Bulgarian Heinkel He 111 H-6

[comrade harps]

Heinkel He 111 H-6
a/c 21, 2./7 Bombardirovicen Orlijak (2nd Squadron of the 7th Bomber Regiment), Royal Bulgarian Air Force, Kavana, Bulgaria, 3 May 1944



Although the Bulgarian government had envisaged forming a maritime aviation regiment from the late 1920s, events conspired against this. Instead, the 7th Bomber Regiment included a single squadron dedicated to maritime patrol and anti-shipping duties over the Black Sea. The 2nd squadron of the 7th Bomber Regiment was established in April 1939 to fulfil maritime duties and was initially equipped with 4 Avro Anson Mk1s. These were supplemented by 3 ex-Yugoslav Dornier Do.17Ka-3s in late 1941.




Although Bulgaria was receiving the Savia-Marchetti SM.79 at around this time, and despite the SM.79 being a fine torpedo-bomber, all the Bulgarian machines were contracted to be delivered without torpedo equipment and all were assigned to level bomber units. To overcome the inadequacy of the Avro and Dornier types, Bulgaria ordered 24 Heinkel He 111 H-5s to perform bombing, anti-shipping torpedo attack, mine laying, anti-submarine warfare and maritime patrol duties in the Black Sea. However, deliveries were slow and only 6 He 111 H-5s were delivered by the time of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. The remainder of the order was delivered in the form of He 111 H-6s during 1942 and 1943 and all were assigned to 2./7 Bombardirovicen Orlijak.




By the time the Heinkels were operational, the Red Navy's Black Sea Fleet was nowhere to be seen. Driven from the Black Sea and the Sea of Avoz by the Axis occupation of their ports, the Reds had taken all remaining vessels that could fit upriver, along the Don and via the Don-Volga Canal to the Volga; they found refuge as far north as Kazan and to the south in the eastern ports of the Caspian Sea or helped to defend the city of Volgograd. With the enemy Black Sea Fleet was otherwise indisposed, the Bulgarian He 111s maintained a routine of training and flying escort for Axis ships transiting the Black Sea. They also flew transport missions during the Battle of Volgograd, several being temporarily deployed to Rostov.




The Black Sea became a theatre for conflict within months of the Axis withdrawal from Volgograd. As the Red Army reached the eastern coasts of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, the Red Navy followed close behind to reclaim its lost ports. The Black Sea Fleet resumed combat operations in August 1943 and from February 1944 its submarines were blockading the eastern ports of Stalin's Soviet Socialist Republics of Transcaucasia, denying the Axis vital oil supplies. In April and May 1944 the Black Sea Fleet went on the offensive against the Axis occupation of Crimea, landing troops on the peninsula and attacking the ships evacuating German and Romanian troops from Sevastopol.



From operating at a leisurely and practically peaceful pace during 1942 and most of 1943, the crews of the 2./7 Bombardirovicen Orlijak were now in the thick of maritime warfare. From 15 April to 14 May they flew several missions in support of the Sevastopol evacuation and on 3 May flew their first combat sorties carrying torpedos. Each armed with a pair of LT F5b torpedos, Heinkel He 111 H-6s White 17 and White 21 (accompanied by the bomb-armed White 14 and White 19) sortied out looking for several enemy surface vessels (including flak-armed trawlers, motor torpedo boats and minesweepers) that were reported as being under steam and heading westward towards the Romanian port of Constanța. They were escorted by 8 Bulgarian Bf 110s.



