Aided by two airmen, one of the them over the wing, the pilot of a Macchi MC.202, perhaps of the 8th Gruppo Autonomo Caccia (8th Autonomous Fighter Group) of Leverano, leaving the dispersal and taxiing for the takeoff. The plane has the new Italian Air Force’s livery and insignias adopted on 21 September 1943 and operative from 15 October 1943, two days after the declaration of war to Germany by the Kingdom of Italy: tricolor roundels, red-white-green, on the fuselage and upper and bottom the wings, while the white cross on the tail and the white strip on the fuselage, heritage of the war declared by the Fascist Government and abreast with the III Reich, was definitely cancelled. The tricolor roundels was on duty also with the Aeronautica Militare (official nane of the Italian Air Force born together the Italian Republic after 2 June 1946) until the second half of the 90’s of XX Century when was adopted the low visibility insignias (roundels and markings) still in use together the pale grey overall finish. Victor Sierra



New insignias for a new Air Force

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

First clashes with the Germans

On 15 September 1943, one month prior the war’s declaration of the Kingdom of Italy to III Reich, the Regia Aeronautica chief of staff, General Renato Sandalli, meet the Air Commodore Robert Foster, Head of the Air Commission in Italy, fixing structure, operational procedures and control by the Allies of the Italian air units. An important date for the beginning of the Regia Aeronautica’s operations alongside the Allies in the war against the Germany during the Co-belligerence and the Liberation War. The Italian Air Force, at the date of October 1943 with less than 300 aircraft, but only the half suitable for active duties, under the Air Ministry based at Brindisi, was completely reorganized with an Air Staff and a Comando Unità Aerea (Air Unit Command) re-grouping all the flight units. This latter was organized inside a series of Raggruppamenti (Groupings), each with a number of Stormi and Gruppi Autonomi (Autonomous Grups) plus a Squadriglia Autonoma Volo (Autonomous Flight) depending from the Air Staff and a Comando Aeronautica della Sardegna (Sardinia’s Air Force Command). The Raggruppamenti was: Raggruppamento Caccia (Fighter Grouping) which included also the Re.2002 dive bomber, plus the Scuola Addestramento Caccia; Raggruppamento Bombardamento e Siluranti (Bomber and Torpedo Aircraft Grouping) in reality never employed for this duties, but only for dropping supplies to Italian and Jugoslav partisan forces on the Balkans (the co-belligerent Regia Aeronautica will return to bomb missions only on half 1944 after the delivery of the Martin Baltimore) included also an Autonomous Maritime Recce Group equipped with seaplanes; Raggruppamento Bombardamento e Trasporti (Bomber and Transport Grouping) employed only for transport missions in particular over the Balkans; Raggruppamento Idrovolanti (Seaplanes Grouping) with seaplanes all based in Apulia. This structure remained unchanged until the Autumn 1944 when was revised also following the placement (June 1944) under the new Balkan Air Force of the Italian air units largely re-equipped with British and American planes. In the photo Bomber and Torpedo Aircraft Grouping’s planes (Cant-Z-1007ter of the 190th Squadriglia, 86th Gruppo) in mission over the Balkans escorted by Macchi fighters of the Fighter Grouping. Victor Sierra

