Shipbucket

Australian Withdrawal From Greece

From a resounding defeat in the 1937 Australian general election, the Australian Labor Party regained sufficient support that the wartime 1940 election led to a hung parliament with the balance of power held by independents. With a catastrophic air crash claiming the lives of several senior government ministers confidence in the abilities of Robert Menzies’ UAP government faltered and the Labor Party convinced the independents to provide them support instead, and without an election Labor took power and under John Curtin formed a minority government in March 1941.



The Australian trades union movement now had access to the levers of power, a position they had lost since the economic collapse of the Great Depression. The trade unions had been firmly opposed to the declaration of war against Nazi Germany, under the advisement of their mentors in Moscow, who portrayed the declaration as support for reactionary British imperialism against the socialist alliance of Germany and the Soviet Union. The anti-Nazi coup and the return of the German imperium was seen by the unions as a catastrophic loss for world socialism, and the demands for a return of all Australian forces from Europe became more strident and had contributed to the collapse of the UAP government. The highly militant Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia had initiated a programme of dockyard strikes and industrial sabotage that had crippled Australia’s maritime traffic, and with the new Labor government that anti-war pressure increased with other unions joining the protest.
Bowing to domestic political pressure, the new government contacted Britain with a request that the Second Australian Imperial Force troops in Greece be redeployed back to Australia. The simple rationale given was that Britain’s war in Europe had now been over for months, regardless that the Armistice had not yet led to a formal peace treaty, and that increasing tensions in the Pacific necessitated their return to strengthen Australia’s own defence.
Having been in Greece since October 1940 the Australian troops had been working with their New Zealand colleagues as a combined ANZAC force to bolster Greece’s preparedness for a possible attack. The order for the Aussies to decamp and return home was received in late March 1941, just as tensions in the Balkans were starting to increase. Australian commanders in the field were itching to engage in combat with the Italians and had no interest in turning their backs on a pending battle, however their political masters had made the decision, and so by the time Mussolini had made his thrust into Yugoslavia the New Zealanders were the sole providers of British Imperial ground forces, the ongoing tensions in the Middle East precluding the redeployment of troops stationed in Palestine or Egypt.

Air Force Of The Independent State Of Croatia

Even as the battles of the invasion were raging, Hurricanes, Blenheims and Dornier 17 aircraft were still rolling off the Yugoslavian production lines and being flown straight into combat. Although the airfields had been the targets of heavy bombing Italy had hoped to capture the factories for further use, but had been foiled by employee sabotage that had rendered the facilities as little more than scrap. But Yugoslav had fielded a large air force, and even with the losses in combat and the escape of the transports and large bombers, Italy did receive a windfall of captured aircraft.
Vladimir Kren, who had defected to Italy days before the start of the invasion with the Yugoslav military codes and airfield locations, had been promoted to Colonel and named as commander of the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia. Kren set about recruiting former Yugoslav pilots and other specialists of Croatian background from Italian POW camps and offered them instant rehabilitation, and safety for their families in the new air force. Italian and Croatian repair crews salvaged damaged airframes, consolidated fuel and other supplies, and all serviceable aircraft were flown to the airfield at Mostar. Considering themselves to be the successor state to Yugoslavia the Croatians expected to receive the aircraft themselves to form their own air force, supplemented by new Italian aircraft. But this was not the Italian plan. Within a week the most modern combat types were ferried to Italy, leaving behind the more outdated aircraft, which were now handed over to the Croatians.



To their disappointment the Croatian air force was bulked out with the biplane Bréguet 19 and Potez 25’s, with a smattering of other types, with the fighter wing being the remaining 4 IK-2 fighters. Over the coming months Italy did sell more aircraft, but even these machines were outdated Italian surplus types, rather than the front-line machines desired by the Croats.



While the Croatian air force was being rebuilt from the shattered remains of the Yugoslav, the Croatian Home Guard was formed as the army of the new state, a force separate to the Ustaše Militia, while the Croatian Gendarmerie was also formed as a paramilitary policing force. With their independence from Serbian domination the very worst aspects of the simmering ethno-nationalism of the former Yugoslavia leapt to the forefront, and pogroms and purges, denunciations and executions, became daily life in Croatia under the three fists of state control. Even though the nation was nominally Independent, the kingship had been granted to Prince Aimone, Duke of Spoleto of Italy's reigning House of Savoy, who was reluctantly crowned as King Tomislav II, and a sizeable Italian troop detachment remained in country to ensure Croat compliance with Italian will.

