Bristol Blenheim, part three, various foreign users

 

The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber designed and built by Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was extensively used during the first half of the Second World War by the Royal Air Force (RAF) but also by many foreign users like:

• Independent State of Croatia: After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 many Blenheim Mk.Is were captured by the Germans who passed them to the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia (known by its Croatian acronym of 'ZNDH'. The exact number is confuse, some sources claim it was up to 20 bombers, others claim it was just 8. Anyway, they were used inside the borders of the old Kingdom of Yugoslavia in anti-partisan operations until 1944. Many of these Blenheims (some of them built under license in Yugoslavia) survived the war and one flew to Austria after the collapse of the Independent State of Croatia in May 1945.
• Free France: One flight of the, back then, newly founded 'Groupe Mixte de Combat No1' (No1 Mixed Combat Group) which was founded at RAF Odiham, Hampshire in August 1940 was initially equipped with Blenheims to see action in the Territory of Chad (which declared itself in favor of Free France shortly after the Fall of France in June 1940). This unit was later merged with the Blenheim-equipped 'Escadron Topic' (Topic Squadron) based at Maidugur, in the British Colony of Nigeria. Together they formed the 'Groupe Réservé de Bombardement' (Reserve Bombing Group) at Fort Lamy, in Chad in December 1940. This unit saw little action and was disbanded shortly later in March 1941, but they formed the basis of 'Groupe Lorraine' (Lorraine Group) which operated together with RAF's No.1430 Flight with elements supporting from No.47 Squadron in December 1941.
  After flying the Blenheim Mk.IV and Mk.V the unit was called back into the United Kingdom in October 1942 to be reformed into the No.342 Squadron. There, they replaced their Blenheims with Handley Page Halifaxes and were assigned to the RAF's Bomber Command.
  Another Free French units equipped with the Blenheims were 'Groupe Bretagne', the Free French Flying School at Bangui, in Equatorial Africa and 'Groupe de Chasse No.1 'Alsace''. Most of these Blenheim didn't serve in the frontlines and were kept in active acting as trainers or transports until 1944 or even 1945.
• Germany: One damaged Blenheim Mk.IV was captured by the German during the Battle of France in May-June 1940. It was later repaired, tested and used as a special training aircraft until 1942. 
• Greece: Before the beginning of the Second World War Greece showed interest on the Blenheim but eventually they decided against ordering it. However, in late 1939, after the war had started, they ordered 12 Blenheim Mk.IV which were shipped in early 1940 and assigned to 32. Mira (No. 32 Squadron) of the Royal Hellenic Air Force (RHAF).
  They saw action on 1st November 1940 during the Greco-Italian War and, on the 27th one of them was shot down by Italian anti-air fire. Due to the intensive use of the Blenheim and the lack of spares, by January 1941 32. Mira was reduced to just 4 operational Blenheims. To compensate for the losses, on the following months six additional Blenheim Mk.Is were supplied, though increased fighter presence in the area quickly reduced their numbers. When Germany invaded Greece in April 1941,  every Greek bombing squadron was rebased from Tanagra to Eleusis, close to Athens. There, most of the surviving Blenheims were destroyed on strafing attacks by the Luftwaffe. 
  When Greece fell, some RHAF personnel managed to escape to Egypt, where they fought under RAF's command. One of them was No.13 (Hellenic) Squadron which was, from January 1942 equipped with the Avro Anson and was part of the No.201 Group.  This squadron was quickly re-equipped with the Blenheim Mk.IV and Mk.V later and was used in the maritime and anti-submarine patrol role, specially in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They were re-equipped with Martin Baltimore bombers in October 1943.
• Italy: The Italian Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) managed to capture two Blenheims. One of them belonged to the No.40 Squadron RAF which landed in error at the island of Pantelleria (the pilot had mistaken it for Malta) on 13th September 1940. This machine was sent to Guidonia (Regia Aeronautica's testing center) to be tested. One more was captured in Yugoslavia when the Axis invaded in April 1941. 
  Apparently, two more were seized in Italian East Africa, but these were soon recaptured when that territory fell into British hands. 
  One captured Blenheim Mk.IV appears in the 1942 Italian film 'Un Pilota Ritorna' (A Pilot Returns) directed by Roberto Rosellini.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Blenheim

