History of the Italian Air Force
The history of the Italian air force begins in 1884 with the testing of tethered balloons in Rome . There the first were 1,910 aircraft in service and even in that year to an independent pioneer - Battalion summarized. Further expansion led to the establishment of the Corpo Aeronautico Militare in 1915 . Together with the naval aviators posted in 1913 , it took part in the First World War, also in France , the Balkans and North Africa .
From the air forces of the army and navy , the "Royal Air Force" of Italy emerged in 1923 ( Regia Aeronautica ). In the years that followed, she set numerous flying records, the international attention of which had priority over military considerations for fascist propaganda policy. The colonial wars in North and East Africa that have been waged since 1922, the participation in the Spanish Civil War and the associated wear and tear, a lack of efforts to modernize the aircraft fleet and the fixation on secondary international competitions meant that the Regia Aeronautica joined the technical and operational development of the air forces of other great powers lost. The entry of Italy into the Second World War , decided by Benito Mussolini , forced the Regia Aeronautica into a technically often unequal battle. Its history stayed alive after the war despite dictatorship and defeat, also because with the abolition of the monarchy the Italian Air Force only changed its name to Aeronautica Militare and there was no historical break. Thanks to American military aid, the Italian armed forces and thus also the air force quickly recovered from the disastrous war and integrated themselves as partners in NATO . The Aeronautica Militare subsequently participated together with the Italian industry in various international armaments projects, which over time enabled adequate modernization of the equipment despite financial bottlenecks. Since the end of the Cold War , Aeronautica Militare has contributed to various international military missions abroad.
Air troops from the army and navy
Beginnings
Military aviation began in Italy in 1884 with the 3rd Pioneer Regiment in the Forte Tiburtino fortress near Rome , which under the name "Servizio Aeronautico" under the command of Tenente ( Lieutenant ) Alessandro Pecori Giraldi a special unit with the two 550 m³ tethered balloons " Africo "and" Torricelli ".
On June 23, 1887, the first airship company was set up. The company commander was Capitano ( captain ) Alessandro Pecori Giraldi, who was also the first Italian captain of the balloon. The company put its first test in the colonial war of 1887–1888 in Eritrea , where three balloons were used for battlefield reconnaissance.
In 1894 the company was reclassified to a division ("Brigata"). On June 11, 1894, Captain Maurizio Mario Moris and his comrade, Lieutenant Cesare del Fabbro, climbed the Prati di Castello in Rome for the first time with a free balloon that Moris had made at his own expense according to plans by del Fabbro.
In 1904, Captain Moris commissioned Lieutenant Gaetano Arturo Crocco and Ottavio Ricaldoni to deal with the military use of dirigible airships . They made their first attempts with model aircraft in the military facilities in Cavour near Rome .
The first airship “Crocco-Ricaldoni N ° 1” constructed by the captains Gaetano Arturo Crocco and Ottavio Ricaldoni took off on its maiden flight on October 3rd, 1908.
In 1909 Moris began to turn to the new aircraft technology. He obtained a visit from the American aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright , who arrived on April 15, 1909 on the meadow in Centocelle near Rome. He carried out 67 flights in the following days and carried a total of 19 passengers.
Here in January 1910 the first airfield and the first flight school in Italy were provisionally built ; In addition to military pilots, it also trained civilian pilots. The military facilities were soon abandoned and instead two new ones were set up in Aviano ( Udine ) and Cascina Malpensa ( Varese ).
The air force was reclassified on October 28, 1910 into an independent battalion of the genius troop under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Moris with eight companies.
In May 1911, Lieutenant Mario Calderara was the first to receive the military pilot's badge .
The Fliegerbataillon took part in the army maneuvers in Piedmont for the first time on August 22, 1911 with eight aircraft, two airships and two tethered balloons .
Italo-Turkish War
On October 1, 1911 Italy declared Turkey the war to its colonial possessions in order, Libya to expand. Four balloons, two airships and 28 aircraft were provided for this campaign. On October 16, 1911, the first eleven pilots, including a doctor, arrived in Tripoli with a sergeant ( sergeant ) and 30 ground personnel as well as nine aircraft (two Blériot XI , three Nieuports , two Etrich Tauben and two Farman III double-deckers) . Later other units landed in Benghazi .
| date | pilot | comment |
|---|---|---|
| October 21, 1911 | Capitano Carlo Maria Piazza (Blériot) | Test flight |
| October 23, 1911 | Capitano Carlo Maria Piazza (Blériot) | Reconnaissance flight |
| October 23, 1911 | Capitano Riccardo Moizo (Nieuport) | Reconnaissance flight, aircraft had three bullet holes after landing, it was the first time that an aircraft had been fought by ground troops |
| November 1, 1911 | Sottotenente (Unterleutnant) Giulio Gavotti (Etrich Taube) | Dropping three 2 kg Cipelli grenades on Ain Zara and another on Taguira, an oasis near Tripoli |
| October 28, 1911 | Capitano Piazza | Fire control for armored cruiser Sardegna against the oasis of Zanzur |
| November 24, 1911 | Capitano Moizo | Fire control of a battery against Turkish artillery positions |
| December 4, 1911 | march surveillance with five aircraft for the infantry advancing on Ain Zara | |
| December 15, 1911 | Sottotenente di Vascello (First Lieutenant of the Sea) Francesco Roberti | Anti-aircraft defense by enemy guns |
| February 23, 1912 | Capitano Piazza | First photo reconnaissance flight with a Zeiss camera |
| March 4, 1912 | Capitano Piazza, Sottotenente Gavotti | first night flight, dropping of leaflets for the Arab auxiliary troops of the Turks |
| May 2, 1912 | First reconnaissance flight at night | |
| June 11, 1912 | First night bomb attack |
The aviators started their missions from Tripoli, Derna , Tobruk and Benghazi, where a 100 m long and 12 m wide makeshift runway made of wooden planks had to be constructed for the first time due to the nature of the ground at the Sabri airport.
The airships P2 and P3 took off from Tripoli (the airship names were “P” for piccolo = small, “M” for medio = medium and “G” for grande = large), P1 and several captive balloons for artillery observation were stationed in Benghazi.
The Italian aviators also suffered losses: the civil aviator Carlo Montù, leader of a squadron of volunteers, was wounded by a gunshot wound in his leg as an observer while flying over the Cyrenaica, on August 25, 1912, Sottotenente di Cavalleria (sub-lieutenant of the cavalry) Piero Manzini was killed on a photo reconnaissance mission to Zuara when his plane crashed into the sea after an engine failure. Captain Moizo was taken prisoner of war on September 10, 1912 due to an engine breakdown on enemy territory, but was released on November 11, 1912 after correct treatment after the end of hostilities.
expansion
At the suggestion of the pilot Leonino da Zara, on March 3, 1912, the Aero Club d'Italia wrote a foundation "date ali alla Patria!" (“Wings for the Fatherland!”), Which brought in about 3.5 million lire.
In the course of the year the Servizio Aeronautico was reclassified: the aeronautics and the captive balloon department came to Rome, the Aviatori Battalion ( Battaglione Aviatori ) , which was spun off on June 27, 1912, with its emergency services and flight school were relocated to Turin , the aeronautical manufacturing facilities remained in Rome, the aeronautical testing institute was moved to Vigna di Valle furnished. In October 1912, the Navy ( Regia Marina ) established its own naval aviation station in Venice with seaplanes . The Regia Marina procured French seaplanes of the Borel and Farman types for the Le Vergini seaplane station near Venice and had their pilots trained at the French naval school in Juan les Pins. Shortly before, in September 1912, Guglielmo Marconi had succeeded for the first time in establishing a radio telegraphic link from a warship to an airplane.
On November 19, 1912, the Colonial Aviation Department ( Servizio d'Aviazione Coloniale ) was formed, and on November 28, 1912, the Servizio Aeronautico was renamed the "Flotta Aerea d'Italia" (Italian air fleet). Maggiore ( Major ) Giulio Douhet , since November 13, 1913 commander of the aviation battalion, formed logistically within this framework and organizationally independent Squadriglie (seasons), with collapsible hangars were equipped cars and workshop trolleys.
On February 1, 1913, the Navy set up its own testing facility, where the two lieutenant captains Manlio Ginocchio and Alessandro Guidoni were tested. The ironclad Dante Alighieri was equipped with a Curtiss seaplane, and in 1914 the cruiser Elba was given a hangar for seaplanes. In addition, the Navy bought the two airships “Città di Jesi” and “ Città di Ferrara ”.
In June 1913 the “Servizio Aeronautico della Regia Marina”, the naval aviation force , was founded, and in August 1913 the Naval Aviation School (“Scuola di Aviazione della Marina”) began operations in Venice.
The lack of an efficient aircraft industry, however, remained an unsolved problem; an open competition in 1913 was intended to promote the Italian aircraft industry, but did not produce the desired result.
On June 18, 1913, the flying battalion was reclassified to Corpo Aeronautico . It now consisted of 14 Squadriglie (squadrons), two of which were stationed in Rome, one in Tripoli and the rest in northern Italy. Due to additional budget funds, 193 aircraft and 330 engines were to be procured and a further 374 officers of all branches of service were to be transferred.
First World War
Despite the war experience and all reconstruction efforts, the Italian air troops were neither technically, organizationally, nor industrially, nor in terms of infrastructure equipped for the war.
The air fleet, which was renamed Corpo Aeronautico Militare on January 7, 1915 , remained formally subordinate to the pioneer troops ( Arma del Genio ), and Colonello ( Colonel ) Maurizio Mario Moris worked as inspector general for aviation in the War Ministry. At the beginning of the war, the Fliegerbataillon was able to provide 15 squadrigies with 135 pilots and 86 aircraft, of which twelve squadrigies with 75 aircraft were deployed at the front : six squadrons were equipped with Blériot, four with Nieuport and two with Farman aircraft. This type of equipment, especially French aircraft, was to prevail throughout the war. In addition, there was the aeronautical testing institute, the airship battalion with captive balloons and the airship battalion with the three airships Ml, P.5 and the P.4, which is subordinate to the Navy. This had twelve pilots and 15 obsolete seaplanes: five Curtiss, four Borel, four Albatros and two Bréguet seaplanes, as well as the airships M.2 "Città di Ferrara" and V.1 "Città di Jesi".
