Air and Space Photos from Alternate Worlds.
- Thread starter Wingman1
- Start date
Reminds me of the Dornier Do 31 in some respects. An offshoot of the design?Study of German Business Jet with VTOL
your both right
the concept is Do31 (in TL known as ZDF-31)
The fuselage is based on Hansa Fanjet but modified for VTOL
(Hatsunese Space Program - Phase 3 - 02)
1977-12-27 - Watarimono Jupiter flyby (will reach Saturn in 1981)
1977-12-27 - Watarimono Jupiter flyby (will reach Saturn in 1981)
Last edited:
(Hatsunese Space Program - Phase 3 - 03)
1978-05-09 - Advanced Information Gathering Satellite
1978-07-27 - Usagi-10 in Aristillus Crater
1978-05-09 - Advanced Information Gathering Satellite
1978-07-27 - Usagi-10 in Aristillus Crater
(Hatsunese Space Program - Phase 3 - 05)
1979-11-05 - Watarimono-2 was launched by an M-2-34 rocket to Jupiter (1981), Uranus (1986), and Neptune (1989)
1979-11-05 - Watarimono-2 was launched by an M-2-34 rocket to Jupiter (1981), Uranus (1986), and Neptune (1989)
(Hatsunese Space Program - Phase 3 - 06)
1980-03-24 - First launch of the Saki crewed spacecraft (minimum system)
1980-03-24 - First launch of the Saki crewed spacecraft (minimum system)
(Hatsunese Space Program - Phase 3 - 07)
1980-10-12 - The Advanced Marine Investigation and Ground Observation Satellite (AMIGOS), also known as Aomidori
1980-10-12 - The Advanced Marine Investigation and Ground Observation Satellite (AMIGOS), also known as Aomidori
(I've returned 
) - Comrade Harp's "new" nations
Ford Aircraft Company of TransCaucasia-built Messerschmitt Bf 108F
Black 7985, Trud s eskadroy Yedinstva (Labour with Unity Squadron), Soviet TransCaucasian Army Air Force
Krasnodar, Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia (SSRT)-occupied Socialist Union, October 1941
In 1932 the American industrialist Henry Ford opened a Ford automobile factory at Tbilisi in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia (SSRT). The nation’s leader, Stalin, had invited Ford to the country in order to boost productivity through the establishment of modern assembly line management practices. Although mostly associated with automobiles (cars and trucks), Ford’s portfolio also included the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company, which in 1932 was winding down the production of its Trimotor transport in the face of dwindling orders. Realising the potential of the SSRT both as a market and as a location of cheap and obedient labour, Ford closed the Stout Division’s unprofitable production line in Detroit and relocated it to the SSRT as the Ford Tbilisi Airplane Division. More Trimotors followed, as did a series of original Ford and foreign designs built under licence. These included trainers, transports (modernised Trimotors) and tourers, sports planes and the Ford Vikhr' (Whirlwind) twin-engined fighter-bomber.
One of the designs licence-built by the Ford Tbilisi Airplane Division was the Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun touring monoplane. Messerschmitt and the RLM gave the out of order designation of Bf 108F to these in recognition of Henry Ford, who had been bestowed with the Grand Cross of the German Eagle by the Nazis. The first Ford Tbilisi Bf 108F flew in 1940 and 263 were built for domestic and export civilian and military customer before production ended in December 1943. Export customers included the Turkish Air Force (28 acquired in-lieu of deliveries from Messerschmitt during 1942), the Imperial Iranian Air Force (12) and the Afghan Air Force (6). Others were sold to civilian operators, including the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (2). Of interest is that 7 of the Imperial Iranian Air Force and both Anglo-Iranian Oil Company aircraft were impressed into RAF service as the Messerschmitt Aldon following the 1941 British invasion of Iran.
The Soviet TransCaucasian Army Air Force was the largest operator of the Bf 108F, using it for liaison and training duties. Many expeditionary fighter and bomber squadrons were issued with at least one Bf 108F as a unit hack and several were used by senior Soviet Army officers as personal transports.
Several historians have claimed that Henry Ford’s interests in the SSRT were reflected in American and British responses to Stalin’s 24 June 1941 invasion of the Socialist Union. He publically and privately lobbied for a lenient response to the SSRT. Although both Allied nations gave immense logistical support to the Moscow Pact war effort against the Axis, neither declared war against the SSRT but did enforce economic blockades. In this context, Ford reluctantly distanced himself and his company from Ford Tbilisi and publicly reduced his interest in the joint-venture company by selling his shareholding to the Soviet state. Ford was also forced to withdraw most of his expatriate workers from the SSRT, which significantly stymied further development of the company's local products. When Britain invaded Iran in August 1941 to open up an overland route for Lend-Lease deliveries, they made no move against the SSRT: the British Army simply stopped at the Iran-SSRT frontier, closed the border crossings and imposed a blockade. It later emerged that Britain was still purchasing petroleum products from the SSRT via Turkey. For its part, Turkey had promised to take direct action against any country that invaded the SSRT. This position fell apart when Turkey declared war on Germany and its Axis partners on 19 August 1944, just three days before Germany signed the Separate Peace (aka The Great Betrayal) with the Western Allies. Seizing the moment, the Red Army steamrolled the Soviet Army and in less than two months had liberated all of the SSRT from Stalin’s grip. The Turks remained silent and it was up to the British Army to open the border crossings for refugees.
RWD-14b Czapla
White 5, 201st Army Cooperation Eskadrylʹyi, Zakarpattia Army Air Corps
"Somewhere in Ukraine" August 1941
Zakarpattia emerged as an independent nation in the aftermath of WW1. Occupied by the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was part of the short-lived nationalist West Ukrainian National Republic and was then occupied by Romania before being invaded by the Hungarian Soviet Republic in the summer of 1919. Claimed as the Ukrainian Zakarpattia Oblast by the Bolsheviks, the region was also subject to significant or total territorial claims by Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. To resolve these conflicting claims it was the French who, at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference, successfully pushed to create an independent nation. The small nation?s sovereignty was guaranteed in part by the 1919 Paris Treaty and by its membership of the Little Entente and treaties with Poland and Romania. Proposed names included Carpatho-Ukraine, Subcarpathia and Transcarpathia, but to appease the belligerent governments in Kiev and Moscow and their claim on the region as ?the rebel Zakarpattia Oblast,? the official name became the Zakarpattia Republic. It survived the claims made on it during the periods of the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award thanks largely to the servile efforts of a pro-German government installed as the result of an August 1938 military coup.
