Service history

1939

It could be said that the year 1939 began in a sporting fashion.

No 12 also was adapted to tow gliders and as from January 8th until the end of April numerous tug flights took place; most of them at the EMAer, whilst others were flown at Boiso Lanza, Minas and Mercedes. In almost all the missions the pilot was 1st Sgt. Hilario Almandós but there are no records of the serials nor the type of gliders, nor the pilots who flew them. This activity was repeated again sporadically in the summer of 1940 with No 11 and in 1945-6 from Melilla with No 607 (ex No.6) always piloted by 1st Sgt. Almandós.

The first semester of the year continued with the normal instructional flights and general training to which were added other missions for aerial photography, radiotelegraphy and camera-gun air-to-air firing.

Tiger Moth E-4 with photographic machine-gun.   FAU archive

At the same time and successively for several years, during navigation training flights the “Terrain de Secours” which Air France had established in Durazno, Treinta y Tres and Rocha were used for stops. There they had basic services of landing guide-lights, telegraph, oil and petrol.

At the end of June, E-9 reappeared and following a test flight of 20 minutes with the Service Division was reintegrated with the AMAer fleet.

In the last week of June, the President of the Republic of Paraguay Gen. Felix Estigarribia visited Uruguay. An important military parade was held in his honour which included a formation of the Military Aeronautics composed of eight Potez 25, three Waco JHD and 15 DH82A led by Lieut.Col. Medardo Farías flying Tiger Moth No 2. 

D.H.82A. Squadron  -. Aerial display in honour of Gen. Estigarribia on 28/6/399

As a consequence of the Army reorganization established in Decree No 80 of February 17, 1939 and considering the future transfer of Aeronautical Base No 2 to Durazno Aerodrome, the General Director of Military Aeronautics published Order No 6519 on June 28, which included the reassignment of aeroplanes. In accordance with this, Tiger Moth No 16 from Aerial Base No 1 and No 17 from the Workshops, General Stores and Services Division moved to A.B. No 2, which still had its temporary base in the Capt. Boiso Lanza Military Aerodrome.

The same order established internal assignment of equipment from A.B. No 1, No 15 as a communications Courier in Fighter Squadron No 2, and Tiger Moth No 4, in the same role, with No 4 Bomber Squadron in the General Reserve Group.

On June 10th Tiger Moth No 18 suffered an accident at the Durazno Aerodrome, killing both the pilot 2nd Lieut. Juan Carvalho, responsible for this weekly detachment and an Air France telegrapher, Mr. Américo Méndez, who was flying with Lieut Carvalho on a local flight.

The loss of No 18 made it the shortest-lived Uruguayan DH82A, completing only 200 hours of flying in its 20 months of service.

The unfortunate No 18 before its accident. Capt. Boiso Lanza Military Aerodrome, 1939.
Photo via Eduardo Luzardo.

Due to the accident the Service Division was left without a Tiger Moth on account of which the EMAer was ordered to deliver Tiger Moth No 3 to the unit as a replacement.

For the celebrations on August 25 the air display included 15 DH82A, which represented an excellent operational percentage. We remind you that to date numbers 1 and 18 had already been lost, whilst number 17 was still under repair from the accident of the previous December. At that festivity the formation was led by the Director of the EMAer, Lieut.Col. Medardo Farias, flying No 8.

On September 2nd three officials from the Navy began the Pilot's Course: Marine Guards Omar Aguirre, Luis Lluvera and Miguel Cabrera, who at the end of three months' instruction passed the standard inspection and in December completed their first solo flights in the DH82A.

October would be tragic: two Tiger Moths were lost together with the lives of two young officers. On 3rd October, returning from a navigation exercise to Treinta y Tres, No 7 had an accident in Costas de Solís, and pilot Lieut. Jr. Rolando Del Río was killed and 2nd Lieut. Juan C. Ferreira suffered serious injuries.

On the 14th, whilst carrying out “fighting practice” at the EMAer, the machines 14 and 10 collided in the air. The first was landed by Lieut. Jr. Juan Alfaro with minor damage but not so No 10, which crashed with its pilot, Lieut. Jr. Oscar Fernandez on board, unable to open his parachute in time.

At the beginning of the month, still operating from Paso de Mendoza, Aerial Base No 2 opened its first Operational Flight Logbook. From 2nd on, flights started to be registered in this unit, which would still take 10 months to move to Durazno. Anyway, Tiger Moths 16 and 17 already figure as their aeroplanes, although the latter, being out of action, would only be ready to fly to its new base in December.

On November 6, Tiger Moths 6, 8, 13 and 14 took off from the EMAer to effect one of the many formation navigational exercises to the Treinta y Tres field. Only the first three aircraft returned the same day but for reasons which we have been unable to determine, No.14 did not return and only reappeared in August the following year when she was flight tested by the Service Division.

This leads us to suppose that some ‘complicated’ landing occurred and as was common practice, the machine had to be dismantled on site and taken back by train to Boiso Lanza for repair..

The Graf Spee With its 11 inch guns still loaded, the German Battlecruiser Graf Spee was scuttled in the entrance to Montevideo Harbour on December 13, 1939. The war had reached Uruguay, and the country was forced to face the possibility of having to give a military response. In 1964, the then General Oscar Gestido in an interview with Sir Eugene Millington Drake for his book “The drama of the Graf Spee and the Battle of the River Plate”, explained the position of Uruguayan Military Aviation and the potentially offensive nature of the country's Tiger Moths: "Even the training aircraft used by the aviation school, had been acquired with other uses in mind. All the school aeroplanes, and we believe this to be an almost unique situation, were acquired with the capability to drop light bombs so that the classic Tiger Moths, with their reliable and dependable Gipsy engines, were in a condition to intervene. With regard to a powerful enemy, if they did not kill them, they wounded them. If they did not wound them, they bit them or nipped them. But they always molested. The Military Aviation personnel were very well trained. They flew correctly, and knew their equipment. They would fulfill any mission that the Republic required them to. The Military Aviation people have demonstrated this and always will." (from the book “Contributions to the History of the Uruguayan Air Force”, by Col.(PAM) Jaime Meregalli and 1st Sgt. (TE) Carlos Bernasconi)

Summarising 1939, the negative balance of the three machines and four lives lost cannot be dismissed even though the total of 2,909 hours flown by these aeroplanes surpassed the 2,831 of the previous year.  Tiger Moth No 3, with 231 hours in the year, was the first of its type in Uruguay to exceed 1,000 hours.