Other units and command authorities were the pilot replacement battalion for the flight schools, the technical aviation authority ("Direzione tecnica dell'aviazione militare") and the central aviation authority ("Direzione Centrale Aeronautica"). About 130 pilots and 20 observation officers were available.
At that time France had 600, Russia 1,000, Germany 500 aircraft and 40 airships and had just restructured its air force efficiently. The Austro-Hungarian aviation troops owned 96 aircraft and one airship.
Italy acquired licenses from France to replicate Farman, Nieuport, Caudron and Voisin aircraft as well as the Gnôme and Caonton-Unné engines. The imports of aviation and albatross aircraft and Maybach engines from Germany had been blocked since the beginning of the war. The Italian aircraft industry consisted of the factories of Macchi , SAML (Società Anonima Meccanica Lombarda), Savoia and SIAI (Società Idrovolanti Alta Italia).
The armament of the aircraft crew was limited to self-loading pistols for self-defense in emergency landings in enemy territory, as well as small bombs and aviator arrows for combating ground targets.
On the first day of the war, Lieutenant Gaetano Coniglio and the observer Lieutenant Andrea De Brani carried out a first photo reconnaissance mission in the Podgora area , who had already participated in the army maneuvers as the first aircraft observer in 1911. On the same day Austrian sea planes bombed Venice unhindered. Further air strikes against Venice, Padua and Treviso followed.
The first combat operation took place on May 25, 1915, when five aircraft bombed the Monfalcone factories . The following day the airships also carried out their first mission across the Adriatic Sea against Sebenico , which was attacked again by an airship the following day. On July 8, 1915, however, the “Citta di Ferrara” was shot down by an Austro-Hungarian seaplane, and on August 5, the “Citta di Jesi” was destroyed by the Austrian air defense. The Austro-Hungarian sea pilots also bombed the Italian airship stations in Jesi and Ferrara . The war experienced Austro-Hungarian pilots soon gained control of the air. In addition, the flight conditions on the Alpine front with its extreme and unsafe weather conditions made high demands on both opponents. After only three months of war, the Italian squadrons were reduced to eight and the Blériot planes were no longer in service.
In June 1915, the previous aircraft were gradually withdrawn from the front and handed over to the flight schools; more modern Farmans were supplied, and German aviation systems replicated by the SAML (Società Anonima Meccanica Lombarda) were planned for the defense of Udine , Verona and Brescia .
The engineer Gianni Caproni had designed a large three-engine aircraft as early as 1913. On August 20, 1915, Caproni bombers bombed an Austrian airfield near Aisovizza for the first time . In November 1915, the first four were Squadriglie three-engine Caproni about 32 positioned -Großflugzeugen.
The large aircraft, with which seven squadrons were now equipped, were initially used for tactical close air support, which led to sensitive losses. However, the equipment with engines of up to 450 hp made it possible to bomb more distant targets in 1916, such as the attack of May 17, 1916 against the kuk naval base in Pola , which was continued at night by airships. In addition to Pola, the naval arsenal in Trieste was another important bomber target, also for the Italian airships. 'M' class airships carried bomb loads of up to 1,000 kg.
The series of successful Caproni bombers
Caproni Ca.32 with the designer Gianni Caproni on board
a Caproni ca.33
Caproni ca.33 with on-board cannon
Caproni Ca.36, in the USAF Air Force Museum
Caproni approx. 40 , prototype
Bomb container of the approx. 41
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But Italian cities were now also the target of the air war. Milan was bombed on February 14, 1916 by 11 Lloyds and one Lohner B.VII who had taken off from Trentino, after which Caproni bombers attacked Ljubljana in return . La Spezia was bombed by Joseph Siegel with a Brandenburg machine on July 11, 1916, and Naples was attacked on March 10, 1916 by the German Zeppelin L 59 (LZ 104) from Bulgaria, which claimed numerous civilian victims despite minor damage to property. A squadron of seaplanes was then parked in Pozzuoli to protect Naples, and even three-engine Caproni large aircraft to protect Milan. Two French fighter squadrons with Nieuport fighter planes and FBA flying boats were stationed in Venice and Sant'Andrea. In September, 22 Italian planes took off to bomb Trieste. In total, the bomber fleet flew around 540 bomber missions during the year.
With the Nieuport 11 “Bebè”, which was now manufactured under license in Italy by Macchi, Major Francesco Baracca achieved his first victory in the air against an Austrian Brandenburg aircraft near Medeuzza on April 7, 1916 . First hunting squadrons ( Squadriglie de Caccia ) were set up; the cavalry officer Francesco Baracca (34 air victories), Silvio Scaroni (26 air victories), PR Piccio (24 air victories), Baracchini, Ruffo di Calabria and Ranza were the leading fighter pilots of the Corpo Aeronautico Militare .
By the end of 1916, the Italian aircraft industry, with the help of the French ally and thanks to the expanded capacities, had delivered 1,255 aircraft and 2,300 engines. 49 Squadriglie operated on the front, including 13 bomber, 22 reconnaissance and 9 fighter squadrons. Flier formations were transferred to Valona in Albania ( 8º Gruppo ), Sakulevo in Macedonia ( 21º Gruppo ) and to France ( 18º Gruppo with three squadrons of Caproni bombers). In Libya, the 104ª and 106ª Squadriglia with Farmans and the 12ª Suqadriglia with Capronis were stationed to protect the coastal towns to which the Italian troops had withdrawn.
To combat the submarines, 20 aircraft and 10 airships were permanently parked.
At the opening of the tenth Isonzo battle on May 23, 1917, the high command brought massive air forces into action, two waves of 64 and 75 aircraft intervened in the fighting.
In the Ortigara battle in June 1917 145 aircraft attacked, in the eleventh Isonzo battle in October 1917 230 aircraft were in action.
In 1917, the Squadriglie da bombardamento with the Caproni bombers Ca.3-Ca.5, Ca.36 and Ca.42 were combined into bomber divisions, the 4 °, 11 ° and 14 ° Gruppo with twelve squadriglie under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Egidio Carta, who were placed under Colonel Moizo in the Army High Command. General Giulio Douhet , who first described the strategic effects of area bombing, gained great influence on the air force as the air force strategist. The armies were given their own aviation departments, plus the units that were directly subordinate to the high command. The number of hunting squadrons was increased to 12, later to 15 and equipped with Hanriot HD.1 and SPAD S.VII . As part of the training support for the new alliance partner USA, around 500 American aviators were trained, 75 of whom fought as bomber pilots on the Italian front under the command of Captain Fiorello La Guardia, who later became the mayor of New York . In attacks on Pola, Trieste and the Whitehead torpedo works in Fiume , formations of up to 100 aircraft were sometimes used.
Fighter squadrons were later formed under the command of Colonel Ernesto La Polla. Except for the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla , which came too late for use at the front, the Corpo Aeronautico only used French fighter planes.
On December 25, 1917, the Canadian fighter pilot Captain William George Baker of No. 28 Squadron Royal Flying Corps from Istrana Airfield near Treviso to the airfield of the German Aviation Division 204 with a Sopwith Camel . The next day around 8:30 a.m., 25 German albatrosses and escort fighters fought back against the Istrana airfield, where the 6th and 10th Italian fighter groups (Gruppo Caccia) were located. Eleven Italian fighter planes rose and shot down eight German planes with no losses of their own.
The aircraft production had also increased steadily: 3,861 aircraft and 6,726 engines were delivered.
After the defeat at Caporetto (Good Freit), the subsequent defense on the Piave up to the fighting on the Montello in June 1918, the number of front-line aircraft rose to 480. On October 14, 1918, a British bomber dropped a 750 kg bomb on the retreating kuk troops. When the breakthrough came on October 28, 1918 in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto , the Corpo Aeronautico had long since gained control of the air.
Two fighter squadrons now also flew the powerful SPAD S.XIII with double machine guns.
In 1918 , the extremely fast SVA reconnaissance aircraft, which was also used as a high-speed bomber, was built by the designers from Ansaldo , Umberto Savoia and Rodolfo Verduzio . On August 9, 1918, under the leadership of Gabriele D'Annunzio, eleven SVA of the 87ª Squadriglia "La Serenissima" took off from the San Pelagio airfield near Padua to fly over Vienna . Eight of the eleven machines crossed the Alps along the Udine-Klagenfurt route at an altitude of 3,500 m. A machine had to make an emergency landing near Schwarzau at around 8:35 a.m. , but the pilot named Giuseppe Sarti managed to set the machine on fire before he was captured. Seven planes reached Vienna at around 9:30 a.m., took aerial photographs and dropped propaganda leaflets from a height of only 6-800 m. Irrespective of the enemy defenses, the planes landed again in San Pelagio at 12:36 p.m.
The successful fighter pilot Francesco Baracca in front of his SPAD S.XIII
Coat of arms of the 91 Squadriglia
Ansaldo SVA of the Regia Marina
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The German radio station in Misurata , which kept the connection to the submarines, was destroyed by the Italian air forces in September 1918.
In October 1918, the Corpo Aeronautico had 58 long-range bombers and 210 fighter planes, plus the Navy had four squadrons of sea pilots ( Squadriglie della Marina ) with about 44 double-deckers (about 5) with 600 hp engines and about 40 three-deckers (approx .4) with 1,200 HP, which could carry a bomb load of 3,000 kg.
At the armistice on November 4, 1918, the air force had grown to 10,348 men, including 5,100 pilots (including approx. 500 Americans), 500 observers and 100 air riflemen. 5,000 other specialists had been trained. 1,784 planes had fallen.
The Italian Army had 84 Squadriglie, four special units, 31 flight schools and five airships and the Navy 45 Squadriglie with 550 seaplanes, four flight schools and 15 airships. On all fronts there were 1,020 reconnaissance aircraft, 135 bombers, 528 fighters and 26 airships; the Italian airship fleet was thus the second strongest after the German. Ten airships were in use, four more were lost in accidents.
