The Junkers 290 I: Actual Facts

 
I bought Revell's model kit of the Junkers Ju 290 about a year ago. As I tend to do, I've  been casually researching it ever since, and these internet readings lead me to a weird discovery: that this rather obscure warbird  is a nexus for rumor and conspiracy theory.  Most of it is baseless - though I suppose understandable, given the company the Ju 290 often hung out in - but there is one issue in between the crazy I found fascinating, and want to lay out for everyone. 

So if it sparkles for everyone here I'm going to do a three post series on the Ju 290 family. First we will cover the real history. The second will cover the interesting issue. And the third will be a bunch of bullshit backed up by nothing. It's gonna be a bit like the Discovery channel: first, a Wings documentary. Then, a documentary on something speculative but grounded in fact. Then, a special on the "real Atlantis" or possibly ghost hunting.

I: The Biggest Loser

The Story of the Ju 290 starts before World War 2,  to the first Nazi attempt to make a strategic heavy bomber. The first head of the RLM, General Walter Wever, was a big believer in the importance of strategic bombers, and as soon as the Nazis came to power in 1933, he opened secret negotiations with Dornier and Junkers to produce them. Dornier and Junkers were both logical choices. Dornier had already built a very large airplane in the form of the Dornier X, a flying boat airliner large enough to be credibly called a flying ship. Junkers had a entry in the field of "crazy large aircraft" as well, in the form of the G38. The G38 was an early attempt at a blended wing design, and was a airliner made to compete with Zeppelins. Anyway, by 1936, both companies had produced prototypes, in the form of the Donier 19 and the Junkers 89. The Junkers 89 V1 first flew on April 29th, 1936.

If nothing else, it looked pretty cool.

The Junkers project was big for its day, being close in dimensions to the later Short Stirling, and had the same basic layout: a tail-dragger with a twin tail and a cockpit greenhouse. The main distinguishing detail of the Junkers entry (aside from gigantic even-for-a-bomber wings) was its use of flaperons, combined flaps-ailerons that were something of a Junkers design signature. The first prototype was powered by four Jumo 211s V12s, as used by the Ju 87; the second used four DB 600 V12s, the same aircraft engine used by the He 111 and the Bf 110. These engines were just for the prototypes. Production of aircraft engines in prewar Germany was a production bottleneck, and in Germany's great re-arming scheme every modern aircraft engine was already allocated. This was a bit of a problem: the Germans were several years behind other nations in the development of modern aircraft engines, alternatives to the short supply V12s didn't exist.This wasn't the only knock against the program. The RLM was keenly aware that Germany lacked the resources to build heavy bombers in large numbers, and more especially, the fuel to run them.

When General Weaver was killed in June 1936 in an airplane crash, the strategic bomber program lost its advocate, and the entire effort was cancelled shortly after. At the same time, the RLM issued a new specification for a heavy bomber using power plants linked together to give the needed power output; this was the start of the Heinkel 177 (which is a story in of itself.) Meanwhile, though, the Junkers 89 program was out of luck. Junkers had built two, and was working on a third when the contract was cancelled.

Almost immediately,  Lufthansa showed interest in the orphaned prototypes, as asked if a airliner could  not be made out of the basic design. Lufthansa specified the ability to carry 40 passengers, plus their luggage 2000 km. This made sense:  Lufthansa by the later 1930s was hell-bent on the Lebensraum of the new market of long-distance international flying, and had already commissioned several long range aircraft to hedge its bets as to what technology would be the most useful. (These included the Blohm & Voss Ha 139 large float plane, the Fw 200 Condor, and the colossal BV 222 flying boat.) There was also the issue that Lufthansa's standard airliner, the Ju 52, was starting to show its age compared to more modern designs from America, like the DC-3 and DC-4. So the Ju 89, already developed by the government to flying prototypes, looked a sensible bet for a replacement. The two completed Ju 89s were modified for cargo carrying. The RLM gave its blessing to using the half-built third prototype as something new, but told Junkers this project was not getting any engine used by front line warplanes.

So, over the fall and winter, a new fuselage was designed for carrying passengers, and fitted with the Ju 89's wings and tail. This prototype, the  Ju 89 V3, already had a set of DB 600s, but future models would use BMW 132s. These were BMW-licensed copies of the Pratt and Whitney Hornet Radial that were used in the Ju 52, and the early civilian Fw 200. While reliable, they made only about 830 hp, which meant the big new airliner would be distinctly underpowered. (The Short Stirling, by contrast, used Bristol Hercules II radials making around 1300 hp.)

II: Pivot to the Airliner - Add One to the Designation

So the Ju 89 V3 was transformed into the Ju 90 V1 "Der Grosse Dessaur", which flew in August 1937, over a year after the Ju 89 program was shut down. Given a civilian registration, the  Ju 90 V1 was completed as an airliner, but never was used as such; instead, it was used as a flying test plane for the future series. Ju 90 V2 ("Preussen") and Ju 90 V3 ("Bayern") were completed in early 1938, with V3 actually serving as a airliner for Lufthansa. Six additional Ju 90 Bs would follow.

