Hungarian Hawks

by Jason Long

As tensions increased in Europe in the late Thirties Hungary began a covert process of rearming to a degree forbidden by the Treaty of Trianon, which was Hungary's equivalent of the Versailles Treaty. Much like the Germans, the Hungarians had partially managed to evade these restrictions, but they were still at a severe disadvantage if forced to defend themselves against any of their neighbors.

The military provisions of the treaty were lifted by agreement with Hungary's neighbors of the Little Entente, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Czechoslovakia, in August 1938 and the Hungarians almost immediately began negotiations to replace their Italian CR.32bis biplane fighters for a batch of 36 German Heinkel He 112Bs. After prolonged negotiations and a few about faces by the Germans the deal was cancelled when the Germans invaded Poland, probably because the He 112s built in Budapest were intended to be powered by the DB 601 engine, as used in the Bf 109E, and likely in short supply. Also the Germans were reluctant to antagonize Romania, Germany's only major source of oil in Europe.

This really put the Hungarians on the spot as all of the European Great Powers were committed to the on-going conflict except the Soviet Union and Italy. A purchase of aircraft from the former country was politically unacceptable given the anti-communist tone of the country, but the Italians had reasonably modern fighters available quickly, or so they said, and Hungary was joined by Belgium, Sweden, and Finland in ordering aircraft in late 1939.

The Hungarians ordered a batch of CR.42 biplanes for immediate delivery as they were the soonest able to be delivered, but they were resolved not to be placed again at the mercy of outside events and still wanted to build their own fighters. They ordered on 27 December 39 a batch of 70 of the most modern Italian fighter available, the Re 2000, and procured a license as well.

The Re 2000 was heavily influenced by the American Seversky P-35, but was improved by the Italian engineers with a fully-retractable landing gear and other, more minor, alterations. It had first flown in May 1939 and was a major advance structurally over its rivals in Italian service. However one advance that was very troublesome was the so-called wet wing. Most of the wing served as a fuel tank and tended to leak when the sealant dried out in flight. There was no provision for any means of self-sealing so nearly the entire wing was a vulnerable target for enemy aircraft.

This last point was used by Italian Air Ministry to reject the Re 2000 for service with the Regia Aeronautica despite its superior performance over the trio of fighters that had only recently entered service, the CR.42, the MC.200, and the G.50. This allowed Reggiane to solicit foreign orders which were quickly forthcoming from a number of the minor European powers, and even one of the major powers when Great Britain ordered 300 on 26 January 1940, but that story's for another day.

The first five Re 2000s were to be delivered in March 1940, only 3 months from the signature of the contract and the balance by July. Reggiane's schedule proved to be a bit optimistic and the first aircraft weren't delivered until May, two months late. However production was to be much slower ramping up than anticipated and only twenty-four were delivered by year's end. The situation was exacerbated when the Italians commandeered 20 Re 2000s of the Hungarian order in the spring of 1941 for modifications for service in Italian East Africa, even though extra aircraft were added to the production run in compensation.

The first Héjas (Hawks), as the Hungarians termed their Re 2000s were assigned to 2./I Vádasz Osztaly (Fighter Group) and its two subordinate fighter squadrons (Vádasz Szazád). They were still converting from their old CR.32 biplanes when Hungary joined in the invasion of the Soviet Union in late June, 1941 and weren't initially committed to the fray. However a detachment of six Héjas arrived in the Ukraine on 7 August for a combat evaluation of the new fighter. They performed well against the obsolete Soviet I-16s and I-153s they encountered, claiming six victories for only one loss before being withdrawn in December along with the rest of the Hungarian air units.

The evaluation under combat conditions revealed several weaknesses of the Re 2000 that hadn't been immediately noticeable when being tested under peacetime conditions. The Piaggio P.IX R.C. 40 engine of 986 hp proved to be prone to inexplicable power losses, unreliable and was very difficult to maintain. Years later the designer of the Re 2000 was to say that the granting of an airworthiness certificate for this engine was beyond credibility. In addition the armament of two 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT machineguns lacked hitting power because of their slow rate of fire. Also the hydraulic system and the fuel tanks proved troublesome and unreliable. The low-speed characteristics of the Re 2000 weren't pleasant and it was tricky to land without stalling out.

The license-built Héja-M (some sources designate it as the Héja II) was extensively redesigned to eliminate most of these problems. It was powered by the license-built Gnome-Rhone Mistral Major WMK-14B of 930 hp. This was lighter and smaller in diameter than the Piaggio which necessitated an extension of the engine bearers to maintain the center of gravity. Two 12.7mm Danuvia Gebauer GKM machine-guns with a rate of fire approximately triple that of the Breda-SAFATs replaced the Italian guns. The hydraulic system was to be replaced by a British Hamilton-Standard system, but there were serious difficulties importing them that weren't resolved until 1943. The wing was redesigned to replace the wet wing with normal box-type fuel tanks at a slight cost in range. An armored seat was added and the most of the airframe was strengthened.

All of these changes seriously delayed the production of the Héja-M beyond the anticipated autumn 1941 date. The Italian-built Héja converted to test the installation of the WMK 14B didn't even fly for the first time until 18 May 1942 and the first Héja-M wasn't delivered from MAVAG's Budapest production line until 30 October, over a year late. That was the only Héja-M produced in 1942. Sources differ in the number delivered in 1943; some claim 130, but others state that only 86 were delivered. The rest were delivered in 1944, although the contact was trimmed back somewhat as the obsolescene of the Héja-M became apparent. Approximately 196 Héja-Ms were delivered.

Héjas returned to the Eastern Front in June 1942 as part of the air support for the 2nd Army. The two squadrons of the 1./I Vádasz Osztaly mainly flew escort for the Hungarian's own bombers and ground attack missions. They claimed only 24 kills for the loss of one Héja in combat between June and October, but the increasing obsolescence of the Héja limited its successes against the modern Soviet fighters now opposing the Hungarians. However, two Héjas were shot down in error by the Germans who confused it with the Soviet I-16. In October the two squadrons were consolidated into one and reequipped by the Germans with Bf 109F-4s as the maintenance problems of the Héjas had reduced serviceability to unacceptably low levels and its high accident rate reduced the numbers available. The Piaggio engines didn't tolerate the intense cold well and serviceability rates plunged with the temperature. The Héjas of 1/3. and 1/4. arrived in December, but they were stationed to cover the rear area of 2nd Army. They were quickly consolidated and redesignated as 5/2. Vádasz Szazád. By January it was reduced to only six operational aircraft which had to be destroyed when the Soviets surrounded their airfield at Ilovskoye in mid-January 1943 as part of their Little Saturn Offensive. The squadron's remnants returned to Hungary with most of the survivors of the 2nd Army.

The few remaining Héjas and the new Héja-Ms were relegated to the home defense and training roles for the rest of the war although German deliveries of the latest Bf 109s, and Hungarian manufacture of them, superceded the Héjas in the home defense role beginning in 1944. However some Héja-Ms of the 2./I Vádasz Szazád may have intercepted B-24s of the US Fifth Air Force in the spring of 1944 and may have shot-down one. Sources are unclear even to the date of the possible interception although one mentions two Héjas lost to American escort fighters.

Two Héja-Ms were converted as dive-bombers in 1943, but no further aircraft were converted as the Germans had supplied Fw 190F-8 fighter-bombers with superior performance.

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