The Italian industry had delivered a total of 11,986 aircraft of 250 different types, 60 impact airships, 23,979 engines, 39,783 propellers, 7,700 MGs, 512,400 bombs and 10,644 m² of photo plates. Numerous aircraft factories had been expanded or newly built:
| Surname | Company name | comment |
|---|---|---|
| AER | mainly license production of caudron bombers | |
| Ansaldo | Gio. Ansaldo & Co., Borzoli , Genoa , Turin | SVA scout |
| Caproni | Società die Aviazione Ing.Caproni e Faccanoni, Viccola | Large aircraft (bomber) |
| Gabardini | Cameri near Novara ( Piedmont ) | essentially license production, u. a. for Caproni |
| Macchi | Aeronautica Macchi-Nieuport, Varese | Licensed production of Nieuport and Hanriot aircraft and flying boats |
| Pomilio | Ing.O. Pomilio & Co., Società per Costruzioni Aeronatichi, Turin | Pomilio PC / PD / PE two-seater |
| SAML | Società Anonima Meccanica Lombarda, Milan | Replica and further development of the German aviation two-seater |
| Savoia | Società die volanti Alta Italia "Savoia", Sesto Calende | License production of Farman and Pomilio two-seaters |
| SIA (Fiat) | Società Italiana Aviazione, Turin | bomber |
| SIAI | Società Idrovolanti Alta Italia, Milan | License production of flying boats by Franco-British Aviation (FBA), in-house developments in 1918 |
| SIAM | Bomber / recon |
post war period
Although the participation in the First World War in 1918 was brought to a successful end by the Italian armed forces, it led to severe socio-economic upheavals and considerable political instability in Italy in the immediate post-war period. The strict consolidation of public finances made a rapid demobilization of the armed forces inevitable. In the case of the army and navy air forces, it was particularly drastic because the general and admiral staff were not particularly interested in strong air forces, the possible combination of which into a new, third armed force was viewed with great suspicion. Countless aircraft were sold at bargain prices, often to (former) military pilots, who now flew them in their free time. The outstanding achievements of individual pilots kept the myth of the air force alive in the years that followed .
In 1919 Guido Janello won the Schneider Trophy race in Bournemouth with a SIAI S.13 . As the jury was unable to confirm his victory due to fog, the race was finally canceled, but the winner's country of origin was allowed to host the following competition. The Schneider Trophy went to Italian pilots in 1920 and 1921. In 1922 the Briton Biard in Naples prevented the trophy from remaining entirely in Italy, which would have been the case after three victories in a row.
In 1919 Italy sent a military mission to Argentina . On July 30, Antonio Locatelli managed to cross the Andes in the direction of Chile with an SVA from Buenos Aires , and on August 5 again on the way back. Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero flew with two SVAs and the simplest equipment from Rome to Tokyo in 1920 , which was celebrated there for several weeks. In 1921 Giulio Douhet , who had meanwhile been promoted to general, was able to publish the standard work Il dominio dell'aria , in which he attributed air supremacy and strategic bombing to a decisive role in the war. While it received a lot of attention abroad and was later implemented, in Italy it still aroused resistance from the conservative army and naval establishment. In some cases, tactical close air support was put in the foreground as crucial, which, in contrast to strategic area bombing, pointed less to the establishment of a new armed force. The conflicting interests and ideas prevented the development of clear operational principles, but not the ultimately inevitable establishment of an air force.
Aeronautica Regia
Building the armed forces
The decisive impetus gave Benito Mussolini's first government, not primarily out of military conviction, but with the intention of building up a new armed force that was particularly loyal to the regime and thus driving a wedge between the army and navy, which were considered particularly monarchist. The individual achievements of the pilots in the late pioneering days could also be used well for propaganda purposes in the sense of fascism. That is why the participation in international competitions and air shows as well as the establishment of flying records were in the foreground for a long time; military requirements remained subordinate.
Mussolini set up an aviation commissioner on January 24, 1923, just under three months after he came to power . On March 28, 1923, the Regia Aeronautica was officially founded . On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the end of the war, the first "General Commander" of the Regia Aeronautica , Pier Ruggero Piccio , received the troop flag of the new armed forces on November 4, 1923 . On August 30, 1925, the Aviation Commissariat became its own ministry, and the General Commander was upgraded to Chief of Staff of the Air Force a few months later. The budget of the new armed forces corresponded to half of the naval budget and a quarter of the army budget.
The transferred aircraft and facilities of the army and naval aviation formed the basis for the establishment of airborne units and associations, although the concentration in northeastern Italy, which was still having an effect, was not beneficial. In all other areas, from training to administration and logistics, from service regulations to uniforms and ranks, the new armed forces had to be completely rebuilt. The new Air Force Academy was housed at the Naval Academy in Livorno until 1926 , because they were convinced of their solid training courses and the technical similarities between sea and aviation. The officer training lasted three years from the start. The officer candidates completed the first year of training on probation, and between the second and third year a very limited aeronautical training began, which only really got going after graduating from the academy at various flight schools. When looking for a permanent location for the Air Force Academy, good weather conditions and proximity to an airfield and university played a decisive role. The choice fell on the Naples-Capodichino airport , probably also for political reasons, because the academies of the army and navy were in the north of the country and a certain proportion had to be observed. The building erected in Capodichino proved unsuitable and was converted into a technical school. The increased space requirement led to the move to the Castle of Caserta , which was not functionally better. Lecturers from the University and the Naples Polytechnic took on various teaching positions in Caserta , while the airfield in neighboring Capua was used for training in flying.
By 1925, the Regia Aeronautica had set up 26 flying groups with 78 squadrons, plus 19 groups with 57 squadrons to support the army and eleven groups with 35 squadrons to support the navy. Twelve squadrons stationed in Libya were organized separately. Italian squadrons ( Squadriglie ) usually had six to twelve aircraft. The associations to support the army and navy formed their own "auxiliary air forces" ( Aviazione Ausiliaria per l'Esercito / per la Marina ), which were an integral part of the air force, but operationally assigned to the two other branches of the armed forces. The army and navy were allowed to maintain their own specialized air force to a very limited extent until 1931, when they were subordinated to Air Force generals and from 1937 fully integrated into the Regia Aeronautica .
Records and trophies
The Schneider Trophy also had the highest priority for the new fascist aviation - State Secretary Italo Balbo . After the test pilot Mario de Bernardi succeeded in 1926 in Hampton Roads, USA, with a Macchi M.39 built especially for the race , and thus brought the competition back to Italy, they again had to admit defeat to a Brit in Venice in 1927. De Bernardi retired due to an engine failure, but set a new speed record of 479.29 km / h. In 1929 he even reached over 500 km / h with an M.52R. The competition, which was subsequently held every two years, was held twice in Great Britain, where the trophy remained intact in 1931 due to a lack of international participants.
In 1928 the systematic expansion of the flight test center on the Montecelio military airfield near Rome began, around which the so-called “Aviation City ” Guidonia Montecelio was built from 1935 in the fascist style . Numerous technical innovations and flying records in Italian aviation are based on the achievements of researchers such as Alessandro Guidoni , Gaetano Arturo Crocco , Luigi Broglio and Antonio Ferri . In addition, there was the so-called “high-speed school” in Desenzano del Garda , where seaplanes in particular reached record speeds without, for example, the technical advances in engine development being incorporated into specific military projects. On October 23, 1934, Francesco Agello reached 709.2 km / h with a Macchi MC.72 over Lake Garda . This speed record in the class of piston engine-powered seaplanes is still unbroken today. Satisfied in this way, the school in Desenzano was closed a few years later.
The pilots of the new Regia Aeronautica also achieved extraordinary results in the field of long-haul flights . In 1925 Francesco De Pinedo flew with Ernesto Campanelli on a SIAI S.16 from Sesto Calende to Melbourne and then back to Italy via Tokyo . Another record flight followed in 1927 on a Savoia-Marchetti S.55 from Cagliari-Elmas to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires , from there over the Amazon basin and the Caribbean to New York and from there via Newfoundland and Lisbon back to Italy. In 1928, Arturo Ferrarin set a speed record with Carlo Del Prete and another record for non-stop flights , which in 1929 was exceeded by two other Italian pilots, Maddalena and Cecconi. In 1934 Renato Donati reached about 113 14,433 meters with a modified Caproni and thus a new height record. The first North Pole flight by Colonel Umberto Nobile , which took off on the airship Norge on April 10, 1926 in Rome-Ciampino and landed on May 14 in Teller near Nome in Alaska , was also exceptional . In 1928, his second North Pole operation ended with a disaster on the return flight. Nobile fell out of favor and the airships were left behind in terms of technical development.
Slowly the realization began to gain acceptance that these and other individual top performances had no special effects on the level of training and the operational readiness of the combat units. Aviation Minister Italo Balbo tried to counteract this by organizing long-haul formation flights in which normal task forces had to take part. The first flight of this type took place over the western Mediterranean in 1928, and then in the eastern Mediterranean the following year. For this purpose, Balbo set up its own training facility in Orbetello , from where at the end of 1930 a total of 14 S-55A took off on a formation flight to Rio de Janeiro. In 1933 Balbo crossed the Atlantic with 24 S-55Xs and was celebrated more than appropriately in New York and Chicago . In Italy he was given the new title of air marshal , which remained a one-off process. In fact, Balbo's personal success became so dangerous to dictator Mussolini that he deported his aviation minister to Libya as governor general the following year .
Wars in Africa and Spain
During the First World War, Italy was forced to withdraw its ground troops from Libya to a large extent and to limit itself there to the control of the most important coastal towns. In the time of crisis between 1919 and 1922, which was marked by political instability, the various Italian governments negotiated a compromise solution with the Libyan tribal leaders, according to which the North African country was granted extensive internal autonomy and the local rulers ( Sanusiya ) in return the formal sovereignty of the King of Italy recognized. In neighboring Egypt pursued the UK a similar approach, which eventually prevailed there.