(This is confusing as hell: German prototypes were assigned the V# suffix to show that the airframe was, in fact, a prototype. Despite the fact that they were the first aircraft to enter production, the Ju 90 airliner was known as the Ju 90 B. Or not; some sources call the airliner versions Ju 90A. Adding to the puzzlement,  the airframes with the V# suffix are really two different series of prototypes: Ju 90 V1-3 were prototypes for the Ju 90 B; Ju 90 V4-11 were prototypes for what would become the Ju 290. To make this confusion even worse, some of those production A (or B) series Ju 90s were later also counted in this prototype series. Also, many of the V# series would be remade a second time into Ju 290s. It's so confusing I actually had to make a goddamn flow chart just to keep it straight:) 

 

While not a huge airplane by today's standards, it still was a pretty big machine.

The interior was also p nice

Impressed Ju 90s with Lufthansa colors and black crosses.

The Ju 90As were quite impressive for their day, as they had the capacities and amenities of a railway car. These included toilets, a cloakroom, and a capacity for 40 passengers.

Their civilian careers were short, and it seems most Ju 90s served only domestically in the expanding Reich. South Africa Airways also expressed interest in the new Junkers. It attempted to buy two Ju 90s, with the BMW radials swapped with Pratt and Whitney Double Wasps. These airplanes were completed, but tanks were rolling into Poland before they could be delivered. One of these airframes was lost soon after. The second airframe was delivered to the Luftwaffe, who embarked on a little engineering project, replacing the Hornet radials with BMW 801s making nearly twice the horsepower. What happened next is uncertain -  but during the test flight the pilot suddenly 'found himself hanging by his parachute', so, nothing good. Speaking of losses, Ju 90 V1 was lost while performing extreme maneuvers for oscillation tests. Ju 90 V2 was lost during hot-weather testing in Gambia. On an especially hot takeoff, two engines failed, and the resulting crash killed Junkers chief test pilots.

In military service, the Ju 90 were used - surprise! - as transports.  As they were unarmed civilian aircraft (and extremely rare) prudence saw Ju 90s serving far behind the lines. Prudence, of course, was merely a word in the Third Reich, and below is a picture of the final seconds of a Ju 90 being shot down off of Corsica in 1943.

 In addition to hauling stuff about, the Ju 90 also was used extensively by the German Intelligence services. A bit of background is in order here, as it plays an important part of the Ju 290's story: German Military Intelligence (the Abwehr) had, even before the Nazis returned to power, been photographing neighboring countries in secret using civilian airplanes. By the late 1930s, these operations had a special wing with the name "Fligerfurher zbV" - Flyer Command on special duties. This wing was very successful in the first part of the war. Flying modified Ju 86s - the Ju 86P - with pressurization and supercharged engines, intelligence flyers could reach 41,000 feet. Thanks to these missions, Nazi Germany fought the early war with a disturbingly good understanding of Allied dispositions.

In the time of the Third Reich and World War 2, these activities naturally expanded to cover a whole variety of jobs involving aviation. Like its Allied counterparts, German intelligence could requisition whatever aircraft they wanted for whatever job was needed. Even the Graf Zeppelin II, the giant airship, was in 1939 requisitioned for what might be the world's first ELINT mission. Flying over the North Sea, the Zeppelin was used to spy on early radar and electronic navigation efforts by the British, before the war began. Amusingly, British intelligence knew of the plan, and made sure only the really old projects were turned on when the Graf Zeppelin II was snooping.

Intelligence organizations, surprisingly, would be the most prolific user of the Ju 290, and also made frequent use of the Ju 90s. One example: in Iraq in 1941, there was a revolt against British Rule. When Iraq had been made an independent state, the British maintained rights to bases and unrestricted troop movements, to protect British Oil. The pro-Axis Prime Minister saw a chance to revolt in May 1941, and ordered British troops out of the country. The resulting month long war got air support from the Axis via a few Bf 110s and He 111s. Ju 90s were used to ferry mechanics and such to North Iraq, near Mosul, painted in "Iraqi" air force colors. This was the first in a series of intelligence flights in the region. In 1943, a Fw 200 C borrowed from KG 40 flew to Odessa, and from there across the Black Sea to Iraq where supplies were dropped in order to establish a Forward Operation Base (with the help of Kurdish insurgents) to sabotage oil production near Mosul. The initial drop was successful, but the second flight was caught by British intelligence, with several of the Fw 200 crew being captured.

Two Ju 90s in Luftwaffe service.

III: The Ju 290 - Junk Reactor goes Supercritical
 
To get back to the prewar era, during 1938 and 1939, the head designer of the Ju 90 started a new study as to what the airframe could do if it had proper engines. This was probably caused by the Ju 90 V1 setting two records in cargo and altitude hauling. First, 5000 kg of cargo was taken 9,300 m, and then 10,000 kg was taken to 7,200 m. Internally dubbed the Ju 90 "schwer" (heavy), in 1939 development was moved from Junkers HQ in Dessau to Letov in Czechoslovakia. Letov was the native Czech aircraft manufacturer, and the Nazi takeover in 1938 had, ah, granted access to its factory. The plan was for Lvov to manufacture the "heavy" Ju 90, with Dessau handling any regular Ju 90 requests once design work was finished. While the plant would mainly  be used in the Second World War as a Luftwaffe repair and upgrade center,  new capacity was added for this new heavy-lift project.

