of the century, the attack on France with a crescent-shaped movement through Belgium, did not suit him. In the year it was obvious than in that if hostilities took place between Germany and the Allies, then it was in Belgium, since the Maginot Line along the Franco-German border reliably defended France. Compared to the Maginot Line, the Belgian fortifications were very weak. It is obvious that the French also understood this and expected such a development of events. However, although Hitler had a different point of view, he sought to start the offensive as soon as possible:

"Time works for the enemy ... Our Achilles' heel is the Ruhr ... If England and France break through Belgium and Holland into the Ruhr, we will be in great danger."

Manstein first discussed his plan with the commander of the 19th Army Corps, Heinz Guderian, and then convinced General Rundstedt that he was right. After that, Rundstedt and Manstein sent a memorandum to the headquarters of the Brauchitsch and Halder ground forces. The note contained the following proposals:

The headquarters of the ground forces did not agree with Manstein's proposals, but Franz Halder nevertheless reported to Hitler on the variant of the plan, noting that an offensive in this direction was impossible, since the forest and mountainous terrain would interfere with the advance of technology.

7. Addition to the OKH plan

Critical comments on the OKH plan forced some adjustments. So the OKH directive of October 29 provided for the temporary abandonment of the offensive against Holland in order to free up forces to build up the strike in the main direction. But on November 15, the OKW revised this decision and issued a directive for the capture of Holland. On the same day, by order of Brauchitsch, the task was assigned to Army Group "B".

8. "Mechelen Incident"

The growing strength of Western armies, doubts as to whether the operational plan of October 29 would achieve anything but a more or less major initial success, and the loss of secret documents led in the following months to a revision of the plan jointly by all higher command and staffs. army groups.

9. "Long start"

Since the main content of the operational plan became the property of the Allies, the stake on the surprise of a military operation lost its appeal. According to OKH directives of October 19 and 29, German troops were to take up their starting positions for the offensive six night marches from the moment they received the order. Prior to this, the nature of their location did not allow the enemy to guess the direction of the main attack. On January 16, after the "Mechelen incident", a decision was made at Hitler's headquarters build an operation on a new basis".

11. Military staff games

Later in his memoirs Erich Manstein write:

It happened to me that General Halder, who was present at the maneuvers, had come to understand the correctness of our [army group "A"] thought.

12. Manstein Plan

Manstein plan

The results of the staff games led to guesses about the Manstein plan. On the 17th of the fierce fate the zustrich of Erich Manstein and Adolf Hitler was born. So, just look at the operation they carried out, they had a lot of things to do, Hitler already the next day punished the headquarters of the ground troops to develop a new plan.

Manstein's plan, based on Hitler's powerful ideas, was simple, but I declared I could win. Army Group "B" under the command of von Bock was small in order to quickly occupy Holland, cross the border between the Dutch and the allies, throw the enemy onto the Antwerp-Namur line, and also break through Belgium to Pivnichnu France, imitating the enemy the hitness of Schlieffen's ideas. for the French part of the night, then the wines will inevitably threaten Paris. Like the French and the English stand on this path and turn to look at the lane, the stench leans on the pasture. On the left flank, Army Group C (General Wilhelm Ruth ter von Leeb defend the Maginot Line, and, if possible, zahopit її. Virishal blow was transferred to the zone of the dії group of armies "A", as a result of the new plan, the 4th army was added and the 44th division was small in its warehouse. ", with a tank group Kleist in the forefront, break through the Ardenni, grab the crossings across the Somme and Dinan, pass between Sedan and Dinan, and then turn to the pivnіchny stop along the Somme river valley to Am "єnu, Abvіlu and save the English Channel. Itself here will be the tasks of ten tank divisions of the Wehrmacht. Leeb will not have a single tank division on the pivdni, and von Bock will have only three.

This plan, on the 24th of fierce fate, became the residual version of the "Gelb" plan.

13. Criticism of the Manstein Plan

Not everyone in the German generals supported the Manstein plan. The commander of Army Group "B", Colonel-General von Bock, expressed serious doubts about the residual version of the "Gelb" plan. At the end of the day, on the additional Braukhich wine, stating:

“Your operational plan doesn’t give me peace of mind. You know that I’m for smart operations, but here I crossed the boundaries of the reasonable, otherwise you don’t call it. tse baiduzhe We have seen the main mass of tanks on the dekilkoh roads near the mountainous Ardennes, there is no enemy air force! Nana and їm will be necessary for the exit to the river on the Dinans - Namur less than one quarter of that hour, which is necessary for us. You will work, as if forcing the Meuse not to go in and you will militantly sit down between the cordon and the Maas near the Ardennes without roads? do not waste our services and not join Belgium?