Tuesday 9 February 2021

ANF Les Mureaux 115

 
The ANF Les Mureaux 115 was a French two-seater reconnaissance fighter and light bomber. It was powered by a single Hispano-Suiza 12Ycrs which delivered 848 hp of power and drove a three-bladed propeller. 
The prototype flew for the first time on 6th March 1935 and a total of 119 aircraft of the type were manufactured between 1935 and December 1938 by Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Nord (National Company of Aeronautical Constructions of the North) at Les Mureaux, close to Paris. The production version was given the suffix of R.2 by the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) as they were suited to reconnaissance role. 
The Mureaux 115 was armed with a single 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine gun mounted on the engine, a single 20 mm Hispano-Suiza-9 cannon mounted in the engine and firing through the propeller hub, a single defensive 7.5 mm MAC 1934 placed in the observer's cockpit aimed to the rear and, initially, a single ventral 0.303 in Lewis machine gun which was fired by the observer through a hatch, though this machine gun wasn't mounted in most of the machines. It also had provision for four 50 kg (110 lb) bombs, two under the main fuselage and two under the wing. When equipped with bomb, the suffix B.2 (which stands for Bombardier - Bomber) was given. 
Just like every type in this family of planes, by 1939 it was already obsolete, however, as the Armée de l'Air didn't have any better alternative, they were kept at the frontlines when World War 2 began in September 1939 after undergoing some small modernisations as they were the backbone of the short-range recon aircraft fleet.
During the period known as the "Phoney War", the Mureaux 115 took part in many photo-reconnaissance missions over the Siegfried line and, given their vulnerability to German fighters and anti-aircraft fire, a Mureaux 115 has the dubious honour of being the first French aircraft shot down in the World War 2, during one of those recon missions. 
In spite of having fighter cover, they were still highly vulnerable because of their slowness (their maximum speed was just of 327.5 km/k - 203.5 mph) so, since before the beginning of the conflict, they were being replaced by the much better Potez 637 and Potez 63.11. However, deliveries of this aircraft were slow and by May 1940 some Mureaux 115 were still in active service and were employed all throughout the Franco-German front. 
When France fell in late June 1940 the Armée de l'Air de l'Armistice (Vichy France's Air Force) was created which took care of the remaining Mureaux 115 which, once unarmed, were employed as trainers, before being written off from service in July 1941.
Oddly, in 1938, various French right-wing newspapers published that some Mureaux 115 (together with some 117) were sold to the Spanish Republicans and took part in recon missions in the Spanish Civil War. Those reports weren't based in real facts, so they were simple propaganda, however as with many other profiles, we decided to draw an hypothetical-looking Mureaux 115 serving with the Spanish Republican Air Force.












Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANF_Les_Mureaux_113
2. http://www.airwar.ru/enc/other1/mureaux115.html (translated)
3. https://www.valka.cz/ANF-Les-Mureaux-115-R-2-B-2-t42733
4. http://bioold.science.ku.dk/drnash/model/spain/index.html (accesible only through the wayback machine)

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