In April 1939, the military started to show interest in the project again, with the Luftwaffe inquired if the Ju 90 could not be made into a heavy long-range military transport, and was pleasantly surprised by the "heavy" program, already under way. State sponsorship was strengthened when in the summer of 1939, Junkers fielded a request to turn the Ju 90 into an extremely long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft. Junkers figured it was possible, and rolled "modifiable for extreme range" into the design requirement.

With the State interested in the design again, some of the existing Ju 90s were bought back from Lufthansa, while other airframes going to Lufthansa were reassigned for the new project. Only four Ju 90s, ironically, would be kept by Lufthansa itself; the rest would be used directly by the Luftwaffe, or used in the "schwer" program. Anyway, with military backers interested in a big ol' Junkers, better engines could be finally acquired for the Ju 90. The V5 and V6 Ju 90 prototypes were substantially revised for its new roles. First flying in December 1939 and June 1940 respectively, these prototypes had:

New Engines! The BMW 323s were replaced by BMW 801s, a far superior rotary engine also used in the Fw 190 fighter, and some versions of the Ju 88. Making initially about 1500 hp, these engines allowed the Ju 90 to carry heavy loads - even some vehicles, a rarity in WW2 transports. They also gave the future Ju 290 performance on par with smaller allied aircraft, such as the B-24 (or for that matter, the Short Sterling;)

New Wings! Retiring the stylish Gothic swept wedges of the Ju 89, these new prototypes had more conventional straight wings with rounded ends. The flaperons were retired for more conventional ailerons and flaps. There was also a net gain in surface area as well, for more lift, and, of course, room for more fuel tanks;

The Trappoklappe! While the Ju 90/290 program would almost entirely avoid the weirdness that often cropped up in German designs, an exception to this was the Trappoklappe, a hydraulic ramp on the back of the airplane. On the ground when deployed, it would lift up the entire rear of the aircraft, making the flight deck level. It could also be deployed in the air, for the safe dropping of paratroopers or cargo. Another detail of this system was that the ramp was, in general, smooth aluminum, with stairs running up it in the middle for people. In a feature that should be brought back immediately, the stars could also be folded down to form a smooth ramp, which paratroops would slide down face first to exit the airplane, like a fun toboggan ride into combat.

Seriously. It was called a 'Fallschirmjager-Rutsche' or parachute slide.

Ju 90B V7 testing the Trappoklappe.

When towing gliders, the Ju 90Bs actually had rear view mirrors mounted on either side of the cockpit. Also, the Ju 90 prototypes with BMW 801s were initially the only Luftwaffe aircraft capable of towing the Me 321 heavy glider. Who designs a glider without checking to see if it can be towed by existing aircraft? The Nazis, that's who.

Ju 90/290s had an internal winch for loading things. Kind of a necessity, really.

The V7 and V8 prototypes had these features, and eventually defensive armament. A hydraulic turret soon to be used on the Fw 200 was mounted forward, and the tail position now was armed with a 20mm cannon. A small blister was added forward for extra defensive guns.  The Ju 90 "schwer" series also had circular windows. This is just a hunch, but I think Junkers was thinking ahead to pressurization. This was one upgrade that was never to happen in the Ju 290, though it was penciled in as a upgrade to later nonexistent variants. Production Ju 290s reverted to rectangular windows, probably because rectangles were easier to manufacture.

Now, you may notice that these prototype flight dates span from the very start of World War 2 to the year when it all goes wrong for the Nazis, 1942. While the eventual Ju 290 was to be a completely redesigned airplane from the Ju 89, the new fuselage and wings were redesigned by the end of 1939. I'm not sure if the Germans have an idiom meaning "not to beat a dead horse", but the perpetual mismanagement and shortage of resources in the German aircraft industry was definitely a factor here. In addition, it seems likely the project was a very low priority until two things happened: the Fw 200 began to show serious inadequacies, and the invasion of Russia introduced the Nazis to aerial resupply of armies, not only helping logistical problems in the east, but allowing German forces to survive and fight out of encirclements. The V7 and V8 flew in late 1941, and by july 1942, the first Ju 290 would fly. The Ju 290 V1 had started life as a Ju 90, but had been modified on the assembly line to the new standard. The rest of the Ju 90 B series would soon follow, save one airframe of which bigger things were planned. (It's complex; that chart I posted earlier is worth at least 500 words.)

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Despite the increasing fuckerage of the German aircraft industry and its odd development, the Ju 290 turned out to be a very good aircraft. First thing you should know is that it was quite large for a WW2 airplane, being nearly 30m (or 93 ft long) and having a wingspan of 42 m, or nearly 140 ft. The wings were exceptionally large in proportion to the fuselage, having a surface area 1/4 larger than the similarly sized B-29 Superfortress. Compared to the Fw 200, it had a proper development cycle, and was as fast and as tough as contemporary Allied designs. Unlike the Fw 200, it also had plenty of power, with its BMW 801s making anywhere from 1500-1800 hp. (This engine was supposed to be another holdover until a liquid cooled radial Jumo 222 - with a output of 2500 hp - could be perfected. It turned out to be vaporware.) On long range patrol, it was standard procedure to shut down an engine and feather its prop to conserve fuel. It had retained its wide airliner body, and the Ju 290s cargo area had a 6'6 roof, and could fit 7 times the payload of the standard Luftwaffe transport, the Ju 52.

