Tupolev SB in Spain. Part Two.

 

When the German Messerschmitt Bf.109B fighter made its appearance over Spain, with its experienced pilots, the losses of the SBs started to pile up. On 7th February 1938 four bombers were shot down, making it the worst loss rate in a single date, up to that date. By June 1938 only a handful of aircraft were serviceable, however, in July, thirty more SBs were delivered via France and were assembled at Figueres, Catalonia. This last delivery increased the total number of Tupolev SBs in Spain up to 93. 

During the conflict, one SB was captured by the Nationalist and received Aviación Nacional's (Nationalist Air Force) codes, was painted with Italian colours and camouflage pattern. It was shown at Tablada airfield (Seville) in October 1937.

One distinctive feature of the SBs assembled in Spain during the late-war period was the introduction of a fairing in front of the rear gunner's compartment. 

The code assigned by the Fuerza Aérea Republicana Española (FARE - Spanish Republican Air Force) to the SB was BK (which stands for Bombardero Katiuska - Katiuska Bomber) followed by a three-digit number, painted in black. Additionally, after a reform in FARE, some SBs received a two-digit number code painted in the tailfin.

The aerial superiority of the Nationalists, coupled with the inexperience of the Republican Katiuska's crews, quickly dropped the available number of SBs in the FARE. When the Spanish Civil War ended on 1st April 1939, a total of 73 SBs were lost, 40 of them to Nationalists actions. 

Shortly after the war, the reformed Spanish Ejército del Aire (Air Army - Spanish Air Force) created an unit with the captured and surrendered Katiuskas. This unit was called 13º Regimiento de Bombardeo (13th Bomber Regiment), based at Los Llanos airfield (Albacete - New Castile) and was composed of 19 Tupolev SBs. Some of these machines were re-engined with the Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs engine, although the covering cowl was maintained, so, externally, there was no difference. This was done to ease maintenance, as they were still subject to spare shortages up to the point that, in April 1943, only three SBs were available. This forced Francoist authorities to ground the SBs and purchase some Junkers Ju.88A bombers from Germany which arrived in December 1943. The remaining Katiuskas were employed for occasional training flights until 1948, when they were scrapped.

Sources:

Sources:

1st Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 194 - Tupolev SB in Action

2nd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_SB

3rd https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/sb/tapani/spanish/spanishrepublican.htm

4th http://elhangardetj.blogspot.com/2008/10/tablada.html (translated)

Junkers Ju.52/3m in Spain, part two

 

The Junkers Ju.52/3m was widely used during the Spanish Civil War by the Nationalist side and the subsequent Spanish State.

During the initial part of the conflict, a single Ju.52/3mg3e defected on 10th November 1936 to the Republican Side. This aircraft was piloted by Ananías San Juan Alonso, Sergeant of the Nationalist Grupo 22 de Bombardeo (Bombardment Group 22), who flew the Ju.52/3m from Escalona airfield, in Toledo, under Nationalist control to Alcalá de Henares airfield, in Madrid, under Republican control. This defection was made popular at the time by the Republican authorities and the captured Junkers was repainted to show loyalist colours. The fate of this machine is unknown, but was most probably destroyed on ground during a bombardment. San Juan was incorporated to Grupo 12, 1a Escuadrilla (Group 12, 1st Squadron) and flew Tupolev SB-2 bombers until the end of the conflict. After the war, he moved to Mexico where he lived until the end of his days in 1985.

The German Condor Legion, which served to the Nationalist side, had two Ju.52/3mW floatplanes. They were based at Pollença, close to the city of Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands and were used mainly in the transport and observation roles. One of them was destroyed in an accident during a vicious storm and the other one suffered an uncertain fate. Its known that one of them was involved in an aerial fight between two captured Republican Fiat Cr.32 when returning from a reconnaissance flight from Cadiz to Pollença.

After the Spanish Civil War, Iberia (the main Spanish Airline) was refounded in Madrid and in Autumn a new route with Lisbon was opened, served with Ju.52/3m. One year later, Iberia was granted by the Francoist authorities the monopoly of aerial transport of goods and persons inside Spanish lands for the next 20 years. Most of those routes were served by the Ju.52/3m which, although its exact number is unknown, it's estimated that around 75 machines (Iberia's official source places the number between 69 and 90) served with Iberia until 1960.

