In January 1941 the Stukas of 1JSt.G 1 and II/St.G 2, operating under Stab/St.G 3 with a total of 79 aircraft, arrived In Sicily to attack Allied convoys. Their first action took place on 10 January when a convoy from Alexandria was attacked and the carrier HMS Illustrious was severely damaged. A further attack was prevented by a shortage of suitable bombs but the next day twelve Ju87R-1s attacked and hit the cruisers HMS Gloucester and Southampton as they made their way back to Alexandria ; Southampton was abandoned and sunk.

On 13 January, after reconnaissance aircraft had discovered HMS Illustrious in Valletta Harbour, Hptm. Hozzelts I/St.G 1 struggled into the air with special 2,200 lb bombs for the first in a series of determined attacks. Vicious anti-aircraft fire caused heavy losses, but the attacks continued for a week, during which, Hozzel recalls, 'We now lost our best crews. The leader of my 2 Staffel a very hard chap, could not report to me for tears. He was the last of his Staffel; all his old chaps were lost'. The dive-bombers caused serious damage to the dockyard during these attacks, but although the carrier was hit repeatedly it eventually sailed via Alexandria to the USA for extensive repairs.

At about this time the Luftwaffe began its preparations for the invasion of the Balkans and by 5 April, Stab, I and III/St.G 2. I/St.G 3 and II(Schlacht)/LG 2 had assembled on Bulgarian airfields under VIII Fliegerkorps. Additional ground attack forces were assembled in Austria under the Kommandeur of Stab./St.G 3 who controlled II/St.G 77 and a number of fighter Gruppen, while the Kommandeur of St.G 77, leading the Stab, I and II/ St.G 77, also had a number of fighter and destroyer Gruppen under his command in Rumania for ground-attack duties.

On 6 April German and Italian forces attacked Yugoslavia. After completely destroying Prilep airfield, II(Sch1acht)LG 2 attacked enemy columns and flew reconnaissance sorties in support of the attack on Skopje, crossing the border into Greece within two days. Heavy air attacks ensured German mastery of the air and St.G 77 heavily bombed Belgrade, while forces under Stab/St.G 3 attacked defences in the path of the German 2nd Army thrusting into Yugoslavia from Austria. By 14 April Yugoslavia had sued for peace. In Greece, Stukas from VIII Fliegerkorps harassed retreating Allied troops and obliterated all resistance, while II(Schlacht)/LG 2 struck at positions near Servia. Although Gloster Gladiators destroyed a few of LC 2's Bf109s, the pace of the German advance eventually forced the RAF to withdraw to Crete, giving the Luftwaffe complete mastery in the air. Athens fell on 27 April and a parachute assault supported by VIII Fliegerkorps at Corinth allowed the Germans to fan out across the Peloponnese.

Already the Allies had begun to evacuate their troops to Crete, and once again the hard-worked II/LG 2 was in the spearhead of the attacks, bombing and strafing vessels in the Aegean Sea and Suda Bay. VIII Fliegerkorps then turned its attention to the invasion of Crete itself, Stukas and ground-attack fighters making heavy attacks on British defences. Fearful of a seaborne assault, the Allies sent a powerful force of warships to Crete and, in so doing, set the stage for one of the Stukas' most spectacular victories. Between 21 and 23 May the destroyers HMS Juno, Greyhound, Kashmir and KelIy were sunk, together with the cruiser HMS Gloucester. In an attempt to neutralise the Stukas' bases, a large force of warships set out from Alexandria but, as it sailed, it was spotted by patrolling aircraft of the Libyan-based II/St.G 2. During the attack which followed, the destroyer HMS Nubian was damaged and the carries HMS Formidable so badly damaged that she had to be withdrawn from the area for repairs.

Stuka sorties against Royal Navy vessels covering the evacuation of Crete were equally successful; the destroyer HMS Hereward was sunk and the destroyer Dido and the cruiser Orion damaged. ObIt. Arnirn Thiede of the 'Immelmann' Geschwader received the Ritterkreuz for his successful operations against shipping during the Crete campaign, and he was reported then to have sunk thee freighters, scored a direct hit on a cruiser and damaged a destroyer and a light cruiser.

