Italian Forces

Stuka with Italian roundels

One of the five Stukas Junkers Ju 87D (Dora) former 121st Gruppo Tuffatori (Dive Dombers Group), until late Autumn 1943 based at Chilivani, Sardinia, shifted to the co-belligerent Italian Air Force. The plane, photographed at Lecce, Apulia, late 1944, is the Ju 87D-31 military registration MM 100410, on-strength to NVST-Nucleo Volo Servizio Tecnico (Flight Unit Technical Service), note the code NVST-1 on the fin, based at Lecce’s Galatina airfield, acting inside the 21st Gruppo of the 51st Stormo. The plane is without the dive brakes, bomb rack and MG dorsal, but under the tail is visible the towing attachment for aerial target. In effect the Doras of the 121st Gruppo was employed, after the removal of the armament, for aerial target’s towing on behalf of the Americans, but on March 1944 two or three was transferred in Apulia. According few sources from the Apulia’s bases the Italian Doras flew two mission against the Germans over the Balkans with the loss of an airplane. But is a controversial history without official statements. After the hostilities end the Italian Stukas still survivors was scrapped. Victor Sierra