Italian fighters Fiat CR.32 looking in the water of a pool after a storm. Photo taken at Ghedi Airfield, Northern Italy, before the WW2, likely on 1937 when many other CR.32s fighting in Spain during the Civil War. The CR.32s are planes of the 357th Squadriglia, 22nd Gruppo, 52nd Stormo. Today Ghedi, near Brescia, isn’t an airfield as that of this photo, but a modern NATO air base, the “home” of the Tornado-IDS of the 6th Stormo “Diavoli Rossi” (Red Devils). Victor Sierra

Looking in the pool

 Italian light cruiser Emmanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta and Eugenio di Savoia on route to an area  north of Tripoli,to drop  German contact mines , May 1, 1941.  In the night of 18 to 19 December 1941 a strike force bound for Malta  consisting of three cruisers and four destroyers,struck the minefield.   The light cruiser Neptune and the destroyer Kandahar struck mines and sank. Another cruiser was damaged but  repaired in 13 weeks. 


Mine dropping

Italian marines landing as first wave during the invasion of Albania, april 1939. Italians had 12 KIAs and 81 WIAs during the operation, almost all during the first wave of assault, 60% of which of the navy. Albanians suffered 160 KIAs and many hundreds of wounded. DVX