1/48 Battle Axe Marcel Bloch 174

Antoine de Saint Exupery’s Flight to Arras  

by Pablo Calcaterra

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The plane:

The Bloch 174 was a recco/light bomber developed for the French Air Force just before the war. It was a 3 seat twin-engine high speed (500 km/hr) plane that had many innovations (for instance, the rear guns could be fired by the pilot if the gunner was out of action).  Only a hand-full were delivered to the French units before the Armistice.  It’s high speed, high altitude and maneuverability allowed them to bring back their crews safely in most of the occasions. Only 3 planes were lost in combat during May-June 1940!  One of them was Lt. Leux (read below), shot down by Horst Tietzen.  After a crash landing in Belgium, both the gunner and the observer died of their wounds.

It proved to be so valuable that when France surrendered in June 1940, both the Free French and the Vichy air forces fought to get hold of the remaining planes.

It was also used as a dive-bomber with some success in 1943 in North Africa against the Germans until the tired planes were replaced by F-5 Lightnings. The engines (Gnome Rhone) were used in the Bloch 152 fighter, the Henschel 129 tank buster and the Me323 Giant. After the war, the French Navy used a torpedo bomber version called Bloch 175 until 1950.

The characteristics of this outstanding plane were as follow:

General characteristics
  • Crew: three Length: 12.25 m (40 ft 2 in)
  • Wingspan: 17.90 m (58 ft 9 in)
  • Height: 3.55 m (11 ft 8 in)
  • Wing Area: 38.00 m&sup2 (409 ft&sup2)  
  • Empty: 5,600 kg (12,346 lb)
  • Maximum takeoff: 7,160 kg (15,784 lb)
  • Powerplant: 2x Gnome-Rhône 14N-20/21 14-cylinder radial engines, 768 kW (1,030 hp) each Gnome-Rhône 14N-20/21 14-cylinder radial engines, 768 kW (1,030 hp) each
Performance
  • Maximum speed: 530 km/h (331 mph)
  • Range: 1,650 km (1,025 miles)
  • Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,090 ft)
  • Rate of climb: 727 m/min (2,385 ft/min)
Armament
  • 2x forward firing 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine guns in the wings
  • 2x 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine guns in the dorsal position  
  • 1 or 3x 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine guns on aft-firing mounts  
  • 400 kg (880 lb) of bombs - usually 8x 40 kg (88 lb) bombs.  

The pilot:

Antoine de Saint Exupery is probably the most famous French writer of the XX Century.  He was born in Lyon, France, on June 29th 1900 (the airport is now called after him).  His father was Count Jean de Saint-Exupery. After a rebel youth, he has his first flight in 1912 and fell in love with planes.  His family sent him and his brothers and sisters to Switzerland during the First World War.  He entered the Naval Academy in 1917 but proved to be a bad student and changed to study Arts in 1919.  Two years later he joined the Army and by saving money he started to take flying classes.  In 1922 he was a fighter pilot but an accident and pressure from his would-be family prevented him from continuing this career. He worked in an office for some time, while his first writing was published: The aviator.  In 1926 he joined one of the first French commercial airlines, Latecoere.  There he met Didier Durat, Director of the Society, who would have an important influence on Saint Ex.  The year after, he was named pilot in the Tolouse-Dakar and Dakar-Casablanca lines, flying Breguet 14s.  Later he was put in charge of the Cape Juby base in Morocco, at a time when the moors started an insurrection. He fell in love with the desert and performed some extraordinary missions to rescue fallen pilots.  Here he wrote his first important book, Southern Mail.  In 1930 he was placed in command of the Argentinian branch of the company, called Aeroposta Argentina.  He was introduced to his future wife, Consuelo.  He met again with his great friends and aviation pioneers: Gillaumet, Mermoz and Reine.  He received a medal for his services in Morocco.  He wrote Night Flight that published in 1931 became the most important French novel in that year and was awarded the Femina prize.  He quit the airline and started to live as a writer.  As such, Saint Exupery traveled around the world doing articles for Paris Soir (Moscow, Spanish Civil War, Germany).  Saint Ex tried to solve some financial problems with a raid from Paris to Saigon, but his plane (a Simoun) crashed in the Sahara and after 5 days of struggle, and about to die of thirst, a caravan of Bedouins rescued him and his companion.  In 1938 he failed again in a raid from New York to Tierra del Fuego, and he almost got killed in the accident.  

