The former Regia Aeronautica’s Savoia-Marchetti S.79 military registration MM22174 taken over by No.145 Squadron, RAF, at this time equipped with Spitfire V, at Castel Benito, Tripoli, when arrived there on 8th February 1943. The aircraft, repainted in British markings, received the Squadron code letters ZX and the name “Gremlin” and was used extensively as a Squadron communications airplane. F/O Jim Pickering flew this S.79 for 88 hours 55 minutes on Squadron duties between 24th February and 19th May 1943. Later this aircraft, handed over to an USAAF unit, destroyed by fire. Victor Sierra

“Gremlin”

Sunday 6 December 1942: a pair of Beaufighter VIC of the No 252 Squadron Royal Air Force take off from Berka 3, an air base near Benghazi, to strafe the coast road in the region of Sirte, near the Libyan coast. One of them has three people on board, on the contrary of the normal (the crew of the Beaufighter is two men): is the plane of the Squadron Leader Derek Frecker, pilot, which, in addition to the navigator, Pilot Officer Tom Armstrong, has as passenger, the Sergeant Paddy Clark, the crews mechanic which has persuaded Frecker to let him fly on this sortie. But this sortie is unlucky because none will return to base. The plane of Wing Commander Peter Bragg, clearly hit by the AA fire, ditch 3 miles from the coast: Bragg survive and is take POW, but the navigator Fl/Lt. Eric Nickols loss his life. Also the Frecker’s Beaufighter, after a strafing of Tamet airfield at this moment in the Axis hand, is damaged by the anti-aircraft fire and forced to an emergency land in the desert behind enemy lines with starboard engine out of service and air cooler smashed. The three men are unhurt and Clark has the time for take the photo of the airplane and her comrades: Armstrong (left) and Frecker. But the situation of the three men is serious: unharmed and with very little rations, a can of water, few tins of bully beef, salmon and sardines for a long march towards Allied lines hiding from near enemy transport and using their parachute silk during the freezing nights (in North Africa the temperature range day-night is very strong). But the fortune smile on the three men which seven day after the forced landing come across some Senussi Arabs pro-English who give food, water and shelter for another week. And fifteen days after the crash they are rescued by an armored car of the 1st Kings Dragoon Guards who reward the Arabs for their work in providing assistance. For the Pilot Officer Armstrong these was the happy ending second adventure: on 28 July 1941 was wounded by the attack of Italian fighters and spent few time in hospital before rejoin his Squadron. Victor Sierra

Two weeks in the desert

A detail of the No.145 Squadron RAF’s S.79 ZX “Gremlin”. Notice the armament removed and the white band over the fuselage, in use when this aircraft was in service with the Italian Air Force, still retained. Victor Sierra