Father`s Day Present
Went down to our local Sunday market at Santa Faz this morning, nearby is a second hand footfair type market at Benimagrell which we also browse as we are nearby.
On one stall was a small pile of plastic kits a mix a military and civilain planes and stuff among the pile one caught my eye and at 10 Euro I just couldn`t resist, to which my wife and son both said Happy Father`s Day (I`d forgotten).
Designed in the early 1930s to cover the specifications for both a high speed airliner for civilian use and a medium bomber for the new Luftwaffe.
Four aircraft were sent to Spain as part of the Condor Legion for field testing, the diesel engines proved unreliable and the aircraft`s performance wasn`t as good as the Heinkel He-111.
One aircraft (26-1) suffered from engine failure returning from a bombing raid on February 23rd 1937 and crash landed behind enemy lines a total right-off, only one crewman survived to be captured.
A replacement aircraft was sent from Germany, but after two more were damaged in landing incidents, the surviving pair were handed over the Nationalist Airforce where they remained in service at least until the end of the Civil War.
The Ju-86 did see some service during WW2 with the Germans and with the Hungarians, but alos surprisingly with the South African Airforce too where South African Airways aircraft were converted to military use with defensive guns and external bomb racks.
I`m going to try and paint her up as a Spanish Nationalist aircraft
Period Photos
The last surviving Ju-86 at the Swedish Airforce Museum
Sources
The Experimental Units of Hitler`s Condor Legion by Rafael A. Permuy López & Lucas Molina Franco ISBN 9781473878914
I suppose that in the real Spanish Civil War if someone (Germany in this case) was to offer equipment then I can’t really see a reason to reject it. After all, any weapons/equipment would be an addition to their forces.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Geoff
ps / I do appreciate though that any weapons/equipment provided ought to be “fit-for-purpose” - and I understand that the Republicans received significant supplies of old, obsolete weapons.
The Soviets robbed them blind, supplying obsolete weapons at marked up prices and only accepting gold as payment. Of course they did also supply good tanks and planes too and except for Mexico were just about the only country to actively side with the Republic. The book I list in the sources is very interesting, not usually the sort of thing I read, but it was very detailed.
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