Armament varied widely - some Ju 290s had no defensive weapons at all; others carried so much they had the heaviest defensive arsenal of any aircraft of World War 2. Once again in contrast to some other Luftwaffe heavies, it had proper defensive coverage at all angles.  All marine recon Ju 290s also got the FuG 200 long range naval search radar. The standard crew was nine, though this obviously varied on the layout and the mission. Ju 290s were apparently well liked by crews and maintenance men; proper development had made the 290 lovely to fly and a snap to maintain. I found an account of a German test and ferry pilot who flew most German aircraft and quite a few enemy ones during World War 2:

"My first flight in this precious ship was Ju 290 CE+YZ. [...] Although I had flown the larger Messerschmidt Me 323, the giant cargo glider with six Gnome-Rhone engines, the Ju 290 was a 'real' airplane. [...] On overland flights I could really enjoy the excellent view from the Ju 290's cockpit. Despite its size the aircraft was pleasant and simple to fly, but landing one always had to remember the height of the pilot's eye level was more than 20 feet off the ground. The qualities and performance of the Ju 290 transport, reconnaissance and bomber variants exceeded the Fw 200 Condor considerably, especially as regards to armament and maximum range..." [Luftwaffe Test Pilot: Flying Captured Allied Aircraft of World War 2, by Hans-Werner Lerche.]

Because of the dual role envisioned for the Ju 290, even standard aircraft had a very long range: 5600 km. In the Naval recon role, the range was expanded further to 6500 km. Like the Fw 200, its range made it priceless in the German Air Force, especially as the Ju 290 was both in production and had a fighting chance to defend itself in hostile airspace.

It also would have made an excellent paratroop carrier. But while it did drop many people out of the trappoklappe, the Ju 290 would participate in no operations with paratroopers. The Nazis had burned up their Paratrooper core in a Pyrrhic victory, conquering Crete. This would not be the only area the Ju 290 would have been excellent for, but arrived too late to be of use in.

This is a good place for a model list:

Mid 1942: Ju 290 A-0. Three initial prototypes, made from Ju 90s.

Late 1942: Ju 290 A-1. Five airplanes with defensive armament found on the Ju 90 V8. Four BMW 801 L engines made 1600 hp each.

Early 1943: Ju 290 A-2. The first maritime recon variant, substantially similar to the A-1, save with the addition of FuG 200 radar and a second defensive turret. Three were made. This also appears to be where the Ju 290 got a name: "Seealder" (Sea Eagle.) I encourage you to start an argument on Wikipedia as to if this name applies to all Ju 290s, or just the maritime recon variant.

Spring 1943: Ju 290 A-3. Another marine flyer, which was like the other A series aircraft, but with a low-drag rear turret. Five of these followed the A-2s into service with FAGr 5.

Autumn 1943: Ju 290 A-4. Like the A-2 and the A-3, except now both top turrets were low drag. Five were produced.

Winter 1943: Ju 290 A-5. Another Marine variant. 11 were made.

A Ju 290 A-5 with radar aerials and improved turrets.

Winter-spring 1944: Ju 290 A-7. An improved Maritime Scout, 20 were ordered, but only 13 were completed. It should be noted that these 13 were completed by the spring of '44.The main new feature was a redesigned nose. Mounting yet another 151/20 cannon the nose was to allow a bombardier to use Germany's innovative early missiles, which had to be visually joy-stick'd into a target. There was a price to pay for this new ability: most Ju 290s had very clean lines from the side, looking like a aerial porpoise. With the new turret, the profile changed to that of an Elephant Seal. 

A rare shot of an A-7 that is not 'Alles Kaput'.

January 1944: Ju 290 A-9. Ultra-long range variant, with no weapons but with the marine internal tankage, they had a range of over 8000 km. Originally made for flying to Japan, they were finished in bare metal and used by KG 200 in 1944 for dropping spies. (We'll be talking more about this variant next post.) 

As there are no known pictures of the A-9, have this photo of the Le.290 Orel.

Spring 1944: Ju 290 A-6. Originally meant to be Hitler's personal aircraft, it was finished instead as a VIP transport. Only one was made, and its history we will be covering. Hitler actually did get his own 290: he had first seen the Ju 290 in a private VIP airshow in 1943 and remarked he would like one as his personal transport. When FAGr 5 was deactivated, one of the surplus airframes was turned into Hitler's personal whip (good use of strategic resources, guys.) Hitler never used it, as it made one flight once finished, and was destroyed in an air raid while in a hanger.

Late 1944: Ju 290 A-8. A bomber variant with a comical amount of defensive guns. Ten were ordered but only one started and not completed before the war's end. The Czechs would take this airframe and turn it into a airliner post-war, calling it the Letov Le.290 Orel.

Total airframe production was 46-47, depending on how you figure A-5 production.