In contrast, the fascists who came to power on October 30, 1922 insisted on the actual political-military submission of Libya and on its colonization, although the territory occupied ten years earlier (according to what was known at the time) had practically nothing to offer except desert sand. The fascist claim to power resulted in a colonial war that lasted more than ten years, which after the execution of Umar al-Muchtar could only be concluded with the occupation of the Kufra oases in the south-east of the country. During the war, Italian soldiers and units committed various war crimes , mainly from the air. The Regia Aeronautica has been involved in this colonial war since it was founded in the spring of 1923, in particular with fighter bombers and bombers as well as with reconnaissance, transport and liaison aircraft. First, aircraft from the time of the World War were used, later Ro.1 , Ca.73 and Ca.101 . Modern fighters remained in Italy for lack of equivalent opponents. In the desert areas, which are often difficult to fly, the various squadrons took on a wide variety of tasks during numerous long-haul missions that required improvisation and ingenuity. These operations consumed significant resources (money, fuel, etc.) with dubious political and economic benefits.
Fascist great power and revenge were then again the reason for the submission of Ethiopia in October 1935 , which had successfully defended itself in 1896 against an initial Italian attempt at colonization . Italy deployed the largest colonial force in history in this second war. Over 300,000 soldiers were sent from the mother country to East Africa, plus colonial troops from Eritrea and Somalia . In these two countries, from which Ethiopia was attacked in a great pincer movement, the Regia Aeronautica established no fewer than 83 new airfields for the deployment and initial operations: 29 in Eritrea and 54 in Somalia.
In several ways, the theater of war resembled the environment in Libya. In the air there was no equivalent opponent, on the other hand, in addition to the territorial expansion, the enemy, who was better organized on the ground and the distance to the motherland, required a far greater operational and logistical effort. The Aeronautica Regia participated in war crimes in Ethiopia both during the seven-month war and in the years of counterinsurgency that followed . Contrary to the Geneva Protocol , chemical weapons were also used and villages and crowds of people were attacked arbitrarily from the air. The order for this came from Mussolini himself. In December 1935, the Italian military pilot Tito Minniti had to make an emergency landing with his Ro.1 in enemy-controlled territory. After he was arrested, he was tortured, emasculated, and beheaded for several hours . This case and several others sparked a storm of indignation in Italy. According to the government in Rome and the local military leaders, Ethiopia had forfeited its right to comply with international martial law because of these individual criminal cases . The Regia Aeronautica first used aircraft of the types Ro.1, Ca.97 , Ca.101 and CR.20 in Ethiopia , then Ro.37 and Ca.111 for reconnaissance and Ca.133 and SM.81 for attacks on ground targets.
Just two months after conquering Addis Ababa , Italy provided the Spanish Foreign Legion with its first fighter jets and crews to support Franco and his rebellious nationalists . This military intervention was based, among other things, on the intention of installing a like-minded political system in Spain and thus counteracting the British-French claim to power in the Mediterranean region. In the 32 months of Italian participation in the Spanish Civil War , the Regia Aeronautica sent over 700 aircraft to Spain, which operated there under the name Aviazione Legionaria . SM.81, SM.79 and BR.20 were used as bombers, Ro.41, CR.32 and some G.50 as fighters, Ba.65 as fighter-bombers and Ro.37 as reconnaissance aircraft, plus some type Z seaplanes .506 . They flew a total of 8,500 combat missions, which on the one hand improved the level of training of the crews to a certain extent, but on the other hand reinforced the illusion that Italy still has one of the strongest air forces ever. In fact, one underestimated the technical and tactical developments in other states, which did not use up their forces in colonial and civil wars, but, in contrast to Italy, quietly reinforced them with additional financial resources.
Almost three months after the end of the war in Spain, the government in Rome ordered the occupation of Albania on April 7, 1939 . Quite a few rated this immediately as meaningless action, as the country since 1927 facto de a protectorate was Italy. Mussolini intended to symbolically curb the political and economic advance of the German Empire into the Balkans, which he regarded as an Italian sphere of influence. The Regia Aeronautica deployed 261 aircraft in the short campaign, which flew a total of 1,800 hours. Among other things, the 3rd grenadier regiment of the Army was flown from Grottaglie to Albania.
In those war years leading up to World War II, the Italian Air Force continued to take part in international competitions and set records. In 1937 the Istres-Damascus-Paris race was won. In the same year, Colonel Mario Pezzi from the flight test center in Guidonia set the altitude record for aircraft with piston engines, which is still unbroken today, on a modified approx. In the summer of 1939, of the 84 records recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , Italy held 33, Germany 15, France twelve, the USA eleven, the Soviet Union seven, Japan three, Great Britain two and Czechoslovakia one.
Second World War
Italy was neither militarily nor industrially prepared for a world war in 1939. The German allies had been informed in advance that for these reasons, entering the war was out of the question before 1942. The lack of consultation with Italy in the unilateral German approach sparked bitterness in Rome, and in particular Mussolini's desire to proceed in a similar manner . He gave up his initial reluctance in June 1940 during the looming defeat of France, fearing that Italy would be too late in distributing its booty. Mussolini ignored cautious political criticism of dishonorable behavior and the clear warnings of the military leadership. The negative attitude of most Italians and most of the soldiers also played no role because, in his opinion, the dictator only needed a few thousand deaths to be able to participate in the expected peace negotiations.
Mussolini's former aviation minister, Air Marshal Italo Balbo, put the actual underground mood among numerous Italian officers into words. He spoke out vehemently against entering the war on the side of Hitler-Germany and even called for the support of France and Great Britain. In Libya, where Mussolini had banished his political adversary, Balbo died shortly afterwards when he was allegedly accidentally shot down by the Italian anti-aircraft defenses on a flight over Tobruk .
Mussolini headed the three ministries for war, navy and aviation personally from 1933. In addition to the political responsibility for the various war missions, there was also direct political responsibility for the conceptual orientation, equipment and operational readiness of the armed forces. According to General Carlo Favagrossa , who is responsible for armaments matters , the military operational capability of the Italian armed forces was at most 40 percent in 1940, about which Mussolini and King Victor Emanuel III. were informed. The latter was the nominal commander-in-chief of the armed forces and in this context the last effective supervisory authority since the abolition of democracy. Assuming that he would be mistaken with his skepticism, as he had done on previous campaigns, King Mussolini allowed Mussolini's declaration of war on June 10, 1940.
The approximately 120,000 strong Regia Aeronautica went to war with five air corps (squadre aeree) . They were subordinate to a total of six fighter squadrons on CR.32 , CR.42 , G.50 and MC.200 , 23 bomber squadrons on BR.20 , Z.1007 , SM.79 and SM.81 , and two maritime bomber squadrons via various division or brigade commands on Z.506 , two combat squadrons on Ca.310 and Ba.88 , 37 flying units to support the army, 20 to support the navy and other units in the colonies. Including the training and liaison aircraft, the Regia Aeronautica had over 5,000 aircraft between the Alps and the equator , of which around 3,600 were fighter planes, about half of which were operational. These planes were characterized by their heavy radial engines and their inadequate armament. Many models were still wooden constructions.
The pilots of the Regia Aeronautica flew their first combat missions under these conditions . On June 13, 1940, BR.20 of the 13th Squadron bombed the French military port of Toulon . The accompanying CR.42 biplanes took up combat with much more modern and better armed Dewoitine D.520 . When the campaign ended ten days later, the Regia Aeronautica had lost ten planes and 24 men.
A little-known event of the war was the bombing of cities in the British Mandate of Palestine by Italian and German aircraft, beginning in July 1940 . The bombing of Tel Aviv on September 10, 1940 killed 137 people. In mid-October, the Italians also bombed American-run oil refineries in the British protectorate of Bahrain .
Despite the campaign against the British beginning in North Africa, by order of Mussolini, who mistrusted the Germans, not only the few motorized and armored Italian army units but also the best airborne units were left in northern Italy until April 1941. Only with the arrival of Erwin Rommel's units and the X. Fliegerkorps of the German Air Force , which prevented a further advance of the British, did Italy also send more modern equipment to North Africa, including the MC.200 and a few months later the improved Macchi MC.202 . The CR.42 biplanes, which up to April 1941 had sometimes fought with remarkable success against British Hawker Hurricanes , were subsequently used for close air support with 50 and 100 kilogram bombs .
Mussolini's addiction to prestige was also based on the dispatch of an Italian air force to Belgium . From there, from October 1940 two bomber squadrons operated on BR.20, one fighter squadron on CR.42 and G.50 and a reconnaissance squadron on Z.1007 under General Rino Corso Fougier with very limited success against Great Britain. The blind flight school , which is essential for this , was closed shortly before the start of the war. There was also a lack of aeronautical radios .
The Corpo Aereo Italiano stationed in Belgium was disbanded in early 1941 and many of its pilots were transferred to East Africa, where outdated aircraft were used in an isolated battle against the overwhelming strength of the Commonwealth troops . In total, Italian pilots shot down 140 enemy aircraft here and destroyed another 80 on the ground by October. One of the most famous pilots who fell here was Mario Visintini .
The fragmentation of the Italian forces reached its peak for the time being when Mussolini attacked Greece on October 28, 1940 . The badly organized attack against the determined Greeks, led by insufficient ground troops, quickly turned into a defensive battle, which the Regia Aeronautica supported as best it could. Here, too, the decision could only be reached with German help, as a result of which Yugoslavia was attacked and occupied.
In the central Mediterranean theater of war fought Italian torpedo bomber type SM.79 with some considerable success against Allied convoys. One of the most successful seasons was that of Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia . The air strikes on the island of Malta were less successful , but this ultimately also depended on the influence of fundamental strategic decisions.
When an Italian expeditionary force was sent to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 , the Regia Aeronautica deployed two airborne groups ( 22º and 61º Gruppo , from 1942 21º and 71º Gruppo ), which carried MC.200, MC. 202, SM.82 , BR.20, Ca.133 and Ca.312 were used relatively successfully, despite the most adverse conditions during the winter months.
