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Dewoitine D.501, 1st Eskadrile, Lithuanian Military Aviation, March, 1939


Old Man

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When Hitler demanded on March 20, 1939, that Lithuania cede the port of Memel immediately, Lithuania's Military Aviation was certainly unequal to any conflict with Germany.

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The thirteen Dewoitine D.501 monoplanes of the 1st Eskadrile comprised half the fighter strength of the Lithuanian air service. In the summer of 1935, when this type entered French service, it was the most advanced fighter in front-line service anywhere in Western Europe, but that was far from true any longer in the early months of 1939.

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In 1934 the Lithuanian government had gone shopping for modern fighters to replace obsolescent Fiat CR. 20 biplanes, and had settled on the Dewoitine D.370 parasol monoplane. Production of this type, however, met with delays owing to problems with its new high-powered twin-row radial engine. When the Spanish Civil War began in July, 1936, the Popular Front government in France wished to provide some aid to the Spanish government. The batch of D.370 fighters just recently completed for Lithuania became part of this aid, with Lithuania agreeing to accept in lieu 14 of the newer D.501 types. Delivery was not prompt, though; the Lithuanian examples were built only at the end of the production run, and only arrived in Lithuania late in 1937 (by which time the up-engined D.510 was coming into French service).

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Dewoitine's D.500/501/510 series was one of the transitional designs so often seen in the 1930s, a period of rapid advance in aeronautical engineering. It was built employing the most modern techniques, being of all-metal, stressed skin construction, and of low-wing, cantilever monoplane configuration, yet it retained an open cockpit, and a fixed landing gear. The original D.500 was armed with two rifle-caliber synchronized machine-guns, but the D.501 and D.510 were armed with a 20mm cannon firing through the hollow shaft of a propeller driven by a geared motor, and supplemented this with a rifle-caliber machine-gun under each wing, a very heavy armament for a serving fighter at that time. The D.500/501 had a top speed of a bit over 230mph, good for its time but not commandingly so (the P-26 and PZL-11 were faster), but the D.510 with its more powerful motor was the first French fighter to exceed 250mph in level flight. It is worth noting that, had England and France stood by Czechoslovakia in September of 1938, these Dewoitine monoplanes would have been the chief French fighter planes: it would not be until January of 1939 that the first production example of the Morane 406 was delivered.

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Hitler's demand for the port of Memel, and his unopposed seizure of it on March 23, 1939, barely a week after his liquidation of what remained of the state of Czechoslovakia, served notice to all, if any were still required, that his territorial ambitions extended far beyond what he had claimed during the Munich Crisis six months before. Public revulsion at it in England was a leading reason Chamberlain's government gave its guarantee of future assistance to Poland. The military impotence of the largest of the Baltic states in the face of German arms convinced Stalin only Soviet garrisons in these states could prevent Hitler using them as a spring-board to invasion of Russia.

The state of Lithuania which existed between 1918 and 1940 arose in the chaos of the Russian revolution. In the course of the Great War, the area had come under German occupation, and with the rise of the Bolsheviks, German authorities adopted a policy of fostering independent states in the western reaches of what had been Czarist Russia. Prior to absorption by Russia in the late eighteenth century, Lithuania had been part of a Commonwealth with Poland: the two had originally been equal partners (and a major power indeed in Central Europe), but vagaries of war and disease had left Lithuania much the junior by the end. Newly independent Lithuania in 1919 had to fight not only Bolsheviks to the east but also the revived state of Poland to the south, and various German freikorps bodies to the north in Latvia. Matters reached such a pitch at one point that Lithuania briefly allied with the Bolsheviks against Poland.

The port of Memel was detached from Prussia by the Treaty of Versailles, and made a Mandate Territory of the League of Nations, which assigned its administration to France. In 1922, the Lithuanian government contrived a rising in the city, intending to secure its annexation. After some protests from France and England, the League accepted the attachment of Memel to Lithuania as an autonomous district, at the same time, in a sort of de facto swap, recognizing Poland's seizure two years before of Vilnius and setting the border between Poland and Lithuania well north of where the latter thought it ought to be. A large portion of the inhabitants of Memel did consider themselves Prussian, and the area contained a disproportionate amount of Lithuania's industry, as well as being the passage for nearly all its foreign trade.