As with pretty much every late war German design, the Nazis had big plans for the Ju 290. As the Junkers was practically the only large airframe the Germans had successfully put into production, it was envisioned that the Ju 290 would become a whole family of aircraft. One that actually made it to prototype form was the Ju 390, a six-engined super-sized version of the Ju 290. This was just the tip of the Hindenburg of what was planned. The design was supposed to get new engines, and a design revision, which would have been called the Ju 290 B. The B series featured 'dual-quad' defensive turrets front and rear, mounting four 151/20 cannons each. There would have been a heavy bomber version, a revised naval recon variant, a specialty high-flying fully pressurized reconnaissance aircraft, and even a naval mine magnetic detonator version. There was also talk, at least, of using the 290 series as a aerial tanker for various long range strategic bomber projects. None of these ever got beyond design studies. 

 Swanny (of swannysmodels) made this very cool kit of one of the crazier projects considered during this period: the Ju 290 Z. 

An early stab at increasing the Ju 290's range, it was abandoned in favor of the less-extreme 390.

And that parasite fighter? Yes, it was supposed to be recoverable during flight.

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The first operation Ju 290s were used in was hardly auspicious: the Stalingrad airlift. On the 19th of November 1942, Soviet forces launched operation Uranus, a massive encirclement that would cut off the entire German Sixth army fighting in Stalingrad, leaving 250,000 to 300,000 men without any supplies. The commander of the Sixth Army, General von Paulus, wanted to break out immediately, but Hitler forbade him, saying the Luftwaffe could supply him by air.

Over the two years of total war with the USSR, the Luftwaffe had several times saved the Wehrmacht from a bad situation by supplying them from the air. At one point in the spring of 1942, 100,000 troops had been successfully supplied until they could break out of what had been called the Demyansk pocket, in an airlift involving 500 Ju 52s. Those troops had required 272 metric tons, or 150 Ju 52 deliveries a day to maintain themselves. Hitler, encouraged by his advisers, seized on the idea of the airlift to stave off disaster in Stalingrad. Hitler of course was a 'big-picture' sorta guy, but the Stalingrad airlift was dumb even beyond what the initial numbers would have told him. The Sixth army estimated it would need at least 690 metric tons a day to continue, more than double what the Demyansk pocket had needed. This would have required some 1200 Ju 52s, if you stick to the math used in the Demyansk pocket. The Nazis had lost some 250 Ju 52s since that operation, in the battle for Crete, and were trying to supplement their increasingly beleaguered North African forces at the same time by airlift. One of the heads of the RLM, General Hans Jeschonnek prepared a report showing that even under ideal conditions, it would be impossible for the Luftwaffe with its current numbers to resupply the 6th Army. The Army Chief of Staff, General Von Rundstedt confronted Goering with this report in front of Hitler. It didn't matter. Hitler had chosen his preferred reality, that the airlift was possible. He was aided in this delusion by Goering, who saw a chance to get back into der Fuhrer's good graces after the Luftwaffe's defeat in the Battle of Britain.

An early Ju 290 during the Stalingrad airlift. Our old friend the Fw 200 is on the right.

 

The Trappoklappe with stairs.

I'm pretty sure the objects on either side of the cockpit are machine gun barrels.

Another shot of the same plane from the opposite angle.. If the Fw 200 had a underslung gondola, the Ju 290 had an underslung dingy?

Anyway, long story short, every airframe that could be mobilized were sent to Stalingrad, and the first Ju 290s, unarmed to speed up manufacturing, were among them. The first unit it was assigned to was the Viermotoraige Transportstaffel (four-engine transport squadron), made up of two Ju 290s, 6 Ju 90s, and a single Fw 200 B.  One successful landing and takeoff from the Stalingrad pocket was made in January 1943; Ju 290 V1 was lost on the second attempt. Managing to land while the airfield was being shelled, the aircraft manged to unload its supplies. Loading up with wounded, the Ju 290 got airborne, only to stall when its cargo of casualties shifted back to the tail. The plane crashed and all were killed. A few days after, the airfield at Pintomik was captured by advancing Soviet forces, and Ju 290s could only air-drop supplies.

When Stalingrad fell at the end of January, "four-engined transport squadron" was transferred to Italy to support operations in the Mediterranean. They were also given a new designation: LTS 290. It seems that while the Nazis didn't plan on huge production for the Ju 290, they hoped to at least have one transport wing made up of them. (Luftwaffe Transport Squadrons had four wings instead of the standard three, so a full squadron would be 40 aircraft.) These aircraft were painted standard Luftwaffe cargo camouflage; green splinter camo up top and light blue below. Flying many missions to resupply and later evacuate the Afrika Corps, two Ju 290s were lost in accidents; one overshot the runway at Tunis, and another crashed thanks to confused navigation. While nobody was killed in either incident, both airframes were written off, and later found and studied by Allied forces. On the capitulation of the Africa Corps, the unit was re-designated to Transportstaffel 5. Once again, priorities had changed: a new formation had an even greater demand for Ju 290s.

One of the wrecked Ju 290s in Tunisia, 1943.

 IV: FAGr 5 - The Effective Cog in a Breaking Machine

A FAGr 5 Ju 290, with a clear shot of the FAGr 5 logo.