In the spring of 1942, the MC.202s of the 3rd and 4th squadrons made a decisive contribution to gaining air control over North Africa. The last successful actions of the Italian Air Force were largely due to the torpedo bombers, which, together with German forces, attacked the convoys Vigorous, Harpoon and Pedestal in the summer of 1942 .
The Regia Aeronautica did not recover from the losses it had suffered over the battlefield of El Alamein in autumn 1942 . Despite the introduction of modern fighter aircraft of the so-called Series 5 ( MC.205 , G.55 , Re.2005 ), the Italian pilots had to endure defensive battles against far superior Allied air forces over Tunisia and southern Italy in the following months . Although there was no longer any doubt about the defeat, many pilots died in wild aerial battles, including Franco Lucchini and the young non-commissioned officer Ferruccio Serafini, after whom his 51st squadron was later named. Serafini rammed his MC.205 into an American P-40 over Sardinia in July 1943 because he had no more ammunition.
The military situation was so hopeless for Italy that Mussolini was deposed and replaced by Pietro Badoglio . After secret negotiations with the Allies, the Cassibile armistice came into effect in September 1943 . While the German leadership had foreseen this step and prepared the occupation of Italy , the bulk of the Italian soldiers remained in the dark. As in the case of the other branches of the armed forces, the Regia Aeronautica largely dissolved. Of 180,000 soldiers, only 30,000 remained who had to make the difficult decision of either continuing the war alongside the German allies or following the orders of the legitimate Italian government, which was under the protection of the Allies in southern Italy. Over the following months, many soldiers who had taken off their uniforms in September 1943 joined one side or the other.
ICBAF and ANR
In northern Italy, where the Regia Aeronautica had largely withdrawn, the German associations fell into the hands of the majority of Italian aircraft and almost all of the country's aircraft factories. German troops destroyed around 2,500 aircraft and around 10,000 aircraft engines on occupied Italian territory, and over 1,000 Italian aircraft were incorporated into the Wehrmacht .
These measures represented a major setback for those Italian soldiers who wanted to continue the fight on the German side as part of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana . The situation only improved towards the end of 1943, when, among other things, the confiscated MC.205 were returned. The ANR fighter groups inflicted considerable losses on the Allied bomber units and their escorts until April 1945. In June 1944, the torpedo group flew a long-haul mission to Gibraltar with their SM.79 . An air transport unit supported German troops on the Eastern Front. Based on the German model, the ANR also set up anti-aircraft and paratrooper associations, which had previously generally been part of the army in Italy. On the one hand, the Wehrmacht tried for a certain time to fully integrate the ANR, on the other hand they finally made their Bf 109 fighters available, in 1945 even in the most modern version available, the K-4. One of the most famous ANR pilots, Adriano Visconti , began surrender negotiations with Italian partisans in April 1945, but was shot dead by strangers in Milan together with his adjutant.
The Italian soldiers, who now fought alongside the Allies against Nazi Germany under the Badoglio government , remained soldiers of the King of Italy under international and constitutional law, because the kingdom and its government had not dissolved with the armistice. For this reason, the Regia Aeronautica continued to exist legally unchanged in southern Italy , which did not change the English name Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force (ICBAF) and the derived (Regia) Aeronautica Cobelligerante Italiana . The ANR, on the other hand, was an illegal spin-off of the Regia Aeronautica .
In contrast to the ANR, the ICBAF lacked an industrial basis from the start and therefore also lacked sufficient logistical supply. In September 1943, around 200 aircraft were added to the few remaining operational aircraft in southern Italy, some of which had been withdrawn from the Wehrmacht by their pilots in northern and central Italy in a sometimes adventurous manner. Since the Allies in southern Italy requisitioned material that could be used in the war, insofar as it had not been destroyed by the retreating German units, and regular spare parts were not available, the ICBAF technicians had to improvise in an extraordinary way and usually make or adapt spare parts by hand. It was only thanks to the ingenuity of its aircraft mechanics that the ICBAF managed to participate in Allied operations with Italian aircraft for twelve months, mainly in the Balkans, avoiding direct confrontations with Italian pilots of the ANR. It was not until September 1944 that the Allies left the first P-39 Airacobras and Spitfires and some A-30 Baltimore bombers to the ICBAF in recognition of their achievements , after which an Italian unit was called the “Baltimore Squadron”.
During the 20 months of the “co-warfare”, the ICBAF supported in particular the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army , which in turn participated in the expulsion of the Italians from Istria and Dalmatia in 1945 . The transport planes supplied various Italian units that had been cut off in the Balkans and were often fighting for survival there between the fronts. In the Balkans and also in Italy, Italian transport planes often landed near or behind enemy lines to support partisans or to fly out the wounded. The remaining seaplanes were used to secure convoy, for submarine hunting, as well as for air rescue and transport tasks.
post war period
At the beginning of May 1945, the Chief of the Air Force General Staff Mario Ajmone Cat had 338 aircraft, including 153 fighters, 32 seaplanes , 44 transport aircraft and 109 training aircraft. In the following months, the Allies also left 41 A-30 Baltimore , 120 P-38 Lightning and 108 Spitfire IX. The squadrons and squadrons equipped with it had all participated in the war of liberation and initially remained organized into three separate groups: A hunting group with squadrons 4 (on P-38 in Lecce ), 5 (on Spitfire and Macchi MC.205 in Bergamo ) and 51 (on Spitfire in Vicenza ), a bomber and transport association with three squadrons in central Italy and a seaplane association with four rescue squadrons at various locations and bases.
The three mentioned fighter squadrons, a mixed squadron ( 36º Stormo ) and the transport squadron received the highest Italian military medals for their missions from 1940 to 1943 and then in the war of liberation until 1945 , and 29 other associations received the second highest award. Almost 10,000 soldiers of the Italian air force had died in the five years of the war, over 3,500 were missing.
Aeronautica Militare
With the referendum of June 2, 1946, the monarchy was abolished in Italy . In the names of all state institutions, the attribute "royal" was then dropped or completely renamed without causing a historical break. In the case of the Regia Aeronautica , the decision was made to use the name Aeronautica Militare with reference to the Corpo Aeronautico Militare of the First World War . The extended name Aeronautica Militare Italiana , shortly AMI, was never officially and was based on the adjustment to the NATO standard -space Italian Air Force . For several decades the expanded name and its abbreviation predominated in common parlance, then people returned to the origins.
On February 2, 1947, the Italian Ministry of Defense was created , in which the old ministries for war, navy and aviation were dissolved. In fact , until 1965 it was only an umbrella organization, as the three ministerial administrations continued to exist in their respective service buildings. There were initially no profound changes in the area of air force command either.
Despite all the military and political efforts of the anti-fascist forces in Italy, the peace treaty signed in Paris on February 10, 1947, turned out to be far less lenient than expected. In terms of the armed forces , the army - including the carabinieri - was not allowed to have more than 250,000 soldiers and 200 battle tanks , the maximum 25,000-strong navy had to accept a total tonnage limit of 67,500 tons for the combat ships and the air force remained at 25,000 soldiers and 350 aircraft limited, including 200 fighter planes. The low number of personnel in the armed forces offered a suitable opportunity to part with politically charged soldiers. This staff was only reintegrated on request with the later expansion.
reconstruction
With the withdrawal of the Allied occupation forces, the Italian Air Force began to gradually rebuild its territorial organization and training facilities from 1947 onwards. By circumventing the peace treaty, the USA provided numerous aircraft for pilot training as early as 1947, initially around 100 Stinson L-5s , then around 200 North American T-6s in 1948 , followed by around 100 Lockheed T-33s in 1952 . At the end of the war, the Air Force Academy was unable to return to the Allied Castle of Caserta . Since an intended move from Naples to Florence was out of the question for local political reasons , the company stayed until a new building was completed in Pozzuoli on the island of Nisida in the Gulf of Naples . During this time, the Italian aircraft industry also got back on its feet, especially in the field of training aircraft. The MB-308 , the S-7 and the Fiat G.59 were followed by the Piaggio P.149 and the Aermacchi MB-326 . In 1948 twelve C-47 / C-53 , then 123 Beechcraft C-45 Expediter and 20 Fairchild UC-61 forwarders for connection tasks were taken over for air transport . 42 SB2C-5 Helldiver went to submarine squadrons, which were then replaced from 1953 by 22 PV-2 Harpoon and from 1957 by 45 S2-F1 trackers . In this context, there were again disputes with the Navy over the reconstruction of the naval aviators and their planned equipping with their own fighter aircraft. In the case of the land-based maritime patrols , an agreement was reached on a joint operation; in the case of carrier-based combat aircraft, the agreement was only reached after a change in the law in 1989.
The expansion of the task forces followed shortly after joining NATO in 1949. Because of the escalating Cold War , the USA supported the Italian armed forces by providing free military equipment or by offering very favorable procurement conditions as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP) and the off -Shore Procurement (OSP). The arms restrictions of the peace treaty, which had initially been circumvented, were completely abolished in December 1951. The place of the Spitfires and P-38 Lightnings was taken first by P-51D Mustangs and P-47D Thunderbolts , then DH.100 Vampires , which were also built under license in Italy. Thanks to the British vampires , the age of the jet began for the Italian task forces in 1951. From 1952 onwards, 255 F-84G Thunderjet were acquired from the USA on very favorable terms, followed by around 200 F-86E / K Sabers from 1955 , which were also built under license were. The F-84G Thunderjet gave way from 1955 to the improved F-84F Thunderstreak and the RF-84F Thunderflash . For air transport, the first of 45 C-119G Flying Boxcars arrived in 1953 , which were later supplemented by 22 C-119Js. In 1953 in Rome Urbe a helicopter - flight school , in which one the first available helicopter of the type Bell 47 D, Sikorsky S-51 and S-55 concentrated.
