Dornier's Do 22P hammers Dhimar's oil fields

**Spinners** · February 15

Dornier Do 22P - 4th Attack Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1939

Dornier's Do C3 was a three-seat, single-engined, parasol wing monoplane floatplane that first flew in 1935. With little or no interest from the Luftwaffe, Dornier looked for export customers with small numbers of the floatplane version eventually being sold to Yugoslavia, Greece and Latvia. In March 1938, the Republic of Paran expressed interest in the proposed Do 22L landplane version and Dornier offered a new export version to Paran designated as the Do 22P. Powered by a Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs engine driving a three-bladed propeller the Do 22P could carry up bombs under the fuselage and had a defensive armament of one fixed forward-firing machine gun plus two in the rear cockpit and one in a ventral tunnel. Paran ordered 12 Do 22P's and, with no requirement for a prototype, production at Dornier's factory at Friedrichshafen began in November 1938.

Entering service with the 4th Attack Regiment (The Jerboa's) of the Parani Army Air Force in the Spring of 1939 the Do 22P's were docile to fly and easy to maintain. By the end of September 1939 the 4th Attack Regiment were fully equipped and Shah Mushani of Paran was keen to use the Do 22P's against Dhimar. With the outbreak of World War Two Dhimar had seen the RAF leave the region and, with Dhimar's defences down, Shah Mushani wanted revenge for the attacks on Parani settlers in the Kerman Valley. On October 1st, 1939 Shah Mushani launched an attack on the Dhimari oilfields at Al'Haramlek and Najahaf and also an attack on the port of Al'Duhok. The 4th Attack Regiment were tasked with the strike on the two oilfields and dispatched two flights of four Do 22P's achieving total surprise and destroying both objectives.