Arado Ar.196 - German users, part one

The first A-0 versions were delivered to the Kriegsmarine between November and December 1938 and were armed with a single defensive MG.15 placed in the rear, while the similar B-0 versions were issued to the shore-based squadrons.
Those were followed in June 1939 by the A-1 in order to equip the practical majority of the German surface fleet.
Soon after the war started, in November 1939 the heavier A-2 version was designed and produced. It was shore-based and included underwing shackles for two 50Kg bombs plus two 20mm FF cannons placed in the wings. It had also a single 7,92mm MG.17 machine gun placed in the cowling at the starboard side. It was replaced by the A-4 version in December 1940 which featured a reinforced airframe with an additional radio. Most of the main German surface ships had an Ar.196 as spotter airplane, among the them the famous Battleships Bismarck, Tirpitz, the Battlecruiser Scharnhorst or the Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen, among many others.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_196
2. http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Waffen/Ar196.htm (translated)

Arado Ar.196 - Prototypes

All the prototypes of the Ar.196 were delivered in 1937. The first one, named V1 flew in May, as well as the second one, named V2 which had twin floats, just like the definitive version.
The next two prototypes, V3 and V4 had one central float and two auxiliary small ones in the wings.
As all of them showed excellent water handling capabilities, it was hard to choose which one choose for mass production, however, as there was a small chance that the smaller floats of the V3 and V4 models could "dig in", the floater configuration of the V1 and V2 was chosen and ordered into production.
An additional V5 was made in November 1938 in order to test final changes and was eventually completed as an Ar.196 A-0.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_196
2. http://www.kagero.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=303:arado-ar-196&catid=95&Itemid=688&limitstart=1

Arado Ar.196 - Commerce raiders users

Now it's the time for some special drawings, as we cover the usage of this airplane by the German commerce raiders.
The Arado Ar.196 was a good two-seat recon airplane that was used by most of Kriegsmarine's surface ships, among them the famous auxiliary cruisers that were also known as commerce raiders.
One of them was embarked on board the Widder (HSK 3) and wore fake French markings over bare metal. Another similar two of them, this time camouflaged in German RLM colours but also wearing false French markings, was used on board of the Komet (HSK 7) auxiliary cruiser that operated on waters of the South Pacific. Her airplanes however, were inoperative due to some hard landing that were forced to do.
It was also used, painted overall in Hellblau colour, by another unknown auxiliary cruiser. This is something exceptional as it was trully a pirate airplane because it didn't wear any markings whatsoever.
It served also, under Japanese markings in the Fliegerkommando beim Marinesonderdienst Ostasien Penang (East Asia Navy Special Service Air Command) operating mainly from the Malayan port of Penang but also from Yokohama, Kobe, Singapur, Batavia and Surabaya. This was a special German unit that operated in the Indian Ocean and Asian Oceans and their task was to support the German Type IXc submarines that were operating in those waters by performing reconnaissance and harassment missions. It's said that they also flew the Japanese Aichi E13A.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_196
2. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinesonderdienst (translated)

Arado Ar.196 - Foreign users, part three

Now it's time to tell the story about the Arado that fell in British hands.
When Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, an Arado Ar.196 belonging to the German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper was captured in the Norwegian city of Lyngstad by a Norwegian made Marinens Flybebaatfabrikk MF.11 on 8th April.
It was towed to Kristiansund by a Norwegian torpedo boat where it was repainted with Norwegian markings. Later, on 18th April, it was flown to the United Kingdom by a Norwegian pilot. It was crashed shortly after when it was on transit to Helensburg naval air base to test it.
When the war ended, at least one operational Ar.196 was left behind by the Germans and it was used by the post war Royal Norwegian Air Force until 1946, operating on Norwegian west coast.
Two Arado Ar.196 were interned in Sweden during the war. The first one when was on its way from Copenhagen to Borholm, it lost its way due to a compass malfunction and entered Swedish airspace, where it was forced to ditch. It remained in Sweden, where it was tested by the F.2 Squadron based in Hägenäs and then it was sold to the Kontinentagentur AB company. After the war, it was flown to Norway where it served with the 8801 RAF Wing and in June 1945with the No.330 (Norwegian) Squadron based in Stavenger Sola.  