The Ju.52/3m was still under production after World War 2 in Spain, under the denomination of CASA C-352, but this aircraft will be the subject of its own post in the future.

Sources:

1. http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/95068/ananias-san-juan-alonso (translated)

2. https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=23496.0

3. https://www.facebook.com/fotosiberia/posts/1584431005125652:0 (translated)

4. https://www.iberia.com/es/flota/aviones-historicos/Junkers_JU-52/ (translated)

5. http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/12/spanish-civil-war-ju-52-floatplane.html

Airspeed Envoy, part four

The Airspeed Envoy was a British light, twin-engined transport aircraft designed and built by Airspeed Ltd.
It was used during the Spanish Civil War by both sides as ten of them were acquired by the Republicans.
The first one, arrived to Barcelona in early August 1936 and was later used in the front of Aragon as a bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. Two more arrived later in August but one was destroyed and the other one, piloted by Fernando Rein Loring (a famous pilot in Spain back then) defected to the nationalists becoming the personal aircraft of General Emilio Mola (one of the four main Generals in the nationalist side). It crashed later by flying into a mountain in June 1937 killing all its crew and passengers. Oddly enough, this aircraft had been the demonstrator for Airspeed.
In total, some sources claim that the total amount of Envoys that took part in the Spanish Civil War, was sixteen. However, that number seems too high.
Most of them (at least seven machines) were imported into Spain via the Air Pyrénneés. This airline was founded by the autonomous Basque Government in November 1936 which, after the occupation in September of the province of Gipuzkoa by the nationalist forces, the border with France was cut, so, in order to keep a link from Bilbao (the city headquarter of the Basque Republican forces in the north) with France, and considering that any communication was only possible via sea or by air, Air Pyréneés was founded and officially started operations in February 1937 covering the air-route Bilbao-Bayonne. One Envoy, registered as F-APPQ was shot down by nationalist aircraft over the Basque Country on 26th May 1937 injuring its pilot, Auguste Amestoy.
Once the Basque province of Biscay fell into the nationalists, most of the aircraft of the airline flew into Republican controlled territory like Valencia and with the French Air Ministry official protest (the airline's main office was in Bayonne, France), the company was dissolved in May 1938. All of their machines were pressed into service with LAPE (Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas - Spanish Postal Airlines) and, like every other Envoy, were mainly used for VIP transport duties.
The machine registered as EC-AGE and another unidentified one survived the war and were taken over by the Spanish Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force), where they were re-registered with the code of "41-3" and "41-4" in late 1939. In 1945 they were re-coded as "L.11" and flew with the Spanish Air Force until well into 1947.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Envoy
2. https://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?t=14768 (translated)
3. http://britishaviation-ptp.com/airspeed_as6.html
4. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_prewar.pdf
5. https://aeropinakes.com/wordpress/1937/08/17/la-aerolinea-de-la-republica-de-euzkadi/ (translated)
6. https://ianasagasti.blogs.com/mi_blog/2019/11/air-pyrénées-la-aerolínea-de-euzkadi.html (translated)
7. http://bioold.science.ku.dk/drnash/model/spain/did.html
8. http://www.aviationcorner.net/gallery_en.asp?aircraft_type=Airspeed%20AS.6%20Envoy&aircraft_type_id=2306 (translated)

Messerschmitt Bf.108, part four

The Messerschmitt Bf.108 was a sport and touring aircraft that was widely used all around the world. The countries covered in this post are:

• France: The French Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) operated a number of captured Bf.108s during the late stages of the World War 2 just before the liberation. After the War it was built by SNCAN (commonly known as 'Nord') and was used also by both the Armée de l'Air and the Aéronavale (French Naval Aviation). 
• Italy: The Italian forces stationed in Albania captured at least one ex-Yugoslavian Bf.108 in 1941 which was assigned to the Reparto Volo Commando (Flight Command Department) of the Aeronautica Albania (Albania Air Force Command). Later it was assigned to the Gruppo Autonomo di Volo (Autonomous Flight Squadron) of the 3ª Squadra Aerea based in Rome where it served at least until 31st July 1943. It's fate is unknown.
• Switzerland: In 1936 the Swiss Air Force bought some Bf.108s which were used in communications flights until the late 1940s. 
• Nationalist Spain: During the Spanish Civil War the Condor Legion employed some Bf.108 in liaison and VIP transport duties. It seems that just four Bf.108 operated with the Condor Legion during the war. In 1939, after the war ended, they were inherited by the newly re-funded Ejercito del Aire (Air Force) and got another additional three machines.

Sources:

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

2. https://www.valka.cz/Nord-1001-Pingouin-I-t85450

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

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

5. Wydawnictwo Militaria 149 - Messerschmitt Bf-108 Taifun

6. https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=347

Fairey Swordfish, part one, foreign users

The Fairey Swordfish is a British biplane torpedo bomber designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was nicknamed "The Stringbag" and was operated mainly by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Air Force, but also by other operators. The first countries to be covered in this post are:

• Netherlands: Right since its inception in June 1943 at RNAS Donibristle, in Scotland, the No.860 (Dutch) Naval Air Squadron was equipped with Swordfishes. They performed torpedo-bomber reconnaissance duties until November when they were rebased to Maydown, in Northern Ireland, to be splitted in two flights of six aircraft each, to operate from merchant aircraft carriers MV Acavus and MV Gadila and later just from MV Macoma and Acavus from June 1944. They performed that role with the Swordfishes until June 1945 when the old-fashioned biplanes were replaced by the more advanced Fairey Barracudas.
• Italy: At least four Swordfishes were captured by the Italian Regia Aeronautica.
  One was captured just after the bombardment of Taranto, albeit in poor condition and was savaged.
  Another one, belonging to the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was shot down and captured during a raid on Maritza Airfield, in Rhodes, on 4th September 1940. It was sent to Italian mainland, repainted in Italian markings and sent to Guidonia (Italian's Regia Aeronautica test centre). It was kept in flying conditions until mid-1941 thanks to spare parts taken from another captured aircraft.
  The fourth one, took off from HMS Ark Royal (91) to bomb the city of Cagliari, in Sardinia, but was hit by ground anti-air fire. It force-landed on the Italian airfield at Elmas, in Sardinia too, on 2nd August 1940. The crew were taken prisoner and the aircraft was repaired by the Italian firm Caproni. It was refitted with an Alfa-Romeo 125 engine and was taken to Guidonia for testing on 27th February 1941. It seems that by 6th April 1942, it was still there, however it was most likely destroyed in one of the Allied air raids.
• Spain: At least two Swordfish ended in the hands of the Spanish Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force).
  The first one, belonging to the 813 Naval Air Squadron, was based in Gibraltar when, during an anti-submarine patrol, lost its sweep and force landed between Ras-el-Farea and Pota-Pescadores in Spanish Morocco on 30th April 1942. The crew were interned and the fate of the machine is unknown.
  The second one, a floatplane, belonged to a detachment of the 700 Naval Air Squadron, that was operating from the Battleship HMS Malaya (01) ran out of fuel while it was shadowing the German pocket Battleship Scharnhorst on 8th March 1941, close to the Canary Islands. Both aircraft and crew were interned by Spanish authorities and, as the aircraft was serviceable, it was put into use in the Spanish Air Force with a new registration and assigned to 54ª Escuadrilla (54th Flight) on 6th December 1943, which operated from Puerto de La Cruz, in the Island of Tenerife, Canary Islands. It was written-off in March 1945 at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, also in the aforementioned archipelago.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish#Operators

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/860_Naval_Air_Squadron

3. http://incidentessgm.blogspot.com/2013/11/fairey-swordfish.html (translated)