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

3. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 26 - Bristol Blenheim

4. Osprey Publishing - Combat Aircraft 5 - Blenheim Squadrons of World War 2

Caproni Ca.310, foreign users, part one

 The Caproni Ca.310 'Libeccio' (Italian word for "south-western wind") , was an Italian twin-engined reconnaissance monoplane used during World War II. The aircraft itself was a derivation of the previous Ca.309 and it was employed by many users around the world. Among them, the following ones:

• Independent State of Croatia: The Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia (whose acronym was ZNDH) employed 6 (seven, according to some other sources) Ca.310. Five of them were bought from German stocks, which were ex-Yugoslav machines and one machine captured by themselves, plus one Ca.310bis (which was a variant with an unstepped glazed nose, which would eventually become the prototype for the Ca.311). 
  A single ZNDH Ca.310 fleed to Italy on 31st October 1943 and landed at Tortorella airfield, controlled by the South African Air Force. That airplane was loaded with 7 Yugoslav and one Gestapo officer. Of those people, the most important was Cpt. Janko Dobnikar a Slovene pilot working for Zemun WNF (ex Ikarus) who was arrested the previous day by the Gestapo for cooperating with partisans but the flight was hijacked and sent to Italy.
• Hungary: Hungary bought a total of 36 Ca.310 in 1938. Three of them were soon lost to accidents and the Hungarians were not satisfied with the type's performance, so during the next year (according to some other sources it was in 1940) the remaining 33 machines were sent back to Caproni. They were taken into account for the MKHL's (Hungarian acronym for Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légiero - Royal Hungarian Air Force) purchase of the Caproni Ca.135bis medium bomber. Returned aircraft were refurbished and assigned to the 50º Stormo Assalto, to replace the Breda Ba.65 as part of the 12º Gruppo of the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force)
• Norway: Norway ordered 24 Ca.310 as part of a dried and salted cod barter between Norway and Italy. After the delivery of the first four aircraft, testing revealed that flying characteristics weren't as satisfactory as Caproni had promised and build quality fell way behind too. Therefore, Norwegian authorities cancelled the order and any further Ca.310 wasn't delivered. The four Norwegian machines received the following serial numbers: 501, 503, 505 and 507. Aircraft No. 503 was bought by the Norwegian national airline Norske Luftfartselskap and was employed as a fast mail aircraft in the Oslo-Göteburg (Sweden)-Copenhagen (Denmark) night route during summer 1939. By the start of the war it was recalled by the Haerens Flyvevaaben (Norwegian Army Air Service) and was put back into military service.
  When Germany attacked Norway on 9th April 1940, all four Norwegian Ca.310 were based at Sola airfield, where they were called to move to Oslo, to defend the capital, but two of them, numbers 503 and 507 were destroyed on the ground by the Luftwaffe. One Ca.310, number 505 managed to take off, but it was destroyed by its own crew after having to perform an emergency landing at Opstad. The other surviving machine, number 501 managed to take off from Sola, although having been damaged, but eventually it crashed in lake Vangsmjosa, in the region of Valdres on 19th April 1940. This aircraft was recovered and restored and is nowadays on exhbition at the Sola aircraft museum.

Sources:

1. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235096763-caproni-ca310/

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.310

Junkers Ju.52/3m, Croatian, Czechoslovak and Danish users

 

The Junkers Ju.52/3m is a German cargo airplane that was produced since 1931 until 1952, since 1945 under foreign manufacturers though.