Around ten years after the end of the war, the Italian Air Force had fully recovered from the defeat and the traumatic split thanks to American support. At the military airfields, which were practically rebuilt in the 1950s according to NATO standards at the time, modern combat aircraft were available in squadrons ( groups ) of 25 aircraft and in squadrons of three squadrons each. Due to their size, the squadrons ( Stormi ) received a brigade status ( Aerobrigate ) from 1953 . The following picture emerged in the combat units around 1956:
| Association | Seasons | Type | Military airfield | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1ª Aerobrigata | 6, 7, 17 | F-86K | Istana | in this form from 1956 to 1959, then anti-aircraft missiles |
| 2ª aerobrigata | 8, 13, 14 | F-86E | Bergamo | from 1957 in Cameri , then in Treviso |
| 3ª aerobrigata | 18, 28, 132 | RF-84F | Naples-Capodichino | shortly before moving to Verona-Villafranca |
| 4ª aerobrigata | 9, 10, 12 | F-86E | Pratica di Mare | shortly before moving to Grosseto |
| 5ª aerobrigata | 101, 102, 103 | F-84F | Verona-Villafranca | shortly before moving to Rimini-Miramare |
| 6ª Aerobrigata | 154, 155, 156 | F-84F | Ghedi | |
| 51ª Aerobrigata | 20, 21, 22 | F-84G | Istrana |
Almost all of these associations maintained aerobatic teams in the 1950s , which were replaced in 1960 by the central aerobatic team Frecce Tricolori in Rivolto . At the same time, some squadrons moved. In Pratica di Mare near Rome a helicopter squadron ( 31º Stormo ) and in Rome-Ciampino an air rescue squadron ( 15º Stormo ), including on HU-16A Albatros . The Air Transport Association 46ª Aerobrigata remained in Pisa . There were also various flight schools that were still subject to a rationalization process at the time.
Rocket age
The rocket age began in the Italian armed forces in the late 1950s. In 1956 the rocket launch site planned by Luigi Broglio was opened at Capo San Lorenzo on the east coast of Sardinia . The Italian army equipped its new missile brigade with surface-to-surface missiles of the Honest John (later Lance ) type , while the USA provided the associated nuclear warheads as part of its nuclear participation . The Navy also tried to install Polaris medium-range missiles on the cruiser Garibaldi . The Italian Air Force received anti-aircraft missiles of the models Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules , with which they equipped the 1ª Aerobrigata from 1959 . This association gave its all-weather F-86K to the 51ª Aerobrigata and moved the staff from Istrana to Padua . At the same time, the 36ª Aerobrigata were set up in Gioia del Colle in southern Italy and equipped with medium-range Jupiter missiles . Shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis , the Jupiter were withdrawn again with their US nuclear warheads. The association in Gioia del Colle received combat aircraft from northern Italy.
These developments temporarily brought with them an identity crisis. On the one hand, the army and navy had again set up their own air force and were now fighting with the air force over the limits of their expansion; on the other hand, the conversion of two traditional squadrons to rockets led many air force officers to the conclusion that the future would also bring this fate to the other squadrons and the pilots their transfer to underground command centers. For some the existence of the armed forces seemed to be in danger again.
Dispersion
The Fiat G.91 ground attack aircraft made its maiden flight on August 9, 1956, and the Aermacchi MB-326 jet trainer on December 10, 1957 . These two types of aircraft opened a new chapter in the history of Aeronautica Militare . In the following years they completely renewed the pilot training together with the later introduced SIAI Marchetti SF-260 . After a few experiments, the beginner's training was transferred to the Latina military airfield (SF-260), the jet training to Lecce (MB-326), the advanced training to Amendola (G.91T) and the training of helicopter pilots to Frosinone ( AB 47J , AB 204 ) . The G.91R and the twin-engine G.91Y took over tasks in the areas of close air support and reconnaissance from Treviso , Cervia and Brindisi . The G.91PAN also flew the Frecce Tricolori for many years. In total, the Italian Air Force put around 300 G.91s and 131 MB-326s into service.
The fighter aircraft of the various 80 series were replaced by the Italian Air Force with the F-104 Starfighter as part of a NATO standardization agreement . The Starfighter consortium NASMO commissioned the Italian industry to build 200 F-104Gs, 125 of them for Italy, 50 for the Federal Republic of Germany and 25 for the Netherlands. The F-104G entered service in Italy from 1963, starting with the 4th Squadron in Grosseto, which also received 28 two-seat TF-104Gs. The 3rd Squadron in Verona took over 18 RF-104G reconnaissance aircraft. With the standardization on F-104 and G.91, the brigades were generally downgraded back to squadrons in the late 1960s. The larger number of military airfields that were available again even prompted the Air Force leadership to form squadrons with only one flying squadron ( Gruppo ). This set-up or structure, known as dispersion, was intended to limit the vulnerability of the units and units on the ground. On the other hand, it also offered the opportunity to reactivate some of the particularly excellent squadrons and squadrons of World War II. At the same time, additional posts were created for staff officers and generals .
Around 1970 the Italian Air Force offered the following picture to combat and transport units (the flight schools are not yet mentioned here, as they did not yet have a squadron status):
| Association | Seasons | Type | Military airfield | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1ª Aerobrigata | (3 squadrons, 12 squadrons) | Nike Hercules | Padua (staff) | Squadrons distributed in northern Italy |
| 2nd Stormo | 14, 103 | G.91R | Treviso | |
| 3ª aerobrigata | 18, 28, 132 | (R) F-104G | Verona-Villafranca | soon downsized (18th season disbanded) |
| 4º Stormo | 9; 20th | (T) F-104G | Grosseto | 20. Autonomous training relay |
| 5º Stormo | 23, 102 | F-104G | Rimini | 23. Jäger, 102. Nuclear Participation |
| 6º Stormo | 154 | F-104G | Ghedi | Nuclear participation |
| 8º Stormo | 101 | G.91Y | Cervia | with two-jet variant of the G.91 |
| 9º Stormo | 10 | F-104G | Grazzanise | Spin-off from 4º Stormo |
| 14º Stormo | 8, 71 | PD.808 | Pratica di Mare | from 1972 and 1976 (special tasks) |
| 15º Stormo | 84, 85 | HU-16A , AB 204 , AB 47J | Rome Ciampino | SAR , also in Linate and Grottaglie |
| 30º Stormo | 86 | Atlantic | Cagliari-Elmas | from 1974 |
| 31º Stormo | 93, 94 | FROM 47 | Pratica di Mare | from 1976 ready to fly in Ciampino |
| 32º Stormo | 13 | G.91Y | Brindisi | |
| 36º Stormo | 12, 156 | F-104G | Gioia del Colle | 12. Hunter, 156. Nuclear Participation |
| 41º Stormo | 87, 88 | S-2 Tracker , Atlantic | Sigonella | before that in Catania-Fontanarossa , S-2 retired, disbanded in 87 |
| 46ª Aerobrigata | 2, 50, 98 | C-119G / J | Pisa | shortly before conversion to C-130H and G.222 |
| 50º Stormo | 155 | F-104G | Piacenza | from 1967 to 1973 |
| 51º Stormo | 22nd | F-104S | Istrana | 22. was the first to receive F-104S; from 1973 also 155. |
| 53º Stormo | 21st | F-104G | Cameri |
At the beginning of the 1970s the F-104G (but not the TF-104G and the RF-104G) were withdrawn from service with the exception of around 20 machines and replaced by 205 improved F-104S built in Italy. They had a more powerful engine and could use radar- guided Sparrow and then Italian Aspide missiles. The F-104S was given preference over the F-4 Phantom II for reasons of cost . The Italian Air Force showed particular interest in the reconnaissance version RF-4E, but then had to stick with their RF-104G.
The 1970s also brought changes in the air transport sector. The 46ª Aerobrigata in Pisa replaced their around 60 C-119 Flying Boxcar with 36 Aeritalia G.222 and 14 C-130H Hercules , which resulted in the Italian version of the Lockheed scandal . Other G.222s went in special versions to Pratica di Mare ( 14º Stormo ). The local helicopter squadron ( 31º Stormo ) moved to Rome-Ciampino and was made ready for flight by the Italian government. At first it flew Convair CV-440 and Douglas DC-6 propeller aircraft , then it received two DC-9 / 32s , some Piaggio PD.808s and two Agusta-Sikorsky SH-3D / TS helicopters . The PD.808 also went to the 14th Squadron in Pratica di Mare for calibration tasks and electronic warfare . From 1978 35 HH-3F were put into service with the 15th Rescue Helicopter Squadron , followed by 35 AB 212 from 1979 for other associations. The old AB 47J flew for another decade at the helicopter flight school in Frosinone.
| Association | place | Code name (NADGE) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 ROC / SOC | Monte Venda | Caterpillar |
| 11 ° CRAM | Poggio Renatico | Pioppo (Lima Echo) |
| 12 ° CRAM | Mortara | Puma (Lima Golf) |
| 13º CRAM | Lame di Concordia | Pedro (Lima Hotel) |
| 14º CRAM | Potenza Picena | Bracco (Lima Kilo) |
| 15 ° CRAM | Capo Mele | Trota (Mike Mike) |
| 16 ° CRAM | Telegraph (until 1978) | Bora (?) |
| 17 ° CRAM | Monte Scinauz (until 2001) | Cedrone (?) |
| 2 ROC / SOC | Monte Cavo | (?) |
| 21º CRAM | Poggio balloons | Quercia (Lima Lima) |
| 22º CRAM | Licola | Barca (Alpha Golf) |
| 23 ° CRAM | Terralba | (?) |
| 3 ROC / SOC | Martina Franca | Sasso |
| 31º CRAM | Jacotenente | Fungo (Lima Juliet) |
| 32 ° CRAM | Otranto | Volpe (Lima Alpha) |
| 33 ° CRAM | San Giovanni Teatino | Fionda (Lima Mike) |
| 34 ° CRAM | Mezzogregorio | Campo (Alpha Mike) |
| 35 ° CRAM | Marsala | Moro (Alpha Juliet) |
| 36 ° CRAM | Crotone (from 1982) | Medusa (?) |
In 1961, the Aeronautica Militare streamlined its territorial organization. In 1947 she had re-established the four territorial commands in Milan, Padua, Rome and Bari. They have now been replaced by three regional commandos in Milan (1st), Rome (2nd) and Bari (3rd), which took over both the troop service and (national) operational management of the task forces, as well as territorial support and administrative tasks. Each of the three regional commandos was given an underground command post with the designation Regional Operations Center (ROC), which is also responsible for the 5th Tactical Allied Air Fleet of NATO ( 5th ATAF ) in Vicenza (with a command post in the West-Star- Bunker near Verona). The 1st ROC in Monte Venda was responsible for northern Italy, the 2nd ROC in Monte Cavo for central Italy, and the 3rd ROC in Martina Franca for southern Italy . In 1976 the 2nd ROC was dissolved and its tasks were taken over by the other two commandos. The Monte Cavo thus only served as a protected command post of the Air Force General Staff, which had also undergone various changes due to the reorganization of the Defense Ministry in Rome.
