The aircraft was designed to meet the 1933 dive bomber requirements for the reborn Luftwaffe. The Henschel Hs 123 was a small single-seat biplane dive bomber and close-support attack aircraft. For the rest of the war the SVZ fought US Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force raids against Slovakia.Īmong the many more or less outdated German aircraft types inherited from the Luftwaffe during the early stages of WWII was a small number of Hs 123 A-1 dive bombers. This engagement resulted in great losses of aircraft and personnel, though.ĭuring the World War II, the Slovak Air force was charged with the defense of Slovak airspace, and, after the invasion of Russia, provided air cover for Slovak forces fighting against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. The SVZ took part in Axis offensives in the Ukraine and Russian Central front sectors of the Eastern Front under the lead of Luftwaffe in the Stalingrad and Caucasus operations. Later, the SVZ also took part in the German Invasion of Poland. In this the SVZ suffered some losses against Royal Hungarian Air Force. This force defended Slovakia against Hungary in March 1939, in the Slovak–Hungarian War in March 1939 in which Hungary reoccupied Carpathian Ruthenia and parts of southern Slovakia. After the division of Czechoslovakia by Germany in 1939, Slovakia was left with a small air force composed primarily of Czechoslovak combat aircraft.