An Italian Air Force's NCO and his cat. Location unknown, likely Italy. Victor Sierra

NCO and cat

The only exemplar of AVIS C.4, an Italian aircraft really unknown, the Avis C.4, a monoplane powered by one 280 HP Hirth HM.508D and a cabin for three people with possibility of transport of a stretcher. The plane was designed and built by AVIS (AVio Industrie Stabiensi), a society of Caproni Group, based near Naples, in reply to a requirement of 1938 for an light liaison airplane to be used mainly in the Italian East Africa. Although the winner was the IMAM Ro.63, however built in few exemplars, the C.4 was ordered in six units, but obly the prototype was built. The plane flew at Capodichino, the Naples airport, on June 1940, but the test’s result were unsatisfactory. The aircraft was transferred at Rome, Littorio Airfield, and finally at the Guidonia’s Flight Test Center. The last flight of AVIS C.4 date back to November 1942. The final fate of this forgotten airplane is unknown. Victor Sierra

An airplane unkown

Italian Leggero Veloce LV/35 tankette column with German (or, at least, Heer) infantry in the Balkans.  If the Bundesarchiv caption, dating this 'photo to August/September 1943 is correct, this was on the cusp of the overthrow of Mussolini and the Badoglio government's armistice with the Allies, which was announced on 8 September, 1943.  By mid-October, 1943 - following Italy's decalaration of war on Germany - these soldiers might well have been shooting at each other.  Best regards, JR.