Italian Forces

Yugoslav Do-17 commandeered by Italians

warbird in picture

Side view of the former Royal Yugoslav Air Force’s Dornier Do-17Ka-3 commandeered by Italian Regia Aeronautica in the Spring 1941. At the beginning of German invasion of Yugoslavia, on April 1941 the Royal Yugoslav Royal Air Force had some 60 Dornier Do-17Ks in service with the 3 Vazduhoplovni Puk (3rd Bomber Regiment) composed by two groups: the 63rd Bomber Group at Petrovac near Skopje and the 64th Bomber Group at Mileševo near Priština. The Luftwaffe destroyed 26 of these Yugoslav Do-17 in the initial assault. Total Yugoslav losses stood at four destroyed in aerial combat and 45 on the ground. Other five Yugoslav Dorniers escape in the Greece not again occupied were destroyed at Paramythia Airfield by an attack of Italian aircraft. Victor Sierra