World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
5 Feb 2011 07:49:35 PM

French Amiot 143 was a medium bomber of pre
World War II design.
Powered by 2xGnome Rhone 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engines/858hp each its first flight was in 1931, and retired in 1944.

OFF THE UGLINESS SCALE!

The Amiot was inadequate by the time of the
German invasion of France May 10, 1940 as
a combat aircraft it was obsolete with its
boxy fuselage, underside windows with huge
fixed landing gears and slow speed made it an easy target for German fighters, and it was also ugly...

EASY PICKINS:

A force of thirteen Amiot bombers from
I/34, II/34 and II/38 were jumped by Bf 109s
en route to the target, twelve were shotdown
At the time of the Armistice, 53 were left in
the unoccupied zone & 25 in French N. Africa
by 1943 only eleven planes were left and three were airworthy, that were used by the
Vichy French Air Force.

THE OLD BUZZARD:

After the French Armistice, the Germans used
captured Amiot 143s as transports and crew trainers.
During the war, I./KG200 operated the Amiot, and used them as transports attached to Luftflotte 3.
The Vichy French Air Force used the surviving
aircraft, until replaced with LeO 45/451
Liore et Oliver medium bombers the Germans had captured.
The Free French used the Amiot 143, that were
captured from the Vichy French until 1944.

After World War II the surviving Amiot 143s
were scrapped, and the French Air Force continued to use the LeO 45/451 until its
retirement in the late 1950s.
File photograph shows three Amiot 143s in formation 6(N16) but the unit is unknown.