Within each ROC there was a Sector Operations Center (SOC) which, with its subordinate Control and Reporting Centers (first called Centro , then Gruppo Radar Aeronautica Militare ; C / GRAM), was responsible for the operational management of the fighter squadrons and the anti-aircraft batteries (also of the army ) took over. These command facilities were part of the alliance-wide air defense organization NATO Air Defense Ground Environment . In addition, the ROC also had Offensive Operations Centers for air strikes, Joint Air Support Centers for the support of the other armed forces, Rescue Coordination Centers for air rescue and various other agencies.
New projects
Despite the partial modernization, the Italian Air Force (and with it the other branches of the armed forces) suffered from a drastic decline in the funds available for investment in the 1970s. Clear words were needed from the military leadership in order to make politicians aware of the possible military consequences of this development. As a countermeasure, parliament decided to provide additional funding outside the regular defense budget. From 1982, the Aeronautica Militare was able to put 100 Panavia Tornado into service thanks to these funds and thus replace part of the F-104S. A complete replacement of the Starfighter and the G.91 in the fighter-bomber role by many more tornadoes was ruled out for cost reasons. Instead, the Luftwaffe planned a light fighter aircraft based on the G.91 model for close air support and reconnaissance, in the conviction that the expensive and complex tornadoes were often exaggerated. Aeritalia and Aermacchi developed the AMX together with the Brazilian Embraer , which incorporated quite a few conceptual elements of the tornado . In Italy, 187 single-seat AMXs were supposed to replace the G.91R / Y and part of the F-104, 51 two-seat trainers the G.91T in advanced training.
During the conversion of the first squadrons, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact became apparent. Because of the new global political situation, it was limited to 110 single-seat AMX and 28 two-seaters. The original overall operational and financial planning was thus out of whack, which led many experts (in retrospect) to sometimes disparaging comments about the AMX program, since they believed the money would have been better invested in purchasing additional tornadoes . The criticism intensified when the Italian Air Force put the single-seaters of the first AMX construction lot out of service due to technical problems and left the advanced training of the pilots to a more modern version of the Aermacchi MB-339 . Apart from questions of profitability, there is generally no doubt about the performance of the AMX, which has meanwhile increased its combat value.
After the introduction of the tornadoes and the AMX, the following overall picture emerged in 1995:
| Association | Seasons | Type | Military airfield | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1ª Aerobrigata | (2 squadrons, 8 squadrons) | Nike Hercules | Padua (staff) | Squadrons distributed in northern Italy |
| 2nd Stormo | 14; 313 | AMX , MB-339PAN | Rivolto | Frecce Tricolori (313.) autonomous |
| 3º Stormo | 28, 132 | AMX | Verona-Villafranca | |
| 4º Stormo | 9, 20 | F-104ASA, TF-104G | Grosseto | |
| 5º Stormo | 23 | F-104ASA | Cervia | 1995 from Rimini-Miramare to Cervia |
| 6º Stormo | 102, 154 | tornado | Ghedi | 102. from Rimini to Ghedi; 154. Nuclear participation |
| 9º Stormo | 10 | F-104ASA | Grazzanise | |
| 14º Stormo | 8, 71 | PD.808 , G.222RM / VS , Boeing 707 TT | Pratica di Mare | Special tasks, air refueling |
| 15º Stormo | 81, 82, 83, 84, 85 | HH-3F | Ciampino , in Pratica from 1997 | SAR , also in Rimini (83rd), Brindisi (84th) and Trapani (82nd) |
| 30º Stormo | 86 | Atlantic | Cagliari-Elmas | until 2002, maritime reconnaissance |
| 31º Stormo | 93, 306 | DC-9/32 , Gulfstream III , Falcon 50 , SH-3D / TS | Rome Ciampino | Readiness to fly |
| 32º Stormo | 13, 101 | AMX | Amendola | coming from Brindisi, 101st from Cervia |
| 36º Stormo | 12, 156 | F-104ASA, tornado | Gioia del Colle | 12. Hunter, 156. Nuclear Participation |
| 37º Stormo | 18th | F-104ASA | Trapani | Fighters and fighter-bombers; NAEW & C base ( E-3A ) |
| 41º Stormo | 88 | Atlantic | Sigonella | Maritime reconnaissance |
| 46ª Aerobrigata | 2, 50, 98 | C-130H , G.222 | Pisa | 2nd and 98th on G.222, 50th on C-130 |
| 50º Stormo | 155 | tornado | Piacenza | Set up again in 1990 |
| 51º Stormo | 22, 103 | F-104ASA, AMX | Istrana | 22. Fighter on F-104; 103rd from Treviso on AMX |
| 53º Stormo | 21st | F-104ASA | Cameri | |
| 61º Stormo | 212, 213, 214 | MB-339 | Lecce | Training jet pilots |
| 70º Stormo | 207 | SF-260AM | Latina | Pilot training |
| 72º Stormo | 208 | NH-500E | Frosinone | Training helicopter pilots |
New problems arose in the 1990s due to the delays in the introduction of the Eurofighter . The seven interceptor squadrons with their F-104ASA had only a very limited military value despite the increase in combat value ( Aggiornamento Sistema d'Arma, ASA ). In addition, the Italian Air Force had to forego the planned replacement of the old Nike-Hercules missiles by Patriots for financial reasons . Despite great financial difficulties, Italy was close to procuring 70 F-16C / Ds in 1993 in order to secure a minimal, reasonably credible air defense potential for a transitional period. Ultimately, this project was abandoned because it would have torpedoed the Eurofighter program, the implementation of which, on the other hand, was being delayed further and further due to the indecision of European partners, which put the Italian air force in an extremely difficult position. For reasons of industrial policy, 24 Tornados in the air defense version ADV were leased in 1994 by the British Royal Air Force . These long-range fighters were originally intended to intercept Soviet bombers north of the British Isles , but were hardly up to the task of other modern fighters. These tornadoes were stationed in Cameri and Gioia del Colle in Italy. After the ten-year lease had expired, the aircraft were returned and managed with 34 F-16s leased by the USA, which were then gradually replaced by the incoming Eurofighters .
The experience with the imponderables of European armaments projects led Italy to withdraw from the Airbus A400M project. In the air transport sector, the old C-130E / H and the many G.222 short-haul transporters soon no longer met the requirements. The decision was made here to use the latest versions of these aircraft, which have common features , particularly in terms of engines and avionics . 22 C-130Js were ordered, ten of them in the extended version J-30, and twelve Alenia C-27Js . When replacing five old tanker aircraft of type Boeing 707 TT by four KC-767 that had Aeronautica Militare due to technical problems again suffered years of delays. For the Breguet Atlantic maritime patrol aircraft operated by the Navy , the Boeing P-8 seemed ideal from an operational point of view, but not from a financial point of view. Here too, emergency and temporary solutions had to be found. The possible standardization through the procurement of the Boeing 737 AEW & C never got beyond the planning stage.
After the cold war
In the two decades after the end of the Cold War, the Italian Air Force was busy with a number of missions abroad. Italy made eight tornadoes available for Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait , which at the beginning of 1991 flew a total of 226 sorties and dropped 280 tons of bombs. A machine was lost in the process. The Italian commander Mario Arpino was so impressed by the mission in Riyadh that a few years later, as Chief of the Air Force General Staff, he based it on a major reform of the organizational structure of Aeronautica Militare . From 1997, this was no longer based primarily on territorial, but on functional principles. As a result, the “Air Force Regions” only had supporting tasks; the operational tasks were combined in a central operational command in Poggio Renatico . The operation in the Persian Gulf also showed that although a lot of money had been invested in modern combat aircraft, these could only drop "stupid" unguided bombs over the targets. The procurement of “intelligent”, precision-guided ammunition and also tanker planes was then given priority.
In the following years, the transport aircraft ensured the supply of Italian contingents in Somalia and Mozambique , as well as the evacuation of civilians from Rwanda . On September 15, 1992, a G.222 loaded with relief supplies was shot down while approaching Sarajevo , killing the four crew members. Only her death brought about a real reassessment of the self-protection of the transport aircraft. In addition to the various air transport missions that led to East Timor in 1999 , combat aircraft were also used again, especially in 1995 in Operation Deliberate Force over Bosnia and Herzegovina and in 1999 in Operation Allied Force against what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . In both cases, the Italian Air Force made its military airfields available to allied air forces and provided considerable operational, technical and logistical support. In Kosovo, Italian air force pioneers built an airfield near Gjakova until the end of 1999, which then served as a logistical hub for the troop contingent there.
In the following decade, the tireless 46ª Brigata Aerea from Pisa with its new transport aircraft ensured, among other things, the supply of Italian contingents in Afghanistan , Iraq and Lebanon . The association received high awards for its significant achievements, including evacuation operations and fire-fighting missions. Tornado and AMX fighter jets have been used to support ground forces in Afghanistan in recent years. In 2011, Italy made some military airfields, fighter jets, drones and tanker planes available for the international military operation in Libya .