Although a junior partner in the series of Polish-Romanian alliance treaties signed in the 1920s and ?30s, Zakarpattia refused to support Poland when it was invaded by Germany in September 1939. One consequence of this was that the Poles, who had expected to exercise their pre-existing transit rights through Zakarpattia as part of the Romanian Bridgehead Plan, instead had to make urgent arrangements with the Nordic countries to maintain logistic routes the West. Having served Nazi interests well, Zakarpattia joined the Tri-Partite Pact (Axis) in July 1940 and survived intact despite the Hungarian territorial claims associated with Second Vienna Awards of November.
At about 1410 hours 23 June 1941 three aircraft bombed the village of Uzhok; the Zakarpattian government blamed the Reds and the next day declared war on Ukraine and the Socialist Union. No evidence of Red involvement in the bombing has ever emerged, however, some eyewitness reports do identify aircraft resembling Luftwaffe He-111s. Joining Hungarian and Slovak troops who had massed on the Zakarpattia-Ukrainian border, the Zakarpattia Expeditionary Army (ZEA) invaded Ukraine on 1 July 1941. The ZEA was extravagantly named, for it only consisted of a single division of about 20,000 men. The ZEA was supported by the small Zakarpattia Army Air Corps, which brought observation, fighter, bomber and transport aircraft to the offensive. Although they mostly participated in garrison duties during the advance, some units saw action during the battles of Uman and Kiev under the command of the German 17th Army.
The Zakarpattia Army Air Corps acquired ten RWD-14 Czapla observation and liaison aircraft from Poland in 1937-38. Eight were still on strength at the time of the 1941 invasion of Ukraine. Originally armed, during August the Luftwaffe ordered these planes to be disarmed following a friendly fire incident with one of their Hs 126B-1s. This, though, was not a big issue, as the 201st Army Cooperation Eskadrylʹyi which flew them had been mostly assigned to second-line duties, such as liaison and convoy overwatch, since late July. This left the ZEA dependent on German and Hungarian air observation support for the remainder of the year.
The 201st Army Cooperation Eskadrylʹyi remained on second-line duties inside occupied Ukraine for the rest of 1941 and was withdrawn to re-equip with second-hand Hs 126B-1s at the end of December. Surviving Czaplas returned to Ukraine in the spring of 1942 and remained for the rest of the year on liaison, reconnaissance and convoy escort duties in the rear with the 203rd Army Cooperation Eskadrylʹyi. In early 1943 this unit returned to Zakarpattia to fulfil local training and utility roles, occasionally crossing the border into occupied Ukraine on anti-Partisan operations. The last two airworthy Czaplas were destroyed in Red airfield attacks during August 1944.
Zakarpattia was invaded by the Red Army in August 1944 and soon became part of the fluid battleline that characterised the post-Nazi German revival on the Eastern Front. However, Zakarpattian forces were exhausted and played a negligible part in the ongoing war, finally succumbing to total Red Army occupation and annexation by Ukraine by the end of October 1945.
Grumman P-50B Spitfire 31
A46 - 126, N, Boogie Bogey, No. 121 New Guinea Squadron, RAAF
Personal mount of Pilot Officer Manuel Neuer
Tadji, Aitape, New Guinea Republic, November 1944
The German New Guinea colony in the Pacific was practically defenceless when WW1 broke out in July 1914. By prior arrangement, Britain’s Pacific allies, Australia and Japan, proceeded to carve up Germany’s Pacific protectorates between themselves. The naval German East Asia Squadron was small and mostly at sea north of the equator and was quickly rounded up by Japanese intervention; the Imperial Japanese Navy then proceeded to occupy the numerous German Pacific island possessions north of the equator. South the equator, the Governor of German New Guinea responded to an Australian demand to surrender with a statement of independence and “neutral cooperation.” This didn’t prevent an Australian occupation of German territories below the equator but did allow that to be done peacefully. The Australian government recognised the newly formed Provisional Government of New Guinea as a domestic administration, allowing it a great deal of autonomy and encouraged its development of trade deals which were favourable to Britain. This backfired on the Australians at Versaille. While the Australian’s framed their demands for a League of Nations Mandate to administer the former German possessions south of the equator as being essential to its national interests, the American, British and Japanese delegations lobbied to recognise the New Guinea Republic (NGR) as a sovereign nation, the Japanese delegation adding that it should be demilitarized. The 1919 Treaty of Versaille resolved that all of Germany’s former Pacific possessions be demilitarised, with those north of the equator to be Mandated to Japan, and, with the exception of German Samoa (which was mandated to New Zealand) those south of the equator to be governed as the sovereign territory of the New Guinea Republic. Australia was left with little option other than to recognise the new nation and establish “hegemonic guidance” over its otherwise independent political and economic governance.
During the late 1930s, the Japanese government quietly militarised it’s former German colonies and was in a good position to invade the New Guinea Republic following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Australian air, land and naval forces put up a heroic but hopeless defence of the NGR at its request. By June 1942 the entirety of the NGR was occupied by Japanese troops, but not before the Australian government (as per its racist White Australia Policy) evacuated most of its white population. From these, the RAAF recruited NGR refugees with aviation experience or aspirations and (along with similar refugees for the Netherlands East Indies - NEI) sent them to the USA for training. In December 1943, the RAAF formed 121 New Guinea Squadron at RAAF Station Canberra, presenting Spitfires to its mix of NGR and Australian personnel.
