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Re: Imperial Ethiopian Air Force at war 1935-1936?
No air combat reports found so far (probably will not either...), but an interesting item in the online Australian newspaper archives (Townsville Daily Bulletin of 21 Nov. 1935).
It reads that the Emperor Haile Selassie drove to Akaki aerodrome outside Addis Abeba. Once there an aeroplane made a reconnaissance flight to make sure no Italian aircraft were in sight. Then the Emperor entered a large cabin monoplane which took off escorted by two biplane fighters.
Purpose of the Emperor's flight was inspection of the front lines.
In a Dutch newspaper of 20 Nov 1935 I read that the Emperor's plane was not a military one.
On his return flight to Addis Abbeba it seems that the Abyssian imperial airplane was spotted and chased by Italian aircraft, but they couldn't catch up... Need confirmation on that.
At that time the Emperor also ordered four unarmed Percival Gull airplanes for communication work.
Regards,
Leendert
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