Ju52 Staffelskinpack of KGrzbV106, 3.Staffel Crete Invasion may 1941
by cheruskerarmin

A full semihistorical Staffel of 12 a/c in the paintschemes of 3./KGrzbV106
('Kampfgruppe zur besonderen Verwendung' 1 meaning about 'Combat group for
special duties') during the Unternehmen Merkur (operation mercury), the crete invasion
in may 1941.

The crete invasion saw 493 Ju52 in service and 271 were destroyed or heavily damaged 
to be written off at last. The losses were caused mainly by stiff flak resistance and artillery fire on the airfields. There are
no allied fighter encounterings recorded, the last british/commonwealth fighters were withdrawn some days before the start
of the operation.      

The skins were made with photoshop CS2 and to look best in perfect mode.


The the crete invasion saw the junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft in their
most colourful paintschemes during the whole war. Large areas like complete engine cowlings,
tail rudders and lower wings were painted yellow, a standard recognition marking in the
german luftwaffe at this period but never that extensively applied again. 

As often with the WWII luftwaffe there were a lot of variations which i tried to cover and so all 12 skins 
are slightly different from each other.
The paintschemes are well researched but as oftenly some details are still unclear and therefore 
it is a 'most likely' (semihistorical) skinpack.
KGrzbV 106 consisted of four staffels with staffelletters N, P, R and S. The 3. staffel's (R) colour was - following
the rules in the transport units - yellow.    
The leaping deer (stag) badge was most likely used by several units, especially II.KGzbV172. This group however
was temporarely disbanded at crete and I.KGzbV172 used another badge. It is possible that former a/c from II.KGzbV172
served with other units, like KGrzbV 40, 50, 60 - or 106. KGrzbV106 used the deer badge only at crete, previously and
after crete it used the 'Narvik' shield. It is a little mystery why not at crete. 
The more serious publications all are stating the leaping deer was the badge of KGrzbV106 at crete.   

Generic and nomarks skins for the crete campaign incuded.            

THX a very lot to foo'bar and Imme, whose excellent templates were the base to work from.
As well as to FBS, whoose weathering brushes i used for making these skins and his
flak brushes for creating the presenation pic.    

These skins are free for non-commercial use. Reupload only with my
permission. 
Enjoy  - and i would be very pleased to get a feedback from you!

cheruskerarmin@freenet.de

Sources:
Squadron Signal publications
Transporter- wer kennt sie schon (Karl Kssler)
Transport units Volumes I and II (classic publications) 
Flugzeug Profile 24 (Alfred Krger)
Ju52 an allen Fronten im Einsatz (Manfred Griehl)       
Ju52 weltweit im Einsatz (Manfred Griehl)
Die Ju52 im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Motorbuch Janus P.)
Waffen Arsenal - Ju52
Luftwaffe at War-the Junkers Ju52 (Morten Jessen)
AirDoc - The Junkers Ju52
Junkers Ju52 (Heinz J. Nowarra)
Flugzeug-Fotoarchiv 3 Kreta
and more... 