In 1939 his new book, Wind, sand and Stars received another prize in France and when published in the USA it became a best seller.  He was given the Legion de Honor.  When the situation with Germany became too unstable, he was called back to duty (as he was a Captain (Res.) of the French Army).  Being already 39 years old and with several injuries from his accidents, he was only offered to fly long-range bombers, which he rejected as he despised the idea of killing civilians (as he had witnessed in Spain).  His numerous contacts finally succeed in finding him room in the II/33 Recco Group, The Axe.  There was some lack of enthusiasm originally in the group, as the pilots did not know what to expect from such a famous pilot and writer.  But when he presented himself to his squad leader, Lt. Leux, Saint Ex, being a Captain, only said: “Saint Exupery, pilot”.  With that, he made clear how he felt about titles, prizes and honors and became accepted immediately by his fellow fliers. During the boring months of the winter of 39/40, with little war happening, he flew training missions and also enchanted his mates with his stories and cards games.  The guns of the planes of the Group (Potez 63) got frozen after firing only some shots when flying at high altitude.  After some research and work with scientists, Saint Exupery was able to trace the cause of the problem and it was fixed.    

He flew the following missions during March/June 40:

29 March: First operational mission of a Bloch 174: flew a high altitude mission north of Luxemburg. Bloch 174 #8. Itinerary: Orconte, Verdun, Montmédy, Neuchâtel, Bastogne, Châlons-sur-Marne, Orconte.  Unfavorable atmospheric conditions.  Returned before mission was over.  Lasted:  1 h. 25 of flight.

March 31: This time on Bloch 174 # 21.  Photographic mission at high altitude.  Itinerary:  Orconte, Aix-la-Chapelle, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Orconte.  Fully successful mission.  Altitude 9.000 meters.  Lasted:  2 hours.

1st April:  Bloch 174 #21.  Photographic mission at high altitude.  Itinerary:  Orconte, Carignan, Cologne, Remagen, Coblence, Montmédy.  Mission specially succesfull.  Altitude:  9 000 meters.  Lasted:  2 hours. Some German fighters were seen trying to catch them but were unable to reach the same altitude in time and the Bloch escaped unharmed.

May 23.  This is the mission of Flight to Arras (Pilote de guerre), mixed with the one flown on June 6th. On Bloch 174 # 24. Crew:  pilot Saint Exupery, Observer Lt. Dutertre, gunner Sgt Mot.  Recco mission at medium altitude with fighter cover.  Itinerary:  Orly, Meaux, pick up fighter escort, then Compiègne, Rosières-en-Santerre, Bry-sur-Somme, Albert, Arras, Douai and return.  Leaving Meaux they were escorted by 5 Dewoitines 520. At Compiègne altitude was 300 meters.  Albert: airplanes are arranged in front of the sheds, some elements at trenches.  Shortly after Albert, flak was very active.  Passed to the vicinity of Bapaume.  They could see Arras in fire from far away.  Before arriving to Arras, they lost the fighters in a storm.  When they left the the storm behind and flying at 200 meters of altitude they saw a strong force of enemy tanks 3 km southwest of  Arras, ready to attack the city. Flak again was very strong. The plane was touched: a tank losses all the oil. They immediately return to Orly.  The mission lasted 1 h. 40 to an altitude varying between 300 and 50 mts.

May 31.  Bloch 174 # 22.  Photographic recognition at high altitude.  Itinerary:  Orly, Tergnier, Péronne, Amiens, Abbeville, Orly.  Fully successful photographic mission, no incidents to be reported.  Lasted:  2 h. 20.  Altitude:  9,600 meters.

June 6. On Bloch 174 #53.  Photographic recognition at high altitude.  Itinerary:  Soissons, Laon, Vervins, Hirson, The Cateau, Cambrai, Péronne, Roye, Montdidier.  Fully successful mission.  Altitude:  10,000 meters.  Lasted:  2 h. 20 hr.

June 9.  Again on Bloch 174 #53.  Photographic recognition at high altitude.  Itinerary: Château-Thierry, Soissons, La Fère, Saint-Quentin, Guise, La Capelle, Vervins, Laon, Reims.  Mission took place at 9,200 meters and lasted for 2 h. 5 minutes.  Photographs taken were considered very interesting.  

In three weeks, II/33 lost 17 out of the 23 crew members that started the war.  Losses were mainly in Potez planes.  

After the catastrophe, he was demobilized in North Africa.  The records of II/33 state: ‘With Saint Exupery gone, the Group has lost it’s soul”. A tribute to his spirit.

