Special thanks to Lyric for discovering this unusual He 111 and the reference for it.
He 111H-6 of
Kampfgruppe zur besonderen Verwendung 23 (Bomber Group for Special Deployment 23) in January 1943. KGrzbV 23 was formed specifically for the airborne relief operation for the German 6th Army trapped in the Stalingrad pocket. It was constituted of He 111's taken from other units in Europe and North Africa to be used as transports. D-APZE was requisitioned from
Kontrollinspektion Afrika, the transport unit tasked with ferrying high ranking officers and other officials throughout North Africa as well as back and forth to Italy. It was painted overall in silver paint with the insignias comprised of a swastika in a white dot on a red field, just like the flag of Nazi Germany (I used the standard military cross for Germany instead of a swastika for obvious reasons). The civil registry code was painted in black on the fuselage sides and under the wings.
