The Spanish Air Force 1939-45

When on 4 September 1939, the Spanish government made public his declaration of non-belligerence, Spain had a considerable air force composed by a thousand of planes. However, they were almost all survivors from Spanish Civil War. On the positive side, the Spanish Air Force had a set of veteran pilots and aircrews after three years of conflict that had learned and fought along with Italian and German aviators. In the negative side, most of the airplanes were worn out and soon they turned into obsolete by the fast development of military air industry.

Organization

By the outbreak of WW2, the Air Force was one of the three services that formed the Spanish Armed Forces. In August the Ministry of the Air had been created and on 7 October the Air Force («Ejército del Aire») would be created. Since then it was an independent arm.

According to an order issued on 4 September 1939, the basic tactical unit was the squadron («escuadrilla») despite the flight («patrulla») of three planes remained as de facto basic air unit. Squadrons were rallied to form a group («grupo»). In turn, two groups formed an «escuadra». Later, on 9 November 1939, «escuadras» were renamed as regiments («regimientos»). On 29 February 1940 reorganization took place: the Spanish Air Force was organized into eleven regiments, three mixed regiments, three independent squadrons and one autonomous flight. This order of battle stayed, except for some minor changes, during all the WW2 period.

Deployment at 29 February 1940:

Regimiento	Grupo	Escuadrilla	Patrulla	Aircraft type	Location
			41	Hs 126	Tetuán
		11		Ju 52	Las Palmas
		51		Dornier Wal	Ceuta
	41			He 45	Vitoria
	42			Ca.310	Burgos
1	11			BR.20	Madrid
1	44			Do 17	Zaragoza
1		61*		Hs 123	Sevilla
2	27			He 112, G.50	Melilla
2	43			R-Z	Melilla
3	28			I-16	Mallorca
3	51			He 59, He 60, Z.501, Z.506	Mallorca
11	12			SM.79	Sevilla
11	13			SM.79	Sevilla
12	14			SM.79	Granada
12	15			SM.79	Granada
13	16			SB-2	Albacete
13	17			SB-2	Albacete
14	18			He 111	Zaragoza
14	19			He 111	Zaragoza
15	110			He 111	Logroño
15	111			He 111	Logroño
16	112			SM.81	León
16	113			SM.81	León
17	114			Ju 52	Salamanca
21	21			CR.32	Madrid
21	22			CR.32	Madrid
22	23			CR.32	Sevilla
22	26			CR.32	León
23	24			I-15bis	Valencia
23	25			Bf 109	Logroño
31	31			He 51	Madrid
31	32			He 51	Madrid
32	33			I-15	Alicante
32	34			I-15	Alicante
* Dive bomber unit.

Fighters

During the summer of 1939, the Spanish fighters units were deployed across national territory. The bulk remained at Madrid (two groups of Fiat CR.32), a group of two squadrons was deployed at Seville equipped with CR.32, a two squadrons group of Polikarpov I-15bis (also denominated I-153) was at Valencia, one group of four squadrons with Messerschmitt Bf 109 at Logroño, a four squadrons group of CR.32 at León, one group at Melilla (North Africa) with one Fiat G.50 squadron and one Heinkel He 112 squadron, and the group at Mallorca with four Polikarpov I-16 squadrons. However, not all these units did have the necessary aircraft, and some did not even form, like the last one.

Transfers of some of these units in 1940 were:

• Between January and March, 26th Group was transferred to Mallorca (Balearic Islands), where it remained for the rest of WW2.
• On July, 25th Group was translated to Barcelona and the 22nd Group went to Las Palmas (Canary Islands) as expeditionary.

Changes on 1941 were:

• Between January and March, the 24th Group and the 23rd Regiment HQ were translated to Barcelona. Just a short time later, on July, were moved to Reus (Tarragona).
• On June, the 26th and 28th groups interchanged their numbers. So, the new 28th Group remained in Mallorca with the CR.32 planes and the new 26th, at Seville, was designated to receive the I-16s that were constructed in Jerez de la Frontera. These new fighters began to arrive during July.
• On 21 July, the expeditionary group destined to the Canary Islands became the 29th Group of the 4th Mixed Regiment (also created on this date).

No more changes did happen until the end of WW2.

Fighters by numbers:

	31/12/1939	31/12/1940	31/12/1941	31/12/1942	31/12/1943	31/12/1944	31/08/1945
CR.32	124 (100)	130 (83)	102 (38)	156 (110)	129 (104)	120 (109)	125 (88)
Bf 109	41 (29)	36 (24)	30 (16)	19 (9)	10 (6)	10(6)	19 (18)
He 112 + G.50	20 (18)	21 (10)	22 (8)	16 (7)	16 (5)	15 (9)	15 (7)
I-15bis	20 (12)	18 (14)	18 (10)	11 (11)	11 (11)	11 (11)	12 (11)
I-16	11 (2)	1 (1)	5 (4)	12 (11)	17 (16)	19 (15)	21 (15)
Totals	216 (161)	206 (131)	177 (76)	214 (148)	183 (142)	175 (150)	192 (139)
Aircraft in service. Between parentheses the number of operative airplanes, remaining were at workshops.

