Italian Forces

Italian and Romanian fighters

An Italian Air Force’s Macchi MC.200 “Saetta” with a Romanian fighter IAR 80 concealed behind the green stuff on an Eastern Front’s airfield, perhaps Tudora along at the time border between Romania and Soviet Union, Summer 1941. The Italian plane is an aircraft of the 22nd Gruppo Caccia aircraft, the fighter unit of the Comando Aviazione del CSIR/Aviation Command of Expeditionary Italian Corps in Russia, commanding officer Colonel Carlo Drago, which was established at Tudora on 29 July 1941 for air support (with fighter, reconnaissance and transport units, total 85 aircraft) to Italian Army’s forces (62.000 men) dispatched on Eastern Front on Mussolini’s order. The 22nd Gruppo Caccia, commanding officer Maggiore Giovanni Borzoni, with four Squadriglie (359th Capitano Vittorio Minguzzi, 362nd Capitano Germano La Ferla, 369th Capitano Giorgio Iannicelli KIA 29 December 1941, Gold Metal, 371st Capitano Enrico Meille) and 51 MC.200, was deployed at Tudora on 12 August 1941. The first combat of the 22nd Gruppo date to 27 August 1941 against some Soviet planes, Polikarpov I-16 fighters and Tupolev SB-2 bombers. The Italian pilots claimed six bombers and two fighters without losses. Victor Sierra