 FAGrs in Luft-speak were Fernaufklärungsgruppes: long range reconnaissance groups. It had always been planned that the Ju 290 would take over scouting over the Atlantic from the now very obsolete Fw 200 Condors, and evidently HQ saw this job as a higher priority than transport. Around the time the Fw 200 was playing out its last hand, FAGr 5 was formed, and given all the extant Ju 290s (the 1942-43 season of desperate evacuations being over.) They were based out of Mont-De-Marsan, a town 50 km south of Bordeaux. The maritime recon version of the Ju 290 had long range performance compared to most aircraft of its day: a 6000 km range, and a nearly 24 hour endurance. This allowed Ju 290s to fly to the mid-Atlantic on recon missions, and with all models equipped with radar, it could observe allied shipping from far beyond visual range. Training went well, and the unit was fully operational by late fall, 1943. Despite the low numbers of operational aircraft, the capabilities of the Ju 290 allowed for 24 hour surveillance on a given area, an ability that had been sorely lacking up until now. [Model nerds take note: camouflage for FAGr 5 was green splinter upper surfaces, with the fuselage sides and lower surfaces pale blue.]

The problem was simple: the Ju 290 was the aircraft the Luftwaffe should have had. And now that it was around, the Germans lacked the ability to exploit the intelligence FAGr 5 was generating: the surface fleet had withdrawn entirely, and the anti-shipping squadrons had nowhere near the strength required. One source estimates some 2 million tons of shipping was observed by the Sea Eagles - everything from convoys to battleships - and KG 40 naval bombers ended up sinking only 18,000 tons. Attempts to co-ordinate with the Kriegsmarine U-boats netted very little; by fall 1943 the U-boats had been mostly defeated as a fighting force. These missions were not without hazards, either: numerous aircraft were intercepted and shot down over the Atlantic by carrier-based Seafires, and Coastal Command Mosquitoes.

FAGr 5's operational radius.

A rare shot of two 'Sea Eagles' on a mission over the ocean.

The first A-5, after a crash.

An A-5 in flight.

The slow ramp up of production was also a problem, with Grand Admiral Donitz demanding more Ju 290s to fill out FAGr 5. He even got Hitler on his side. The problem was Goering, who, in a move that would not be tolerated in a "decadent" western Democracy, was using the Ju 290 as a poker chip to undermine a rival. Long story short, nobody wanted to put Goering in charge of the war economy, so production remained low. The Ju 290's use of a fighter engine was also a factor in this. In July 1944, production was ended entirely, a sacrifice to the "fighter emergency" production shift, the Luftwaffe's too late attempt to deal with Allied Strategic bomber attacks.

FAGr 5 lasted about a year. Dates vary, but the formation was rendered inactive 1) in May or 2) in July, when Mont-De-Marsan became increasingly close to the front line. By this time, FAGr 5 had quite a stash of Sea Eagles: despite attrition, they had 20 or so airframes to take back to Germany.  Some crews of FAGr 5 were assigned Do 335 training,. All Ju 290s would be transferred again to the Luftwaffe's intelligence wing, KG 200.

V: The Days of Clean Living Are Over

KG 200 was only formed in 1944, but would post-war be one of the most famous units of the Luftwaffe. It was formed both due to a hostile takeover of the Abwehr by the SS, and the sheer scope of activities being undertaken was so large by this point that ad-hoc didn't really cut it anymore. As mentioned, German intelligence flyers were initially photo reconnaissance, but had expanded into a wide variety of areas. These include:

Air dropping special forces commandos. Special detachments of infantry had been posted in each theater of operation, on call for when some especially 'pointy' intel operation was called for;

Air dropping agents behind enemy lines. This was a big activity of both KG 200 and its allied Counterpart, the OSS. The quality of the agents and their effectiveness varied widely.

Assessment of captured enemy aircraft. This was a fairly standard function thanks to extensive Allied air activity over Hitler's Europe providing the occasional lightly crashed fuselage. All manner of airframes were tested in German colors;

Operation of captured enemy aircraft. This might have included operating P-51s in German colors, but there is no hard evidence that the Germans would fake American markings and attempt to penetrate strategic bomber formations. This is not conclusive, it should be said: attacking the enemy while flying his colors was a straight up war crime by the Geneva convention, and anybody caught doing or ordering it could be shot out of hand, as SS soldiers wearing American uniforms were during the Battle of the Bulge. So it makes sense that this activity, if it did happen, made a special effort to not leave evidence. The main use of captured bombers was surprisingly as transports, though some were also used on late war intelligence flights. This, weirdly, means that in addition to  prototype Ju 252s, Ju 290s frequently served alongside captured B-17s and B-24s.

ELINT and ECM missions against Allied Night Bombers;
 
Experiments involving Mistril, or composite aircraft. Think "a Fw 190 controlling a old He 111 made into a flying bomb" and you get the gist of this program;

Experiments involving manned V-1 rockets and other assorted missions that the Japanese gave the word Kamikaze. Almost explicitly suicide missions, these ideas were fortunately never put into practice. 

And, oddly even in this list, a torpedo-bombing squadron using Fw 190s. I have no idea why.

Anyway, that's a wide range activities, and supplying fuel especially to a bunch of separate but related formations had become very difficult. Thus, KG 200.

