Sunday, 21 February 2016

Flames of War: Polish Airforce (Polskie Lotnictwo Wojskowe) PZL.23 'karas'

The PZL.23 Karas was a Polish light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that was designed in the mid 1930's by PZL in Warsaw being the primary Polish reconnaissance bomber in service through September 1939.

A PZL P23 Karas under attack from a German Messerschmitt BF109
Developed in 1931 to replace stocks of the French made Breguet 19 and Potez 25, designer Stanislaw Prauss based the new recon bomber on a proposed passenger plane that never made it into production.

The PZL.23 design was a modern all metal body cantilever winged aircraft whose wings were designed around light enclosed profiles instead of spars. A crew of three included pilot, a bombardier and a rear gunner. A fixed undercarriage was well spatted but despite having a massive look it was not very well suited to rough airstrips. Bombs were carried under the wings with a maximum load of only 700Kg.

A PZL.23 on an extendable flying base

The first prototype flew in 1934. The third prototype flew in 1935 and had a raised pilots seat and engine lowered to improve line of sight lines. This prototype was accepted by the Polish military and moved into production under the name Karas (Carp)

By the outbreak of the war a total of 210 had been delivered to the Polish airforce and were distributed into squadrons attached to the army groups in the field.

By September 1939 the aircraft was considered obsolete, the main deficiency being slow speed and poor manoeuvrability. Despite a maximum speed of 365km/h it was forbidden to go above 315km/h due to dangerous flight characteristics and the maximum ceiling of the aircraft was also restricted for the same reasons. Not what one can call outstanding!

Five bomber squadrons of the Bomber Brigade and a further seven bomber squadrons of the Army Reconnaissance squadrons were the main bomber assets that Poland had in September '39 whilst the rest of the available aircraft were held in central reserves or under repair.

On 2nd September 1939 one PZL.23B of the 21st Squadron bombed a factory in Ohlau becoming the first bomber sortie on the Third Reichs home ground! The PZL.23's also attacked advancing German columns frequently with just the 5 squadrons of the Bomber Brigade dropping an estimated 60 tonnes of bombs through the campaign with the army reconnaissance squadrons adding another dozen or so.

Due to the planes low speed, light armour and (perhaps most importantly) lack of fighter protection the PZL.23's suffered very heavy casualties. Many were shot down by German fighter aircraft but they also shot several down in return. Despite the lack of armour crews often attacked German columns from very low level, making their aircraft vulnerable to AA fire. Some 20 aircraft were lost in crash landings on the improvised and rough airstrips. About 86% of available PZL.23's were destroyed in September '39 but only 67 due to enemy action.

A closer look at my PZL.23

Easier to find for a 15mm Flames of War army due t the photos that are out there on Google at the moment I purchased this from Dave at Armaments in Miniature and it has to be said, this is a seriously fine sculpt with loads of options... and a great decal pack!

I painted this aircraft exactly as I painted the PZL P11c as well. Basecoat, panel lining and top coat. Not much more to say than that, except that IF you have a Polish army then this is one of those kits thats definitely worth getting!

Not a great aircraft by any measure but it was prominent and it definitely played its part shedding blood for the motherland!

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