Tuesday, 18 December 2018

Messerschmitt Me.210, Foreign users

The Messerschmitt Me.210 was a German heavy fighter that was originally designed to replace the Bf.110 and was designed just before the start of the World War II.
It saw many versions which we will cover them later, but on this we're centering on the Me.210C which was powered by two Daimler Benz DB 605 engines and some changes to the airframe.
It was used by the following countries:

  • Hungary: The performance of the Me. 210C satisfied Hungarian authorities which purchased a production license for the type, to fill the role of the Varga RMI-1 X/H (a prototype recon-bomber which never managed to fly) and received the denomination of Me.210Ca where "a" stands for ausländisch (foreign) as well as for its DB 605 engines. They purchased many airframes as well to be completed in Hungarian factories for practice while the production assembly lines were being setting up. Production started in the Dunai Repülogépgyár Rt. (Danubian Aircraft Plant), under an agreement where the Luftwaffe received two of every three produced. The Hungarians manufactured a total of 272 exemplars with the Luftwaffe receiving 114 of them and the Royal Hungarian Air Force 158 during the production period that went from March 1943 to September 1944.
    Some Ca-1 airplanes were modified to carry a 40mm Bofors autocannon in the lower fuselage in order to destroy Allied bombers. Additionally, they could also carry 152mm rockets which were a Hungarian version of the German Nebelwerfer 41 for ground attack. A sound directed anti-bomber air-to-air weapon was under development to be mounted on the Me.210Ca, but the project wasn't finished before the fall of Budapest.
    The Royal Hungarian Air Force operated a total of 179 Hungarian-built Me.210Ca-1. It was relatively successful against Soviet airplanes and last Me.210 were destroyed on the ground by their crew at Pándorfalu (Parndorf in German) after the fall of Hungary in March 1945 due to the lack of fuel and spare parts and to prevent them from falling into Soviet hands.
    It served in four squadrons of the Royal Hungarian Air Force:
    -1º and 2º RKI Század "Villám" (Test Evaluation Squadron)
    -5/1. Légi Század "Bagoly" (Night Fighter Squadron)
    -102. Gyorsbombázo, 102/1. Század "Tigris"
    -102. Gyorsbombázo, 102/2. Század "Sas"
    -102. Gyorsbombázo, 102/3. Század "Villám"
  • Japan: The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service received one Me.210A-2 in 1943 which was delivered dissasembled directly to Japan via U-Boat. It was operated by the First Tachikawa Air Army Arsenal. Not much is known about those testings, except that in the end the Japanese decided to rely on their own domestical models because of the adaptation to the environment.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_210
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44M_Lidérc
3. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/17166
4. https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=103890
5. Salamander Books - The COmplete Book of Fighters

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