It comes no surprise that it was used by a wide variety of countries as it was very sturdy, versatile and easy to fly. Some of those countries that employed the type were the following ones:

• Independent State of Croatia: As an organic part of the Luftwaffe, the Croatian Air Force Legion, had at one moment at least one Ju.52/3m registered in January 1944. It seems that previously there were three of them which were used to transport personnel of the 15 (Kroat)/KG.3. The drawing should be considered as speculative because we couldn't find any graphical evidence of a Ju.52 serving with the Croatian Air Force Legion.
• Czechoslovakia: Just after the War, the airline Ceskoslovenské Letecka Spolecnost briefly operated the type by flying a Ju.52/3m to Bromma airport, in Sweden, on 1st February 1946.
  On 1st March 1946 CSA (Czechoslovak Airlines) resumed aerial operations with a fleet of, among other types, three Ju.52/3m (refurbished by Letov) and two Amiot AAC.1 (some sources claim it was three) transferred from the Czechoslovak Air Force between 1946 and 1948. This airline kept scheduled flights from Prague to various destinations all around Europe like Amsterdam, Belgrade, Berlin, Brussels, London Paris, Stockholm, Strasbourg and Warsaw, with many internal destinations like Bratislava, Karlovy Vary and Kosice. 
  One Ju.52/3m crashed when landing in Prague on 5th March 1946, killing ten of the fifteen total people on board, when operating a Paris-Strasbourg-Prague service. 
  After the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, in 1948, CSA was nationalised, so the whole country passed to the Soviet sphere of influence, making the Ju.52/3m and AAC.1s to be eventually replaced by the Lisunov Li-2 and surplus Douglas DC-3 supplied by Soviet authorities.
  Another Czechoslovak users of the Ju.52/3m was the Bata Shoe Company (headquartered in Zlin) which briefly operated a pair of AAC.1s to transport goods and materials between their factories. When the company was nationalised in 1948, the AAC.1s were passed on to the Czechoslovak Police Air Force. Eventually those two Amiot were sold back to France on 17th March 1951.
• Denmark: Det Danske Luftfartselskab (Danish Airlines - DDL) had one Ju.52/3m in property. This aircraft was acquired, with American-built Pratt & Whitney engines, on 8th August 1936 and was nicknamed as "Selandia". It suffered several accidents during 1937 and 1938, when flying regular flights from Copenhagen to various destinations, so a second one was leased from Deutsche Lufthansa. At the outbreak of World War 2, "Selandia" was ready again and resumed operations, this time with big Danish flags painted, as neutrality markings. When Germany occupied Denmark, in April the whole DDL fleet was parked, where it remained until operations were partially resumed in June, after the fall of France. On 18th December 1942 "Selandia" was lost to an accident when landing at Aspern, in Vienna.
  After the War, on 18th July 1945, one Ju.52/3m was leased by DDL, however, due to poor technical conditions of the airplane, it was returned three weeks later. Later, three Ju.52/3m were handled by the RAF to the Dannish Government with the intentions of incorporating them to the DDL's fleet, although eventually only one of them entered service. This Ju.52/3m was nicknamed as "Uffe Viking" and was used on the Copenhagen-Ronne, in the island of Bornholm as the small airfield of the island wasn't adequate to operate the Douglas DC-3. 
  The other two Ju.52/3m remained unused and were returned to the Danish Government in December 1948 which allocated them for firefighting practices in Kastrup. "Uffe Viking" was used until 4th February 1948, when it was stored at Kastrup awaiting a possible buyer. It was eventually bought by the Swedish company Aero Trafik on 23rd August 1950 and ferried to Sweden three weeks later.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Junkers_Ju_52_operators

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

3. https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/České_aerolinie (translated)

4. Fonthill Media - The Junkers Ju.52 Story
5. https://hrvatskoobrambenostivo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/the-croatian-air-force-in-the-second-world-war.pdf

6. https://military.wikireading.ru/26850 (translated)

Morane-Saulnier Ms.406, foreign users, part two

 