This was the end result of several heated exchanges that took place during 1942 and 1943. In recognition of the NGR’s aviation experience and its demilitarised status, the Australian government originally offered to form a transport squadron with NGR personnel. This was rejected, NGR officials demanding Spitfires. In response, DAP-built Hurricanes were offered, then Kittyhawks, but the NGR’s position held firm and eventually, to avoid a diplomatic stoush, the Australian government approved the supply of refurbished, ex-RAAF Grumman-built P-50B Spitfires 31s. This was the American-built equivalent to Supermarine’s Spitfire Vb, built at Grumman’s “shadow factory” in Bethpage. As it was a fighter-bomber unit, and the Spitfire 31 was a pure fighter, all those issued to the squadron were rebuilt and upgraded examples featuring an Australian-developed bombing capability. 121 would go on to fly Grumman Spitfires through to the end of the war in May 1946, gradually re-equipping with P-50C Spitfire 32s (equivalent to the Spitfire Vc) and then P-50E Spitfire 34s (equivalent to Spitfire IX). Just as the NEI’s RAAF squadrons were adorned with NEI markings, 121 Sqd aircraft carried green and blue roundels featuring the colours of the NGR flag.
From July 1944, 121 Sqd operated from a variety of bases in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA), including Tadji (Aitape), Finschhafen, Goodenough Island, Jacquinot Bay and Wewak. It regularly deployed in squadron or flight strength between RAAF commands to “show the flag” for political and propaganda purposes, giving the impression that it was larger than it actually was. In doing so, it supported Allied campaigns by performing fighter sweeps and bomber escort, strafing and bombing on interdiction and close air support missions, mounting armed visual reconnaissance over land and sea and providing shipping escort. As the Japanese fighter threat in its area of operations had largely evaporated by the time 121 Spd entered combat, its pilots never made contact with the enemy in the air.
This aircraft, serial number A46 - 126, had previously served with No. 2 OTU and had been rebuilt following a landing accident at Mildura. Equipped with a Vokes tropical filter, it is armed with four .303 Browning machine guns, two 20mm M2 Hispano cannon and a pair of 250 lb bombs. It features (as a modification) piping that supplied hot exhaust gasses to the wings to prevent the guns and cannon from freezing. It has clipped wings like most of 121’s Spitfires, improving on the Spitfire’s low-altitude speed and roll rate and enabling additional downward visibility from the cockpit. It is camouflaged in RAAF's standard Foliage Green and Light Grey scheme adopted in July 1944, with white painted tail and wing leading edges for quick identification. Like all other RAAF flying squadrons in the SWPA,121 was assigned a two-letter unit code (in this case, EJ), but this was only adorned on the Squadron CO’s personal mount, leaving just a single letter code on the remainder. Joining to 121 Sqd in November 1944, A46 - 126 was the last Spitfire 31 delivered to the unit and was reduced to components after a belly landing at Tadji in April 1945. The Boogie Bogey nose art refers to Pilot Officer Manuel Neuer’s interest in boogie-woogie music. P/O Neuer was reported missing while flying a Spitfire 34 on 20 May 1945, having been separated from his flight on return to Finschhafen from an armed reconnaissance mission over southern New Britain.
As NGR and Australian officials took stock of the NGR in the wake of the Japanese May 1946 surrender, it became clear that the nation had been devastated. Estimates put NGR’s population loss from 1941 to 1945 at between 25 to 40%, with little in the way of civilian infrastructure left and insufficient NGR citizens able to fill professional government and business positions. Australians soon dominated the country’s public service and its post-war recovery was dependent on Australian assistance. In 1949 the NGR voluntarily entered into the Australian administered Territory of Papua and New Guinea trusteeship and ceased to exist.
The P-50 models (= gives their Supermarine equivalents where applicable):
P-50A Spitfire 30 = Spitfire II - V-1650-1 Packard Merlin, all export
P-50B Spitfire 31 = Spitfire Vb - V-1650-3 Packard Merlin, all export
P-50C Spitfire 32 = Spitfire Vc - V-1650-3 Packard Merlin, export and USAAF
P-50D Spitfire 33 = V-1650-7 Packard Merlin, long range tanks, Spitfire VIII-style pointy tail, 4 blades, 2 x 20mm + 4 x .303 or 4 x 20mm - export and USAAF
P-50E Spitfire 34 = Spitfire IX - V-1650-7 Packard Merlin, 4 blades export, 2 x 20mm + 2 × .50, all export
P-50F Spitfire = Spitfire IX - V-1650-7 Packard Merlin, 6 x .50 MGs, all USAAF
XP-50G Spitfire = Packard V-2240-1 Griffin, bubble canopy, laminar flow wings, 5 blades
XP-50H Spitfire = bubble canopy, V-1650-9 Packard Merlin
P-50J Spitfire = Spitfire XIV, Kaiser built, high back, Packard V-2240-3 Griffin, 6 x .50, + F-16A photo recce , all USAAF
P-50K Spitfire = Spitfire XVI, Kaiser built, bubble canopy, V-1650-9 Packard Merlin, bubble canopy, 4 x 20mn, all export
P-50L Spitfire 35 = Spitfire XVIII, Kaiser built, Packard V-2240-3 Griffin, bubble canopy, 4 x 20mm, all export
XP-50M Spitfire - Kaiser built, bubble canopy, Packard V-2240-5 Griffin, contra props
P-50N Spitfire 36 = Spitfire 22, Kaiser built, bubble canopy, 4x20mm, Packard V-2240-5 Griffin + F-16B photo recce, export and USAAF
F-16C Spitfire - Kaiser built, fighter/bomber/recce, Packard V-2240-7 Griffin, contra props, all USAAF
) - Comrade Harp's "new" nations
Stalin's Fords pt1
Link: www.whatifmodellers.com/index.…Ford Aircraft Company of TransCaucasia-built Messerschmitt Bf 108F
Black 7985, Trud s eskadroy Yedinstva (Labour with Unity Squadron), Soviet TransCaucasian Army Air Force
Krasnodar, Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia (SSRT)-occupied Socialist Union, October 1941
In 1932 the American industrialist Henry Ford opened a Ford automobile factory at Tbilisi in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia (SSRT). The nation’s leader, Stalin, had invited Ford to the country in order to boost productivity through the establishment of modern assembly line management practices. Although mostly associated with automobiles (cars and trucks), Ford’s portfolio also included the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company, which in 1932 was winding down the production of its Trimotor transport in the face of dwindling orders. Realising the potential of the SSRT both as a market and as a location of cheap and obedient labour, Ford closed the Stout Division’s unprofitable production line in Detroit and relocated it to the SSRT as the Ford Tbilisi Airplane Division. More Trimotors followed, as did a series of original Ford and foreign designs built under licence. These included trainers, transports (modernised Trimotors) and tourers, sports planes and the Ford Vikhr' (Whirlwind) twin-engined fighter-bomber.
