abyssinian

[gaynako]

Has somebody pictures about abyssinian airplanes during the abyssinian war ? Italian pilots said they shooted down some..
Thanks.

[Modeldad]

I was able to find a little in a google search.

http://www.insigniamag.com/ethi.html

http://www.insigniamag.com/ethiop.jpg

http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2004...e-of-1933.html

[ginklo]

here you are 4 photos
<p>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/ginklo/cri.jpg">
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[gaynako]

Than you very much for the photos which show one of the two Fokker F.VIIa with Lorraine engines, bought in France by the Negus. Those planes were unarmed and it's why we can see red crosses on the wings. The cocards could be french ones, as the Abyssinina planes has only red, yellow and green stripes at the wings tips; you can see those markings in the photo with the little biplane (Heinkel HD36?).
The swedish Red Cross had also a Fokker F.VIIa under english registration. But in the two cases, the Red Cross did not avoid to be shooted at by the Fiat...

Thanks again

[Lennart Andersson]

I think the roundel is actually in abyssinian colours. The biplane is Heinkel HD 21 ex SE-ACY and the marking on the fuselage is abyssinian, while the marking on the rudder is Swedish (blue and yellow).

Lennart Andersson

[gaynako]

I am not so sure that roundels are abyssian, for :

1)In 1935-1936, abyssinian planes had no roundels which appears only after 1946. They had only green, yellow and red stipes, on fuselahe and wings, as shown on the Heinkel, and some Potez 25.

2) As you can see on the Heinkel, the abyssinian colors are with the swedish original ones...

3) On other pictures, we can see in 1930-31, Farman 192 with roundels on the wings; those tricolor roundels have the same proportions as the french ones (1/3,1/3,1/3). One Farman 192 had ben offered by France to the Negus and during its flight to Abyssinia, it had no civil immatriculation, only french roundels. So, it seems that those roundels have never been erased. That could be the case of the 2 Fokker VIIa bought in France. Besides, those planes, Farman and Fokker, were flown by french pilots (Vedel, Maillet, Corriger),often between Addis Ababa and Djibouti; so, as in the case of the Heinkel (flown by swedish count Von Rosen), it seems that the abyssinian civil planes kept their original nationality markings. Perhaps in war time,the foreigner pilots, coming from non belligerent countries, thought that will protect them..
At last, the Potez 25 never had roundels but only abyssinian markings.

Best