A formation of 7 enemy vessels was found and, with their torpedos set for a shallow run against these small vessels, the crew of White 21 was successful in hitting the minesweeper Tatyana Shcherbak (named after a Militant Maiden in the War Against Stalinism and Hero of the Socialist Union), which quickly sunk with the loss of 6 lives. The crew of White 17 badly damaged the trawler Viktor Ponedelnik (named after a leader of the 1905 Potemkin mutiny) with a torpedo that went through the hull and failed to explode; the escorting Bf 110s subsequently strafed the vessel, forcing it to retreat with the loss of 3 lives. The crews of White 14 and White 19 failed to achieve a hit with their bombs, but the strafing Bf 110 crews started a fire on the motor torpedo boat Oleg Lapshin (named after an Order of the Red Star-winning sailor for actions during the War Against Stalinism). Low on fuel and with one ship sunk and two others damaged, the Bulgarian aviators turned for home.



This was the Royal Bulgarian Air Force's biggest maritime action of the war. The Red Navy vessels had meant to be escorted by fighters, but due to a variety of causes, these had failed to make rendezvous. This error was not repeated and later Bulgarian aerial activities over the Black Sea were met with considerable fighter defence, leading to several losses. White 21 was shot down on over the Black Sea on 13 May 1944 by a Yak-9D flown by Regiment Leader Vera Pauw, an exiled Dutch Communist.

[NARSES2]

Oh that's fantastic, I really do like that scheme. Indeed I may borrow it for a couple of Bulgarian AF builds that are in the back of my brain.

[comrade harps]

Oh that's fantastic, I really do like that scheme. Indeed I may borrow it for a couple of Bulgarian AF builds that are in the back of my brain.

Of course! What Bulgarian whifs do you have in mind?

[NARSES2]

Initially I was thinking of a The Savoia Marchetti SM 79 JIS which Romania had and the Fw 58B which Romania and Hungary had.

However I have a scenario where WWI never occurs and thus neither does WWII. However you get lots of "little" Wars in Central and Eastern Europe (there were a few skirmishes in the inter war years) and indeed a fairly major War known as the Third Balkan War.

Ideas for 2020

[Rheged]

However I have a scenario where WWI never occurs and thus neither does WWII. However you get lots of "little" Wars in Central and Eastern Europe (there were a few skirmishes in the inter war years) and indeed a fairly major War known as the Third Balkan War.

Ideas for 2020

In this scenario, you could probably factor in a series of Near Eastern and/or Levantine wars/rebellions/uprisings  as the Ottoman Empire  disintegrates. That leads to another point of divergence where a much reduced Turkey does or does not have the rise of Kemal Attaturk.    Quite a fascinating proposition, Chris!!

[Snowtrooper]

Love the camo too - first you look at it thinking it's a two-colour camo, but then you notice the shaded parts, but then it does its purpose and thoroughly breaks the outline of the plane, leading you to question your eyes about perspective and stuff

In the "Downfall of the Ottoman Empire" scenario, would Greece manage to take Istanbul Constantinople and Asia Minor? That would all but guarantee a rerun a generation into the future, and repeated reruns of the rerun, cf. Alsace-Lorraine/Elsaß-Lothringen. Imperial Russia would probably fight a proxy war through Armenia whenever they are not themselves fighting Turkey. Israel established before 1947? Persian Empire reborn? Finally a timeline with an independent Kurdistan? The discovery of oil in the region will likely make it even more turbulent than it has been in OTL.

[Dizzyfugu]

Very pretty paint scheme! 

[TomZ]

Looks very good!

BTW Did you know that the Bulgarian Air Force actually had two He-111 H-16s?
According to my source:
To Royal Bulgarian Air Force two planes Heinkel He.111H-16 were delivered in 1943. During the war they were used as a VIP-transports. Therefore, despite their armament Bulgarian He.111 has a civilian registration. After the war's end both He.111s were transferred to the Czechoslovakian Air Force as a present.

TomZ

[comrade harps]

Looks very good!

BTW Did you know that the Bulgarian Air Force actually had two He-111 H-16s?
According to my source:
To Royal Bulgarian Air Force two planes Heinkel He.111H-16 were delivered in 1943. During the war they were used as a VIP-transports. Therefore, despite their armament Bulgarian He.111 has a civilian registration. After the war's end both He.111s were transferred to the Czechoslovakian Air Force as a present.