Switzerland

While Switzerland had not suffered the trauma of the Great War, it had not then also experienced the idealism of the disarmament craze of the 1920’s. Switzerland had always understood that when surrounded by bellicose neighbours national integrity could only be ensured by maintaining a defensive position that ensured any attacker would face unacceptable losses. With conscription and compulsory military service of all able-bodied males, Switzerland maintained a defensive citizen army unlike any other in Europe. But while the army could be manned by part-time reservists the air force needed full-time professionals, and so in 1930 the decision was made to create a more effective air force.
New French Dewoitine D.27 fighters were purchased, while Swiss manufacturers built Fokker C.Ve reconnaissance aircraft under licence as the start of a massive armament programme. By 1938 the call was made for the purchase of 1,000 aircraft and the training of 3,000 new pilots, a plan that was supported by a large majority in a 1939 referendum.
In 1938 the Swiss military evaluated fighters from Germany, Italy, France, Britain and the USA. The choice was made to purchase the Spitfire, but due to its own requirements Britain was unable to supply enough aircraft to meet Swiss needs. Instead Switzerland became the largest foreign user of the Messerschmitt Bf 109, with 90 Bf 109 D and E aircraft delivered by the end of April 1940,as the Messerschmitt became the interim fighter until Swiss production would provide the nation's definitive defenders.
Local production of aircraft was the most important aspect of the Swiss aerial expansion, with the economic value added to Switzerland with the construction and expansion of the local aviation industry a vital consideration. In 1867 Switzerland had created Eidgenössische Konstruktionswerkstätte, as a local armaments manufacturer to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, and in 1914 they had started construction of aircraft. In the mid-1930’s EKW was given the task of creating a replacement for the Fokker C.Ve reconnaissance biplanes, and developed an interim design of the biplane EKW C-35, and a more advanced monoplane the C-36. As a modernisation of the C.Ve the C-35 was a low-risk design and 30 aircraft were ordered in 1936, starting to enter service in 1937.
Meanwhile design of the C-36 was placed on hold while the potential of the twin-engined Bf 110 and Potez 63 were investigated. Eventually purchase of either aircraft fell through, and instead work began at both DoFlug and EKW on indigenous heavy fighters. With this decision in 1937 the go ahead was given to continue with the C-36, but with the delay a first flight was only achieved in 1939. Initial problems with wing flutter and low-powered engines led to a production order for 10 model C-3603 in 1940, and so only the C-35 was in service to monitor the German push into France.
In addition to designing and building the reconnaissance aircraft for the Swiss Air Force, EKW also licence built a version of the Morane-Saulnier MS.405 as the primary Swiss fighter. After receiving 2 MS.406H (for Helvetica) – basically a MS.406 with original MS.405 wing – EKW “swissified” the aircraft as the D-38, and had produced an initial production run of 84 aircraft by August 1940.

DoFlug

While Swiss state companies were able to produce aircraft for the local market, Germany had also decided to try to get around the limitations of the Versailles Treaty on German aircraft manufacture by setting up a Swiss company, AG für Dornier Flugzeuge, in 1925 in Altenrhein on the Swiss side of Lake Constance. The first project was the mammoth Dornier Do.X, and 3 aircraft were constructed including 2 for Italy. Working in conjunction with the Dornier facility at Friedrichshafen on the German side of Lake Constance work was also conducted on other Dornier heavy aircraft including the Do.P and Do.Y. But heavy aircraft were not the only interest of DoFlug, with smaller flying boats down to the 4-seat Do 212, also in development.
But DoFlug’s most important design of the 1930’s was an export flying boat for the Netherlands, the Do 24. With the Dutch request for a Do Wal replacement Dornier and DoFlug designed a highly updated 3-engined descendant of the Wal which beat out both German and Dutch design rivals. The new Do 24 was built in 4 prototypes, with the first of two Dutch aircraft flying in July 1937, while 2 trial aircraft for the Luftwaffe were also built, flying in January 1938. The Jumo 205C-engined German machines were considered inferior to the rival Ha 138 and were not ordered into production – although both prototypes were impressed into service with the invasion of Norway.



Conversely the Dutch were very enthusiastic about their Wright R-1820-engined version. The Dutch ordered a total of 90 aircraft, with a further 28 aircraft to be built by DoFlug, while licence production in the Netherlands was to be the remaining 60 aircraft.

Switzerland During Hitler’s War

As a successful independent Franco-Italo-Germanic nation Switzerland was acutely aware that she was continuously under the envious gaze of rapacious neighbours. Switzerland’s mere existence was anathema to Nazi doctrine: a successful population of ethnic Germans living in a multi-ethnic democratic state. The Nazi party had attempted, unsuccessfully, to gain support in Switzerland, but Hitler had not tried to hide his desire to integrate the Swiss-German population into the Reich under the Nazi Neuordnung doctrine. In fact Germany had planned to continue on to invade Switzerland after conquering France under Fall Gelb, in a plan called Fall Grün.
The Swiss government was well aware of the existential threat they faced as Europe descended into war, and on 30 August 1939, even before Germany had launched its invasion of Poland, Switzerland had initiated a general mobilisation. The mobilisation was so supported and successful that General Henri Guisan reported to the Swiss government that by the time Britain had declared war on Germany on the 3rd of September, "our entire army had been in its operational positions for ten minutes."
Until Germany pushed west with Fall Gelb, little had happened along Switzerland’s borders though. With Germany’s sudden thrust through the neutral nations of western Europe to strike France the threat to Switzerland became obvious and immediate. Switzerland’s air force now flew continuous missions along the border. At the same time German aircraft activity increased and the action moved nearer and nearer to Swiss airspace, until on 16th May Swiss Bf 109’s intercepted a German bomber formation and shot down a Heinkel He 111. The action moved in both directions though and the Swiss’ first casualty being a C-35 on a reconnaissance mission, outclassed and brought down by German Bf 110’s.



