Spanish Civil War Aircraft (1936-1939)

Short version of my post in the War Thunder forums about spanish aircraft and battles during the civil war that happened between 1936 and 1939.

Spanish Civil War in the skies

There isn't much to say about this war. Bombardments in civilian non-strategical areas from both sides... was like a way for Europe to see what was coming.

Republican Government Side Aircraft

I will only cover here the most used aircraft since I don't want to make this guide too boring.

 
 

Fighters

:Polikarpov I-15[en.wikipedia.org] (Chato):
 First batch of 25 "Chatos" arrived in Caragena on 28th of October, 1936. They came with 15 pilots, led by future ace Pavel Rychagov. Spain imported 186 and produced 237.
Polikarpov I-16[en.wikipedia.org] (Mosca): After receiving payment in gold, Joseph Stalin dispatched around 475 I-16 Type 5s and Type 6s. They first appeared in spanish skies in November 1936. Along with the I-15, the most numerous aircraft in the republican side.

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Hawker Spanish Fury[en.wikipedia.org]: Spain first ordered 3 normal Hawker Fury fighters (420 hp) without armament on 11 July 1936, intending to produce 50 with licence. The spanish variant had a spanish engine that delivered 612hp, and a cantilever undercarriage design with Dowty internally sprung wheels, similar to the Gladiator.

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Bombers

:Breguet Br.19[en.wikipedia.org]: Light bomber and surveillance french aircraft. Republicans had 117.

Tupolev SB-2[en.wikipedia.org] (Katiuska/Sofia/Martin Bomber-10): Russia gave 93 of this to the republicans.
Polikarpov RZ Natacha[en.wikipedia.org]: Surveillance and light-bomber biplane. Russia gave 61 of this to the republicans.

Other

:Douglas DC-2[en.wikipedia.org]: Transport converted into bomber. There were 5.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_F.VII: 7 were converted into bombers. Was used along with the DC-2 in the first bombardments of the war.

"National" Rebel Side Aircraft

With very strong support from Germany and Italy, the rebels had superiority both in quantity and quality.

Fighters

:Heinkel He-51C: German gave 135 of this biplane to the rebels. In late war it was relegated to ground attack by the CR.32


Heinkel He-112B: Relatively agile aircraft. 13 were used in late war.



Messerschmitt Bf 109A/109B/109C/109D/109E: Germany gave 136 Bf 109s to the military coup. Problably best fighter aircraft of the war.


Fiat CR.32 (Chirri): Italy started delivering it in August of 1936. Main fighter of the "national" side, there were 405 of this fighter.

Fiat CR.42: Flew on spanish skies since 1938. There isn't much info about their use but there is one in War Thunder.

Bombers

:Savoia-Marchetti S.79 "Sparviero": Italy gave 34 of this between july of 1937 and july of 1938.


Junkers Ju-52: Germany gave 67 of this to the military coup.


Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka": Germany gave 12 stukas to the military coup.


Heinkel He-111E: Germany gave 97 to the military coup.


Dornier Do-17: Germany gave several of this to the military coup before it became obsolete.


Other:
Heinkel He-59: Germany gave 27 of this to the military coup. Torpedo and surveillance seaplane.
Bücker BU-131: Flight school biplane. 50 were used in war by the national side. There are still 3 of these in perfect condition in Spain.

Republican Government Side Air Battles

The first bombardments by the republicans:
17th of July, 1936: When the government got the first news of the military coup in Morocco, they sent bombardments to the rebel's positions in the north of africa. They quickly converted some Douglas DC-2 and Fokker F.VII into bombers, wich took off from the airfield of Tablada (Sevilla) to do some raids on Melilla in the 17th and 18th of July. They dropped 8 bombs, some of wich killed Moroccan civilians, wich made them support the rebels.

18th of July, 1936: The republican government bomb Tetuán (Morocco) with some SB-2s. 15 dead, 40 wounded.


22th of July: The republicans, knowing the huge strategic value of Mallorca island, start the bombardments. But after 56 raids that only caused 9 dead and 35 wounded. They decided to invade the island. That's when the rebels got their Fiat C.R.32 aircraft, wich clearly outmatched the slow seaplanes supporting the invasion on the east of the island. Republicans withdraw from the island on the 3rd of September.

26th of July, 1936: First bombardment in Oviedo (Asturias), wich was bombed down to ruins until the 17th of October when Galician rebels managed to put an end to the siege.

29th of July, 1936: Granada (Andalucia) suffers it's first bombardment by the republican troops. During the next month it suffers 23 more raids, causing 26 dead and around 100 wounded.

2nd of August, 1936: Two weeks earlier, rebels in Zaragoza are given an ultimatum to surrender, or be bombed. At the night of the 2nd of August a Fokker F.VII dropped four bombs on Zaragoza's cathedral (one of them felt on a far away river somehow) though none of the bombs exploded. (the rebels actually started making propaganda out of that bombardment, like if god were on their side..)

21st of August, 1936: The new CR.32s have their baptism of fire. Tenente Vittorino Ceccherelli intercepts and shoots down an enemy Nieuport 52 over Córdoba.

4th of November, 1936: Soviet and Spanish I-15s pilots shoot down two Junkers Ju-52 and two C.R.32s, forcing to crash land a third ju-52 and a Heinkel two-seater (?). During the next two days, I-15s claimed 12 more victories, at the cost of two I-15s lost.

