Paradrop Trials - 2 1/2 ton Truck?

[ArmchairSamurai]

Hello all.

I came across this archived Modern Mechanix article from 1944, which reports that the Germans purportedly "...dropped a 2 1/2 ton truck beneath a triple chute." Thoughts? I am familiar with German airdropped varieties of light infantry guns, light flak guns, and the like, but never anything as heavy as a truck. Is there any truth to this?


http://blog.modernmechanix.com/will-air ... rld-peace/

Here is the page in question from the article; the except is at the bottom of that page.

[ROLAND1369]

As one who has dropped troops and equipment I would rate this story as highly unlikely. What aircraft would the Germans have used to drop the truck. They had few aircraft with a rear ramp suitable for an airdrop, none large enough to load, let alone to drop. I know of none with the ground clearance to carry it under the belly like the British method of Jeep dropping. The only large trucks, Opel Blitz, I have seen in aircraft were in ME 323s which has no airdrop capability. I short I see no technical capability to airdrop such large equipment in the German inventory. The allies had no such airdrop capability until the deployment of the C 82 transport but it was not deployed until after the war.

[danebrog]

The Ju 290 could even digest a half track

290.jpg (49.31 KiB) Viewed 1389 times

Its "little sister" Ju 352 could still load an Opel Blitz - but the cab of the truck had to be cut off for this.
But IF a truck was ever dropped from such a machine, it was probably an experiment at best.
Especially since the "GröFaZ" had forbidden all airborne operations after Crete.
And for the air supply of encircled units, transport capacities were so scarce that a truck would have
been about the very last thing to be flown in.....

[Peter89]

The Ju 290 could even digest a half track
290.jpg
Its "little sister" Ju 352 could still load an Opel Blitz - but the cab of the truck had to be cut off for this.
But IF a truck was ever dropped from such a machine, it was probably an experiment at best.
Especially since the "GröFaZ" had forbidden all airborne operations after Crete.
And for the air supply of encircled units, transport capacities were so scarce that a truck would have
been about the very last thing to be flown in.....

That picture could be taken actually with any Ju-90 variant with Trapoklappe. However, it was not suitable to drop those vehicles.