Correct photo: A S.82 of Luftwaffe’s Transportfliegerstaffel 4, the “Savoia Staffel”, ready to loading some oil drums, location unknown (Eastern Front?). Note the shutter for the access to fuselage’s interior, a feature of this Italian transport aircraft. Clearly visible also the fuselage’s opening of the waist machine gun for auto-defense (not installed on the plane of this photo). Victor Sierra

Savoia Staffel on the job-2

An Italian type of airplane employed in large quantity and well appreciated by the Luftwaffe was the three engines transport aircraft Savoia-Marchetti S.82 (nicknamed Marsupiale/Marsupial by the Italian pilots). On 1941 the Luftwaffe purchased 110 S.82 for balance the heavy loss suffered by its transport units and for avoid additional workloads of its aeronautical industries broadly committed to production of combat planes. But only 45 S.82 was delivered before the Italy’s armistice (8 September 1943) and to complete the required amount the Germans seized after the Kingdom of Italy’s armistice many Regia Aeronautica’s planes plus many other still in Savoia-Marchetti’s plant included the remaining aircraft of the original Luftwaffe’s order. According a statistic of Generalquartiermaster der Luftwaffe dated 31 March 1944 the S.82 in service with the German Air Force were 182 increased to 231 on 30 June 1944, an amount evidently obtained adding the original order to Savoia-Marchetti to the planes both completed and both seized after the Italy’s armistice. The Luftwaffe’s main user of S.82 was the Transportfliegerstaffel 4 which, as Stabsstaffel of the III./TG 1, had the first Italian three engines plans already on 1942. The Transportfliegerstaffel 4, which replaced the original Stabstaffel disbanded on May 1943, was knew by the German crews as “Savoia Staffel” and, moved from Grosseto, its Italian base, to Germany, at Celle, Lower Saxony, employed its S.82 basically over all fronts, especially on Eastern Front where flew also the few S.81 and S.82 of the two Italian Transport Groups of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana’s air force. Victor Sierra

Savoia Staffel

Another Italian aircraft well appreciated by the Luftwaffe’s crew was the Fiat G.12, a modern all metal three engines especially suitable for troop transport, up 22 full equipped men, very faster of the Ju 52. After the Italy’s armistice (8 September 1943) the Luftwaffe seized some Regia Aeronautica’s G.12 and at same time ordered to Fiat the continuation of the production for its requirements. On Spring 1944 the assembly line of Turin’s Fiat factory was interrupted by the heavy Allied raids. The Reichsluftfahrtministerium at Berlin assigned the G.12s to Transportfliegerstaffel 4 (also knew as “Savoia Staffel”). On October 1943 the Staffel was moved from Italy, Grosseto airfield, to Celle, Lower Saxony, and on December had in fleet eight G.12 increased to 22 by April 1944. However the strong Allied air superiority over the Germany reduced the use’s possibilities of the transport aircraft and on June 1944 the Staffel moved prior to Schroda, near Posen, and after few days to Southern Germany. The new base of the G.12 was Dornberg, about 45 km SW of Würzburg, Bavaria. On autumn 1944 the G.12 still flyable were 18 and on September was switched to Hungarian Air Force for airborne troop’s transport. According some source early Spring 1945 the G.12 still in service with the Hungarian Air Force were only four, grounded for fuel lack and destroyed by means of explosive charges on 21 March 1945. Victor Sierra