the same route on 10 December 1942. The V7 (TB+QL), which made its first flight on 1 April 1943, was fitted with six 746 kW (1,000 hp) Jumo 207C inline two-stroke diesel engines. With a takeoff weight of and a range of , it was intended as the prototype BV 222C. Following the Invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the remaining BV 222 aircraft were transferred to KG 200. Of these, C-09 was probably the BV 222 reported to have been strafed and destroyed by Hawker Typhoon aircraft of No. 439 Squadron RCAF on 24 April 1945 at Seedorf. V7 and V4 were scuttled by their crews at Travemünde and Kiel-Holtenau airport respectively, at the end of the war. C-10 was probably the BV 222 reported shot down southwest of Biscarrosse on the night of 8 February 1944 by a Mosquito of No. 157 Squadron RAF. One BV 222, V4, is said to have shot down a US Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator of VB-105 (BU#63917) commanded by Lieutenant Evert, on 22 October 1943. Since the war this has often been mistakenly quoted as a BV 222 shooting down an Avro Lancaster. Japan flights Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, plans were made to connect Germany and Japan by air using Luftwaffe aircraft modified for very long range flights since commercial flights to the Far East by Luft Hansa were no longer possible, and it had become very dangerous for ships or U-boats to make the trip by sea. Field Marshal Erhard Milch authorized a study in to the feasibility of such direct flights and various routes were considered, including departing from German-occupied Russia and Bulgaria, and a sea route using a BV 222 flying from Kirkenes in north Norway to Tokyo via Sakhalin Island, a distance of . The BV 222 was one of three aircraft considered seriously for the program, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 and the Heinkel He 177. The He 177 was ruled out due to it being considered unreliable and in 1943 the Junkers Ju 290 was selected for the flights. Postwar Three BV 222s were captured and subsequently operated by Allied forces: C-011, C-012 and C-013. C-012, captured at Sørreisa in Norway after the war along with V2, was flown by Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown from Norway to the RAF station at Calshot in 1946, with RAF serial number "VP501".