Junkers Ju-52/3m g7e
CN + 4V "Where Eagles Dare"
AvHistory - Version-4.00.165

This outstanding visual version of the Ju-52 was created by Greg Law with information & research provided by Andrzej Fitt.

The aircraft light package was installed by Steve Dunn.  Additionally, Greg Law has added a retractable landing light to the aircraft.

John Whelan BRAVO/4 has painted the Ju-52 in a fictional livery, squadron code CN + 4V, of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), sometimes referred to as "the Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes's fictional group of spies.



"Where Eagles Dare"

U.S. Army Brigadier General George Carnaby, enroute to Crete to rendezvous with Russian forces to plan the final details of the invasion of Normandy, is captured by the Germans when his aircraft is shot down.

He is taken to the Schloß Adler (The Castle of the Eagles - hence the story's title), a fortress high in the Alps above the town of Werfen and the headquarters of the German Secret Service in southern Bavaria.



A special team of mainly British commandos is hurriedly assembled and briefed by Colonel Wyatt Turner and Admiral Rolland of MI6, and led by Major John Smith, MC and US Army Ranger Lieutenant Morris Schaffer. Their mission is to parachute into the locality, infiltrate the Schloß Adler, and rescue General Carnaby before the Germans can interrogate him.

However, this mission is entirely a cover for an MI6 operation to disclose the identities of German double agents who have infiltrated British intelligence. Major Smith and Admiral Rolland manage the operation together; they know of some agents but not enough, and so devise a plan to trick known agents into disclosing their contacts, revealing the entire network of infiltrators.



Three of the party on the Bavarian mission, Thomas, Barclay, and Christiansen, are known to be double agents only by Smith and Rolland, and are their targets of the MI6 plan.



The JU52 used in "Where Eagles Dare" was leased from the Swiss Air Force which was still operating 4 or 5 examples at the time the movie was made. They were retired from service shortly afterward.



The Ju 52 trimotor, like the USAF C-47, was first built in the 1930s and remained in service for more than a quarter century. This transport made its maiden flight in April 1931, and three years later, a heavy bomber version appeared. The latter aircraft formed the nucleus of the Luftwaffe’s infant bomber force in the mid-1930s, and it was used during the Spanish Civil War.

The Ju 52 was obsolete as a bomber by 1939, but because of its durability, simplicity of design and handling characteristics, it continued to serve throughout World War II as a versatile workhorse of the German transport fleet. For a period, Adolph Hitler used a Ju 52 as his private transport.

Ju 52s delivered the attacking forces and their supplies during the German invasion of Norway, Denmark, France and the Low Countries in 1940. Almost 500 Ju 52s participated in the historic airborne assault on the island of Crete in May 1941, and Junkers later supplied Rommel’s armored forces in North Africa.

BEAR
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