One of the designs licence-built by the Ford Tbilisi Airplane Division was the Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun touring monoplane. Messerschmitt and the RLM gave the out of order designation of Bf 108F to these in recognition of Henry Ford, who had been bestowed with the Grand Cross of the German Eagle by the Nazis. The first Ford Tbilisi Bf 108F flew in 1940 and 263 were built for domestic and export civilian and military customer before production ended in December 1943. Export customers included the Turkish Air Force (28 acquired in-lieu of deliveries from Messerschmitt during 1942), the Imperial Iranian Air Force (12) and the Afghan Air Force (6). Others were sold to civilian operators, including the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (2). Of interest is that 7 of the Imperial Iranian Air Force and both Anglo-Iranian Oil Company aircraft were impressed into RAF service as the Messerschmitt Aldon following the 1941 British invasion of Iran.
The Soviet TransCaucasian Army Air Force was the largest operator of the Bf 108F, using it for liaison and training duties. Many expeditionary fighter and bomber squadrons were issued with at least one Bf 108F as a unit hack and several were used by senior Soviet Army officers as personal transports.
Several historians have claimed that Henry Ford’s interests in the SSRT were reflected in American and British responses to Stalin’s 24 June 1941 invasion of the Socialist Union. He publically and privately lobbied for a lenient response to the SSRT. Although both Allied nations gave immense logistical support to the Moscow Pact war effort against the Axis, neither declared war against the SSRT but did enforce economic blockades. In this context, Ford reluctantly distanced himself and his company from Ford Tbilisi and publicly reduced his interest in the joint-venture company by selling his shareholding to the Soviet state. Ford was also forced to withdraw most of his expatriate workers from the SSRT, which significantly stymied further development of the company's local products. When Britain invaded Iran in August 1941 to open up an overland route for Lend-Lease deliveries, they made no move against the SSRT: the British Army simply stopped at the Iran-SSRT frontier, closed the border crossings and imposed a blockade. It later emerged that Britain was still purchasing petroleum products from the SSRT via Turkey. For its part, Turkey had promised to take direct action against any country that invaded the SSRT. This position fell apart when Turkey declared war on Germany and its Axis partners on 19 August 1944, just three days before Germany signed the Separate Peace (aka The Great Betrayal) with the Western Allies. Seizing the moment, the Red Army steamrolled the Soviet Army and in less than two months had liberated all of the SSRT from Stalin’s grip. The Turks remained silent and it was up to the British Army to open the border crossings for refugees.
Eastern Observations Pt.2: RWD-14b Czapla
RWD-14b Czapla
White 5, 201st Army Cooperation Eskadrylʹyi, Zakarpattia Army Air Corps
"Somewhere in Ukraine" August 1941
Zakarpattia emerged as an independent nation in the aftermath of WW1. Occupied by the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was part of the short-lived nationalist West Ukrainian National Republic and was then occupied by Romania before being invaded by the Hungarian Soviet Republic in the summer of 1919. Claimed as the Ukrainian Zakarpattia Oblast by the Bolsheviks, the region was also subject to significant or total territorial claims by Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. To resolve these conflicting claims it was the French who, at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference, successfully pushed to create an independent nation. The small nation?s sovereignty was guaranteed in part by the 1919 Paris Treaty and by its membership of the Little Entente and treaties with Poland and Romania. Proposed names included Carpatho-Ukraine, Subcarpathia and Transcarpathia, but to appease the belligerent governments in Kiev and Moscow and their claim on the region as ?the rebel Zakarpattia Oblast,? the official name became the Zakarpattia Republic. It survived the claims made on it during the periods of the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award thanks largely to the servile efforts of a pro-German government installed as the result of an August 1938 military coup.
Although a junior partner in the series of Polish-Romanian alliance treaties signed in the 1920s and ?30s, Zakarpattia refused to support Poland when it was invaded by Germany in September 1939. One consequence of this was that the Poles, who had expected to exercise their pre-existing transit rights through Zakarpattia as part of the Romanian Bridgehead Plan, instead had to make urgent arrangements with the Nordic countries to maintain logistic routes the West. Having served Nazi interests well, Zakarpattia joined the Tri-Partite Pact (Axis) in July 1940 and survived intact despite the Hungarian territorial claims associated with Second Vienna Awards of November.
At about 1410 hours 23 June 1941 three aircraft bombed the village of Uzhok; the Zakarpattian government blamed the Reds and the next day declared war on Ukraine and the Socialist Union. No evidence of Red involvement in the bombing has ever emerged, however, some eyewitness reports do identify aircraft resembling Luftwaffe He-111s. Joining Hungarian and Slovak troops who had massed on the Zakarpattia-Ukrainian border, the Zakarpattia Expeditionary Army (ZEA) invaded Ukraine on 1 July 1941. The ZEA was extravagantly named, for it only consisted of a single division of about 20,000 men. The ZEA was supported by the small Zakarpattia Army Air Corps, which brought observation, fighter, bomber and transport aircraft to the offensive. Although they mostly participated in garrison duties during the advance, some units saw action during the battles of Uman and Kiev under the command of the German 17th Army.
