Italian Forces

Italian Storch

One of the few Fieseler Fi.156 Storch employed by the Italian Regia Aeronautica during the WW2 photographed in Libya. The first Italian Storch was the plane given by Hermann Göring to Air Marshal Italo Balbo, at this time, early 1939, Governor of the Libya, late Thirties, construction number 719, registered on 2 January 1939 as civil aircraft with the registration I-ULIA (Iulia was the surname of Balbo’s daughter Giuliana), former D-IGZN. After the Balbo’s death (28 June 1940) the I-ULIA was switched to Regia Aeronautica and registered as military aircraft. An Italian Storch was in the fleet of the co-belligerent Regia Aeronautica and employed by Lt. Furio Lauri behind the German lines for “cover missions”. It’s the same Storch today exhibit in the Italian Air Force Museum. Victor Sierra