Originally posted by devious
Dunno if it could carry an Ostie 
The payload of the Me 323 was 10,000kg, less than half the mass of a PzKpfw IV or Ostwind (ca. 25,000kg). On the other hand, it's 100-troop capacity would allow a field capture to be conducted against opposition and still be successful... The Me 321, the original glider version of the plane,
did have the load capacity to carry a PzKpfw IV or Ostwind, but then HTC would also have to model the He 111Z twin Heinkel tow plane to get it off the ground.
"Early in 1941, the decision had been taken to produce a motorized variant of the Me 321. It was now realised that a serious heavy-lift requirement would exist outside the specialized assault role, and that a huge glider that needed specialised towing aircraft, rocket packs and other equipment was simply not the answer. After much study, it was decided to fit six French Gnome-Rhone GR14N engines. These were in production and readily available, and could easily be bolted on the wing, which consequently needed to be strengthened. A cabin for a flight engineer was added in each wing between the inboard and centre engines, although the pilot could override each engineer’s decision on engine and propeller control. A brand-new permanent landing gear was bolted on to the side of each fuselage, and gave the resulting Me 323 superb rough-field performance. Compared to the Me 321, the Me 323 had a much-reduced payload of between 10 - 12 tonnes, which was the price that had to be paid for an aircraft that could operate autonomously. Even with the engines, RATO packs (four under each wing, for a total of eight -- imagine the cloud of parachuting RATO packs from a bunch of these taking off)
were still frequently used. Just under 200 Me 323's were built before production ceased in April 1944. There were several production versions, beginning with the D-1. Later D- and E- versions differed in the choice of power plant and in defensive armament, with improvements in structural strength, total cargo load and fuel capacity also being implemented. Nonetheless, the Me 323 remained significantly underpowered. There was a proposal to install six BMW 801 radials, but this never came to pass. The Me 323 was also a short-range aircraft, with a typical range (loaded) of 1,000 - 1,200 Km. Despite this, the limited numbers of Me 323's in service were an invaluable asset to the Germans, and saw intensive use. The Me 323 was something of a 'sitting duck', being so slow and large an aircraft. In the final weeks of the North African campaign in April/May 1943, 43 Gigants were lost, along with much greater numbers of Ju 52's. In terms of aircraft design, the Me 323 was actually very resilient, and could absorb a huge amount of enemy fire - the Afrika Korps' nickname of Leukoplastbomber (Elastoplast Bomber) was somewhat unfair. However, no transport aircraft can ever be expected to survive without air superiority or at least, comprehensive local air cover, and it is believed that no Me 323's survived in service beyond the summer of 1944."In 1943, an entire convoy of Me 323s -- sixteen aircraft -- carrying fuel to support Rommel's Afrika Korps were shot down by a combined force of Spitfires and South African P-40s, despite German escort. This was the last major effort in the attempt to re-supply Rommel in Tunisia.
In wierdness related to the Gigant, there is a story from the Afrika campaign of a 323 that was successfully looped by its flight crew. I would
hope that it was done empty; the interior would get
very ugly if not...
The armament of the D-series was an amazing collection of rifle-caliber machine guns -- two 7.9-mm MG 17 in upper fuselage, two MG 17 in lower fuselage, four MG 17 in forward dorsal positions, two MG 17 in rear dorsal installation, six MG 17 in lateral positions, and two MG 17 in ventral installation -- although these positions would normally actually have guns and crews when carrying troops. The E-series were more heavily armed, with a turret on the top of each wing containing an MK 151/20 cannon, and seven 13mm MK 151/13 machine guns in various locations around the fuselage. The Luftwaffe also experimented with a heavily armed "escort" version, carrying eleven 20mm cannon and four 13mm machineguns.
