http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ds-newsxmlIt was the 'Giant' German aircraft shot from the skies while delivering tanks and weaponry to the battlefield during the Second World War.
Now nearly 70 years after being shot down by a British fighter, experts have found the only surviving example of the Messerschmitt 323 'Gigant' transport plane, 200ft underwater off the coast of Sardinia.
The Me-323 - the largest land-based transport aircraft from the War - was on its way to the Tuscan city of Pistoia from its German base in Sardinia when it was hit by a Bristol Beaufighter fighter plane in July 1943.
After being taken down by the long-range fighter plane, it plunged into waters off the Maddalena islands, an idyllic getaway island now popular with holidaymakers.
But a small team of divers and amateur historians have since 'stumbled upon' the wreckage hundreds of feet underwater, claiming the rusting Messerschmitt is amazingly still intact.
Remarkably, divers found the wreckage while they were searching for another sunken plane.
Aldo Ferruci, a diving instructor and photographer who took pictures of the wreck, told The Daily Telegraph: 'It was just by chance that we found it because we were actually looking for a different plane wreck.
'We had understood that the Me-323 was in a totally different location so we were lucky to stumble on it.
'It is in good condition – it is almost intact, with the six engines still all in line.'
Other experts described the find as one of 'great historical importance'.
Second World War historians say they are aware of 'no other complete surviving Messerschmitt-323 Giant in existence.'
There were an estimated 213 Messerschmitt 323s made, with the transport plane's first flight in 1942, before it was retired in 1944.
/Marcus
