Koolhoven F.K.52

 

The Koolhoven was a Dutch two-seat reconnaissance biplane developed during the 1930s by Koolhoven. It was powered by a single Bristol Mercury VIII radial engine rated at 838 hp and was armed with two forward-firing 7.7 mm machine guns. It could also carry up to 150 kg (330 lb) of underwing bombs.

It was initially proposed as a replacement for the ageing Fokker C.V of the Luchtvaartafdeling (LVA - Dutch Army Air Force). The prototype flew for the first time on 9th February 1937 but it was lost in an accident on 11th August while performing in front of Boy Scouts during the 5th World Scout Jamboree. 

The design was clearly obsolete by 1938 standards, however, it was decided to begin its production and, therefore the LVA ordered 36 aircraft in 1939 but, by the time Germany invaded Netherlands in May 1940 only 5 were completed. 

Two F.K.52s were bought by the Swedish count Carl Gustav von Rosen and donated to the Finnish Air Force to be employed during the Winter War. They were flown to Finland on 18th January 1940 and in March they saw some action as they bombed and strafed Soviet troops attacking over ice at Virolahti. During this conflict they saw a total of 15 sorties and both were damaged.
They were assigned to Lentolaivue 6, operating in the Hanko area in 1941, but both were destroyed during the Continuation War. On 16th August 1941 one was lost during a forced landing after a leaflet-dropping mission over Hanko and force-landed 80 Km (50 km) south of Tallinn, killing both pilot and observer. Estonian guerrillas burned the remains of the plane and buried the crew. 
The other plane was destroyed later, in 1943 when it crash landed north of the village Pernaa, at Kauhava. The pilot bailed out and survived but the airplane was deemed unrecoverable. 

Source:

1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koolhoven_F.K.52