TomZ

Yep, I did know that. I usually avoid that kind of situation but I wanted a maritime camo (blue up the fuselage sides) and the torpedoes, which limited the options within my whif universe. It was almost Finnish and at one point a Fascist Irish but I do like wartime Bulgarian markings.

[comrade harps]

Love the camo too - first you look at it thinking it's a two-colour camo, but then you notice the shaded parts, but then it does its purpose and thoroughly breaks the outline of the plane, leading you to question your eyes about perspective and stuff

I applied the Humbrol Matt 87 disrupted squiggly first, then the Humbrol 65 along the sides and undersurfaces before adding the  splinters of Revell 40 dark green and Humbrol 117. The upper surface combo of H87 and R40 with the light gray Airfix plastic exposed where the H117 was waiting to go was wild, so now I want to do something like that as a winter camo with white where the bare plastic was.

[Old Wombat]

Woh!

Pretty!

That scheme is awesome & it really suits the Heinkel.

[zenrat]

OK.  Got it now.  It's a blue grey squiggle (looks a bit like lightened PRU blue to me*) over a german splinter pattern.
My brain was seeing it as squiggles in two different greens over a blue grey base.
Whatever, it's a great scheme very well applied.
Good job.






*usual caveats apply regarding my dodgy colour vision and monitors.

[comrade harps]

OK.  Got it now.  It's a blue grey squiggle (looks a bit like lightened PRU blue to me*) over a german splinter pattern.
My brain was seeing it as squiggles in two different greens over a blue grey base.
Whatever, it's a great scheme very well applied.
Good job.



*usual caveats apply regarding my dodgy colour vision and monitors.

Two greens sqiggling over the blue grey: I know, I kept seeing it that way when I was painting it. The scheme is an optical illusion.

Now I want to do a Hungarian Hs 129 in a winter scheme with blue grey or just grey over black green and white splinters.

[NARSES2]

In this scenario, you could probably factor in a series of Near Eastern and/or Levantine wars/rebellions/uprisings  as the Ottoman Empire  disintegrates. That leads to another point of divergence where a much reduced Turkey does or does not have the rise of Kemal Attaturk.    Quite a fascinating proposition, Chris!!

In the "Downfall of the Ottoman Empire" scenario, would Greece manage to take Istanbul Constantinople and Asia Minor? That would all but guarantee a rerun a generation into the future, and repeated reruns of the rerun, cf. Alsace-Lorraine/Elsaß-Lothringen. Imperial Russia would probably fight a proxy war through Armenia whenever they are not themselves fighting Turkey. Israel established before 1947? Persian Empire reborn? Finally a timeline with an independent Kurdistan? The discovery of oil in the region will likely make it even more turbulent than it has been in OTL.

As the Greeks very nearly did at one point. The Balkan Wars are some of the most complicated I've read about with ever changing alliances based on "what can I get from this conflict".  You could also get some interesting scenarios in Central Europe, would Hungary gradually loosen the bonds that tied it to Austria for instance ? Would you get a smaller Poland with the break up of Czarist Russia, for whatever reason ? I've written the story line that allows the Archduke to avoid assassination but that's about it, the rest is just "doodles" in the mind.

[NARSES2]

Love the camo too - first you look at it thinking it's a two-colour camo, but then you notice the shaded parts, but then it does its purpose and thoroughly breaks the outline of the plane, leading you to question your eyes about perspective and stuff

I applied the Humbrol Matt 87 disrupted squiggly first, then the Humbrol 65 along the sides and undersurfaces before adding the  splinters of Revell 40 dark green and Humbrol 117. The upper surface combo of H87 and R40 with the light gray Airfix plastic exposed where the H117 was waiting to go was wild, so now I want to do something like that as a winter camo with white where the bare plastic was.

Thanks for that