In the frantic and dramatic days just after the official announcement, 8 September 1943, of the signature of the Armistice between the Italy and the Allies, about 250 Italian aircraft based in the Central and Northern Italy in the German hands attempt to escape out the new enemy reaching the Southern Italy’s airports occupied by the Allies. Of this planes, about forty are shot down by the Germans or lost for other reasons, while the other join the circa 200 Italian aircraft already on the South or on the Islands. The aircraft of this photo, fuselage code MAL-3 (MAL for Malpensa), a former bomber Savoia-Marchetti S.79 of the Malpensa’s Scuola Volo Senza Visibilità (Blind Flight School), had just successfully his long and dangerous flight from Malpensa Airport, near Milan, at Milazzo airfield, on the Sicily. Note in background an Allied Jeep and a Bristol Beaufighter. Victor Sierra

Escape towards South

Bristol Beaufighter Mark VIFs of No. 600 Squadron RAF parked in dispersals among the olive trees at Cassibile, Sicily, Summer 1943. The Armistice signed by the Italy in this little town of the Sicily on 3 September 1943 was kept secret until the evening of the 8 September 1943 when the General Dwight Eisenhower and the Marshal Pietro Badoglio it announced publicly on the radio (for this reason the Italy’s surrender is usually indicated as Armistice of 8 September or “the 8 September). In the afternoon of the same 3 September Badoglio, during a meeting with the high ranks of the Italian Armed Forces, the Secretaries of the War, Sorice, of the Navy, De Courten, and of the Aeronautics, Sandalli, present also the Chief of Staff Italian Armed Forces, Ambrosio, and the Secretary of Royal House, Acquarone, not mentioned in the least the Armistice’s signature, but only talks in progress. In the same days, many Italian soldiers, was send to die in the darks of the events. The only to smell a rat was the Germans which entered in action few hours after the official announcement of the Armistice. Note: although the photo, source IWM, depict a RAF’s plane, the same make reference to an important page of the Italy’s history. For this reason I post this photo in Italian Forces section and also for another reason: the photo of signature of the Armistice are well known and this picture, as the previous, hare a strange sense of rustic peace which is in contrast with the dramatic events of this days. I think the WW2incolor’s friend agree on this choice. Best regards, Victor Sierra

Beneath the Cassibile’s olive trees

Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.79 in flight abeam the Apulia’s coast on the first weeks after the Italy’s armistice with the Allies (signed 3 September 1943, announced 8 September 1943). The aircraft hoist again the white cross on the rudder, but has already on the fuselage and on the wing the tricolor roundel (red-white-green) adopted by the Italian Air Force after the change of alliance of the Kingdom of Italy and its deployment with the Allied forces. Between September 1943 and May 1944 about 2,000 men of the Italian Air Force, 1,200 in flight, the other with disparate means, many by foot, crossed the lines reaching their comrades already deployed on the territories under Allied control and engaged with the co-belligerent Regia Aeronautica. Victor Sierra