The Morane-Saulnier Ms.406 was a French fighter aircraft designed, developed and manufactured by Morane-Saulnier from 1938 onwards. With more than 1.000 aircraft having been manufactured, it was France's most manufactured fighter of the time and it was exported to many countries, or it was going to be exported:

• Belgium: The Ms.406 had attracted considerable foreign attention during the late 1930s and was showing signs of commercial promise. In fact, during 1937, when the prototype was shown at the Brussels Aeronautical Exhibition, negotiations were underway to undertake the licensed production of the type by Belgian aircraft manufacturer Avions Fairey for both the Belgian and French Air Forces. Those negotiations, however, came to nothing. Anyway, we decided to draw a hypothetical Belgian variant of the fighter.
• Independent State of Croatia: In July 1943 the Luftwaffe sold 36 Ms.406 to the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia. Those machines were acquired to increase combat effectiveness against the increasing Allied air raids over the Balkans. They were assigned to the 21st, 22nd and 23rd Jato (Squadrons) of the 11th Group of the Croat Air Force. Ten more machines were incorporated in December 1943. Most of them were either destroyed or captured during late stages of the war.
• Poland: The Polish Air Force ordered 160 aircraft in September 1939. An initial batch of 30 machines was already shipped via the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Romania, but as Poland fell, they were diverted to Turkey. We've drawn an hypothetical version of the Ms.406 serving with the Polish Air Force in 1939.
• Turkey: The initial batch of 30 fighters originally planned for Poland was diverted to Istanbul, and later to Yesïlkoy (Turkey) where they were assembled, under the supervision of French technicians and put into service with the Turkish Undersecretariat of Military Aviation (the forerunner of the Turkish Air Force). They were followed by 45 additional machines in March 1940, just before the fall of France. They were assigned to the 43rd and 48th Companies of the 11th Battalion of the 4th Regiment, based at Kütahya. 
  In 1943 the Ms.406 was already been withdrawn from the active duty as a fighter and they were used as advanced trainers in the Flying School at Eskisehir. In 1945 they were definitely retired from service.
• Yugoslavia & Yugoslav partisans: The Royal Yugoslav Air Force, ordered 25 fighters, however, the fall of France prevented their delivery. That's not excuse for us to draw an hypothetical-looking version in Yugoslav colours. 
  Anyway, during the closing stages of the War, in 1945, Yugoslav partisans managed to capture some of them. They were not used by the subsequent SFR Yugoslav Air Force so they were either destroyed, scrapped or withdrawn from use early after the end of the War.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_M.S.406

2. https://world-war-2.wikia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_M.S.406#Croatia

3. http://www.tayyareci.com/digerucaklar/turkiye/1923ve50/ms406.asp

4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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)

Airspeed AS.6 Envoy, part one

The Airspeed AS.6 Envoy was a British light twin-engined transport aircraft designed and built by Airspeed at Portsmouth Aerodrome, in Hampshire.
As the type was quite popular, it was exported to many countries:

• Australia: As the aircraft became famous thanks to air races, it became very popular within commonwealth's airlines, so the Australian airline Ansett Airlines bought two exemplars. A private-owned Envoy which was registered as VH-UXY and modified with a long-range fuel tank filling the middle of the cabin, was piloted by Charles Ulm when it disappeared in December 1934 when attempting to flight the Pacific route between Oakland, in New Zealand to Honolulu in Hawaii. 
• China-Guangxi: The warlord of this Southern province had at least one Envoy serving with his Air Force. Further details are unknown but it was most probably destroyed during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• Independent State of Croatia: Two Airspeed AS.6E were given to the ZNDH (Independent State of Croatia's Air Force) by the German Luftwaffe. They were used in the light transport role and were destroyed during the course of the War.
• Czechoslovakia: The Czechoslovak's National Airways, CSA, ordered four AS.6 Envoy JC in 1937 to equip their air routes. When Czechoslovakia was annexed, all of them were passed over to the Luftwaffe.
  Additionally one machine was bought by Vítkovické horní a hutní tezirstvo (Vitkovice Mine & Steel Co.) in 1936 based in the Czech city of Ostrava and was used by his president.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Envoy