On January 1940, the most numerous fighter was the Fiat CR.32 with 193 planes: 119 were operatives and 74 being repaired at workshops. To the 200 survivors of the Civil War another hundred was added: 14 on 1940, 75 in 1941 and 15 in 1942. All of these were built by Hispano Aviación company and equipped regiments 21st and 22nd, groups 28th and 29th, and the Air Combat School.

The number of Messerschmitt Bf 109 planes that served in the Spanish Air Force on September 1939 were 41: 14 were A or B models and the other 27 were E model. In spite of some authors, the Germans took to home some airplanes of C, D and E models after the end of Spanish Civil War. For example, the Condor Legion had 44 Bf 109E during the war but only 27 served in the Spanish Air Force after 1939. On May 1943 were received 14 Messerschmitt Bf 109F4 purchased to Germany.

On September 1939 there were 15 Heinkel He 112 and 11 Fiat G.50 in service. They were fitted in the same unit but the G.50s were less used than He 112s due to its poor performance and shortage of spare parts. Although only 21 Polikarpov 1-16 survived the Civil War, another 24 planes were built in Jerez. However, the first unit was ready in October 1939, but problems in the manufacture process delayed their entrance in the fighter units until 1941-1942. At the end of world war 27 I-16 left in service.

Bombers

The units organized and deployed during the summer of 1939 were one BR.20 group, four SM.79 groups, two SB-2 groups, four He 111 groups, two SM.81 groups and one Ju 52 group. Only the He 111 and SM.79 were reliable airplanes. On 29 February 1940 the 17th Regiment (Ju 52s) was disbanded and its airplanes destined to 11th Transport Squadron and different air training installments. Between March and December 1940 the 15th Group was located at Mallorca as expeditionary unit. It was accompanied on this mission by the 110th Group since March. This unit was replaced by 111th Group in March 1941. On 1 February 1941 was also disbanded the 16th Regiment. Its planes were assigned to different air training schools, what actually happened since previous year. On July the 111th Group was renamed as 113th and assigned to 3rd Mixed Regiment.

Bombers by numbers:

	31/12/1939	31/12/1940	31/12/1941	31/12/1942	31/12/1943	31/12/1944	31/08/1945
SM.81	15 (12)	21 (5)	-	-	-	-	-
SM.79	62 (49)	45 (32)	52 (37)	47 (37)	46 (39)	47 (45)	45 (29)
BR.20	10 (10)	10 (4)	10 (4)	6 (2)	4 (2)	4 (2)	4 (2)
SB-2	18 (5)	18 (10)	16 (7)	7 (4)	6 (5)	6 (5)	-
He 111	52 (42)	44 (39)	45 (34)	45 (34)	44 (33)	45 (31)	41 (30)
Ju 52	11 (8)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Hs 123	12 (10)	13 (11)	10 (8)	8 (6)	9 (8)	9 (7)	9 (7)
Ju 88	-	-	-	-	-	16 (16)	20 (20)
Totals	180 (136)	151 (101)	128 (90)	113 (83)	109 (87)	127 (106)	119 (88)
Aircraft in service. Between parentheses the number of operative airplanes, remaining were at workshops.

The most numerous bomber was the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79: there were 84 on September 1939 (just four of them were torpedo bombers). Also were in service by this date 58 Heinkel He 111 (22 He 111B and 36 He 111E), 42 Savoia-Marchetti SM.81, 10 Fiat BR.20, 18 Tupolev SB-2, 25 Junkers Ju 52 and 14 Henschel Hs 123.

The ten Fiat BR.20s flew little with 11th Group doomed by shortage of spare parts. The eighteen Tupolev SB-2s were also condemned for the same reason and both types were gradually disappearing due to attrition. These ex-Soviet bombers were replaced in the 13th Group by Junkers Ju 88. Ten Ju 88A4 were bought to Germany in 1943, arrived to Spain on 30 November and remained at Seville depot until February of next year when were destined to 13th Regiment. These planes joined another 18 Ju 88 which had been interned during the course of the WW2 and finally purchased to Germany on February 1944. Those were 21 Ju 88 that landed in Spanish territory during the WW2 and 18 of them were used by Spanish Air Force: thirteen (4 Ju 88A, 5 Ju 88D, 2 Ju 88C and 2 Ju 88T) were destined to 13th Group and five remained for training duties and to provide spare parts.

