FeFiFoFum Gigant Killer v1a

22 April 1943, Holy Thursday, just before Easter, was the blackest day of all for the Me 323s and their crews

14 Me 323s of II./KG.z.b.V each carrying about 10 tons of fuel destined for Army Group Tunis was intercepted by the South African Fighters at Cape Bon.

10 Ju 52s of Kampfgruppe z.b.V. 106 took off at 0640 hours bound for Tunis. The Junkers and a group of 14 Me 323s were supposed to fly to Tunis with the maximum available fighter escort.

Each Gigant was carrying 10 tons of fuel destined for Army Group Tunis.

The fighter escort of 39 Bf 109s assembled over Trapani. Another 65 fighters, including Macchi 202s, flew out from Tunis to meet the formation. West of Sicily the Kampfgruppe descended to a height of 20 to 50 meters above the sea. Halfway between Sicily and Tunisia the Me 323s separated from the Ju 52 formation and, contrary to orders, set course for Cape Bon. This splitting of the fighter escort meant that the Giganten had only 36 escorts instead of the planned 104.

At 0925 two large groups of South African fighters began attacking the Me 323s between Cape Bon and the island of Zembra. Conditions were hazy. The first group of enemy fighters engaged the Bf 109s of II./JG 27, which were flying at an altitude of about 2400 meters, and forced them away from the transports. This allowed the second formation, which was larger and made up mainly of P40 Kittyhawks of the South African Air Force, to attack the Giganten.

Once attacked, the Me 323s took evasive action and the wedge-shaped formation disintegrated. The huge, cumbersome transports had little chance of even reaching the African coast. Usually able to sustain a great deal of battle damage, on this day the Giganten were carrying volatile cargoes and most caught fire or exploded after a few hits. Though they put up stiff resistance, shooting down five to seven enemy fighters, the Me 323s were shot down one after another until the last Gigant crashed into the sea in flames.

MISSION DATE: THURSDAY, 22 April 1943

GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m

GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 12 players

MISSION TYPE: Air Intercept

FLYABLE PLANES: Bf-109G6, SPITFIRE MkVIII, P-40 Tommahawk 2B

FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 8 minutes

MISSION INFORMATION: This mission by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs