Supermarine Spitfire. European Users, part four. Denmark & Spitfire Danish pilots in World War 2.

 

Although there was not a Danish squadron in the Royal Air Force (RAF), there were some Danish pilots serving with the No.234 Squadron of the RAF as the Dane community in England raised funds to buy three Spitfires, to be piloted by Aksel Svendsen, Jorgen Thalbitzer and others. 
There were Danish pilots serving with the No.234 Squadron until the end of the war and it was the closes thing to a pure Danish squadron serving with the Royal Air Force.

The Spitfire also served with the Royal Danish Air Force after the war. During the year 1947 Denmark bought three Spitfire PR.XI (the reconnaissance version of the Spitfire Mk.IX) plus forty-five Spitfire Mk.IX, among them, four airframes for teaching purposes. 
Initially all of them were assigned to the Royal Danish Naval Aviation (Marinens Flyvevaesen), where a special unit called Spitfire Group  was formed at Kastrup Air Base  in August 1947 for pilot training. In January 1948 that unit was moved to Karup airport where it operated until autumn as the Spitfire School. From June 1948 the Spitfire formed the II Luftflotille (2nd Air Flotilla).

Every Spitfire was transferred to the 4th and 5th Squadrons (Eskadrille) of the Danish Army Aviation (Haerens Flyvertropper) until the Royal Danish Air Force was funded (Flyvevabnet) on 1st October 1950, and were passed to 722 and 725 Squadrons (Eskadrille). The first Eskadrille, 722, operated both Spitfire Mk.IX and the PR.XI from January 1951 until 1955 when it was decided to turn the squadron into a SAR unit equipped with helicopters. The Eskadrille 725 operated the Mk.IX only from May to September 1951. 

Sources:

1st https://www.danishww2pilots.dk/articles.php?article=40

2nd  AJ-Press - Monografie Lotnicze 40 - Supermarine Spitfire Part 3 (translated)

3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Danish_Air_Force

4th https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskadrille_722 (translated)

5th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire#Operators

Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor. Part One. Foreign Users

 

The Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor was a German four-engined monoplane designed by Focke-Wulf as an airliner, which saw service with various countries, among them, the following ones:

• Brazil: In early 1939 the Brazilian airline Syndicato Condor, which was a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa, bought two Focke-Wulf Fw.200A airliners which, as sophisticated as they were, were employed in the Rio de Janeiro-Buenos Aires international route. When the company was re-organized and renamed to Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul in 1943, the Condors operated together with the American-supplied Douglas DC-3 airliners until 1948 (though some sources claim it was only until 1947) when the Condors were retired and replaced with Douglas DC-3s.
• Denmark: In 1938 the Danish National Airline, Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/B (Danish Air Lines or, abbreviated, DDL) acquired two Focke-Wulf Fw.200A Condor airliners. These were named as Dania and Jutlandia. Dania was seized by the British in April 1940 as, at that time, it was in British territory. It was pushed into service for a brief period of time with the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and with the Royal Air Force, before being damaged beyond repair one year later, in 1941.
  The second one, Jutlandia, survived the whole war and continued serving as an airliner until 4th September 1946, when it had to crash-land in Northolt, London, after landing in crosswinds. Fortunately there were no casualties but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and was written off.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200_Condor

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Air_Lines

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serviços_Aéreos_Cruzeiro_do_Sul

4. https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serviços_Aéreos_Cruzeiro_do_Sul (translated)

5. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200

6. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 13 - Focke-Wulf Fw-200 Condor