Greece-Afrika DAK connection

[Jon G.]

IIRC Kriebel makes some fairly non-specific remarks about the Bardia/Halfaya garrsion being supplied in December 1941 by air-dropped stuff from Luftwaffe aircraft. But he doesn't give a lot of details, other than mentioning in passing that losses were too high to justify, and that most air-dropped supply ended up in British hands.

'Air-dropped' suggests other aircraft than Ju-52s. Perhaps the relative lack of Luftwaffe interest in the project was because most of the Bardia garrison was Italian. The Italians used submarines to deliver essentials to their beleagured forces at Bardia.

[Urmel]

The info from inside the fortress and the Panzergruppe documents is quite conclusive, the supply simply did not happen on a scale that was required to keep the fortress in the fight, as Bach's final message indicates.

Supply was carried out by subs and these contributed most, and at least two successful runs were made by surface vessels, lighters. But supply was disorganised, and the material taken suboptimal. When Bardia surrendered on 2 Jan 42 it was curtains for Sollum/Halfaya, because they were then dependent on air supply.

Regarding the garrison, there was a very substantial number of Germans. Bardia alone had more than 2,000 Germans and 8,000 Italians who went in the bag on 2 January.

The only flights I can find info about were Ju 52. They apparently trialled a new parachute dropping system, maybe somebody knows a bit more about that?

[Jon G.]

AFAIK the very first German air unit in the Mediterranean was a transport unit with fifty-three Ju-52s which was sectioned to the Italuft air liaison staff in Rome on December 8, 1940. The arrival of Fliegerkorps X was just around the corner, but the transport unit - whose exact designation I haven't been able to find - was not part of that organisation initially. Until February 1941 this transport unit ferried 30,000 Italian troops and 4,700 tons of supplies over from Foggia to Albania...

Further to my own inquiry, the Luftwaffe transport unit sent to the Mediterranean was none other than the III./KG zbV 1, equipped with 53 Ju-52s and known as the 'Transgerma' for the 53 (yes, 53) days the operation lasted.

The 'Transgerma' flew 4,028 missions, carrying 30,000 personnel and 4,700 tons of stores to Tirana, and carrying back about 10,000 sick and wounded Italians. That averages out as c. 7.4 men, not counting return flights, and c. 1.1 tons of material per mission, and more than 1.4 sortie per plane per day - rather good performance, but apparently the whole undertaking was done under 'almost peacetime conditions' and no planes were lost.

This info swiped from Martin Pegg Luftwaffe Transport Units 1939-1943 vol. 1, p. 17.

[Urmel]

I believe it continued to be referred to as Transgerma until at least the end of 1941?

[Andy H]

Hi JonG

Just to add the following from Air War For Yugoslavia,Greece and Crete (1940-41) by C.Shores-B,Cull and N.Malizia, published by Grubb Street in 1987

Pg51

Mussolini appealed to AH for help in this respect (air transport) and on Dec 10th the first of 53 Ju52/3m troop carriers of III/KGzbv1, commanded by Oberst R.Starke, began arriving in the Foggia area from Wessendorf to undertake this function.

and on Pg108/9

At the end of February the detachment of Ju52/3ms of III/KGzbv1 to the regia Aeronautica had ended, after the German aircraft had made 1665 troop-carrying and 2363 supply sorties from Foggia to Albania. Carrying across 30,000men and 4,700tons of supplies, whilst bringing back 10,000 sick and wounded.

I wonder if Pegg was the source of this info for Shores et-al or the other way around

Regards

Andy H

[Jon G.]

Yes, the Transgerma carried on, at least until the summer of 1941. By December, it was reinforced with the KG zbV 9 (with 30 Ju-52s on strength) to help move Luftwaffe men and stores from Italy to Sicily. Many more units were added in January and again in March in preparation for the impending Balkans campaign.

In April, the western Med Luftwaffe transport assets were made up of the KG zbV 9, KG zbV 104, as well as the original III./KG zbV 1; 'towards the end of April' (i.e. presumably about the time Rommel reached Tobruk for the first time) they were reinforced by the II./KG zbV 1 and KG zbV 172.

By late June, however, following the mauling the Transportstaffeln had taken in Crete, and new commitments in the east, only the III./KG zbV 1 (interestingly, reinforced by a Staffel of SM-82s) and KG zbV 9 remained to support the Axis forces in North Africa.

EDITED to comment on Andy's post: sigh, aviation histories are sometimes so inbred I wonder if aviation authors have webbed feet? That aside, my money would be on Shores