The Zakarpattia Army Air Corps acquired ten RWD-14 Czapla observation and liaison aircraft from Poland in 1937-38. Eight were still on strength at the time of the 1941 invasion of Ukraine. Originally armed, during August the Luftwaffe ordered these planes to be disarmed following a friendly fire incident with one of their Hs 126B-1s. This, though, was not a big issue, as the 201st Army Cooperation Eskadrylʹyi which flew them had been mostly assigned to second-line duties, such as liaison and convoy overwatch, since late July. This left the ZEA dependent on German and Hungarian air observation support for the remainder of the year.
The 201st Army Cooperation Eskadrylʹyi remained on second-line duties inside occupied Ukraine for the rest of 1941 and was withdrawn to re-equip with second-hand Hs 126B-1s at the end of December. Surviving Czaplas returned to Ukraine in the spring of 1942 and remained for the rest of the year on liaison, reconnaissance and convoy escort duties in the rear with the 203rd Army Cooperation Eskadrylʹyi. In early 1943 this unit returned to Zakarpattia to fulfil local training and utility roles, occasionally crossing the border into occupied Ukraine on anti-Partisan operations. The last two airworthy Czaplas were destroyed in Red airfield attacks during August 1944.
Zakarpattia was invaded by the Red Army in August 1944 and soon became part of the fluid battleline that characterised the post-Nazi German revival on the Eastern Front. However, Zakarpattian forces were exhausted and played a negligible part in the ongoing war, finally succumbing to total Red Army occupation and annexation by Ukraine by the end of October 1945.
No. 121 New Guinea Squadron RAAF P-50B Spitfire 31
Link: www.whatifmodellers.com/index.…Grumman P-50B Spitfire 31
A46 - 126, N, Boogie Bogey, No. 121 New Guinea Squadron, RAAF
Personal mount of Pilot Officer Manuel Neuer
Tadji, Aitape, New Guinea Republic, November 1944
The German New Guinea colony in the Pacific was practically defenceless when WW1 broke out in July 1914. By prior arrangement, Britain’s Pacific allies, Australia and Japan, proceeded to carve up Germany’s Pacific protectorates between themselves. The naval German East Asia Squadron was small and mostly at sea north of the equator and was quickly rounded up by Japanese intervention; the Imperial Japanese Navy then proceeded to occupy the numerous German Pacific island possessions north of the equator. South the equator, the Governor of German New Guinea responded to an Australian demand to surrender with a statement of independence and “neutral cooperation.” This didn’t prevent an Australian occupation of German territories below the equator but did allow that to be done peacefully. The Australian government recognised the newly formed Provisional Government of New Guinea as a domestic administration, allowing it a great deal of autonomy and encouraged its development of trade deals which were favourable to Britain. This backfired on the Australians at Versaille. While the Australian’s framed their demands for a League of Nations Mandate to administer the former German possessions south of the equator as being essential to its national interests, the American, British and Japanese delegations lobbied to recognise the New Guinea Republic (NGR) as a sovereign nation, the Japanese delegation adding that it should be demilitarized. The 1919 Treaty of Versaille resolved that all of Germany’s former Pacific possessions be demilitarised, with those north of the equator to be Mandated to Japan, and, with the exception of German Samoa (which was mandated to New Zealand) those south of the equator to be governed as the sovereign territory of the New Guinea Republic. Australia was left with little option other than to recognise the new nation and establish “hegemonic guidance” over its otherwise independent political and economic governance.
During the late 1930s, the Japanese government quietly militarised it’s former German colonies and was in a good position to invade the New Guinea Republic following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Australian air, land and naval forces put up a heroic but hopeless defence of the NGR at its request. By June 1942 the entirety of the NGR was occupied by Japanese troops, but not before the Australian government (as per its racist White Australia Policy) evacuated most of its white population. From these, the RAAF recruited NGR refugees with aviation experience or aspirations and (along with similar refugees for the Netherlands East Indies - NEI) sent them to the USA for training. In December 1943, the RAAF formed 121 New Guinea Squadron at RAAF Station Canberra, presenting Spitfires to its mix of NGR and Australian personnel.
This was the end result of several heated exchanges that took place during 1942 and 1943. In recognition of the NGR’s aviation experience and its demilitarised status, the Australian government originally offered to form a transport squadron with NGR personnel. This was rejected, NGR officials demanding Spitfires. In response, DAP-built Hurricanes were offered, then Kittyhawks, but the NGR’s position held firm and eventually, to avoid a diplomatic stoush, the Australian government approved the supply of refurbished, ex-RAAF Grumman-built P-50B Spitfires 31s. This was the American-built equivalent to Supermarine’s Spitfire Vb, built at Grumman’s “shadow factory” in Bethpage. As it was a fighter-bomber unit, and the Spitfire 31 was a pure fighter, all those issued to the squadron were rebuilt and upgraded examples featuring an Australian-developed bombing capability. 121 would go on to fly Grumman Spitfires through to the end of the war in May 1946, gradually re-equipping with P-50C Spitfire 32s (equivalent to the Spitfire Vc) and then P-50E Spitfire 34s (equivalent to Spitfire IX). Just as the NEI’s RAAF squadrons were adorned with NEI markings, 121 Sqd aircraft carried green and blue roundels featuring the colours of the NGR flag.
From July 1944, 121 Sqd operated from a variety of bases in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA), including Tadji (Aitape), Finschhafen, Goodenough Island, Jacquinot Bay and Wewak. It regularly deployed in squadron or flight strength between RAAF commands to “show the flag” for political and propaganda purposes, giving the impression that it was larger than it actually was. In doing so, it supported Allied campaigns by performing fighter sweeps and bomber escort, strafing and bombing on interdiction and close air support missions, mounting armed visual reconnaissance over land and sea and providing shipping escort. As the Japanese fighter threat in its area of operations had largely evaporated by the time 121 Spd entered combat, its pilots never made contact with the enemy in the air.