While the bulk of the Stukagruppen now massed for the forthcoming invasion of Russia, 1/St.G 1, II/St.G 2 and 1/St.G 3 remained in the Mediterranean theatre to support Rommel in North Africa. With little in the way of Allied defences to oppose them, the Stukas were able to operate freely during the desert offensives and counteroffensives. In December 1941, Luftflotte 2 arrived in the area with the Erg채nzungs (training and replacement) Gruppe of St.G 1; and in March 1942 1/St.G 1 and II/St.G 2 were redesignated II and III/St.G 3 respectively to bring the Geschwader up to full strength. On 21 March III Gruppe moved to Biscari-San Pietro in Sicily, where it converted to the Ju87D-1; during renewed attempts to neutralise Malta, when crews often made three sorties per day, formations of about twenty aircraft set out with an entire Gruppe of fighters as escort. Eventually, demands for air support from North Africa reduced the strength of units operating against Malta and although small raids by single sections of dive-bombers continued, they lacked adequate defensive covering fire and became easy prey for the defending fighters.

At the end of May 1942, III/St.G 3 too was recalled to North Africa and in June and July, when operations in support of the Afrika Korps' advance to El Alamein called for intense efforts, they again flew as many as three sorties a day, attacking troops, transport and tank concentrations, artillery positions, airfields, stores and ammunition dumps. In early June the entire Geschwader made repeated attacks on the fortress of Bir Hacheim and, up until the time of its capture, many raids were directed against shipping and installations at Tobruk Harbour; but the long advance had exhausted German air and round farces alike, and Rommel was halted at El Alamein. The now greatly reinforced Desert Air Force inflicted heavy losses, and in spite of close escort flown by the more experienced Luftwaffe fighter-pilots the Allied fighters invariably broke through the defensive screen. As in the Battle of Britain, the Stukas were too slow for the escort. One particularly notable success for the Desert Air Force occurred during the evening of 3 July when a formation of fifteen Stukas, heavily escorted by fighters, was intercepted over El Alamein. In the ensuing air battle the Allied fighters claimed all but two of the dive-bombers destroyed, some being chased back as far as their own airfield before being shot down. Final attacks against El Alamein extended the Luftwaffe to its limit with the result that sorties were considerably reduced due to natural attrition and combat losses.

TUNIS

As the first of the Fw 190s entered service with the ground-attack arm, two new Hs 129-equipped units were raised for operations in the Middle East and the first, 4/Sch.G 2, alternatively known as the Schlacht und Panzer-fliegersfaffel 'Afrika ', left Poland on 2 November with fourteen aircraft. At the end of the first week's operations from Staraset, however, only two aircraft survived and the unit's personnel, evacuated to southern Italy, were refitting at Bari when, in February 1943, the Jabo-Staffen of JG 27 and JG 53 were amalgamated and equipped with Hs129s to form 8/Sch.G 2. This unit was more successful than its predecessor but could make no substantial or distinctive contribution to the Tunisian fighting. Based at the large airfield at El Aouina, 8/Sch.G 2 joined the Ju87s of St.G 3 and the FwI90s of III/SKG 10 (formed on 20 December by redesignating III/ZG 2).

During the British October-November offensive from El Alamein, St.G 3 lost approximately 125 aircraft during 960 sorties mounted in support of the Afrika Korps against troop columns, tank concentrations and troop transport generally. Thereafter the number of Stuka sorties dropped, mainly due to low serviceability and the vital necessity of avoiding losses in view of the overall situation. Also, increasing use was now being made of the Fw190s in the ground-attack role and between 11 November and 11 February, III/SKG 10 claimed 449 vehicles destroyed and a further 196 damaged during 51 operations undertaken in a vain effort to stem the Allied advance. In January, however, III/SKG 10 lost about half of the 30 Fw 190s transferred to Gabes when the airfield was heavily bombed by the RAF, and further losses occurred from extremely accurate AA when the unit attacked the airfield and harbour at Bone. From 10 November, battered Luftwaffe units encountered a new hazard when RAF Beaufighters from Malta made numerous night and day raids against the airfield at El Aouina, destroying hangars and setting workshops and parked aircraft alight. As the Allies closed in on the remaining Axis units in Tunisia, III/St.G 3 was badly shot up over El Guetter by newly-arrived American Spitfires on 3 April and had to be finally withdrawn to Sicily. The remaining Fw 190s could not redress a hopeless situation and on 12 May the North African campaign came to an end with the final surrender of German and Italian troops.