The Henschel Hs 123 were intended to act as dive bomber in a specialist squadron but it seems that it was more a desire than true. On May 1945 flew the first Heinkel He 111H16 built by CASA company under license. A total of 200 of these airplanes were constructed but they entered along post-war years.

Attack

Initially close support aircraft were grouped in two «escuadras» of two groups each one: 31st and 32nd groups equipped with Heinkel He 51 and 33rd and 34th groups flew Polikarkov I-15. On 21 July 1941 was created the 33rd Regiment (groups 35th and 36th) equipped with new I-15s assembled in Sabadell (Barcelona) since November. Were built more than 60 of these planes.

Attack aircraft by numbers:

	31/12/1939	31/12/1940	31/12/1941	31/12/1942	31/12/1943	31/12/1944	31/08/1945
He 51	44 (20)	37 (23)	39 (19)	24 (21)	14 (12)	13 (12)	13 (2)
I-15	? (14)	51 (51)	42 (39)	57 (46)	83 (65)	88 (70)	96 (76)
Totals	? (34)	88 (74)	81 (58)	81 (67)	97 (77)	101 (82)	109 (78)
Aircraft in service. Between parentheses the number of operative airplanes, remaining were at workshops.

Recon

In the summer of 1939 were created some units with different types of aircraft, later used in recon and patrol tasks. By September there were the 41st Group with two Heinkel He 45 squadrons; the 42nd Group with two Caproni Ca.310 squadrons; the 43rd Group equipped with Polikarpov R-Z; the 41st Squadron equipped with Dornier Do 17 and the 41st Flight with only three Henschel Hs 126. On February 1940 groups 41st and 42nd were disbanded and their planes went to different schools and training centres.

Recon aircraft by numbers:

	31/12/1939	31/12/1940	31/12/1941	31/12/1942	31/12/1943	31/12/1944	31/08/1945
He 45	18 (18)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Do 17	8 (6)	13 (8)	13 (10)	13 (10)	13	13	13 (6)
Ca.130	13 (4)	-	-	-	-		-
R-Z	34 (16)	32 (12)	28 (9)	25 (6)	24	24	9 (6)
Hs 126	5 (5)	4 (4)	4 (2)	3 (3)	3	3	3 (2)
GE-23	-	-	-	-	-	-	6 (3)
Totals	78 (49)	49 (24)	45 (21)	41 (19)	40	40	31 (17)
Aircraft in service. Between parentheses the number of operative airplanes, remaining were at workshops.

Floatplanes

These planes were deployed at the eve of WW2 in the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands and Spanish Morocco. The scarce floatplanes were fitted into a few independent squadrons: 52nd (Heinkel He 59 and He 60) and 53rd (Cant Z.501 and Z.506) in Mallorca island, and 51st (Dornier Wal) in Ceuta. Only during the first months of 1941 was created the 54th Squadron in Canary Islands: their floatplanes came from Ceuta unit. On July 1943 were received from Germany 12 Heinkel He 114 and were assigned to the new created 52nd Group. In this unit would be the seaplanes that would cooperate with the Navy ships. On September of this year some Romeo Ro.43 and Ro.44 landed in Spanish territory fleeing from Italian surrender. After being interned they were bought in 1944 and only entered in service on 1946. On December 1944 was created the 51st Floatplanes Regiment to be based in Mallorca isle. It would be constituted by two new groups: 51st would be formed with surviving He 59 and He 60 and the 53rd (long-range recon unit), would be formed with 12 Dornier Do 24T-3 purchased some months before to Germany. The 53rd Squadron had already been dissolved. All these seaplanes were used on naval recon and patrol.

Floatplanes by numbers:

	31/12/1939	31/12/1940	31/12/1941	31/12/1942	31/12/1943	31/12/1944	31/08/1945
Dornier Wal			10 (7)	9 (6)	8 (6)	6 (5)	7 (3)
He 59 + He 60			5 (1)	5 (4)	5 (3)	2 (2)	2 (1)
Z.501 + Z.506			5 (2)	3 (0)	1 (1)	-	-
He 114			-	-	12 (11)	11 (10)	11 (8)
Do 24T3			-	-	-	5 (4)	12 (11)
Totals			20 (10)	17 (10)	26 (21)	24 (21)	32 (23)
Aircraft in service. Between parentheses the number of operative airplanes, remaining were at workshops.

Transport

Officially there were no air transport units. The 11th Squadron was created in September 1939 as bomber unit although never had that function. It was equipped with a few Junkers Ju 52, only four or five. This unit was well-know as Sahara Squadron due to its localization. Anyway must be remembered that 25 Junkers Ju 52 and 42 Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 were flying in different schools and training establishments and that they could be activated into a transport unit in case of war.