Italian Forces

First clashes with the Germans

Stato Maggiore Aeronautica

Leverano, Apulia, Autumn 1943: Italian pilots already wearing the Salvator parachute going their Macchi fighters for a war mission over the Balkans. The planes has already the tricolor roundels showing men and aircraft of the co-belligerent Regia Aeronautica. Already just a day after the armistice, on 9 September 1943 four MC.202 of the Aeronautica della Sardegna (Sardinia’s Aeronautics) make the first mission: a recce over the Tyrrhenian Sea during the transfer to Malta of the Italian Fleet (in this circumstance the battleship Roma was sunk by German remote-controlled bombs). But the very first mission of the Liberation War and of the Italian co-belligerence date to 12 September 1943 with an offensive recce of ten MC.205s of the 4th Stormo in the Brindisi-Bari area. From 18 to 25 September the planes of the same Stormo flew air support to Italian troops on the islands of Corfu and Kefalonia under German attack (the Kefalonia’s massacre). On 25 September the first clash against the German air force: two MC.205 against two Bf 109G, one of the is claimed down in flames. In the same time the Italian fighters launched recce and attack missions over the Greek-Albanian territories. On 21 September one of two MC.205 in mission over the Korçë airfield, Albania, is shot down by the Flak and its pilot, Pilot Officer Carlo Negri, captured after the emergency land is shot by the Germans. Until the month of October the Regia Aeronautica act autonomously only on orders of the Italian Supreme Command without Allied control especially over the Balkans for delivery support to Italian troops isolated after the armistice. The declaration of war to Germany by the Kingdom of Italy, 13 October 1943, sanction the condition of things fixed by the armistice with the Allies and recognize officially the war activities began immediately after the 8 September 1943 (armistice’s announcement). Victor Sierra