Today we start covering the foreign users for the Arado Ar.65. As Bulgaria was the only non-German user of this fighter, it will be over in this post.
In 1937 Bulgaria bought some Arado Ar.65 (which by then they were already obsolete) in order to equip their training squadrons. Those airplanes were of the F sub-variant (which barely differed from the E variant) and nicknamed them as "Orel" (Eagle). They were assigned to the second fighter Orlyak (Wing) that was based in Kàrlovo, close to Plovdiv. The wing was composed by five Yato (Bulgarian word for Training Squadrons) and one acrobatic school. Those training squadrons were equipped with many types of airplanes, ranging from Avia B.534, Avia B.122, Heinkel He.51, Bücker Bü.131 and, of course, the 12 Arado Ar.65F. Obviously those training squadrons were just a cover-up for the rebuilt Bulgarian air force and they were purely fighter squadrons.
Officialy the rebirth of the Bulgarian air force was proclamed in 27th June 1937 at Bozhurishte airfield, close to Sofia when the king Boris III handed over to the Vazhdushnite na Negovo Velichestvo Voiski (VNVV - Royal Bulgarian Air Force) 12 Arado Ar.65 and another 12 Dornier Do.11 medium bombers that had been paid from his own pocket. Needless to say that the Ar.65 was intended to be used as a fighter (even if disguished in a training squadron) and the Do.11 was intended to be used in the bomber role. Due to the fact that those airplanes were paid from the king's own pocket, they displayed the king's Boris III own cipher, consisting in a yellow B inside a red shield located in the fuselage side and tail fin.
Despite the design of the Ar.65, it was never liked by the Bulgarian pilots who found the airplane hard to pilot, but they are famous for breaking the restrictions of the Neuilly-sur-Seine treaty that was officialy abolished by the Salonika Agreement of 1938 that allowed Bulgaria to stablish it's own air force.
They were used until well entered the war in the training role.
Sources:
1. http://histaviation.com/ar_65_bulgarian_service.html
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_65
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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