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Air_Force_(Independent_State_of_Croatia)

3. http://britishaviation-ptp.com/airspeed_as6.html

4. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/114447/Airspeed-AS-6E-Envoy

Messerschmitt Bf.108, part one

The Messerschmitt Bf.108 was a German single-engine sport and touring aircraft that was used for military liaison purposes during the World War 2. It was designed and developed by the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in the 1930s and was exported to many countries:

• Austria: A single Bf.108 was ordered by the Austrian government on 22nd April 1937 and was delivered on 27th July. It was the only Bf.108 to serve with the Austrian Air Force and when Germany annexed Austria, it went back to serve with the Luftwaffe.
• Bulgaria: During the war Bulgaria bought a total of six Bf.108 in 1941. They were assigned to the 1st Courier Squadron but were used mainly for training purposes.
• Independent State of Croatia: The 15.(Kroat)/JG.52 squadron composed by Croatian pilots who fought in the Eastern Front, used some Bf.108 for liaison purposes outside combat zones. The one depicted below was used by four Croatian pilots on 19th September 1942 to fly to Uman, in the USSR, where they were based.
• Hungary: In 1937 the Royal Hungarian Air Force bought a total of seven Bf.108 which were used in a wide range of duties. From liaison, communications and even trainer. They served through the war on the Eastern Front and until the end of the war.
• Romania: The Royal Romanian Air Force had at least one Bf.108 at the beginning of the war. It was assigned to the 11th Courier Squadron which belonged to the 1st Air Corps. During 1943 and 1944 it was still in service.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_108

2. http://www.warbirdalley.com/bf108.htm

3. Wydawnictwo Militaria 149 - Messerschmitt Bf-108 Taifun

Amiot 143, various foreign users

A little bit later than usual but now it's the turn for the foreign users of this French medium bomber as France wasn't the only one to employ it.
The Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia apparently received one of them and used it, probably, for training purposes. However as we couldn't find any graphical evidence, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
The Vichy French Air Force got some of the bombers that weren't destroyed after the French armistice, and gathered them in Istres, southern France in order to use them as transports to send them to take part in the Syria-Lebanon campaign, which is why they created the G.T. I/15 meaning Groupe de Transport or Transport Group on 14th July 1941 and became the G.T. III/15 in October of that same year. However, as the Syria-Lebanon campaign finished just in July 1941, they were never sent to Syria and were based in the French North Africa, mainly in Algeria and Morocco where most of them were destroyed during Operation Torch with some of them, belonging to the G.T. I/36 (a reformed G.T. III/15) being used during the Tunisian Campaign in January 1943. Anyway, all of them were scrapped in early 1944.
The Polish Air Force in France, employed some Amiot 143M as bomber trainers, mainly in the bomber flying school of Lyon-Bron and Caen. During the last days of the French Campaign in June 1940 they were used to evacuate personnel to Southern France.
Regarding the Spanish Republican Air Force, there were several reports of them being used in the early days of the Spanish Civil War, but they seem to be erroneus, as there aren't any significal evidence of the airplane flying in that conflict. We couldn't however let the oportunity pass and painted one of them with the colours of the FARE (Fuerzas Aéreas Republicanas Españolas - Spanish Republican Air Forces) to see how it could have looked like.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_143
2. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_143 (translated)
3. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action -  French Bombers of World War II in Action
4. http://bioold.science.ku.dk/drnash/model/spain/didnt.html

Macchi C.205 - Foreign users

The Macchi C.205 Veltro (Greyhound) was an Italian fighter of the World War 2 that it's considered as the best Italian one in that conflict. It was used by many foreign users.