This aircraft, serial number A46 - 126, had previously served with No. 2 OTU and had been rebuilt following a landing accident at Mildura. Equipped with a Vokes tropical filter, it is armed with four .303 Browning machine guns, two 20mm M2 Hispano cannon and a pair of 250 lb bombs. It features (as a modification) piping that supplied hot exhaust gasses to the wings to prevent the guns and cannon from freezing. It has clipped wings like most of 121’s Spitfires, improving on the Spitfire’s low-altitude speed and roll rate and enabling additional downward visibility from the cockpit. It is camouflaged in RAAF's standard Foliage Green and Light Grey scheme adopted in July 1944, with white painted tail and wing leading edges for quick identification. Like all other RAAF flying squadrons in the SWPA,121 was assigned a two-letter unit code (in this case, EJ), but this was only adorned on the Squadron CO’s personal mount, leaving just a single letter code on the remainder. Joining to 121 Sqd in November 1944, A46 - 126 was the last Spitfire 31 delivered to the unit and was reduced to components after a belly landing at Tadji in April 1945. The Boogie Bogey nose art refers to Pilot Officer Manuel Neuer’s interest in boogie-woogie music. P/O Neuer was reported missing while flying a Spitfire 34 on 20 May 1945, having been separated from his flight on return to Finschhafen from an armed reconnaissance mission over southern New Britain.
As NGR and Australian officials took stock of the NGR in the wake of the Japanese May 1946 surrender, it became clear that the nation had been devastated. Estimates put NGR’s population loss from 1941 to 1945 at between 25 to 40%, with little in the way of civilian infrastructure left and insufficient NGR citizens able to fill professional government and business positions. Australians soon dominated the country’s public service and its post-war recovery was dependent on Australian assistance. In 1949 the NGR voluntarily entered into the Australian administered Territory of Papua and New Guinea trusteeship and ceased to exist.
The P-50 models (= gives their Supermarine equivalents where applicable):
P-50A Spitfire 30 = Spitfire II - V-1650-1 Packard Merlin, all export
P-50B Spitfire 31 = Spitfire Vb - V-1650-3 Packard Merlin, all export
P-50C Spitfire 32 = Spitfire Vc - V-1650-3 Packard Merlin, export and USAAF
P-50D Spitfire 33 = V-1650-7 Packard Merlin, long range tanks, Spitfire VIII-style pointy tail, 4 blades, 2 x 20mm + 4 x .303 or 4 x 20mm - export and USAAF
P-50E Spitfire 34 = Spitfire IX - V-1650-7 Packard Merlin, 4 blades export, 2 x 20mm + 2 × .50, all export
P-50F Spitfire = Spitfire IX - V-1650-7 Packard Merlin, 6 x .50 MGs, all USAAF
XP-50G Spitfire = Packard V-2240-1 Griffin, bubble canopy, laminar flow wings, 5 blades
XP-50H Spitfire = bubble canopy, V-1650-9 Packard Merlin
P-50J Spitfire = Spitfire XIV, Kaiser built, high back, Packard V-2240-3 Griffin, 6 x .50, + F-16A photo recce , all USAAF
P-50K Spitfire = Spitfire XVI, Kaiser built, bubble canopy, V-1650-9 Packard Merlin, bubble canopy, 4 x 20mn, all export
P-50L Spitfire 35 = Spitfire XVIII, Kaiser built, Packard V-2240-3 Griffin, bubble canopy, 4 x 20mm, all export
XP-50M Spitfire - Kaiser built, bubble canopy, Packard V-2240-5 Griffin, contra props
P-50N Spitfire 36 = Spitfire 22, Kaiser built, bubble canopy, 4x20mm, Packard V-2240-5 Griffin + F-16B photo recce, export and USAAF
F-16C Spitfire - Kaiser built, fighter/bomber/recce, Packard V-2240-7 Griffin, contra props, all USAAF
(Hatsunese Space Program - Phase 3 - 08)
1981-05-29 - Watarimono-2 Jupiter flyby (to Uranus and Neptune)
1981-05-30 - Watarimono Saturn flyby
Mimas flyby (sorry, no Death Star crater)
1981-05-29 - Watarimono-2 Jupiter flyby (to Uranus and Neptune)
1981-05-30 - Watarimono Saturn flyby
Mimas flyby (sorry, no Death Star crater)
Last edited:
Comrade Harp's Great Betrayal Years
Black 40, 310 Sqd, Czechoslovakian Air Force, Plzeň-Lině, Czechoslovakia, August 1945
Following the Separate Peace of August 1945, the new German government quickly set about restoring Czechoslovakia’s sovereignty. With aircrew demobilised from the R.A.F., the Luftwaffe and the Nazi-era Slovak air arm, the Czechoslovakian Air Force was established as a fighter force, initially equipped with the Bf 109G-6 but receiving a mix of Bf 109G-10s (and later K-2s) and Fw 190D-9s late in the year. Because Czechoslovakian Communist units flying with the Socialist Union Air Force were already using the nation’s pie-chart tri-colour national marking, the anti-Red air force adopted a roundel similar to the R.A.F.’s.
Named after a Czech squadron formed in the R.A.F., 310 Squadron was established September 1944 with second-hand Bf 109G-6s and was staffed by ex-R.A.F. personnel. In December, they began to convert to the Fw 190D-9. With the launch of the Red’s night bomber offensive in April, 1945, the unit began flying Wilde Sau-like missions and began receiving the Dresden radar equipped U5 night fighter in May. The Dresden radar was small and could be operated by the pilot of a single seat fighter; it was similar to the American ASH airborne radar and also fitted to the Ta 183A-1/U1.
Following the Separate Peace of August, 1944, the Polish Government in Exile flew from London to Warsaw and immediately announced that they would join with the new non-Nazi German government in defending Poland from The Red Army. In a speech given in early October, Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk urged his people to “fight like a cornered tiger” in defence of their nation against the Reds.
The Separate Peace saw those Poles serving alongside the Western Allies quickly demobilised. Although disarmed, they were transported to Poland by ship, rail and air and the British and Americans provided non-lethal aide, including food, medicines and fuel. All Polish military equipment came from Germany, which, freed from the menace of Allied bombing and itself sustained by Western logistical support, increased its output of arms during the last quarter of 1944.