He arrived in the US on December 31st, 1940, trying to get the American Govt. involved in the war. Three books are written and published during the almost 3 years he stayed in America: The Little Prince (probably his most famous book), Flight to Arras (a beautiful book about Humanity, war and a meaning of life) and Letter to a hostage (to his friends in occupied France).  A copy Saint Exupery’s Flight to Arras printed in France (before it was banned because it was against the Germans) was smuggled to a camp of prisoners by French soldiers.  According to Lt. Israel, former member of The Axe during the 1940 fight, and POW in that camp, the book was treasured and read by the French prisoners, even risking punishment.  As he was not on De Gaulle’s side (but not on the Vichy one either…), he was despised by some of the French in exile.  He was unjustly attacked and vilified.  Tired of this environment and only longing to share the suffering of the people living in France under the German boot, he succeeded in getting permission to join again his beloved II/33, though he was older than regulations permitted.  First mission was flown in a P-38 Lightning (F-5) in June but in July he made a mistake, damaged his plane while landing and was not allowed to fly again.  Angry and disappointed he moved heaven and earth and managed to get 5 more missions approved.  He was now a Commander and the Group was based in Corsica.  By July 1944, he had flown not 5 but 8 missions (including one when he almost passed out for lack of oxygen and another one when he had to return via Italy on one engine).  At this time, he was writing his most important book, Citadel, which is a summary of his thoughts.  The book, though not finished, has been published.  Saint Ex was happy enjoying the comradeship of his fellow American and French pilots, far away from the intrigues of the politicians in North Africa and the US.  On July 31, he was going to be told about the invasion of Southern France, in order to protect him as, knowing the secret, he would not be allowed to fly any more missions and risk his life.  But on this day, he did not return from a mission to Southern France. For decades it was thought that he had been shot down, but a couple of years ago the remains of his Lightning were been found under the sea in front of the French Southern coast.  There are no bullet holes in his plane but the plane is an area far away from the mission plan, so it can be assumed that he had a problem with oxygen again and this time it proved to be fatal.  Only the night before he had left a letter to his friends and his room in order…premonition or suicide?  I prefer to think that a mechanical failure caused his death.  

Here are some phrases that he wrote:

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Antoine_de_Saint-Exupery/  

 

The kit:

Well, what can I say about the Battle Axe kit? Only that if it had not been Saint Ex’s plane I would have never bought it. Not because I don’t like French planes from WWII (I have built Pierre LeGloan’s Dewotaine 520 from Tamiya and have the Bloch 152 from Classic Airframes waiting to be built) but because this is a limited run kit and as such, it is a nightmare. It took me 3 months of non-stop work a couple of hours every night, almost every day, to get it ready to be painted. Panel lines are inaccurate, the windows under the fuselage are missing, the surface is rough and needs to be sanded, the vacuum formed clear parts don’t align properly…

Anyway, here is the way I built the kit:  

Cockpit:

The consoles are badly molded on the side walls (almost non existent) so I had to scratch build them. The seat belts are photoetched (but not from French planes…)  

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

The windows are missing and I had to use the 3D scale plans in the Dassault website (Marcel Bloch changed the name of the company after the war, taking his brother’s alias in the French Resistance: Dassault) and some blurry pictures I was able to find in Internet. Once the interior was painted and assembled (even the levers were scratch built) I was able to close the fuselage. There are no alignment pins or marks and the fitting of the halves is poor. Lots of sanding was required to be able to close the fuselage sides.  

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

  

I made the underside windows with transparent plastic taken from some packaging. To make them match the surface of the fuselage, I had to “eat” the area around the openings. It took me almost a whole week to fill and sand the union of the windows and the fuselage. It is not perfect, but at least I believe that is good. I made a little hole for the lower machine gun (not the remote controlled version – my speculation as I have not seen a single picture of the actual MB 174 #24 and only have a scale plan from Replic).

Wings.

Following the directions from Replic, I sanded the upper and lower halves because the wings are too thick once assembled. This fixed the problem. As there are too many panel lines on the wings, Dassault helped here again (they even kindly send me some scale plans taken from a book): some were sanded out, others were modified.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

I also decided to cut out the flaps as most of the pictures show that the 174 had them in the down position while on the ground. After painting and building the main landing gear I was able to close the wings.  Now, I was left with a huge gap in the front part of the flaps, that I filled with the plastic spruce/tree. Several sessions of filling and sanding allowed me to get a nice rounded shape.