With the halting of the panzers and the return to the pre-war western borders tensions with Germany to her north only slowly decreased, while in the south Mussolini’s Italy remained a predatory threat, and so Switzerland maintained her economy in a war footing, and continued to push resources into defensive military expansion, learning from the battles in France.

Post-war DoFlug

The Do 24 had been Switzerland’s largest aviation export programme, and production was in full swing when German troops pushed into the Netherlands during Fall Gelb and directly upset the project. The Do 24’s had been designed to defend the Netherlands East Indies in response to the unstable political situation in the Far East, and that was unchanged by the military situation in Europe. The necessity of the strong defence in the East Indies required the continued deployment of Dutch military forces into the Pacific, and so the continuation of the supply of aircraft was a priority for the government in Amsterdam, even as they were attempting to rebuild their own country. Attempting to repair Germano-Dutch relations post-war, the new German Imperial government pushed support to recommence construction of the Do 24’s at Aviolanda.
With the reorganisation of German industrial capacity in the aftermath of the Fuhrer’s overthrowing, DoFlug found itself in a very favourable position with the Do 24. Basic aerodynamic and hydrodynamic problems with the BV 138 were making that aircraft appear to still require significant engineering work to progress to becoming a viable platform, while at the same time Blohm & Voss were not in a position to provide that engineering with their other design priorities. As the Do 24 was already in production, the RLM made the decision to cancel the BV 138, and instead purchase the Do 24 for German needs, and using Swiss construction resources rather than German. DoFlug were already preparing work on an air-sea rescue variant for the Danes as the Do 24 N, while a model for export to Germany using the BMW Bramo 323 rather than American engines, entered production as the Do 24 T.



DoFlug expanded their facilities and workforce with the boom in demand, to become Switzerland’s largest private aircraft manufacturer, and one of the most important employers in Switzerland.
Doflug was also engaged in other projects, and had been working on the diminutive Do 212 since 1938. At the other end of the flying boat spectrum, work still continued on the Do 212, but the engineering required for the aircraft was out of proportion to its small size. The design was overly complex with airflow and cooling problems plaguing the embedded engine, while the extended, raisable driveshaft was an engineering nightmare and progress was slow.
Even with the focus on flying boats, DoFlug was also running a combat aircraft section who were working on a design for the Swiss twin-engined heavy fighter in competition with EKW, under their internal designation as the P-2100. With the success of British aircraft to rapidly knock out armoured vehicles, the Swiss now looked at the heavy fighter as an anti-armour platform vital for their national defence.

Eidgenössische Konstruktionswerkstätte

The C-36 project had been put on hold while the potential of licence production of twin-engined fighters had been negotiated, but by the end of 1937 that hope had faded and so the C-36 was reactivated with urgency. The first flight of the first prototype however only occurred in May 1939, but a catastrophic infight wing failure soon led to the loss of the aircraft. Redesigned with a more powerful engine and stronger wing the second prototype was flying successfully in November 1939. To increase airspeed production aircraft were to have retractable undercarriage, and so the design was again reworked and the first production model now titled the C-3603 was only flying in September 1941 – the long list of delays having prevented the aircraft being available to counter the threat of Hitler.



But even with the aircraft entering active service the aerodynamic problems with the design were not over, as air force pilots found the wings to still flutter uncomfortably at high speed.
Even while work on the C-36 occupied EKW’s engineers, as a state-owned company EKW had been in close cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich from its inception, who were also working on aircraft design projects. Engineers at the Institute had more of a free-hand in design work, and so working with EKW they were well placed to create a radical interpretation of the Swiss twin-engined “Mehrzweckeflugzeug” requirement that was given a high priority after the smashing of the panzers. Together they designed a pusher twin with a nose mounted auto-cannon projecting from underneath the cockpit. The initial prototype of the EKW D-3901 was first flown in April 1941 with fixed undercarriage, and was subject to an intensive flight testing programme to validate its novel aerodynamics, leading to service trials of a pre-production D-3902 aircraft in late 1941.

Nice to see the Wildcat in Greek service, but if you want to be corrert, the number should be Δ###), look here in the pohoto of a RHAF Bloch MB.151.

https://www.haf.gr/history/historical-a ... och-mb151/

I follow this thread with great interest and cannot wait for how it is continued every time!

Thanks @odysseus1980, but the serialing is deliberate.
The original Δ# numbering for fighters had reached into the hundreds before the planned delivery of the Wilcats.
Due to the significant upgrade to the crew training requirements and capability of the new Wildcat fighters, they were considered to be a new classification over the earlier series of fighters - including the Gladiators and failed Bloch order.
As such a new "high performance fighter" classification was started as Γ#.

Ok, thanks!