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_196
2. http://www.kagero.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=303:arado-ar-196&catid=95&Itemid=688&limitstart=4

Arado Ar.196 - Foreign Users, part two

In this second post about the mighty Arado Ar.196, we are covering its usage with the Bulgarian Air Force.
Bulgaria bought from 9 to 12 Arado Ar.196 A-3 (the exact number changes depending on the source you check) in 1943.
They were assigned to the 161. Jato commanded by Captain Kolarov and they operated from the bases of Varna and Burgas, both of them in Bulgaria.
When the war was over, they kept serving with the Bulgarian Air Force until 1947 when they were written off.
One of them made it to this day and nowadays is being exhibited in the Bulgarian Museum of Aviation located in Plovdiv.

Sources:
1. http://www.kagero.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=303:arado-ar-196&catid=95&Itemid=688&limitstart=4
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_196

Arado Ar.196 - Foreign Users, part one

We're back in Germany in order to post about this excellent seaplane.
The Arado Ar.196 was a German floatplane that operated with many nations across Europe.
Romania bought two Ar.196 from Germany. They operated from the port of Odessa first and Constanta later, in the Romanian coast. They were under German command, more exactly under the Schirmherrschaft des Aufklarungsführers Schwarzes Meer (Reconnaissance unit in the Black Sea). When Romania switched sides in August 1944, the Soviets confiscated the Romanian Ar.196A and dissasembled them.
Finland employed some of them during the continuation war in order to supply and transport special patrol groups that operated behind enemy lines. Both soldiers and supplies were accommodated inside the fuselage and the airplanes used remote lagoons and lakes for taking-off and landing.
Finally, the USSR received some captured Ar.196A from Bulgaria. They were used by the Border Guards in the inmediate post-war.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_196
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=320

Macchi C.200bis & Macchi C.201

Now we come with two prototypes based on the previous Macchi C.200.
The design of the Macchi C.201 started back in 1938 when the Regia Aeronautica issued a requirement for a replacement of the Macchi C.200. Macchi's proposal was the C.201 which featured a revised fuselage, an enclosed cockpit and it was going to be powered by the Isotta-Fraschini Astro A.140RC which was an Italian copy of the French Gnome-et-Rhône GR.14 Krs Mistral Masjor that could deliver 870hp of power but later it was decided to fit the Fiat A.76 RC40 that delivered 1000hp of power.
Two prototypes were projected the first of which flying on 10th August 1940 albeit with the less powerful Fiat A.74. Macchi expected it to achieve top speeds of 550km/h (340mph) but, given the troublesome results of the A.76 engine, Fiat abandoned that engine and the C.201 was definitaly cancelled.

The Macchi C.200bis was a modification made by Breda in order to fit a Piaggio P.XIX RC45 engine in the fuselage of an earlier version of the Macchi C.200. That engine could deliver 1180hp of power and made its maiden flight on 11th April 1942 at the airfield of Milan-Bresso and was flown by Luigi Acerbi. It was fitted with a larger propeller and a new engine cowling as the frontal machine-guns needed to be re-fitted. It achieved a top speed of 535km/h (332mph) but it didn't enter into production as the much better and advanced Macchi C.202 was already in production.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.200
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Macchi C.200 - Native users

The Macchi C.200 was an Italian fighter airplane that saw service with Italian Regia Aeronautica in every front that Italy was involved during the World War II.
It saw combat first defending Italian homeland, as we explained before and then during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, it setted up a good rate destroying 20 enemy machines at the lost of a single one.
In the North African theatre, it wasn't well received at first because pilots preferred the highly maneouvrable Fiat Cr.42 biplane. However, when the first unit in Libya was equipped with C.200s, it proved to be superior to the Gloster Gladiator and a serious contender against the Hawker Hurricane and the Curtiss P-40 because it could outrun both of them and it enjoyed an good sturdy fuselage, even if it was seriously underarmed. When operating as a fighter-bomber, it manage to sink British destroyers HMS Zulu and HMS Sikh off the coast of Tobruk during the operation Agreement.
It served also in the Eastern Front, serving with the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia, in two squadrons. Together with the more advanced Macchi C.202, they claimed a ratio of victory/loss of 88 to 15. Overall, in the Eastern Front, they behaved well, flying the respectable number of 2557 missions, of which 511 with bomb drops, 1310 strafing attacks, 1938 escort missions with the loss of just 15 machines.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.200
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Macchi C.200 - Italian Co-belligerent users