Douglas DC-1

The Douglas DC-1 was the first model of the famous American DC (which stands for Douglas Commercial) commercial transport aircraft series. Only one aircraft was produced, but it served as the basis for the DC-2 and DC-3.
Its development dates back to 1931 after a TWA's (Trans World Airlines) Fokker F.10 crashed due to the failure of a wing caused by the water that had seeped between the layers of the wood laminate and dissolved the glue that held the layers together. After the accident, the Aeronautics Branch of the US Department of Commerce placed strict restrictions on the use of wooden wings on passenger airliners. Boeing answered with a new model, the Boeing 247 which was a twin-engined all-metal monoplane with a retractable undercarriage, but their production capacity was reserved to meet the needs of United Airlines, part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation which also owned Boeing. Therefore TWA needed a similar aircraft to compete with the Boeing 247 and they asked five manufacturers to bid for construction of a three-engined, 12-seat aircraft of all-metal production with a range of 1080 milles (1740 km) at 150mph (242 km/h). The most difficult specification was that the aircraft had to be able to safely take-off from any airport on TWA's main routes with one engine non-functioning. The most difficult one to operate was Albuquerque's airport which is at high altittude and with sever summer temperatures.
Donald Douglas, president of Douglas Aircraft Company was initially reluctant to take part in the contest as he doubted that there was enough market for 100 aircraft, which was the number of sales needed to cover development costs. However, he submitted a design consisting on an all-metal, low-wing, twin-engined aircraft with capacity for 12 passengers, a crew of two and a flight attendant. The specifications exceeded the needs of the TWA even with only two engines, mainly through the use of controllable pitch propellers. It was also insulated against noise, heated and fully capable of flying and making a controlled taking-off on just one engine.
As stated by Donald Douglas, the DC-1 costed $325.000 (That's $5,956,917.88 adjusted for inflation) of the time to design and build.
Only one aircraft was produced and flew for the first time on 1st July 1933 at the hands of Carl Cover. It received the designation of DC-1 (standing for 'Douglas Commercial-1'). It was tested for half-year and performed over 200 test flights proving its superiority over other airliners of the time like the Ford Trimotor or Fokker Trimotor. It was flown accross the USA from New York to Los Angeles, on 19th February 1934 setting a new record of 13 hours and 5 minutes.
Back on 15th September 1933, TWA accepted the aircraft with some modifications like an increased passenger capacity from 12 to 14 and adding more powerful engines. They also ordered a production of 20 of them which, at its developed version would be known as the Douglas DC-2.
The DC-1 never entered active service with TWA but was used for promotion purposes. It was sold in May 1938 to Lord Forbes in the United Kingdom, who operated it for a few months as his personal aircraft and was sold in October to the French Société Française de Transports Aériens which sold it just weeks later, in November 1938 to the Spanish Republicans.
It was assigned to the LAPE (Lineas Aéreas Postales Españolas - Spanish Postal Airlines) where it saw at least two camouflage schemes (as shown below) and was notorious for having transported the Spanish Republican Cabinet to the exile on 6th March 1939 from Valencia to Toulouse, in France.
It was given back to the Francoist authorities after the end of the Spanish Civil War and it was assigned to Tráfico Aéreo Español (Spanish Air Traffic - the most inmediate predecessor of Iberia, Spanish national airline) which re-registered it and named it as "Manuel Negrón". It was lost in December 1940 when after having taken-off from the airport of Malaga, it crashed shortly after for unknown reasons and it was scrapped.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-1
2. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-1 (translated)
3. https://aeropinakes.com/wordpress/1938/11/13/douglas-dc-1-de-lape-ejemplar-unico/ (translated) 
4. http://jaon.es/dc1/index.htm (translated) 

