Hungarian and Italian aircraft have always hit the soft side of my aviation and modeling interests. Former enemies during WWI, Hungary and Italy came to terms during the late 20s and 30s, when the former began its militarization. Banned from having an armed air corp by the Treaty of the Trianon, military training was disguised as a union of civilian aeroclubs and later blown to a fully military organization in 1938. Despite the use of german Udet Flamingos and similar light aircraft for training purposes, the first fighters impressed were Fiat Cr.20s used for "meteorological research". Their use would spawn a long military relationship, to the extent that the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL) or Royal Hungarian Air Force would be mostly composed of italian aircraft at the outbreak of WWII. German airplanes would be a minority until later in the war.
Despite the use of foreign equipment, the MKHL did rely on local manufacturers. Notably, the Weiss Manfred company produced a series of reconnaissance biplanes, based on the ubiquitous Fokker C.V that would give sterling service throughout the conflict, in spite of their obsolesence. Weiss Manfred also manufactured the engine used by the majority of the aircraft of the MKHL, the WMK14b. Basically a Gnome & Rhone G&R K.14 under licensed production, this twin row, air cooled radial engine was to power such different airplanes as the Ju-86K bomber, He-46Hu, WM.16 and 21 Solyom, He-170K reconnaissance two-seaters and the MAVAG Heja II fighter.
The latter was a development of the Heja I, an italian Re.2000 Falco I, Series I of which 70 were purchased by the MKHL in December of 1939 in order to boost the fighting capabilities of the force. In hungarian service the Heja I was the subject of mixed criticism, specially when intensive military operations followed the involvement of Hungary in Operation Barbarossa. Its detractors complained about the complex, 5-spar structure of the wing and its integral fuel cell, very prone to be set ablaze by enemy fire, the slow firing 12.7mm Breda machine guns and the absolutely unreliable Piaggio P.XI RC40 radial engine. Also, the pilots were concerned about its inadequate spin and stall characteristics. On the other hand, the long range, sturdy construction and relatively high speed were praised over biplane fighters like the Cr.32 and 42, which the MKHL pilots were flying at the time. Also, they fared quite well against the assorted collection of new and old fighters flown by the VVS once Operation Barbarossa began.
The original Heja:
Being granted the licensing rights for the type, MAVAG (Magyar Királyi Állami Vas-, Acél- és Gépgyárak or Royal Hungarian State Iron, Steel and Machine Works) set out to solve the main issue with the airplane, that of the engine. So unreliable was the engine, that the Regia Aeronautica's pilots and ground crews hated the aircraft, always waiting for a piston, or several, to go through a cilynder, the swedes of the Flygvapnet considered it a good plane, rugged enough for their harsh enviroment, but maintenance intensive and the hungarians set themselves to the task of locally producing a trusty replacement before things went bad. They lengthened the fuselage by 1 foot, 3 inches in order to install the indigenous WMK-14b and associated ancilliares. Gone were the nightmarish P.XI and its unpredictable behavior.
Also gone were the Piaggio-D'Ascanio P.1001 three-bladed constant speed propelle, replaced by a similar Hamilton unit, and the 12,7mm Breda SAFAT machine guns, which made way to a coupled 12.7mm Danuvia Gebauer GKM .40M machine gun set. Basically an oversized GKM 7.92mm 26/31, the 40M was chambered for the 12.7x81 Vickers-Fiat cartridge, carried into a 300 round drum. Like its smaller counterpart, it was a dual gun driven by the engine's crankshaft and not by recoil or gas like the usual weapons at the time. In this way the MG ran very smoothly, at a very high rate of fire (some 1500 r.p.m.) and without jamming if a cartridge misfired, since it was driven by the engine, thus force feeding the breech and passing to the next round. Also, it counted with a differential brake, which, in case of malfunction or eventual jamming of one of the two barrels, allowed it to disengage, leaving the other gun fully operational.
