An Italian Air Force’s General inspect one of almost seventy French made Dewoitine D.520 fighter aircrafts seized by the Italy on November 1942 after the Axis invasion of the French territories still under Vichy Government’s control. Note the Fascist emblem (Fascio Littorio) already affixed on the fuselage’s forward section as on all the Italian Air Force’s at this time (1943). Victor Sierra

Italian General, French airplane

Tamet, near Tripoli, Libya: repair in the field of the tail wheel of an Italian Air Force’s Macchi MC.202, aircraft 81-5 of the 1st Stormo, 16th Gruppo, 81st Squadriglia. On the contrary of the work in the fixed airport workshop, in this case the personnel of the SRAM (Squadra Riparazioni Aerei e Motori/Repair Aircraft and Engine Team) working with a very ruddy equipment: note, for example, an empty fuel drum utilized for the airplane’s lift in place of trestles and jack. Victor Sierra



Repair in the field

Unusual rear-view of a Regia Aeronautica’s Dewoitine D 520 after its transfer from the France to Italy, early 1943. The aircraft keeping the original French Vichy Air Force’s camouflages with the addition of the standard Italian Air Force’s marking (white cross, but without the transfer with the House of Savoy’s emblem, over the tail, white band over the fuselage) plus two white strips on the wings, this latter affixed on all French aircrafts seized after the invasion of the Vichy’s France. Photo taken, perhaps at Guidonia’s Flight Test Center, before the aircraft’s assignment to an active combat unit. Victor Sierra