IMAM Ro.43

The IMAM Ro.43 was designed to meet a requirement of 1933 made by the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) for a catapult-launched reconnaissance aircraft that could equip the Maritime Reconnaissance Squadrons that operated from their ships.
The Ro.43 won over the other contenders like the Piaggio P.18 and P.20, the CMASA MF.10, CANT Z.504 and Macchi C.76.
It was a derivation of the previous IMAM Ro.37 Lince (Lynx) aircraft and was in fact designed by the same designer, Giovanni Galasso. It flew for the first time in 1934 and was built out of steel tubes and wood covered by soft alloy and fabric.
It was a two-seat biplane with folding gull upper and inverse gull lower wings. It was armed with two Breda-SAFAT 7.7mm machine guns, one firing forward and another defensive one firing backwards from the obersver position. It was powered by a single Piaggio P.X.R 9-cylinder engine that yielded a power of 700hp (522 Kw) and was able of achieving a speed of 300km/h (185mph) with more than 1000km of range (620mi).
In spite of being the winner of the requirement, it had serious problems as its lightweight structure meant that it was too delicate for buoyancy at sea and its sea-handling capabilities left much to be desired. Therefore, many times it was launched from a ship and was recovered at land and was only reimbarked when the ships returned to port.
However, it enjoyed a quite good endurance and thank to its range it could be useful in the Mediterranean, so it was widely used by the Regia Marina during World War 2. That way, six Ro.43 launched from Light Cruisers were the responsible of spotting the British Fleet during the Battle of Calabria on 9th July 1940. One of them, dispatched from the Light Cruiser Eugenio di Savoia, served as spotter for the Regia Marina when flew over the British Battleship HMS Warspite during the exchange of fire between that Battleship and the Italian Battleship Giulio Cesare just before it had to depart as it was chased by a Gloster Sea Gladiator that was launched from the HMS Eagle Aircraft Carrier.
Later, on 27th November 1940 a single Ro.43 that was launched from the Heavy Cruiser Bolzano, spotted the British Fleet at the beginning of the Battle of Cape Spartivento while another one, launched from the Heavy Cruiser Gorizia located the British Convoy. On that same battle, British Blackburn Skuas from the HMS Ark Royal Aircraft Carrier claimed to have shot down one seaplane (most probably a Ro.43 from the Battleship Vittorio Veneto) after a failed bombing on the Italian Fleet. The performance of the Ro.43 was eulogized by the Italian Navy's supreme command.
On 28th March 1941 another Ro.43 launched from the Battleship Vittorio Veneto pinpointed the British Cruiser Squadron at the openings of the Battle of Cape Matapan, near Gavdos island.
Another Ro.43 operating from a cruiser signaled the presence of the British convoy by dropping flares during the Second Battle of Sirte, while another one that operated from the Battleship Littorio directed the fire from the Italian fleet.
The Ro.43 continued to operate in such actions during as late as June 1942 during the Italian Cruiser attack on the Harpoon Convoy which the Axis forces won and one Ro.43 was shot down by a Bristol Beaufighter that operated from Malta.
One hundred and five Ro.43 were in active service when Italy waged war on the Allies in June 1940, which were more than enough to equip Italian surface ships. However, shortly later a better design was requested, possibly a navalized fighter. That request leaded to some small series of fighters to be navalized, like the Reggiane Re.2000 "Catapultabile" or the floater version of the IMAM Ro.51 (which didn't go beyond the prototype stage) that could be fitted in capital ships but, however, it had no floats, so it had to return to a land base or ditch, in the same fashion the British Hawker Sea Hurricane operated in Royal Navy CAM ships.
The best feature of the Ro.43 was the foldable wings, but even so, the maximum number of carried planes per ship was of just two, which, together with the low chances of recovery and the lack of experience with naval aviation, even if the Regia Marina had a Seaplane Carrier, the Giuseppe Miraglia, limited the usage of aircraft in combat. Around 250 of them were built until 1941 and by the time of the Italian Armistice in September 1943 forty-eight of them were still active.
By that time, as Italy was divided in two, in the ensuing chaos that followed, six Ro.43 flew from Sardinia to Mallorca, in the Spanish Balearic Islands, to desert. The aircrafts were interned firts and, in August 1944, they were put into service by the Spanish authorities and operated from Polensa naval base, forming the 1st Squadron of the 53rd Hydro Regiment. They served until October 1949 in the SAR role when they were written-off as the fuselages were very affected by the sea corrosion and were replaced by German Heinkel He.114A which, even if they were outdated, they were in better condition.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAM_Ro.43
2. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAM_Ro.43 (translated)
3. http://fotosantiguasdemallorca.blogspot.com.es/2011/09/la-base-de-hidroaviones-de-pollensa-y_25.html (translated)