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Rescuing 7 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.9.3) (Whoop whoop pull up - 12506 |
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<!-- Aircraft -->
|aircraft_attack= [[Breguet XIX]], [[Vickers Vildebeest]], [[Beechcraft Staggerwing]], [[Gourdou-Leseurre GL-633]], [[Potez 25]]
|aircraft_bomber=[[Potez 540]], [[Tupolev SB]], [[Bloch MB.200]],<ref>[http://members.fortunecity.es/potez/bloch.htm BLOCH 200/210] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319161616/http://members.fortunecity.es/potez/bloch.htm |date=19 March 2012 }}</ref> [[Bloch MB.210]], [[Polikarpov R-Z]], [[Hawker Spanish Osprey]], [[Macchi M.18]], [[Breguet 413]],<ref>[http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/1108/img146xp1.jpg Breguet Br.413]</ref> [[Breguet 460]]<ref>
|aircraft_fighter=[[Hawker Fury]], [[Bristol Bulldog]], [[Blériot-SPAD S.51]], [[Blériot-SPAD S.91]], [[Dewoitine D.510]], [[Fokker D.XXI]], [[Martinsyde Buzzard]], [[Nieuport-Delage NiD 52|Hispano-Nieuport Ni-52]], [[Avia BH-33]], [[Dewoitine D.372]], [[Polikarpov I-15]], [[Polikarpov I-16]], [[Grumman FF|Grumman G-23]], [[Letov Š-31]], [[Letov Š-231]], [[Letov Š-331]], [[Loire 46]], [[Fw 56]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Spanish Civil War Aircraft|url=http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/drnash/model/spain/did.html|access-date=2012-04-14|archive-date=5 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205085135/http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/drnash/model/Spain/did.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|aircraft_interceptor=
|aircraft_patrol=[[Latecoere 28]], [[Spartan Zeus]], [[Lockheed Model 9 Orion|Lockheed Orion]], [[Fokker C.X]], [[Miles Falcon]], [[RWD 9]], [[Macchi M.18]], [[Potez 58]]
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The [[Battle of Guadalajara]] and the defence of the skies over [[Madrid]] against Nationalist bombing raids during the [[Siege of Madrid|capital's long siege]] would be the only scenarios where the loyalist air force took part in an effective manner. In other important republican military actions, such as the [[Segovia Offensive]], the [[Battle of Teruel]] and the decisive [[Battle of the Ebro]], where the [[Aviación Nacional]] was relentlessly strafing the loyalist positions with accurate low-level attacks,<ref>Chris Goss et al. ''Luftwaffe Fighter-Bombers Over Britain: The German Air Force's Tip and Run Campaign, 1942-43'', Stackpole, {{ISBN|978-0-8117-0691-9}}, p. 26</ref> the republican military airplanes were practically absent from the skies. Moreover, when they appeared and attacked, they did so in an unorganized and inadequate manner that mostly failed to achieve positive effects.<ref name="Antony Beevor 2006"/>
Most of the Spanish Republican planes that survived the conflict were repainted with the markings of the {{lang|es|Aviación Nacional}} after the defeat of the Spanish Republic in the Iberian battlefields.<ref name="zi.ku.dk">
== History ==
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Within the month of his military coup, the help received by [[Francisco Franco]] from [[Nazi Germany]] ([[Condor Legion]]) and [[Kingdom of Italy|Fascist Italy]] ([[Aviazione Legionaria]]) gave the rebels the upper hand in airpower over Spain. The first German and Italian bombers arrived to increase the size of the rebel air force already in July 1936 and [[Fiat CR.32]] and [[Heinkel He 51]] fighter planes began operating in August.<ref name="zi.ku.dk"/> These planes helped the rebel army side to gain full control of the air, as did the Italian [[Aviazione Legionaria]] and the German Condor Legion.
In September 1936 the Navy and Air Ministry (''Ministerio de Marina y Aire'') and the Air Undersecretariat, (''Subsecretaria del Aire''), both part of the National Defence Ministry ''(Ministerio de la Defensa Nacional)'' were established under the command of [[Indalecio Prieto]] as minister. For identification purposes the Republican tricolor roundel was replaced by red bands, an insignia that had previously been used on ''[[Aeronáutica Naval]]'' aircraft during the monarchy in the 1920s, before the time of the Republic.<ref>
The western democracies, like France, the United Kingdom and the United States didn't help the young Spanish Republic. Afraid of the "[[Communism|Communist]] threat" [[Neville Chamberlain]] and [[Léon Blum]] were ready to sacrifice Spain, as they later sacrificed [[Czechoslovakia]], in the belief that Hitler could be [[Appeasement|appeased]].<ref>Pierre Renouvin & [[René Rémond]], ''Léon Blum, chef de gouvernement. 1936-1937'', Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, coll. 'Références', 1981</ref> In the void thus created, only the [[Soviet Union]] helped the Spanish government effectively.<ref>[http://www.gutenberg-e.org/kod01/kod15.html Stalin and the Spanish Civil War - Soviet Hardware Supplied to the Republic]</ref> At the end of October, four months after the rebels had been supplied with German and Italian aircraft by [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini]], the first [[Tupolev SB]] bombers arrived from Russia. They were nicknamed ''"Katiuska"''. One month later the first [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] fighter planes arrived to alleviate the lack of operational planes in the loyalist side, the [[Polikarpov I-15]], nicknamed ''"Chato"'' (Snubnosed)<ref>
The Republican air arm was restructured again in May 1937. The new structure included two branches, the ''Arma de Aviación'' and the ''Subsecretaría de Aviación'', but unified the ''Aeronáutica Militar'' and ''Aeronáutica Naval''. Some sources give this date as the date of the creation of the Spanish Republican Air Force, although it had been previously operative as an air force already. The Republican Air Force would keep this structure until this disbandment two years later.<ref name="Relación orgánica"/> Many planes belonging to the fleet of the [[Spanish Republican Airline]] LAPE (Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas) were requisitioned by the Spanish Republican Air Force and used as military transports.<ref>
Innovative, and often lethal, aeronautical bombing techniques were tested by Condor Legion German expeditionary forces against loyalist areas on Spanish soil with the permission of Generalísimo Franco. The pilots of the Spanish Republican Air Force were unable to check these modern-warfare attacks. Their planes were mostly obsolete and often in a bad state of disrepair.<ref>[http://www.oocities.org/red_spain/ EL Potez 54 en la Guerra Civil Española]</ref> The ungainly French [[Potez 540]], a highly vulnerable plane that proved itself a failure in Spanish skies during the Civil War,<ref>[http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_baschirotto.htm Biplane fighter aces]</ref> was labelled as 'Flying Coffin' ({{lang-es|Ataúd Volante}}) by loyalist pilots.<ref>[http://adar.es/index/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89 Potez 540/542] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811034430/http://adar.es/index/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89 |date=11 August 2011 }}</ref>
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