When Italy signed the armistice, in September 1943, the country was splitted in two, the followers of Mussolini, and the co-belligerent ones, that sided with the Allies.
In that context, both sides reorganized their units creating new armies, air forces and even navies. In the case of the co-belligerents, those were the grounds of the actual Italian army.
As the Macchi C.200 was greatly outdated by 1943 its use was limited. It was only used by the 8º Gruppo Autonomo Caccia Terrestre (8th Autonomous Land Fighter Squadron), which was based in Leverano, at the very southern part of Italian peninsula. It was also employed by 371ª Squadriglia Autonoma Caccia Terrestre (371th Autonomous Land Fighter Flight) that was also based in Leverano.
However, as those units were re-organized and received better airplanes, the Macchi C.200 were relegated to the training roles, where some of them, 23 more exactly, were used in the inmediate postwar period.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.200
2. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeronautica_Cobelligerante_Italiana (translated)

Macchi C.200 - Foreign Users

The Macchi C.200 Saetta (Arrow in Italian) was an Italian fighter designed and put into service just before the outbreak of the World War II. It was used by various foreign users, apart from the Italian Regia Aeronautica and both by the Co-Belligerent Italians and the Italian Social Republic.
The United Kingdom captured one of them which belonged to the 157º Gruppo Autonomo Caccia Terrestre (157th Land Fighter Autonomous Squadron) in September 1943 during the Sicilian campaign.
Some of them were used by the Luftwaffe when they seized them after the armistice of September 1943 and pushed them into service with some squadrons based mainly in central-northern Italy.
The United States Army Air Force (commonly known as USAAF) also captured some of them in the battlefields of Tunisia in 1943 which belonged to the 357 Squadriglia and incorporated them into service with the 86th Fighter Squadron.
Also, the USSR captured some of them which served with the Italian Expeditionary Force in Russia. However, as the profile is based on a black & white photo of the nose, it should be taken as semi-hypothetical.
And as we're friends of what-ifs, and knowing that Denmark was interesting to buy some of them, (in fact the contract was signed on 1st of April 1940 and Germany invaded 8 days later), we included an hypothetical profile bearing Danish colours and markings.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.200
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Macchi C.200 - Prototypes and early series

We keep going with the Italian Macchi airplanes, this time with one of the most iconic fighters of the Italian Second World War.
Having learnt from the Italian invasion on Abyssinia, the Regia Aeronautica wanted to replace all their fighters with a new modern one, so on 10th February 1936 they issued an specification for a new airplane powered by a single radial engine with a speed of 500km/h, a climb rate at 5000 meters in 6 minutes, an autonomy of, at least two hours and armed with two 12,7 (0,5in) calibre machines guns.
As Mario Castaldi designed both Macchi M.39 and M.72 which won the prestigious Schneider trophy, he proposed an all-metal low wing cantilever monoplane with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit. It had a monocoque fuselage with self-sealing fuel tanks under pilot's seat and in the mid part of the wings. The cockpit was elevated over the engine in order to provide a good field of view. The wings had a system where the hydraullicaly flaps were connected to the ailerons, in order to make the flaps drop when the aillerons were lowered. It was powered by the Fiat A.74 radial engine which was a copy of the American Pratt & Whitney R-1830 SC-4 Twin Wasp as it was the only Italian engine that could provide some reliable results over the allied airplanes.

The first prototype flew for the first time on 24th December 1937 in Lonate-Pozzolo at Varese, with a second prototype flying the next year. It achieved a speed of 805km/h (500mph) during a dive but it's real maneouvrable speed wasn't beyond of 500km/h (310mph), a speed better than it's most direct competitors of the "caccia I" program which were the Fiat G.50, the IMAM Ro.51, the Reggiane Re.2000 ,the A.U.T. 18 and the Caproni-Vizzola F.5. It began to be tested in June 1938 together with the Fiat G.50 which also chosen for limited production. It's mass production began in
June 1939.
The first airplanes were handed over to the Regia Aeronautica in August 1939, the the 10º Gruppo, 4º Stormo based in North Africa. However the pilots of that unit were reluctant of the new type, preferring their Fiat Cr.42 as they were highly more maneouvrables. They were reconducted to the 6º Gruppo, 1º Stormo, based in Sicily and 152º Gruppo of the 54º Stormo, based in Vergiate.
At the beginning of the war, the Saetta (arrow) -the nickname that the C.200 received- could only be outclimbed by the Supermarine Spitfire. It saw its baptism of fire on 23rd June 1940, shortly after Italy entered the war, when some C.200 that were escorting some Savoia-Marchetti Sparvieros were engaged by Gloster Gladiators.
However, it wasn't until 1st November 1940 when the Saettas could claim their first kill when a Short Sunderland that was performing reconnaissance missions was shot down off the shore of the town of Augusta, in Sicily. When the German X Fliegerkorps arrived in Sicily, the Saettas were assigned to escort duties for the Junkers Ju.87 bombing Malta as the Stukas hadn't fighter escort until the Bf.109 arrived in Sicily.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.200
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Macchi M.71

