The Henschel Hs 123 was a single-seat biplane dive bomber and close-support attack aircraft flown by the German Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War and the early to mid-point of World War II. Although an obsolete design, it continued to see front-line service until 1944.
The aircraft entered service at StG 162 in autumn 1936. Its career as a dive bomber was cut short when the unit received its first Ju 87A the next year. Remaining Hs 123s were incorporated into the temporary Fliegergeschwader 100 at the time of the Munich Crisis. The Geschwader (wing) had been created as an emergency measure, equipped with obsolete aircraft and tasked with the ground attack role. With the signing of the Munich agreement, the crisis was over and the Geschwader was disbanded, the Gruppen being transferred to other established units. By 1939, despite its success in Spain, the Luftwaffe considered the Hs 123 obsolete and the Schlachtgeschwader (close-support wings) had been disbanded with only one Gruppe, II.(Schl)/LG2 still equipped with the Hs 123.
At the request of Oberst (later Generalfeldmarschall) Wolfram von Richthofen, chief of staff of the Legion Kondor, five aircraft had been deployed to Spain as a part of the Legion 'Kondor, intended to be used as tactical bombers.
In their intended role, the Hs 123s proved to be somewhat of a failure, hampered by their small bomb capacity and short range. Instead, the Hs 123s based in Seville were used for ground support, a role in which their range was not such a detriment, and where the ability to accurately place munitions was more important than carrying a large load. The combat evaluation of the Hs 123 demonstrated a remarkable resiliency in close-support missions, proving able to absorb a great deal of punishment including direct hits on the airframe and engine. The Nationalists in Spain were suitably impressed with the Hs 123 under battle conditions, purchasing the entire evaluation flight and ordering an additional 11 aircraft from Germany. The Spanish Hs 123s were known as "Angelito" (little angel), and at least one Hs 123 was in service with the Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force) after 1945.
The Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force) purchased all remaining aircraft of Legion Kondor and ordered an additional 11 aircraft from Germany. During WWII, in Eastern front, spanish volunteers of Escuadrilla Azul (15 Spanische Staffel/VIII Fliegerkorps) of JG-27 based in Vitebsk opered Hs Hs-123s alongside of II.(Schl.)/LG 2 units.
The Polish campaign was a success for an aircraft considered obsolete by the Luftwaffe high command. Within a year, the Hs 123 was again in action in the blitzkrieg attacks through the Netherlands and France. General Guderian was continually impressed by the quick turnaround time offered by II.(Schl)/LG 2. Often positioned as the Luftwaffe's most-forward based combat unit, the Hs 123 flew more missions per day than other units, and again proved their worth in the close-support role. With Ju 87s still being used as tactical bombers rather than true ground support aircraft and with no other aircraft capable of this mission in the Luftwaffe arsenal, the Hs 123 was destined to continue in service for some time more, although numbers were constantly being reduced by attrition.
At the start of Operation Barbarossa, the single Gruppe of the Luftwaffe that was dedicated to ground support was II.(Schl)/LG 2, operating 38 Bf 109Es and 22 Hs 123s. In service use on the Eastern Front, the remaining aircraft had been "field" modified with the main wheel spats removed, additional armour and extra equipment fitted as well as mounting extra machine guns and even cannons in under-wing housings.
During the initial drive, the unit participated in action along the central and northern parts of the front, including a brief time in support of the fighting around Leningrad, and participating in the battles for Bryansk and Vyazma. The first weeks revealed problems associated with using the Bf 109E which was plagued by undercarriage and engine problems in the fighter-bomber role. Its liquid-cooled inline engine was also more vulnerable to small arms fire than the Hs 123's radial.
The winter brought hardship to all German forces in Russia, and the pilots in the open cockpits of the Henschels suffered accordingly. Despite this, they took part in the Battle of Moscow. In January, the unit was re-designated as the first dedicated ground attack Geschwader, SchlG 1. The Hs 123 became a part of 7./SchlG 1.
This "new" unit participated in operations in Crimea in May 1942, after which it operated on the southern sector for some time, participating in the Second Battle of Kharkov and going on to take part in the Battle of Stalingrad. In the meantime, the small number of operational Hs 123 continued to slowly dwindle. Aircraft had been salvaged from training schools and even derelict dumps all over Germany to replace losses.[1] The aircraft that had supposedly replaced the Hs 123, the Ju 87, also started to be assigned to ground support units, leaving tactical bombing to newer aircraft.
The greatest tribute to the Hs 123 usefulness came in January 1943 when Generaloberst Wolfram von Richthofen, then commander-in-chief of Luftflotte 4, asked whether production of the Hs 123 could be restarted because the Hs 123 performed well in a theater where mud, snow, rain and ice took a heavy toll on the serviceability of more advanced aircraft. However, the Henschel factory had already dismantled all tools and jigs in 1940.
After taking part in the Battle of Kursk, SG 1 returned to Crimea, and there during late spring 1944, they finally gave up the aircraft that had served all over Europe from Spain to Leningrad. 7./SG 1 traded its last Hs 123s in mid-1944, for Ju 87s, a type that was to have replaced it back in 1937.
By 1945, the Hs 123s that remained serviceable were reassigned to secondary duties such as supply dropping and glider towing.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.33 m (27 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 10.50 m (34 ft 5.5 in)
Height: 3.20 m (10 ft 6 in)
Empty weight: 1,500 kg (3,307 lb)
Loaded weight: 2,215 kg (4,884 lb)
Powerplant: 1× BMW 132Dc 9-cylinder radial engine, 880 hp (656 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 341 km/h at 1200 m (211 mph at 3,900 ft)
Combat radius: 860 km (533 mi)
Service ceiling: 9,000 m (29,530 ft)
Rate of climb: 900 m/min at sea level (2,950 ft/min at sea level)
Armament
2× 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns (field modification of 2× 20 mm (0.79 in) MG FF cannon)
Up to 450 kg (992 lb) of bombs under wings and under fuselage.
Original CFS model creator: Michael Hart.
Panel and sound: Default FW-190a CFS (must have installed).
All reworked with additional textures and new damage profile: Edmundo Abad 2010.
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This virtual model represent a Hs 123 of Escuadrilla Azul, flown by spanish volunteers of the JG-27 based in Vitebsk, Russian front, 1942.
Special thanks to Christian Maas for his excellent tool Hex-editor XVI32 and Chuck Dome by his MDL file viewer. Without their tools, I might not have been able to assign new textures to the original model.
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Installation CFS
1. Unzip to Temporaly directory "HS123.zip".
2. Copy "HS123" folder to X:\CFS\aircraft directory.