• Australia: The No.3 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force captured one Macchi C.205 in Italy during the summer of 1943. It was flown by Brian Eaton, commander of the Squadron who praised the airplane for its maneouvrability and speed.
• Egypt: During the postwar, the Royal Egyptian Air Force bought 62 Veltros, being 41 of them conversions from the Macchi C.202. However due to delivery problems, only 15 of them saw brief combat during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War when some of them, equipped with underwing bomb racks, where used to attack Israeli positions. In January 1949 an Egyptian pilot claimed an Israeli P-51D Mustang in exchange of three Veltros claimed by the Israeli Air Force. 
• Germany: The German Luftwaffe equipped the II.Gruppe of the JG.77 for two months, from October until December 1943. They weren't really impressed by the Veltro and they were replaced by the Bf.109. 
• Croatia: A small number of Veltros managed to serve with the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia durin 1944 but they were quickly overwhelmed by the Allied fighters. 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.205

2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Macchi C.202 - Foreign users

This nice Italian fighter was used by many foreign users.

• Croatia had around 20 or 22 in service during 1944 and used them to intercept allied bombers. They were assigned to the Kroat JGr.1 and, while serving with them they retained their Luftwaffe markings. They scrambled for the first time in March 1944 against an American raid west of Zagreb, however there wasn't any combat as they were instructed to attack only damaged airplanes and stragglers from the main formation. When the Croatian Air Force Legion was replaced by the Croatian Air Force Group, they received new markings and they served in the combat role until September 1944 when they were relegated to training duties mainly because of their weak armament.
• Many of them were captured during the Allied campaign in Italy and therefore saw limited service with the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the United States Army Air Force, mainly under testing purposes.
• They also served with the Air Force of the Italian Social Republic, the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana but only in the trainer role.
• The German Luftwaffe also used some of them, mainly as trainers too in the Orange fighter school.
• Apparently, the Schweizer Flugwaffe (Swiss Air Force) ordered 20 Macchi C.202 on 12th May 1943 but none of them were delivered as Italy had no export capabilities as they were concentrating in defending their own national air-space.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.202

2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avia B-534-IV - Various Foreign users

Today we cover the next users for the Avia B-534-IV

• Independent State of Croatia: Apparently the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia received some surplus machines from Germany. Further details are unknown so the drawing should be considered speculative.
• Kingdom of Hungary: One B-534-IV was captured from Slovakia during the Slovak-Hungarian war in March 1939. It was pushed into service as a fighter trainer. Later, in 1941, it was used as a glider tow bearing civilian registrations until it was destroyed during the battle of Budapest in 1945.
• Kingdom of Romania: The Royal Romanian Air Force received some Avia B-534-IV together with the DFS 230 gliders. The Avias were used as glider tows. As the graphical sources for these are inexistant, or at least we couldn't find them, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
• USSR: Apparently the NKVD used some captured machines to form a secret squadron. As there isn't graphical evidence on this, it should be considered as speculative.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avia_B-534

2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avia BH-33E

The Avia BH-33E appeared first on 1929 and it differed on the original BH-33 and the PWS-A in various aspects.
The slab-sided wooden fuselage was replaced by a welded steel-tube structure, it had an elliptical cross section achieved with the help of light formers and a spli axle vee-type undercarriage introduced to replace the original crossed-axle undercarriage.

Even if it wasn't originally ordered by the Czechoslovak authorities, which waited until the BH-33L, it did have some export success and three airplanes were bought by the USSR to preform some tests and 20 were sold to Yugoslavia which also purchased a production license, for the firm Ikarus at their plant of Zemun, close to Belgrade.

Two sub-variants were made one powered by the Bristol Jupiter VI, and the other one, which was the most produced, powered by the supercharged version of the Bristol Jupiter VII. One single BH-33 was fitted with a German BMW Hornet engine, however, as we couldn't find any graphical evidence, we haven't drawn it. It was armed with two Vickers 0.303in machine guns placed in the frontern upper part of the fuselage.

Sources:
1. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avia_BH-33