True to the motto Virtute Siderum Tenus (Eng. "With bravery to the stars"), Aeronautica Militare has been represented in (near-earth) space with the satellite-based communication system SICRAL and the COSMO Skymed reconnaissance satellites . Although these systems serve the entire armed forces and also civilian facilities, the Italian Air Force has a significant share in their operation. Individual military pilots have made the leap into space in recent years, including Maurizio Cheli and Roberto Vittori .
Major Aeronautica Militare airfields (2012) |
Army and Navy
The history of the army and navy air forces flowed into the Italian Air Force in 1923. This is particularly evident in the coat of arms of the Aeronautica Militare , on which the insignia of the four best Italian squadrons of the First World War can be seen. Several other units of the Aeronautica Militare that are still active today were set up during or even before the First World War. Only after the Second World War were the army and navy allowed to set up their own air force again. It is briefly mentioned here for the sake of completeness, although only the naval fighter planes can also be counted as air forces.
army
The first flying unit of the Italian Army Aviation was set up on May 10, 1951 at the Artillery School in Bracciano . It served the artillery for observation and fire control , and with its propeller-driven aircraft it also took on communication and transport tasks. In the following year the unit became an aeronautical training center, at which from 1954 new army aviation units were set up to support various large units . On June 1, 1957, the Bracciano training center moved to the nearby Viterbo military airfield , from where the expansion was carried out in the following years, now also with helicopters . In 1963 and 1976, the army aviation was subjected to structural reforms, with which the three corps in northern Italy were each assigned a mixed army aviation association at regimental level . Another association of this type remained in Viterbo. Smaller associations and units were usually subordinate to the territorial commands in central and southern Italy. On June 12, 1993, the "Light Army Air Force" ( Aviazione Leggera dell'Esercito ) took on its current name Aviazione dell'Esercito .
marine
The Marina Militare sent personnel to the USA for pilot training in 1950. In 1952 the USS Midway transferred the first two Curtiss SB2C Helldivers of the Italian Navy to Naples, where they were landed on December 19 by their Italian pilots at Capodichino airfield . Due to the still valid legal situation from the time of fascism, the Italian air force confiscated the machines and added them to their own 86th ( Helldiver ) squadron in Grottaglie . According to the plans of the Navy, “their” Helldiver should be used on a light aircraft carrier that the USA could buy second-hand. With the so-called “1,500 kilo law” of 1956, all fixed-wing aircraft above this weight limit remained in the hands of the air force, especially the maritime scouts , which were only left operationally to the command of the navy and ultimately had mixed crews. A separate inspectorate with the (already known) name Aviazione per la Marina ( Marinavia for short ) was set up for coordination and administration . In contrast, the helicopters were completely liberalized. Testing in this area had already started in 1953. On August 1, 1956, the 1st helicopter squadron was set up in Terrevecchie at the Augusta naval base and with it the Italian naval aviators in the narrower sense ( Aviazione Navale ). The expansion of the first and five other seasons took place in the course of time in Catania-Fontanarossa , La Spezia-Sarzana and Taranto-Grottaglie . In 1989, a change in the law of the Navy enabled the procurement of carrier-based combat aircraft.
See also
- Air War in World War I
- Air War in World War II
- Vigna di Valle Italian Aviation Museum
- Aeronautica Militare
- History of the Italian Army
- Italian naval history
Air forces in the First World War
- Aviation Militaire (Belgian Air Force)
- Royal Flying Corps / RFC (British Air Force, until 1917)
- Royal Naval Air Service / RNAS (British Naval Air Force, until 1918)
- Royal Air Force / RAF (British Air Force, from 1918)
- German air force
- Aéronautique Militaire (French Air Force)
- Austro-Hungarian Air Force (Austro-Hungarian Air Force)
- Osmanlı Hava Kuvetler (Ottoman Air Force)
- Corpul de Aviație Român (Romanian Air Force)
- Императорский военно-воздушный флотъ (Russian Air Force)
- American air force
Air forces in World War II
- air force
- Armée de l'air
- Royal Air Force
- United States Army Air Forces
- Soviet Union Air Force
- Imperial Japanese Army Air Force
- Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force
swell
literature
- Angelucci, Enzo; Matricardi, Paolo: Airplanes from the beginnings to the First World War . Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-8068-0391-9 .
- Centro di Studi Storico-Militari di Bologna: I Cavalieri del cielo - Nascita dell'aviazione Militare Italiana; Lecture by Dr. Renato Gentilini from April 17, 2000 (Italian).
- Christopher Chant: Austro-Hungarian Aces of World War I.
- Nowarra, Heinz: Airplanes 1914-18 . Munich 1959.
- Pelliccia, Antonio: La Regia Aeronautica dalle origini alla seconda guerra mondiale (1923–1943) . Ufficio Storico dell'Aeronautica Militare, Rome 1992.
- Petacco, Arrigo: Le battaglie navali del Mediterraneo nella seconda guerra mondiale . Mondadori, Milan 1976, ISBN 978-88-04-42412-3 .
- Rocca, Gianni: I disperati - la tragedia dell'aeronautica italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale . Mondadori, Milan 1991, ISBN 88-04-33826-1 .
- Alexis Mehtidis: Italian and Austro-Hungarian Military Aviation On the Italian front in World War I . General Data LLC, 2nd, ext. Edition 2008, ISBN 978-0-9776072-4-2 (1st edition 2004)
Web links
- History of the Italian Air Force - accessed September 2, 2013
- History portal of the Italian Air Force (Italian)
- Detailed description of the Corpo Aeronautico Militare until 1918 (English)
- Detailed description of the Corpo Aeronautico Militare until 1918 (Italian)
- Italian aircraft types (Italian)
- Listing of pilots by kill numbers, international
Individual evidence
- ↑ The following presentation is based on the official historiography of the Italian Air Force and on the sources given in the bibliography. If the information in this article is not backed up by detailed individual references, reference is made to these sources and to the website of the Italian Air Force.
- ↑ exhibited today in the 'Museo storico dell'Aeronautica Militare' in Vigna di Valle
- ↑ Storia dell'Aviazione Navale Italiana , accessed in September 2013
- ↑ Doubtful information
- ↑ cf. Air Force (German Empire)
- ^ Nowarra, Heinz: Flugzeug 1914-18, Munich 1959.
- ↑ Law 38/1931; Storia dell'Aviazione Navale Italiana , accessed September 2013
- ^ Indro Montanelli in the Corriere della Sera on January 9, 2001, accessed in September 2013.
- ↑ As before, the squadrons ( Stormi ) were divided into flying groups ( Gruppi ) and these into squadrons ( Squadriglie ). The squadrons in turn had six to twelve aircraft, the groups two to three squadrons with a total of around 18 to a maximum of 36 aircraft, the squadrons usually a maximum of two groups. This meant that Italian squadrons were around half the size of their German counterparts, often they were quantitatively only a third.
- ↑ The information from the various sources shows slight differences here. The Italian Air Force gives the following figures: 1,332 bombers, 1,160 fighters and fighter-bombers, 497 and 307 aircraft in support of the army and navy. This total of 3,296 aircraft were stationed in the Mediterranean region, plus a total of 323 bombers, fighters and reconnaissance planes in East Africa, bringing the total to 3,619. Of the 3,296 combat aircraft in Italy and the rest of the Mediterranean, 1,796 (or 1,795) were operational. It should be noted that modern fighter planes were mainly exported in 1940 because they were dependent on foreign exchange . In the 39 months of the war up to the armistice in September 1943, the Regia Aeronautica received around 11,000 more aircraft, which, however, were not enough to replace the losses and the technically obsolete machines. Source: Aeronautica Militare: La Regia Aeronautica nella II Guerra Mondiale
- ^ Ralf Balke: Israel. CHBeck, 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55836-8 , p. 52 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- ↑ Excepted from this were the two battleships of the Caio Duilio class that were classified as no longer fit for use in the war . The tonnage limit only referred to actually usable "combat ships" and not to warships in general (Art. 59). Contract text in the French original on CVCE , viewed in September 2013
- ↑ Accord par échange de notes exonérant l'Italie des obligations prévues aux articles 15 à 18 et 46 à 70 du traité de paix du 10 février 1947 (recognized by other states) Archives, French Foreign Ministry (fr.), Viewed in September 2013
- ↑ The term "relay" here refers to the Italian group , which over time has become the equivalent of foreign relay teams. The Gruppo had during the strong expansion in the 1950s, with up to 25 aircraft nor the extent of a flying group of World War II. In the further course, the strength first fell to 18 and then to 15 to 12 aircraft, in the case of units with transporters or maritime patrols it could be even less. The subordinate Squadriglia , which still had a target stock of nine to twelve aircraft in the Second World War, was reduced to six to four machines and thus de facto sank in importance to a sub-unit ( swarm ). Internationally, the Italian term Gruppo was soon translated as Squadron or Staffel , also by the Italian Air Force itself.
- ↑ Many of the CRCs or CRAMs mentioned in the table now only exist in the named locations in a greatly reduced but highly automated form under the name Squadriglia Radar Remota . As a rule, the old CRC number was increased by 100, for example 112 instead of the previous 12. Details on aeronautica.difesa.it (Il Gruppo Radar in AM)
- ^ The Italian Air Force in Kosovo. In: nato.int. August 19, 2002, accessed January 16, 2015 .
- ^ Historical outline of the army aviators La nostra storia - Nascita e vita, in breve, dell'ANAE. (No longer available online.) In: anaesardegna.com. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014 ; Retrieved January 16, 2015 (Italian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Marina Militare Italiana - Storia dell'Aviazione Navale 3. In: elicotterienavi.com. Retrieved January 16, 2015 (Italian).
- ^ History of the Italian naval aviators Marina Militare. In: marina.difesa.it. January 16, 2015, accessed January 16, 2015 (Italian).
- ↑ A look inside the book: Alexis Mehtidis: Italian and Austro-Hungarian Military Aviation On the Italian Front In World War One. Ravi Rikhye, 2008, ISBN 978-0-977-60724-2 , p. 4 ( limited preview in Google book search).