13rd of November, 1936: Twelve I-16s intercept a bombing raid on Madrid. Soviet pilots claimed four air victories and two German Heinkel He-51 pilots were killed. But the Soviets suffered losses too; the group commander collided with an enemy aircraft and another I-16 pilot crash landed.

29th of May, 1937: Two SB-2s soviet pilots attack the German battleship "Deutschland", mistaking it for the Nationalist cruiser Canarias, killing 31 and injuring a further 83 German sailors.

24th of October, 1937: At night, Russian pilot E.Stepanov intercepts 3 SM.81 from his I-15, shoots down two of them.

7th of November, 1938: Cabra (Córdoba) is bombed by Soviet SB-2 pilots causing 101 dead and more than 200 wounded.

"National" Rebel Side Air Battles

The first bombardments by the rebels:
21th of July, 1936: Two italian SM.62 flying boats bomb the naval base in Ferrol (Galicia).

22th of July, 1936: Some Breguet 19 take off from Logroño (La Rioja) bomb Ochandiano (Vasque Country) and cause around 40 dead, mostly civilians, including women and children.

13rd of September, 1936: After the italians set up their main airbase in Mallorca they plan bombardments in Ibiza (18 civilians dead) and Menorca with several S.M.81 bombers.

25th of September, 1936: Five Junkers Ju-52 bomb Bilbao (Vasque Country) both in the morning and in the evening. The next day they bomb it again using incendiary explosives. Since that day, bombardments in the Vasque Country, Asturias and Cantabria were frequent.

16th of November, 1936: Fiat C.R.32s manage to shoot down future ace Pavel Rychagov in a dogfight.

20th of November, 1936:

18th of November, 1936: The italians bomb the naval base in Mahón (Menorca), causing 8 dead.

27th of December, 1936: Nine Junkers Ju-52 bomb the city of Santander (Cantabria) causing 75 dead and and 45 wounded.

4th of January, 1937: Bilbao.

26th of April, 1937: Five squads of Ju-52, and the squad VB88 of He 111 and Do 17 are escorted by He-51s and Bf-109s for the bombardment of Guérnica.[en.wikipedia....bing_of_Gernika]
First attack was prodcued by one Do 17 and three S.79 with the objective of destroying a bridge and a road. Bombs from the S.79 hit a train station and some houses, while the Do 17 destroyed a church. The next bombardment was commited by three He 111s, escorted by fighters. At 18:00 the biggest bombardment occured, commited by 19 Ju-52s using both explosive and incendiary bombs. The last raid to Guernica was between 18:45 and 19:00, when five CR.32s and five Bf-109s did some strafing against civilians running for cover. 250-500 civilians died.

There are much more, but I'm tired..

Sources

Most of the info here is a simplified version of the thread I made in the official War Thunder forums[forum.warthunder.com] and info in the wikipedia that was soooo scattered...
Hope they add Spanish Civil War missions soon :).

Have a good flight!

[Melvin]

the stukas were the A variant, not the B

[Nemo]

i love to learn something new everyday, thanks for that o7

[Cyber_beholder]

[RNZAF] 7th.Pathfinder Squadron 1 мая в 18:05
@ Vlad what is wrong with learning, or even expressing ones knowledge or wanting to progress into more knowledge about a subject. You Ignorant Russian faggot! Some people are just on thier high horse 24/7. lol, Vlad from Romania

[Renebm]

I also thank you because this war is not much known nor the Spaniards Sanben what happened, as if to not remember what happened. But it's part of my history and it is good to remember. A part of the Battle of the Ebro not forget to Belchite because there there was also great air battles. thank finally become aware that even in a game.

[Aubreykun]

Thanks for this! I can honestly say that this IS WT-related, at least for me. I don't believe the SCW was ever taught (or at least not in detail) when I was in school, and I only first heard about it thanks to this game. It seems to be a 'forgotten war' alongside Korea and many others for certain parts of the world, so I thank you personally for compiling this information.

Now, regarding some parts of the guide itself:

In the Rebel Battles you list "20th of November, 1936:" with no text after and before the "18th of November, 1936: The italians bomb the naval base in Mahón (Menorca), causing 8 dead."

There are some planes listed in the Battles sections that are not in the aircraft sections, so it may be a good idea to add more info there if you can.

Other thoughts:
This was a wonderful surprise to see in the guides section, so I hope you expand upon this one and/or make more, if it's within your interests to do so. Thank you again :)

[fire-fox]

there are some SCW mod packs for IL2/FB/46 that are maid by a spanish team that look realy good but you have to by them on disk and are also i think spanish language only (though may be wrong on that

[sage]

They used to have spanish skin on I-15 but they took it off for some reason.

[fire-fox]

realy home they do a SCW themed historic / dynamic campain they have for kol kin gol

[sage]

Thanks everyone for your support ! / ¡Gracias a todos por vuestro apoyo! :)
http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/487812320605423719/4B49C0DC7DA2A27D77BF7072E28C13182B80F4AF/

[Sneeky]

awesome stuff! been meaning to start reading up on this topic recently but have got distracted by other stuff, this was a well put together, informative and professional read, some history rags would publish pieces lesser than this! be very proud of it!