Eastern Observations Pt.2: RWD-14b Czapla

[comrade harps]

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.

[NARSES2]

Nice addition to the scenario 

[comrade harps]

If I get more Ukrainian roundels I can do some more Zakarpattia planes, like a BF 109F etc. Could be fun.

[NARSES2]

If I get more Ukrainian roundels I can do some more Zakarpattia planes, like a BF 109F etc. Could be fun.

Indeed 

[strobez]

That?s good work there, comrade!

[Hotte]

cool bird 

Hotte

[zenrat]

If I get more Ukrainian roundels I can do some more Zakarpattia planes, like a BF 109F etc. Could be fun.

I've got some you can have.  Pm me your address.

[comrade harps]

If I get more Ukrainian roundels I can do some more Zakarpattia planes, like a BF 109F etc. Could be fun.

I've got some you can have.  Pm me your address.

Thanks for the offer. Maybe bring them along to Expo?