After the conversion was done, the front end of the now christened Heja II was signicantly different. The upper intake was gone, and the small one on the underside was replaced with a larger, deeper one. The cowling was smaller in diameter now, and two bulges were added in front of the redesigned cockpit to make room for the gun breeches and feeding mechanisms. Finally, the spinner was removed from the series machines as was the radio mast when the radio changed to a more reliable Telefunken set. A modification invisible to the eye was the substitution of the original italian fuel tanks by 22 small tanks design locally, to prevent the continuous leaking that had also hindered the Heja's reliability.
Taking to the air on October 30, 1942, the first Heja II would be followed by another 203 siblings until August 1, 1944 when the last one left the factory. Overall performance was reduced from figures for the earlier model, specially the top speed of 485 km/h was some 45 km slower than that of the Heja I, but the overall gain in reliability and armament made the loss of speed worth the trouble. All of them were alloted the Vadasz (fighter) numbers in the V4+71 - V4+95 and V4+96 - V5+70 series, for the first 2 batches. Some others would use serials in the 600 series, at the end of the production run.
By March 1944 various spares and tools from foreign contractors began to be in short supply. A raid on the night of April 3rd to 4th 1944 destroyed the plants for the production of aircraft and engines. It burned most of the warehouses and by the end of April production stopped. Weiss Manfred got bombed on July 27, destroying the motor plant, assembly plant, and warehouses. Some 25-30 unfinished aircraft of the third series were consumed by fire as the result of this action.
Last Hejja II (V6+87) took off on Oct. 11, 1944. Four or five planes had been left at the factory airfield in anticipation of test flights in late December 1944, when Soviet troops were in close proximity. There was no other bitter choice for the hungarian engineers than blow them up with hand grenades.
In service with the MKHL the MAVAG Heja II was used as a training aircraft for most of its operational life, never going to the Eastern front with its forerunner, although quite a lot of them took part in protecting the hungarian airspace against Allied aerial raids. In late 1942, it was planned to equip the Night-Fighter Squadron 5/1, which was flying Fiat Cr.42s, with eight Heja II. These aircraft were to have a German radio, but conversion to the night-fighter role never took place.
On March 19, 1944, and following a time of uneasy diplomatic relations German forces entered Hungary to prevent the collapse of the Axis. The Germans banned all test flights and this ban was to remain in effect until April 1, when the 15th Air Army U.S. began regular bombing of Hungarian targets. 13 April 1944 saw a raid over Budapest, which was attacked by American bombers, followed by P-38 from the 1st Fighter Group, led by Lieutenant Alford. Pilots of the P-38s reported shooting down of two Re.2001, west of Lake Balaton, which were actually Heja II with only one of them, V.5+39 being actually damaged because of enemy fire and a colliding with a Lightning, flown by Ferenc Kass.
Eight Heja II from 1/2. Squadron, based at Szolnok, took off in order to cover the south of Budapest. Four Heja II attacked the 454th Group, but broke off the attack, stumbling on a dense barrage fire from the bombers. Two of them were damaged, and one made an emergency landing on its belly. The remaining four Hungarian fighters were unable to catch the bombers, faced with the P-47s of the 325th Fighter Group. American pilots reported once again downing Re.2001s, one destroyed and one damaged. Lt. Eugene Emmons shot down the first, and Lt. George Novotny claimed the damaged fighter. This loss was confirmed by the Hungarian side.
In September, many Heja II still waited at MAVAG for their compasses, variometer and machine-guns. Twenty of them had no propellers and ten more were without engines. During the last months of 1944, training squadron 101/6 "Puma" still has six flyable MAVAG Heja II. The last official report mentioning the Heja II was dated February 22, 1945. It pointed out that Heja II (V6+09) crashed during a training flight.
Sadly, there are no extant examples left of this plane, more reknown in its training role than for its fighting career. In the next installment of TMU I'll take a look at building the 1/72 Special Hobby Heja II.
Till then, take care and good luck.
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