An Italian Regia Aeronautica’s Piaggio P.108B warming up the engines for a night take off. At the time of Operation Torch, Allied landing in French North Africa, end 1942, the 274th Squadriglia had only eight P.108s and with them performed only 28 sorties over Algeria in eight night missions, during a whole month. Three were shot down by night fighters, which on only one occasion were repelled by the wing turrets. Two P.108s were shot down by 153 Sqn Beaufighters in the attack over Algeria's port and the last of these missions was flown on 20 January 1943. Some ships were damaged by P.108s in some raids. The final action of P.108Bs took place over the Allied operations againts Sicily, July 1943. The 274th Squadriglia reinforced up to the basic force of eight machine flew 12 sorties against the invasion force between 11 and 22 July. Losses included two P.108s destroyed and two others badly damaged by Allied night fighters, and only one ship was hit. Victor Sierra

Engines running

A group of Italian strategic bombers P.108B of 274ª Squadriglia Bombardamento a Grande Raggio ready for a night long-range mission. The first mission of this large plane, only four engines strategic bomber of Axis forces (the German FW-200 was a maritime patrol aircraft), was against Gibraltar on 28 June 1942 with five aircrafts. Because engine troubles and enemy’s reaction, the results were disappointing. One aircraft was forced to return to Decimomannu due to engine trouble while the other four bombed the target with 66 bombs 100 kg (220 lb) and six bombs 250 kg. But three P.108s, short of fuel, were forced to land in Spain, two of which  crashed or suffered some damage in forced landings. A third plane landed in Majorca and was quickly refueled and took off for Italy. The damages inflicted to Gibraltar were very small. Several other missions were launched until October, which resulted in some damage and further losses. Victor Sierra

Waiting for a night mission

A singular version of Italian strategic bomber aircraft was the P.108A (“A” for “Artigliere”, Gunner) developed in November 1942 for anti-shipping duties and armed with a 102 mm (4 in), a modified high velocity Ansaldo 90/53 mm gun, firing shells weighing 13 kg (30 lb), with a muzzle velocity of over 600 m/s. The gun was mounted longitudinally in a modified nose in the fuselage centreline, at a depressed angle, with a very strong recoil action which the 27 tonne (30 ton) airframe was nevertheless able to absorb. The load of ammunitions that could be carried was around 50-60 rounds for the main gun. Initial modifications were made to an existing airframe, aircraft MM.24318, which flew at Villanova d'Albenga airfield, near Savona, on 16 December 1942. The modifications were completed in February 1943 and testing, commenced on 3 March of the same year, was satisfactory, reaching a maximum speed of around 440 km/h due to the more aerodynamic redesigned nose. The P.108A flew to Furbara Test Range, North-West of Rome, on 19 March, and later to Pisa on 16 April, where it carried out a series of firing trials at altitudes between 1,500 and 4,500 meters to collect the ballistic data for negative angles of elevation that was required to allow the computing gunsight to be produced. After 24 hours and 40 minutes of flight and weapons trials, the aircraft returned to Albenga and later, 22 May 1943, was officially presented again at Furbara. The plans was to build five further P.108As, as well as convert another five or possibly all P.108Bs available was reduced, on 29 June 1943, at only five aircraft, and in July, the order was further limited to two planes, and eventually cancelled. On 6 and 8 September 1943, at moment of Armistice of Italy, the P.108A made other weapons tests over the sea, finally equipped with the San Giorgio calibration/aiming system. After the Armistice the German forces controlling Northern Italy seized the aircraft. Repaired after some damages from an Allied bombing and with the Luftwaffe’s marking the “Artigliere”, in April 1944, was moved to Rechlin Test Center in Germany where it was probably destroyed by an Allied raid. Victor Sierra