The re-formed Polish Air Force’s fighter squadrons received their first aircraft in late October with the delivery of the Fw190A-8. Various models were acquired, the most numerous being the Fieseler built Fw190A-8/U16. This fighter-bomber version standardised on the bubble canopy and enlarged head armour support strut of the D and F series. As German fighter jets took over the air-superiority role, piston engine fighters like the Polish ‘190s increasing undertook ground attack work.
This Fw190A-8/U16 was photographed in service with 316 Squadron at Kutno, Poland, in April 1945. According to the photographer’s note book, it was seen prior to an armed reconnaissance mission over Red Army held territory to the west of Warsaw. At the time, battles raged in and around the Polish capital as Germans and Poles fought to tighten their grip on the Reds who held the city. History would record that after the Red Army took Warsaw in the autumn of 1944, the Germans and Poles were able to stabilise the front and launch a counter-attack, encircling the city during a spring offensive. Defeated and pushed back, the Red Army was unable to re-take Warsaw until the spring of 1946.
The tiger motif that appears on this aircraft was inspired by Polish Prime Minister Mikołajczyk’s “cornered tiger” quote of 1944. In December, 1944, the order for aircraft on the Eastern Front to have yellow theatre bands was rescinded and many Polish Air Force units re-styled these bands as tiger camouflage. The blue on the nose, tail and individual aircraft letter represented the 316th’s squadron colour. The red and white spinner was a widely adopted expression of Polish nationalism.
Progress Air Design Cooperative (PADC) HVX-2 Fontano
Personal mount of Andrei Mikhaylovich Kulagin
White 01 of 9th GIAP, People's Air Force of the Socialist Union
Poznan, Poland, May, 1946
It was not uncommon for the popular names of Red military aircraft to be taken after the names of Communist heroes and martyrs. In this case, Fontano was a reference to Spartaco Fontano, an Italian Communist and leader in the French resistance who was executed by the Germans in February, 1944. However, the fact that fontano in the international language of Esperanto meant jet was no coincidence in the naming of this aircraft, the Socialist Union's first turbojet fighter.
Despite appearances, the Fontano was designed in parallel to the Me 262, its designers being unaware of German developments until after the design had been settled. Thus, when Western analysts dismissed the type as a "warmed over Me 262", they were wrong. The HVX-1 was designed by a team at the Progress Air Design Cooperative lead by Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich. Design work started in late 1942, at a time of urgency and before a Red jet had flown. The first prototype flew in late 1943 with piston engines, as no jet engines were ready for flight until January 1945.
When a jet-powered HVX-1 finally flew, it was somewhat underpowered and the engines unreliable, but development was swift and it was soon joined by several prototypes and production examples of the combat-capable HVX-2 (which emerged in April). A pure fighter, the HVX-2 was armed with a pair of 20mm ShVAK cannon and was in squadron service by the end of the year.
Andrei Kulagin flew the HVX-2 Fontano with the 9th GIAP from February 1946, his first combat in the type taking place on the 16th of the month. By the time the war in Europe ended on 8 May, 1946, Kulagin had added 7 kills to his score, ending the war with 18 kills.
The Western Allies gave the Fotano the reporting name Footlight.
Fw 190D-9/U5
Link: www.whatifmodellers.com/index.…Black 40, 310 Sqd, Czechoslovakian Air Force, Plzeň-Lině, Czechoslovakia, August 1945
Following the Separate Peace of August 1945, the new German government quickly set about restoring Czechoslovakia’s sovereignty. With aircrew demobilised from the R.A.F., the Luftwaffe and the Nazi-era Slovak air arm, the Czechoslovakian Air Force was established as a fighter force, initially equipped with the Bf 109G-6 but receiving a mix of Bf 109G-10s (and later K-2s) and Fw 190D-9s late in the year. Because Czechoslovakian Communist units flying with the Socialist Union Air Force were already using the nation’s pie-chart tri-colour national marking, the anti-Red air force adopted a roundel similar to the R.A.F.’s.
Named after a Czech squadron formed in the R.A.F., 310 Squadron was established September 1944 with second-hand Bf 109G-6s and was staffed by ex-R.A.F. personnel. In December, they began to convert to the Fw 190D-9. With the launch of the Red’s night bomber offensive in April, 1945, the unit began flying Wilde Sau-like missions and began receiving the Dresden radar equipped U5 night fighter in May. The Dresden radar was small and could be operated by the pilot of a single seat fighter; it was similar to the American ASH airborne radar and also fitted to the Ta 183A-1/U1.
Cornered tiger: Polish Fw190A-8/U16
Fw190A-8/U16, 316 Squadron, Polish Air Force, Kutno, April 1945Following the Separate Peace of August, 1944, the Polish Government in Exile flew from London to Warsaw and immediately announced that they would join with the new non-Nazi German government in defending Poland from The Red Army. In a speech given in early October, Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk urged his people to “fight like a cornered tiger” in defence of their nation against the Reds.
The Separate Peace saw those Poles serving alongside the Western Allies quickly demobilised. Although disarmed, they were transported to Poland by ship, rail and air and the British and Americans provided non-lethal aide, including food, medicines and fuel. All Polish military equipment came from Germany, which, freed from the menace of Allied bombing and itself sustained by Western logistical support, increased its output of arms during the last quarter of 1944.
The re-formed Polish Air Force’s fighter squadrons received their first aircraft in late October with the delivery of the Fw190A-8. Various models were acquired, the most numerous being the Fieseler built Fw190A-8/U16. This fighter-bomber version standardised on the bubble canopy and enlarged head armour support strut of the D and F series. As German fighter jets took over the air-superiority role, piston engine fighters like the Polish ‘190s increasing undertook ground attack work.
This Fw190A-8/U16 was photographed in service with 316 Squadron at Kutno, Poland, in April 1945. According to the photographer’s note book, it was seen prior to an armed reconnaissance mission over Red Army held territory to the west of Warsaw. At the time, battles raged in and around the Polish capital as Germans and Poles fought to tighten their grip on the Reds who held the city. History would record that after the Red Army took Warsaw in the autumn of 1944, the Germans and Poles were able to stabilise the front and launch a counter-attack, encircling the city during a spring offensive. Defeated and pushed back, the Red Army was unable to re-take Warsaw until the spring of 1946.