The landing lights on the wings are wrong and I scratch built the oval shaped one, using a piece of clear sprue as the light itself. The glass was made following the same technique I used for the windows under the fuselage.

 

  

  

  

Engines:

The two rows of cylinders are quite good but again, fitting is tricky. I attached the little rocker arms fairings to the engine hood (which I believe are too large), erased the cooling flaps on the upper side (interestingly, molded but not present in the paint plans…), scratchbuilt the hinges on top of the hood. The ventilation gridsunder the engines were done using a pin and a knife. The intakes under the engine were added and corrected with putty.

 

  

  

Clear parts:

I decided to place the pilot’s hood in the open position (cutting it from the one piece canopy). Some extra support was added to the interior of the clear parts. I first attached the top half, then the lower and finally the nose cone. This was another 1 week task, done after the windows (lots and lots of them!) had been masked. Some dull areas were left on the nose cone by the sandpaper, but that was fixed with Future, that hid them and restored the sheen.

 

  

  

Tail:

The horizontal surfaces go in an angle of 14 degrees but the fuselage part molded into them is too wide, so more sanding and dry fitting…

The vertical surfaces are not right because the gap to attach them to the horizontal ones should be almost 1/3 below the top edge, and not halfway. I had to open a new hole in each one of the vertical surfaces, and fill with plastic and putty the ones in the middle. Once this was achieved, the vertical surfaces were glued in place.

 

Final details before painting:

I attached the wings and a minimal amount of putty and acrylic base (white) was used to fill the gap between the fuselage and the wings.

The engines were glued to the nacelles. Here, the night after they were dry and firmly in place, I realized that though the engines were in the same line as the nacelles molded on the wings, they actually ended up being in an slightly upward angle, when they should have been parallel to the windows and the fuselage. I tried to detach them, but to no avail. Anyway, had I succeeded, and then the nacelles and engines would have been in a broken line…so I guess it is better this way.

I glued the flaps in place with some struggle to have the 4 of them in the same angle. The windscreen was attached and the union to the fuselage was filled with putty and sanded.

With this, I was ready for the best part:

 

Painting:

I used most of the colors from the AeroMaster range. First I gave the plane a coat of grey to check for imperfections. Luckily, there were few to speak of.  

  

  

Then I continued with the light blue/grey of the under fuselage, followed by the dark grey, the green (Khaki) and the brown. As my airbrush is not a good one, I use the Blu Tac technique, plus scores of Maskol. It is time consuming, but done properly prevents mistakes and retouchings.

  

  

Dark grey is the area around the pilot and the rear gunner.

One nice challenge was to paint the lines on the rudder. White first and red second were no problem. But I had to match the same light blue of the roundels. I used 4 Humbrol colors to get the right hue of light blue. It took me more than an hour to get it right but I am very pleased with the end result.

Using sanding paper and black pastels I dry brushed the stains for the exhausts, guns and also made some stains around the bomb bay doors.

 

Decals:

After a nice coat of Future, I applied the decals that went without problem and had good density (a little bit off register on one of the top wing roundels though…). Of course, I chose #24, the plane flown by Saint Ex on his immortal Flight to Arras. The other option is #25.

 

  

  

  

Final touches:

A coat of Humbrol Satin was applied to the plane. I added the wheels, the spinners (that hide most of the details of the engines) and propellers. To keep them free, I used one of the unused cowling fairings to make a top for the propeller shaft). Other details included the lower machine gun, the pilot’s gunsight (photoetched for the ring one and plastic for the deflector one), the canopy and the rear machine guns (twin). Finally, the position lights were painted on the tip of the wings.

  

  

  

  

  

  

With this, my tribute to the immortal Antoine de Saint Exupery was finished. I hope you get interested in his writings. If you like planes and flying, I am sure you will love them the same way I do. If I were asked where to start reading his work, I would say Flight to Arras and then The Little Prince.

Pablo

Sources:

Books:

  • Saint Exupery (by Curtis Cate)

  • Saint Exupery by himself (by Luc Stang)

  • Memories of the Rose (by Consuelo de Saint Exupery)

  • Flight to Arras (by Saint Ex)

  • Wartime writings (by Saint Exupery)

 

Websites:

Acknowledgements:

  • Claude Wickihalder

  • Dave Browne (Hornet Hobbies, Toronto, ON)

  • Avions Marcel Dassault (Luc Berger)

  • John Lester  

Photos and text © by Pablo Calcaterra