Italian fighter pilots talking near a Macchi MC.200 “Saetta” now equipped with radio (note the large antenna) and with the all dark olive drab finish adopted on the last period of the war (obviously before the Armistice of 8 September 1943). Unit unknown, location perhaps in Southern Italy perhaps on Spring 1943 (note one pilot has the white flight suite, typical of hot climate, but the other have still the Marus jacket). The Fascist emblem under the cockpit indicate a photo taken before the Mussolini’s fall. Victor Sierra

Italian pilots

Full equipped for the flight, leather flight helmet, Marus flight jacket and goggles, an Italian Macchi MC.200s fighter pilot is ready for take-off. Note the particular shape of open canopy which replaced the closed and sliding canopy of the MC.200’s first version. On the left, behind the windscreen, the collimator. Victor Sierra

Ready for take-off

Victor Emmanuel III King of Italy and also, from April 1939, King of the Albanians on Tirana Airfield during a visit to Albanian front on May 1941 shortly after the surrender of Greece and Yugoslavia. The planes are fighter aircrafts Macchi MC.200s of 150th Gruppo. In foreground the aircraft of Gruppo’s commander with the rank’s emblem on the fuselage’s white band and an unusual Gruppo’s number in Roman numeral (usually the Italian Regia Aeronautica’s airplanes had the Squadriglia numeral plus the aircraft’s individual number, black the first, red the second, all in Arabic numeral). Victor Sierra