Back in 1930 Macchi decided to build a new better version of the M.41bis in order to be specifically prepared to be launched from catapults of Regia Marina's warships.
It was build following the very same pattern as the previous M.41bis, it had the very same dimensions and was overall identical to that one.
It was also armed with two forward-firing 7.7mm machine guns it had plywood and fabric skinning and it was also powered by a 420hp Fiat A.20 engine set in a pusher configuration placed on struts above the hull and below the upper wing. It had also a vertical radiator.
It differed from the M.41bis in having reinforced wing cellules and catapult pick-up points in order to speed up deploying and undeploying operations from the sea into ships. It had also an extra inclined steel tube between the hull, interplane struts and upper wings, instead of M.41bis's wires only.
It was accepted into service by the Regia Marina so Macchi built a small number of them (no more than 12) and served briefly on board of some Regia Marina's warships during the early-to-mid 1930s before being replaced by both IMAM Ro.43 and IMAM Ro.44.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.71
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Aichi D1A

The Aichi D1A was a Japanese carrier-based dive bomber. It was created as the Imperial Japanese Navy needed an advanced carrier-bomber and therefore, in 1934 they prompted Aichi to finish their AB-9 design, which had already one prototype into service, the D1A1.
It was designed by the German Ernst Heinkel who worked on request of Aichi. Initially it was highly based on the Heinkel He.50 but it was equipped with floaters instead of a fixed landing gear, however, the prototype of the very next model, the Heinkel He.66 was sold to Aichi which they manufactured it as the Aichi D1A1.
As it was based on the export model of the Heinkel He.50, (the He.66) it was a metallic biplane with a fabric covering, a fixed landing gear and a conventional tail landind skid. Initially they were powered by either 490hp or 580hp engines but it wasn't until the second model, the D1A2 came that it was powered by the more powerful 730hp Nakajima Hikari radial engine. It had an offensive armament of two 7.7mm type 92 machine guns plus one defensive 7.7mm type 92 one. It could also carry one 250 bomb under the fuselage and 2 30kg bombs under the wings.
They mainly were used from the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 until Japan entered the World War 2 in December 1941. At the beginning of the Pacific War all D1A1 models were decommissioned and the remaining D1A2 were retired from the frontlines and used as advanced bomber trainers. There is, however, one exception because some of them were still being used as second-line support bombers until 1942 in mainland China. After most of them were retired they were handed to the Manchukuo's coast guard where they served most probably until the end of the war.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_D1A
2. http://www.aviastar.org/air/japan/aichi_d1a.php

Macchi M.41 & M.41bis

In 1927, the Regia Marina wanted to replace the M.7, that's why the M.41 was designed, based strongly on the previous M.26 of 1924. It was single-seat single-bay biplane made out of wood armed with two forward firing vickers 0.303 machine guns. It's skinning was made out of plywood and fabric and has equal span unstaggered wings.
It was powered by a 420hp Fiat A.20 engine set in a pusher configuration mounted on struts above the hull and below the main upper wing, just like the previous M.26.
It had an oblique radiator and it enjoyed of some very aerodynamically clean lines considering the type of airplane.
It competed against the SIAI S.58bis back in 1927 for the contest but Macchi didn't receive any production order, so they built only the very first prototype. Initially, the winner of the contest was the SIAI S.58bis and 97 production orders were placed, however in the last minute the Regia Marina broke the contract and decided to re-engine the aging M.7ter.
As the Regia Marina organized another contest in 1929 for another M.7ter replacement, Macchi redesigned the M.41 and named it M.41bis, which was basically a regular M.41 but with a vertical radiator. As it outperformed the SIAI S.58bis Macchi was finally granted with a production contract of 41 airplanes.
All the M.41bis entered into service in 1930 serving in the 88ª Gruppo Autonomo Caccia Maritima (88th Floatplane Fighter Autonomous Squadron) where they served until 1938 when they were replaced by the IMAM Ro.44.
Some of them were sent to Spain during the opening stages of the Spanish Civil War where they served from September 1936 until January 1937 at the base of Pollensa, in Palma de Mallorca, located in the Balearic Islands. They were assigned in the Escuadrilla Nº130 (Flight number 130) which was on charge of defending the port of Palma de Mallorca against possible Republican air raids. However, as the Republican didn't raid the port, they weren't used in combat.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.41
2. http://fotosantiguasdemallorca.blogspot.com.es/2011/07/la-base-de-hidroaviones-de-pollensa-y.html (translated)
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of FIghters