Aces of the Regia Aeronautica

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D) Spain:

Should Spanish Civil war kills be included or footnoted? Most sources I have checked have footnoted these kills. Some such as Dunning, Massimello & Apostelo have split up kills between the Spanish war, the war “proper”, ANR kills ( Salo Government) & Co- Belligerent kills.

As a final note, I would like to discuss aircraft training & weapons.

i) Training:

Most major air forces at the time had a dedicated fighter pilot training program. The RA did not. After completing his flight instruction courses the pilot was dispersed to his unit where the unit commander would give basic instruction on dog fighting and the like including air to air gunnery. Often times there just wasn’t the time needed to accomplish this most important aspect of combat flying. During flight school, the candidate was limited to a couple of strafing runs at ground targets and that was it.

ii) Aircraft weapons:

The main weapons of the Italian fighter aircraft were:

Dunning 1998

The heavier 127mm Breda, while being the same caliber of the American 50, was inferior in terms of rate of fire and muzzle velocity. Christopher Shores writes “The muzzle velocity and rate of fire were poor (12.7mm), and available ammunition relatively ineffective. Most shells were constructed for impact explosion, to rip the fabric off an aircraft. By the outbreak of war, most nations had converted to metal clad aircraft. Such ammunition did little damage to these types of aircraft.. The large Breda gun had to be mounted in the nose of the fighter because it was too heavy and large for wing mounting. This had the effect of further lowering the rate of fire as the guns had to be synchronized through the propeller! The mounting also imposed servicing problems in the field”.

Lastly, the reader will inevitably compare and contrast the kills between Allied and Axis air forces. Readers will note that the top guns of the Allies nearly double that of Regia Aeronautica pilots and are eclipsed by incredible proportion by Luftwaffe pilots. This will inevitably mislead some to the wrong conclusion, as is the case of one author who describes Italian pilots as “conservative by nature” (laughable to say the least!! Italians can be called many things…conservative is not one of them. Sm79 pilots were known to have flown there aircraft like fighter planes!!!) Most aircraft prior to the “05″ series of aircraft were armed with twin Bredas mounted over the engine cowling and perhaps a pair of wing mounted 7.7mm machine guns. To be sure the Italian aircraft lacked the speed (the MC202 and 05 series A/C not with standing) but had the maneuverability along with pilot skill and aggressiveness. So why this disparity in Kills?

Some answers have been outlined previously while it is my contention that many Allied aircraft returned to their bases damaged. If there is one fact that is not in dispute, it is that Italian aircraft lacked the knock out punch to bring down their opponents. One has only to read basic aircraft profiles to see what the Italian fighter pilot was up against. This was further compounded by lack of logistical support (POL – petroleum, oil, lubricants), aircraft equipment (sand filters!) and replacement parts.

To be sure, as Chris Dunning notes, the one thing the Italian pilot did not lack was courage…the one thing that made him a cut above.

And now the Top 10 Aces…….

* includes Spanish Kills

Article: Eddy Cassin

Sources:
“Fascist Eagle; Italy’s Air Marshal Italo Balbo”: Taylor Blaine. PH Publishing 1996.
Dunning 1998: Courage Alone; The Italian Airforce 1940-1943 Hikoi Publications
Massimello & Apostolo 2000: Italian Aces of World War 2: Osprey Publishing
Aero fan; Storia Di Ali Italiane Anno 17-N.69-Apr-Giu. 1999.
“Gli Assi Italiani” Giovanni Massimello
Shores: The Italian Airforce Squadron Signal Publications
Various Internet Sources

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I created Comando Supremo: Italy at War in 2000 because of the the limited amount of information on Italian forces in WWII that was available online. Thanks to people like you, this site has grown to what it is today. Thank you for visiting and please bookmark the site!

jim h

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