Loading the torpedos at SM 79s before the mission. Photo taken possibly in Italian Dodecaneso. 
In Gadurrà (Rodhes) had base the 278 squadriglia, one of the best units of Italian torpedo bombers.

Loading the torpedo

Littorio Battleship.

No one SM 79 was downed by enemy fighters during Spanish Civil War: nor Russian Chatos or Ratas, or French fighters of first 30's could reach it.
Communist pilots could not find a tactical manoeuvre to attack the SM 79s, unlike the Italian and Spanish pilots with the CR 32s against the faster Tupolev SB2 Katiuskas.