Italian bombers leaving from the Albanian airfield of Scutari (Shkodra) for a bombing mission over the Greek town of Thessaloniki, winter 1940. The planes are Savoia-Marchetti S.79s of 252nd Squadriglia, 104th Gruppo, 46th Stormo, deployed on Albania from Pisa. Note the leading edge Handley Page slats lowered and the slotted flaps also lowered for the take-off. Victor Sierra

Target Thessaloniki

Italian Regia Aeronautica’s Savoia-Marchetti S.79s bombing a target on Balkans during the war against the Greece, perhaps on late Autumn 1940. Note the considerable bomb’s dispersion caused by their vertical stowage on the fuselage. At the time of the Italian attack to Greece, 28 October 1940, the standard Italian bomber on Balkan theater were still the obsolescent S.81 and the on only S.79s there presents were fifteen aircraft 105th Gruppo Bombardamento Terrestre (Land Bomber Group) at Tirana, Albania, shortly after reinforced, 4 November 1940, by the S.79s of 104th Gruppo Bombardamento Terrestre (252nd and 253rd Squadriglia) always deployed at Tirana. On 5 November 1940 the bomber line of the Regia Aeronautica’s Comando Aeronautica Albania (Air Command Albania) were composed by 31 S.79s and 24 S.81s. Victor Sierra

In action over the Greek-Albanian front

An RAF Intelligence Officer (right) interrogates an Italian fighter pilot POW. The Italian is a pilot of the 51st Stormo “Black Cat”, one of most famous Regia Aeronautica’s fighter units (as seen by the patch on his Marus flight jacket). According the Australian War Memorial (AWM MED0176) the Italian pilot, rank unknown, was taken prisoner of war after he had crash-landed following a mid-air collision with a British Tomahawk aircraft, North Africa c.1942. Today the 51st Stormo, always the Black Cat capturing three green mouses over the tails, is a fighter-bomber-recce unit of Italian Air Force, based at Istrana, North-East Italy, and equipped with AMX employed also in Afghanistan (Task Group Black Cats) on Herat Air Base. Victor Sierra