Sailors of a Spanish Nationalist ship watching a flying boat CRDA Cant-Z-501 of Aviación Legionaria patrolling the sea in front of the Spain’s Mediterranean cost. Ten exemplars of this large Italian single engine flying boat, transferred in Spain by Italian Government in support to Franco’s forces during the Spanish Civil War, were employed by 130th Escuadrilla based at Pollença, Mallorca. On January 1937, the aircrafts were transferred to a Spanish unit, the Grupo 2-G-62. Victor Sierra

On patrol

The Italian steamship Aventino (former Austro-Hungarian Baron Bek), part of a convoy for troop transportation from Italy to Balkans, under antisubmarine escort of a Regia Aeronautica’s CRDA Cant-Z-501 flying boat. Adriatic Sea, March 1942. Victor Sierra

Steamship under escort

One Cant-Z-501 of Spanish Nationalist Air Force’s Grupo 2-G-62 at Pollença, Mallorca, just lowered in the water by means a crane. The number 62 on the fuselage is the type number of the Spanish Cant-Z-501s. The ten flying boats dispatched by Italians arrived in Spain from December 1936 to Summer 1937 and was employed for maritime reconnaissance and bombardment. Five aircraft was lost for accidents or adverse weather conditions, none for hostile action. Another Cant-Z-501 was purchased by means of fund-raising ay Cadiz. But this aircraft, called “Ciudad de Cadiz”, was lost on September 1936 only after four flight’s hours because an accident. Victor Sierra