Monday, May. 03, 1943

Wreck of the Flying Boxcars

"It was more fantastic than an H. G. Wells story," said one of the pilots after the fight.

He and other British, Australian and South African pilots had been patrolling the Gulf of Tunis. A formation of Kittyhawks flew under a layer of Spitfires.

The Spitfires sighted the amazing argosies first. Down near the water, only 50 ft. off the sea, they saw 31 huge six-engined transports.

This was the biggest formation ever seen of the biggest plane in the war, the Merseburg-323. The ME-323 was developed from designs for a monstrous wooden glider, with a wing span of 180 feet. Six French Gnome-Rhone engines were added to make a plane that would carry 120 fully equipped soldiers or 20,000 Ib. of freight 450 miles at 140 miles an hour. It has ten half-sunk wheels well forward to prevent nosing over in rough landings, and the front of its fuselage can let down to take in trucks and light tanks. It looks like a boxcar that insists on flying.

Since the plane is jerry-built and the medium-powered engines are French, the Germans consider it expendable. They never knew how expendable it was until last week.

The Spitfires went for the escort and the Kittyhawks went for the giants. The pilot who led the attack said: "Three starboard engines and the fuselage caught fire when I let go at the first plane and it hit the water with a sheet of flame belching from it." As the fragile transports went into the sea, said one pilot, "a mass of propellers filled the sky."

A few minutes after the attack began a pilot's voice spoke on the radio: "There are three of the blighters left. Has anybody got any more ammunition?"

Others with ammunition buzzed in, and soon the entire formation of flying boxcars was expended. With such vigilance was the Axis position in Tunisia enfeebled from week to week.

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