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When Hitler came to power in Germany, Memel was an obvious target for his 'in-gathering' of German populations under foreign rule. A Lithuanian crack-down on Nazi organization in Memel increased tensions considerably. Hitler declared early in 1938 his intention to incorporate Memel in Germany. Poland took the opportunity of Hitler's occupation of Austria to demand Lithuania accept Polish rule of Vilnius or face invasion, and Hitler declared if Poland and Lithuania went to war, he would invade Lithuania as well. Acceptance of the Polish ultimatum brought no relief, as this was followed by fresh demands from Hitler that a Nazi party be given a free hand in Memel. Local elections in December of 1938 were dominated by Nazi candidates, and it was anticipated the local Parliament would vote when it convened at the end of March for union with Germany. Hitler would not wait, however, and once Czechoslovakia was liquidated in mid-March, he demanded, via Ribbentrop, immediate cessation of Memel to Germany. The entire German surface fleet, with Hitler himself aboard the pocket battleship Deutschland, set sail for Memel, and in the face of this, Lithuania's government acquiesced, and signed Memel over hours before Hitler arrived.

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The kit is a vintage Heller offering, and goes together pretty well, as Heller kits generally do. The radiator tunnel assembly is difficult, and the kit windscreen is very poor. Care is needed to get the wing alignment right, but the fit is good. There are some 'issues' in this kit with section of the fuselage behind the cockpit, and belly profile, but I left these areas alone. Raised detail is correct on the nose area, and over the wing spars. Decals are home-made, with the black outline printed on white film, and cut out to leave a surrounding white pinstripe around the black. Finish is kitchen foil, treated by heating with eggshells, and using Micro-Scale foil adhesive.

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Edited by Old Man
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Thank you very much, Gentlemen!

I appreciate your kind words very much. I did this one several years ago, but have been learning to use the camera lately by takig new photographs of older modles, in sunlight rather then employing the flash.

The occupation of Memel gets overlooked often (it was a busy year), but it looms very large in contemporary accounts. The similarity of the situation to Danzig and the Corridor escaped few observers.

Regarding foil: I am adherent to the school that 'nothing looks quite so much like metal as metal', and foil is not so difficult to use as many seem to imagine. Careful surface is needed, among other things, but I suspect that preparing the surface for employment of any of the spray metalizers must be more exacting and to a higher standard than necessary for foil.

I use ordinary kitchen foil. I rough the shiny side thoroughly with fine steel wool, while it is taped to a sheet of tempered glass --- pieces between six and eight inches (15 and 20 centimeters) are best. Among other things, this gets the stuff very flat. After this I 'age' the foil by immersing it for several minutes in boiling water with eggshells, or in which eggshells have been boiled for twenty minutes of so. Save six to twelve shells in advance. This knocks down the shine, and if will put a grey tone to the foil, which is darker the longer it is in the water and the more shells are involved. Be careful not to crinkle or bend the foil. Let it dry/pat it dry between paper towels. The tape it, roughed side up (original dull side down) on the glass, and hit it with the steel wool again. Then apply adhesive. I use MicroScale foil adhesive; I gather preparations for affixing gold leaf are also available, and work well. Put the MicroScale on pretty lavishly with a cotton bud, and let it dry about half an hour. I do not try and cut precisely to individual panels, certainly not in advance, but on the model, always trim along panel lines. I will cut pieces large enough to take in several panels, burnish them down with cotton buds (stiff sticks, not plastic tube sticks, are necessary), and round wooden toothpicks, and then trim on panel lines in the surface. The surface needs to be smooth. If you find an irregularity showing in the foil, strip the piece off, smooth things down, and try again with a new piece. Sometimes you can get away with simply applying a second piece of foil over the first, after a bit of sanding, but this does not always work. I do mix up several sheets of foil on the same model usually, to get panel variation, as no two sheets come out of the boil in identical shades. You will want to use a pretty sharp knife, new or nearly new, to cut the foil, and it will dull pretty quickly.

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