The Luftwaffe flies again. 3/23/2005
A while ago, I got off my bike, and headed into a restaurant near my place for a take-away meal of claypot chicken rice. I placed my order, and walked out into the street for a smoke. As I was standing idly by, one of the customers in the restaurant walked out, and said to me,
“Ducati’s are nice bikes aren’t they?”
Which made me do a double take, because I wasn’t riding a Ducati on the day. And I then realised that he was refering to my jacket, which is a Ducati touring jacket made by Dainese. It had the name Ducati emblazoned on the back. We got to talking, and he was a nice chap, although not interested in bikes.
Yesterday, he called me, and rather strangely asked if I was interested in models. I scratched my head, and replied, yeah, I like looking at pictures of beautiful women. He then asked if I liked building them. I went, “Huh?” and it dawned on me that he was refering to scale model kits. Scale model kits was a hobby I was very into some years ago, and I have a cupboard and several large boxes filled with unbuilt kits. Various sorts, mostly in large scale, some of them limited editions or very rare, out of production kits. Others are special commemerative issues. Also a large collection of resin models, featuring work by some famous resin model artists.
He asked me to meet him in the evening, and I ambled along to the same restaurant where we first met. He produced a large plastic bag containing 4 kits. I was thrilled, because the bag contained 4 Revell Luftwaffe models. In large scale. And 1 of those kits was a plane which held some memories for me.
It was a 1:48 scale Junkers JU-52, affectionately known as “Auntie Ju” by the Luftwaffe pilots who flew her before and during the Second World War. She featured prominently in the German assualt on Crete, and was spectacularly utilised in the rescue of Mussolini by Skorzny and the Fallschirmjager. A tri-motor design, she was designed as a general purpose transport, and served that purpose admirably well. No other plane in the world can boast of having evacuated over 200,000 casualties.
I first saw the Junkers, in real life, in Frankfurt airport. I was in transit, heading out to Stavanger, and was idly cruising through the airport, when I saw a sign saying “Air Museum.” I followed the sign, and the doors of the museum opened out onto the roof of one of the airport buildings. And my jaw dropped, because standing in front of me was a collection of WW II era planes, in perfect condition. One of them was the JU-52, but there was also an ME-109, and a JU-87 Stuka, with the cannon slung under the fuselage, and pride of place for a Heinkel He-111, the bane and target of the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain.
Pictures to follow.
- Posted in : General
- Author : thesnark
Comments»
I love the FW-190. And didn’t the paratroopers assault Mussolini’s mountain prison with gliders only?
NSDS, I think you may be right. I’ll go check. I know that the Paratroops hit the mountain on gliders, but something in my memory tells me that the JU-52 was involved in one aspect of the operation.
ah, model planes. my love graduated to model ships, intricate fellas. my first ship was a disaster tho. hehehe
“Ducati’s are nice bikes aren’t they?”
maybe you meant “Ducatis” as a plural?
Yeah, yeah. Fucking grammar police.