Fieseler Fi.167

During early 1937 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (Reich's Air Ministry - RLM) issued a specification for a torpedo bomber capable of operating from Germany's first aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, whose construction started back in December 1936. The specification was issued to two German aircraft manufacturers, Fieseler and Arado. The specification required an all-metal biplane with a maximum speed of at least 300 km/h (186 mph) with a range of at least 1.000 km (631 milles) and with both torpedo and dive bombing capabilities. In the summer of 1938 Fieseler's design proved to be superior to the Arado Ar.195 (Arado's proposal).
The aircraft exceded by far all requirements as it had excellent handling capabilities and could carry about the twice required weapons payload. Just like Fieseler's most famous aircraft, the Fi.156 Storch, the Fi.167 had very good handling when flying at low speeds and, under the right conditions, it was said that the airplane was capable of landing almost vertically on a moving aircraft carrier. However, as the Graf Zeppelin was never completed, that affirmation seems to be propagandist. Apparently, during a test flight, Gerhard Fieseler himself managed to drop the airplane from 10.000 ft (3.048 m) to just 100 ft (30.48 m) while staying above the same ground point.
It seems too that, for emergency landings, the Fi.167 could jettison its landing gear and airtight compartments located in the lower wing would help the aircraft to remain afloat long enough for its two-man crew to evacuate.
Two prototypes were built in 1937, with the first one, making its maiden flight on 12th November 1937 and was followed by 12 pre-production machines (Fi.167A-0) manufactured from 1938 to 1940 which differed only in small details from the prototype. All of them were built at Fieseler's factory in Kassel, Germany. The Fi.167 was powered by a single Daimler-Benz DB-601B V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engine which yielded 1.100 hp of power. It was armed with a single 7.92 mm forward-firing MG-17 machine gun plus another 7,92 mm MG-15 mounted in the rear cockpit. It could carry a single LT F5b torpedo under the fuselage, or up to 1.000 kg (2.200 lb) of bombs and, additionally, four small SC-50 bombs mounted in underwing racks.
As the Graf Zeppelin wasn't expected to be completed before the end of 1940, the Fi.167 was given low priority. Later, in 1940, when the construction of the Graf Zeppelin was halted, the completion of further aircraft was stopped and the completed aircraft was sent into Luftwaffe service in Erprobungsgruppe 167, which was an evaluation and testing unit created ad-hoc for the Fi.167. This unit had nine Fi.167 and was based in the Netherlands where they conducted coastal trials.
The construction of the Graf Zeppelin was resumed in 1942, but by that time the Junkers Ju.87C (a carrier-borne variant of the Ju.87) took over the role as a reconnaissance bomber with torpedo bombing capabilities, rendering torpedo bombers unnecessary. The nine Fi.167s returned to Germany in the summer of 1943 only to be shortly later sold to the Independent State of Croatia.
The remaining aircraft were used in the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (German Aircraft Experimental Institute), located in Budweis (nowadays Ceske Budejovice) in Czechoslovakia, for testing different landing gear configurations. The two test aircraft had their lower wings removed just outboard of the landing gear to increase the sink rate for some of the tests.
Those sent to Croatia, took advantage of the aircraft's short-field landing and high load-carrying abilities to transport ammunition and other supplies to besieged Croatian Army garrisons between their arrival in September 1944 and the end of the war. At least one of them was captured by Yugoslav Partisans and was used briefly by them.
It was during one of those resupply missions when, near the city of Sisak, Croatia, on 10th October 1944 an Fi.167 belonging to the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia and piloted by the Croatian ace Bozidar Bartulovic, was attacked by a formation of five North American Mustang Mk.III of the No.213 Squadron Royal Air Force. Three of those Mustang claimed one biplane shot down over the village of Martinska Ves, close to Zagreb. Bartulovic was wounded in the head and the aircraft caught fire, but Bartulovic's gunner, Mate Jurkovic before bailing out, claimed one of the Mustang. British records state that one of the fighter was hit and crash landed, making it, probably, the last biplane kill of the World War 2.
Apparently not a single Fi.167 survived.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieseler_Fi_167
2. https://www.valka.cz/Fieseler-Fi-167-A-0-t6494
3. Hikoki Books - Luftwaffe Aerial Torpedo Aircraft and Operations in World War II
4. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieseler_Fi_167 (translated)
5. http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/fi167.html
6. http://www.fliegerweb.com/de/lexicon/Geschichte/Fieseler+Fi+167-162 (translated)