The tiger motif that appears on this aircraft was inspired by Polish Prime Minister Mikołajczyk’s “cornered tiger” quote of 1944. In December, 1944, the order for aircraft on the Eastern Front to have yellow theatre bands was rescinded and many Polish Air Force units re-styled these bands as tiger camouflage. The blue on the nose, tail and individual aircraft letter represented the 316th’s squadron colour. The red and white spinner was a widely adopted expression of Polish nationalism.
Footlight - a warmed over Me 262?
Link: www.whatifmodellers.com/index.…Progress Air Design Cooperative (PADC) HVX-2 Fontano
Personal mount of Andrei Mikhaylovich Kulagin
White 01 of 9th GIAP, People's Air Force of the Socialist Union
Poznan, Poland, May, 1946
It was not uncommon for the popular names of Red military aircraft to be taken after the names of Communist heroes and martyrs. In this case, Fontano was a reference to Spartaco Fontano, an Italian Communist and leader in the French resistance who was executed by the Germans in February, 1944. However, the fact that fontano in the international language of Esperanto meant jet was no coincidence in the naming of this aircraft, the Socialist Union's first turbojet fighter.
Despite appearances, the Fontano was designed in parallel to the Me 262, its designers being unaware of German developments until after the design had been settled. Thus, when Western analysts dismissed the type as a "warmed over Me 262", they were wrong. The HVX-1 was designed by a team at the Progress Air Design Cooperative lead by Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich. Design work started in late 1942, at a time of urgency and before a Red jet had flown. The first prototype flew in late 1943 with piston engines, as no jet engines were ready for flight until January 1945.
When a jet-powered HVX-1 finally flew, it was somewhat underpowered and the engines unreliable, but development was swift and it was soon joined by several prototypes and production examples of the combat-capable HVX-2 (which emerged in April). A pure fighter, the HVX-2 was armed with a pair of 20mm ShVAK cannon and was in squadron service by the end of the year.
Andrei Kulagin flew the HVX-2 Fontano with the 9th GIAP from February 1946, his first combat in the type taking place on the 16th of the month. By the time the war in Europe ended on 8 May, 1946, Kulagin had added 7 kills to his score, ending the war with 18 kills.
The Western Allies gave the Fotano the reporting name Footlight.
CONCORDE R2/1
ARMEE DE L AIR, Escadron de Chasse et d'Expérimentation 05.330
NATO TIGERMEET, UPPER HEYFORD 1990
Following on from the acheivements made by the RAF concorde units France, as co builder of the aircraft, could not as a matter of national pride ignore the aircraft . However the Armee de l Air did not have a bomber reqiuirment so the President and premier instructed the Air force commander to manufacture some sort of requirment for the Concorde in the next two months or..........well the threat was unsaid but understood by all.
This meeting oproduceed the French need for the Concorde recce aircraft.......based upon the RAF's aircraft the r2/1 was quickly introduced into service ( 10 aircraft purchased ) and into frontline service by 1983 when she was fully able to cash in on experiance gained from Falklands service with the UK.
Without the major weapons bay of the UK aircraft the french examples carried comprehensive recce fits in aerodynamic pods carried under the wings, including ....infa red sensors, optical cameras and airbourne radars plus other never revealed systems. Without the Uk's aircrafts bombbay the french aircraft were able to fully utilise the body of the Concorde for fuel and as such no airbourne refueling system was never fitted or needed.
Operating from 1983 right through the 91 disaster and beyond it was french Concordes that confirmed to the UK and France that the US armed forces had fractured along the lines of the country after the 91 disaster and no third strike was likely at the time, and they where the first aircraft to capture photos of the remains of Moscow and Minsk. Flying in the Strategic recce role right up to 2010 the concorde racked up an enviable record of safety and reliability.
The aircraft illustrated was flown by Escadron de Chasse et d'Expérimentation 05.330 and was a visiter to the 1990 Nato Tigermeet ( both the UK and France are NATO members but the organisation is much weaker ITTL ) at Upper Hayford, she remainde in this " Special " livery for a very short time as so much of concorde's airframe cooling was achieved via its white paint scheme and in fact in ths livey the aircraft was prohibited from going supersonic.
ARMEE DE L AIR, Escadron de Chasse et d'Expérimentation 05.330
NATO TIGERMEET, UPPER HEYFORD 1990
Following on from the acheivements made by the RAF concorde units France, as co builder of the aircraft, could not as a matter of national pride ignore the aircraft . However the Armee de l Air did not have a bomber reqiuirment so the President and premier instructed the Air force commander to manufacture some sort of requirment for the Concorde in the next two months or..........well the threat was unsaid but understood by all.
This meeting oproduceed the French need for the Concorde recce aircraft.......based upon the RAF's aircraft the r2/1 was quickly introduced into service ( 10 aircraft purchased ) and into frontline service by 1983 when she was fully able to cash in on experiance gained from Falklands service with the UK.
Without the major weapons bay of the UK aircraft the french examples carried comprehensive recce fits in aerodynamic pods carried under the wings, including ....infa red sensors, optical cameras and airbourne radars plus other never revealed systems. Without the Uk's aircrafts bombbay the french aircraft were able to fully utilise the body of the Concorde for fuel and as such no airbourne refueling system was never fitted or needed.
Operating from 1983 right through the 91 disaster and beyond it was french Concordes that confirmed to the UK and France that the US armed forces had fractured along the lines of the country after the 91 disaster and no third strike was likely at the time, and they where the first aircraft to capture photos of the remains of Moscow and Minsk. Flying in the Strategic recce role right up to 2010 the concorde racked up an enviable record of safety and reliability.
The aircraft illustrated was flown by Escadron de Chasse et d'Expérimentation 05.330 and was a visiter to the 1990 Nato Tigermeet ( both the UK and France are NATO members but the organisation is much weaker ITTL ) at Upper Hayford, she remainde in this " Special " livery for a very short time as so much of concorde's airframe cooling was achieved via its white paint scheme and in fact in ths livey the aircraft was prohibited from going supersonic.