Roden 423 De Havilland D.H.9 1:48

The first production machines were delivered to front line squadrons at the end of 1917, and by the beginning of 1918 the number of aircraft at the Front was already quite substantial. But as soon as operations with the D.H.9 in combat conditions began, it became clear that it bordered upon a complete catastrophe. German fighters destroyed the D.H.9 formations carrying out bombing missions over German territory. The situation appeared to be so dire, that the Chief of the Air Staff, Hugh Trenchard, was driven to send an official query to the Air Ministry concerning the responsibility of government officials who had equipped the air force with such an inadequate aircraft. Its mediocre flying performance was compounded by the unreliable Siddeley Puma engine.

Within the space of a few months in 1918 just two Royal Air Force squadrons at the Western Front lost over 50 machines of this type in combat, and about 100 were unserviceable due to their unreliable engines. Eventually the D.H.9 began to be removed from squadrons tasked with the strategic bombing of Germany. Some of these machines were sent to the Near East, others were put to use on coastal patrol. At the end of the war the quantity which had been delivered to the military was more than impressive, about 3,200 units. A further 800 were built in post-war months.

The combat career of the airplane was not finished with the signing of the Armistice Agreement. In 1919 many D.H.9's were sent to the rebellious colonies of British Empire, quite apart from many airplanes being bought by Belgium, Canada, the USA, Estonia, Chile, Latvia, Peru, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Greece and Romania. Some airplanes reached Russia on the complement of the British Expeditionary Corps, where they were later passed on to the forces of the White Army of General Denikin. During the civil war a few machines were appropriated by the Red Army.

The active service of the D.H.9 lasted the longest in the dominion of South Africa and in Spain. In South Africa there were still some machines of this type employed in training in 1938, and in Spain a small number of them were flown during the initial stages of the civil war. The "Unluckiest Airplane of WWI" remained in operational use more than twenty years after the end of the Great War.