In the context of our story, these intelligence formations loved the long range and easy paradropping of the Ju 290. Having previously borrowed the aircraft from FAGr 5, KG 200's formal adoption of the big birds would mean they would be flying right up to the end of the war. Since the SS was an extension of Hitler and the senior Nazi political leadership, this also meant that KG 200 would function as the Nazi regime's personal formation. Dissolution of FAGr 5 saw five or so Ju 290s return to Lufthansa service, disarming and returning to civilian registrations, but this was a front. Though they were used as airliners, the main reason for this move was to put them under control of Martin Bormann, deputy-fuhrer. Bormann was already moving Nazi plunder around to Spain and Switzerland as a contingency fund in case the Third Reich actually fell.

This period of the Ju 290's career could be summarized as "a bunch of intelligence operations." In early 1944, a Ju 290 was used in a fairly desperate op: intelligence had identified a hole in the Allied radar network on the north African cost. Flying from Italy, the Germans attempted to establish a secret airbase using old emergency landing strips on the Algerian/Tunisian border. Then, special commando units flying B-17s would land in Allied Airbases in Algeria/Morocco, and wreck shit up/capture fuel for further shit-disturbing operations. That last part obviously never happened, but the work of building secret staging areas in North Africa happened several times in 1944.

Another eastern intelligence operation involving the Ju 290 was yet another attempt to sew dissent in Iraq. In November 1944, a KG 200 Ju 290 departing from Vienna carried five Iraqis and two tons of supplies to Iraq, just south of Mosul. With the Tigris and Euphrates rivers visible in the bright moonlight, the crew managed to drop their passengers and cargo right on target. Returning to Axis occupied Rhodes, the crew then picked up thirty wounded men and evacuated then back to Vienna.

Even though the war was lost, attempts were made to keep inserting saboteurs and spies in the enemy's rear areas. Not surprisingly, most of the agent drop missions happened on the eastern front. Enemies of Stalin's regime were easy to find, but the agents being dropped were only given minimal training. Most were considered untermenchen by the SS, and the internal goal of the program was a 90% casualty rate. (It was in fact 80%, leaving the people in charge impressed with their own efficiency.) Even if you survived your mission, if you were for some reason no longer useful as a agent, you were often immediately shot by the SS. In 1944 some 600 agents were set down some 250 km behind Soviet lines.

Here is a good example of one of these missions: in June 1944, one of the three Ju 290 A-9s took off from Romania, flying over the Black Sea. On board were 30 Kalmuks - members of an ethnic group hailing from the Caucuses mountains, on the Western shore of the Caspian Sea. Always bitter opponents of Stalinism, in 1943 saw the entire ethnic group deported in cattle cars to Siberia for 'disloyalty' to the Soviet regime. The Kalmuks were in German uniforms, under a Abwehr officer. The mission was to raise hell in the former Soviet republic; a airstrip had been secured for several flights of militarized Kalmuks. This was near Elista, the former capital.

The plan had been to hide the Ju 290 under netting during the day, but either they were spotted coming in or the NKVD (the predecessor to the KGB) knew about the mission, as shortly after landing the airplane and its crew were captured. The radio operator was then 'convinced' to co-operate with the NKVD, and sent a message requesting another airplane, saying that the Ju 290 had been damaged in landing. A Ju 252 was sent, but the pilot smelled a rat when circling the airstrip over Elista; he had gotten no response from his agreed-upon recognition signal, and the airstrip seemed deserted. The pilot wisely returned to base. This didn't stop a third flight, another Ju 290 from being sent out to make a landing, a aircraft that naturally was never heard from again. It was only after this Berlin became suspicious, and sent the radio operator a message saying "your wife sends her greetings" and gave the wrong name. When this was cheerfully accepted by whoever was on the other end, only then did the Abwehr realize that they had been conned, and the aircrews were lost.

KG 200 kept up these missions into 1945. Even a unit as high priority as KG 200 now had frequent problems getting fuel for missions. The Ju 290 was now drawn into the final acts of the Third Reich, as it circled the drain of history.

I'm not sure exactly how many Ju 290s were left past early 1945; documents state 10 were to be at a single airfield in late April 1945, to help with Berlin's evacuation. These evacuation plans were somewhat confused, but clearly escape from the Soviets was the chief concern of the party elite. As Hitler's last days played out in a Concrete bunker under the besieged Berlin, Hitler's personal pilot offered to fly Der Fuhrer to several friendly states, including Manchuria, presumably in a Ju 290. The single Ju 290 A-6 (the one converted to a VIP transport) was actually scheduled at one point to take Hitler, Goebbels, and his entire bunker staff to Barcelona in Fascist Spain. This A-6 did end up making the flight with lesser Nazis escaping the Reich. On landing, it overshot the runway (I imagine it was overloaded) and was damaged. Several Fw 200s also carried fleeing Nazis to Spain. Meanwhile. Deputy-Fuhrer Bormann activated his contingency plan. Later known as the ODESSA network, it was a underground railroad (if I can use that term for a secret network for helping escaping slavers avoid justice rather than escaping slaves find it) which used Nazi plunder and gold bullion to fund itself.

