Armorer loading the bombs onboard of an Italian bomber Savoia-Marchetti S.79 of 32nd Stormo on Decimomannu, Sardinia, 13 September 1940. Victor Sierra

Loading the bombs

North Africa, 1942: British soldiers looking at an abandoned wreck of an Italian fighter Fiat CR.42. Note the Savoia’s emblem on the rudder taken away by a souvenir hunter. Victor Sierra

Wrecked plane in the desert

A pilot boarding on an Italian Regia Aeronautica’s assault plane Breda 65, with engine running to idle, Libya, perhaps Tobruk, Summer 1940. The photo highlight two of the four machine guns of Breda 65 mounted in the wing and firing outside propeller disk. The four machine guns were two inner 12,7 mm, each with 350 shots, and two outside 7,7 mm each with 500 shots. Employed in Spain by the Italians fighting with the Nationalist during the Spanish Civil War, the Breda 65 was used by Italian Regia Aeronautica also in the first months of wars in North Africa. Almost the Breda 65 were lost during the fierce combats on the first Italian offensive and the British counter-offensive, June-December 1940. Victor Sierra