Almost certainly built in larger numbers than any other warplane type in the period between the world wars, the Bre XIX was designed to succeed the Bre XIV that had performed so magnificently in World War I, and was still in service during the first two years of World War II. Designed by a team under the supervision of Marcel Vuillerme, the Bre XIX was clearly inspired in basic design by its predecessor but was virtually a sesquiplane and was also a considerably more modern type in its primary structure.
The Bre XIX made its debut in Paris in 11/21 and was there revealed as a large airplane built primarily of Dural with a covering of fabric except on the forward fuselage, which was completed with Dural panels. The fuselage was of basically circular section tapering to a nearly oval section farther aft, and this primary structure accommodated the engine in the nose with an underslung radiator; the main fuel tank (starboard) and Type D bomb cell (port) on the center of gravity; the pilots cockpit with flanking Type F bomb cells that could be replaced by jettisonable fuel tanks; and the observer/gunners cockpit. The rear fuselage supported the tail unit that comprised single wire-braced horizontal and vertical surfaces, and the rear unit of the fixed tailskid landing gear. The main landing gear unit was attached to the lower longerons just forward of the center of gravity position, and was of the through-axle type. The large upper wing carried trailing-edge ailerons, and was built in two halves that were slightly swept and met on the centerline where their junction was supported above the fuselage by a tandem arrangement of short aerofoil-shaped struts. The lower wing halves were of smaller span and chord, and extended from the lower longerons: the upper and lower wings were separated by I-type interplane struts with wider chord upper and lower ends, and braced by the normal arrangement of flying and landing wires. The front and rear spars of the lower wing halves also provided attachments for bracing wires that extended downward and inward to the fixed wheel hubs.
The engine originally installed in the Bre XIX.01 prototype was a 450 hp Breguet-Bugatti V-16 engine driving a four-blade, fixed-pitch propeller. This engine was essentially two V-8 engines arranged in tandem, but ground running indicated a tendency to vibration and cooling problems. The engine was replaced by the 450 hp Renault 12Kb Vee engine before the prototype made its maiden flight in 3/22. By this time, 11 pre-production aircraft were being built with a lengthened fuselage. It was Breguets intent that the type should be offered in variants optimized for the A.2 (army two-seat co-operation) and B.2 (two-seat bomber) roles with a choice of engines such as the Renault 12Kb, the 480 hp Renault 12Kd, the 370 hp Lorraine-Dietrich 12Db, the 450 hp Lorraine-Dietrich 12Eb and the 450 hp Hispano-Suiza 12.
In 8/22, the French air arms technical department officially tested the Bre XIX.01 and its performance and general capabilities were fully in accord with Breguets claim for the type, and an initial order for 112 aircraft was placed. Deliveries of the Bre.XIX.A2 began in 10/24 to the 32nd, 33rd, 34th and 35th Squadrons and of the Bre XIX.B2, with under wing racks for two 441 lb bombs, in 6/26 with the 11th Bombardment Squadron. Among these early machines were examples powered by the Lorraine-Dietrich 12Db and 12Eb, the 500hp Salmson 18Cma radial and the 420 Gnome-Rhone 9Ac radial engines.
The Spanish aircraft saw service in the first campaigns of the Spanish Civil War in which the aircraft operated on both sides until replaced by more modern aircraft from 5/37. The Nationalist side bolstered its Bre XIX strength with 20 aircraft bought from Poland, and losses are said to have totaled 10 Nationalist and 28 Republican planes. France used its aircraft operationally against the Druze and Riff insurgents in Syria and Morocco respectively during the 1920s. The only other European power to fly the type in combat was Greece, whose surviving few aircraft were lost in the German invasion of 4/41.
Bre.XIX.7: This designation was applied to 10 aircraft rebuilt in France to a standard approximating that of the Bre XIX.ter prototype, which was based on the Bre XIX Bidon long-range type was the fuel capacity increased to 770.1 US gallons. Other changes were the change of the engine to a 600 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Lb Vee, the replacement of the upper wing with a semi-elliptical unit, and in crease in length and a maximum speed of 150 mph. Five of these aircraft were re-delivered to Rumania and the other five to Yugoslavia, where orders were placed for another 125 aircraft to be built to the same standard. Deliveries of the Hispano-Suiza engines fell behind those of the airframe. By the end of 1933, only 75 aircraft had been completed and the Yugoslavs canceled the rest of the Bre XIX.7 program, diverting the airframes to the Bre XIX.8 program. A number of these Yugoslav aircraft took part in the campaign resulting from the German invasion in 4/41, and in their rapid conquest of the country the Germans captured numbers of the aircraft. Most of these were scrapped, but a relatively small number were part of the puppet regimes air force established in Croatia. Turkey also ordered 50 aircraft of this type, and when delivered in 1933, these were the last aircraft of the Bre XIX series completed by Breguet.
Bre XIX.18: This designation has been used for a single airplane evaluated with a 690-hp Gnome Rhone 14Kbrs radial engine. After this engine/airframe combination was rejected by the Yugoslavs, the designation applied to the 50 airframes left from the Bre XIX.7 program now completed for delivery by 11/37 with a 780-hp Wright GR-1820-F56 Cyclone radial engine for a maximum speed of 173 mph at 8,200 ft. Like the Bre XIX.17, the Bre XIX.8 was still in service at the time of the German invasion in 4/41, and several of the aircraft that survived the following campaign were passed to the puppet regimes air force established in Croatia.
Statistics - Breguet XIX A.2:
Engine: 513hp Renault 12Kd Vee
Fuel: 84.5 US gallons internally with provision for 31.7 US gallon in one starboard-side jettisonable tank balancing port-side Type F bomb cell and for one 105.7 US gallon auxiliary fuel tank replacing Type D bomb cell.
Maximum speed: 143 mph at sea level
Maximum range: 497 miles with internal fuel, 746 miles with auxiliary fuel.
Service ceiling: 22,640 ft
Armament: One fixed forward-firing 7.5mm or 7.7mm machine gun, 1 or 2 7.5/7.7mm machine guns in rear cockpit, 1 ventral 7.5/7.7mm machine gun. Maximum bomb load (external): 1,764 lbs.
Users: France (1,250), Argentina (25) Belgium (152, including license-built), Bolivia (15), Brazil (5), China (4), Greece (30 including license-built), Italy (2) Japan (2), Manchuria (70), Persia (2), Poland (250), Romania (113), Spain (245 including license-built), Turkey (70), United Kingdom (2), and Yugoslavia (525 including license-built)
Sources:
Elke Weale, Combat Aircraft of World War II, Bracken Books, 1977.
Wings: London Blitz to Pearl Harbor cd-rom.