KG 200 Ju 290s, along with impressed B-17s and B-24s, were used right up to the surrender to evacuate documents, swag, and people to the "national fortress" in the Bavarian Alps, and (rather at cross-purposes with the first destination) to Spain. This evacuation of Berlin did not go unnoticed; one Ju 252 flight was delayed when the ground crew became enraged when they realized the top leadership was fleeing; they attacked the baggage instead of loading it, and spread the contents all over the runway.

The final flight of a KG 200 Ju 290 happened just before the official end of the war in Europe in May. A Ju 290 A-4 had been modified to the A-7 standard, and was flown by a Hapt. Braun, the group captain of Transportstaffel 5, to a airbase in Hradec Králové, in German-controlled Czechoslovakia.  The Ju 290 was fully fueled and ready to go, awaiting word from high command to evacuate more top brass Nazis to somewhere. As it happened, the call never came. Braun had also got some intelligence of his own: that when Germany officially surrendered, Czechoslovakia, now partially in the hands of General Patton's Third army, was to be given over to Red Army control.  Braun decided in light of this news that the best thing he could do with his fully fueled transport was to evacuate as many women, children, and wounded as possible to Western hands. On May 8th Braun attempted to put this plan into action, and first had to deal with squatters in the airplane. When it became clear that the Ju 290 was getting ready to depart to the west, many unattached soldiers climbed aboard. Braun and his crew had to take up arms to evict them. They then loaded women, children, and wounded aboard, some 70 in all. Taking off at noon, Braun kept it low to avoid the Red Air Force. Despite the horrible weather on this flight, the Ju 290 was intercepted crossing the border into Germany by two USAAF P-51 Mustangs. By lowering his landing gear and waggling his wings, Braun evidently convinced the Mustangs that his Ju 290 was not a bad'un that needed killin', and the flight made it to the American-occupied Munich airport without further problems.

VI: Post War Use

Braun's Ju 290 immediately caught the attention of Walton's Wizzers, the nickname of the Air Technical Intelligence teams: these teams recovered enemy aircraft so they could be analyzed by US intelligence. The Ju 290 was in excellent shape, and Braun and his crew proved willing to assist. Since it was so large, and in such good condition, it was decided that the Ju 290 would be flown instead of shipped back to the United States. Braun found Luftwaffe mechanics in POW camps, and soon the Ju 290 was in top flying condition. Its markings were replaced with American ones for the trans-Atlantic flight, and the formerly nameless aircraft was given the name: "Alles Kaputt" (All is lost.) Taking off from Paris, Alles Kaputt flew the standard Atlantic route: First to the Azores, then to Bermuda, and then onto Illinois, where Walton's Wizzers was based. On the stop in the Azores, Alles Kaputt was inspected with approval by General 'Hap' Arnold, Head of the USAAF in Europe. Arnold's C-46 Commando took off a half hour before Alles Kaputt left the Azores, but was beaten by a half hour by Kaput getting to Bermuda. Once Illinois was reached, it was found that Alles Kaputt beat the previous record on this Atlantic crossing by a whole hour!

 

Alles Kaputt at a post-war airshow.

In America, Alles Kaputt had her German marking restored, and was extensively flight tested, and used in airshows in the United States in the late 1940s. Finally, the time came to scrap her, and Alles Kaputt had one more surprise in store. While being recycled, workers were shocked to discover a bomb hidden by a engine,  next to a main wing spar. People disagree if it was a Nazi self-destruct mechanism or a parting gift from the Czech resistance.

Alles Kaputt over Ohio.

Another captured Ju 290 - likely a A-2 or A-3. An American soldier lounges ontop of it.

A complete picture of this airframe.

The British captured two Ju 290s, and displayed them at the Farnborough airshow before scrapping them in the late 1940s.

The Soviets presumably also captured at least one Ju 290. It appears to have generated very little interest, however. While formerly the Soviets had a ravenous interest in foreign long range aircraft, by mid 1944 they had started work on a long range heavy bomber that looked very much like the Ju 290. It would have featured a pressured hull and be a bomber from the outset, but the project was cancelled when the Soviets got the mother of long range flyer finds: a USAAF B-29 landed by accident in Vladivostok, and the Soviets reckoned that the best route would be to copy the American machine.

There were actually two operators of the Ju 290 post-war: Spain, and Czechoslovakia. The Czechs, after the war's end, discovered the single Ju 290 A-8 on the chocks in the Letov factory. This fuselage was modified into a airliner, which the Czechs christened the Letov L290 Orel. It was never used as such; despite both the factory at Letov and the Junkers HQ being located behind the Iron Curtain, they could not figure out where the center of gravity was in the design. After many flight hours were spent trying to puzzle it out, the Czechs gave up, and the airframe was scrapped. The Ju 290 A-6 that crash-landed at Barcelona sat until Spain bought the airframe from the Allied Control Commission in 1950. It was then made airworthy again, where it served for several years for Spain's aircraft mechanics school. In the late 1950s, a lack of spare parts saw it removed from use and scrapped.

Two shots of the "Spanish Prisoner" airframe.

Other posts on the Ju 290:

Flights to Japan 

Ju 390 and Stranger Things