Monday, December 26, 2011

Breguet Br.14A2 1919-1922

Breguet Br.14A2 of the Second Greco-Turkish War


It is good to get back to work on my projects after thee last month. As I said earlier I have been working on some of the later examples of World War One aircraft. Today offering is a few of the aircraft which fought in the Second Greco-Turkish War. There will be more of these aircraft to come.

When the Treaty of Versailles was signed on November 11 of 1918, it was called the war to end all wars. With hindsight we can see just how out of touch they were. All the treaty did was set the stage for even more warfare, both in the long and short term future. The combination of shifting fortunes of nations a rise in nationalism in the Baltic, and availability of weapons left over from WWI was a recipe for a new string of smaller but no less fierce wars.

When Turkey was reeling from their ill-fated participation in WWI, Greece saw an opportunity for expansion. Even though Turkey had been on the losing side of the Great War, their army still had more troops and armament than the Greeks. The Turks crushed the Greek forces and the Treaty of Laussane formalized the cessation of hostilities in 1923. In the end this military misadventure proved to be a mistake which would topple the Greek monarchy and bring about military rule. The Second Greco-Turkish War would bring about the current state of affairs in the Middle east.

This Turkish Bre.14.A2 has a fairly standard French camouflage pattern. The aircraft bears the new red square and star and crescent rudder markings.


The basic fuselage scheme is similar to the Turkish example shown above. Notable is the black wavy line over-painted on the Greek insignia on the fuselage. The rudder is painted in the standard Greek identification pattern.


The paint scheme is more muted on this example and the serial numbers on the rudder have been over-painted. Like the previous aircraft the forward section is bare metal.

7 comments:

Molly Howard said...

Why was there so much color -- red and blue -- on these "camouflage" planes?

Unknown said...

hey Molly, The reason is that camouflage is a double edged sword. It is meant to break up the profile of an aircraft from a distance. Not only when a plane is in flight but on the ground. In combat once an aircraft is spotted the pilots need to determine whether it is friend or foe. You do not want to shoot down a friendly aircraft. One thing to consider is the farther away the less distinct colors appear. Objects have a tendency to gray out the farther away they are. I hope this helps explain the contradiction.

Cheers

Will

Molly Howard said...

That makes sense. I got to learn something today -- my goal every day -- which is a good thing because I am almost ready to go to bed. :)

Jon Yuengling said...

They look great. Must of be though with both sides using similar aircraft.

Unknown said...

Thanks Jon, Yes it must have been difficult identifying friend from foe. Both sides used a mixed bag of hand me down planes from several other nations (German, French, and British). This was compounded by use of captured aircraft. There were several AIRCO DH-9 which started in Greek service which were abandoned during routs that were used by the Turks. I am beginning work on them now. I am also working on SPAD and Nieuport aircraft used in this conflict. I also got sidetracked working on Polish aircraft. Hopefully I will have more to post soon.

Jon Yuengling said...

I hope to see more on both the Turkish conflict as well as the Russo-Polish conflict.

Are there any good lists on the aircraft used by both sides in these conflicts?

Unknown said...

@Jon, so far I am still looking for a good list. It seems most of the focus is on the ground war during the conflict. I have been stumbling along finding bits and pieces so far.