Strana 7
Plastos – Historiy of Scale
Plastic Modelling
Part One – The Beginning / Vladimír Šulc
From Wings of War to the Shinkansen
Historical Reflection / Jan Bobek
World War II left a deep legacy in the field of aeronautical innovation, thanks
in part to German and Japanese engineers. After the conflict ended, German
specialists such as the Horten brothers, Willy Messerschmitt, Alexander
Lippisch, and Wernher von Braun found new opportunities abroad, where
they continued their work, particularly in the United States and Argentina.
To a large extent, these designers and many of their colleagues cooperated
voluntarily with their former American enemies. The Horten brothers, who
completed a flying wing powered by two jet engines near the end of the
war, were even actively preparing to surrender to the Americans in the final
months. Moreover, a large number of German designers were deported to
the Soviet Union, although some of them were later able to continue their
work also in West Germany. In contrast, Japanese designers such as Jirō
Horikoshi, Tadanao Miki, Kiro Honjō, and Takeo Doi remained in postwar Ja-
pan, quietly adapting their talents to the conditions of an occupied nation and
contributing to its transformation into a future technological powerhouse.
The Very Last Aerial Combat Over Croatia
History / Marko Jeras
On 8 April 1945, Flight Lieutenant Graham Hulse arrived back to RAF
No. 213 Squadron in Biferno, Italy, for his second tour of duty, where he as-
sumed command of "A" flight. He had completed his first tour on operations
from Greece and he was to some extent familiar with the set-up and type of
operations flown over Yugoslavia. From the beginning of April 1945 pilots of
RAF No. 213 Squadron performed bombing and strafing missions on rail and
road traffic, as well as fighter escort for bombers to targets in Yugoslavia.
On 12 April 1945, the unit used, for the first time, a landing ground at Prkos
near Zadar, as an advanced aerodrome. On 18 April 1945, the Squadron was
at peak activity against retreating columns North and West of Zagreb.
To support this effort, six aircraft were sent daily to advanced L/G Prkos
near Zadar and six pilots were permanently detached there for one night at
a time. On 22 April 1945, at last, news of the move to Prkos arrived.
An advance party of the Squadron was to set out for Zadar on 25 April,
with the remaining parties to follow as soon as possible…