One of the aircraft, radio code “Grappa 13”, of the Stormo Baltimore’s 132nd Gruppo at Campomarino Airfield, end 1944/early 1945. Permitting the reconstitution on an Italian bombardment unit equipped with former RAF planes, until this time the former Regia Aeronautica’s bombers deployed by the Italian co-belligerent Air Force was employed only for transport and supplies drops over the Balkans, the Allies was determined to employ the new Italian unit only against German targets on the Balkans (same decision for the fighter units). The Stormo Baltimore went in action on 15 November 1944 when twelve aircraft of the 132nd Gruppo raided a bridge of the Scutari-Podgoritza road near the Albanian border, mission repeated the day after with the destruction of the bridge. Afterwards the 132nd Gruppo bombed many times the Konjic’s marshalling yard widely used by the Germans. Victor Sierra

The Stormo Baltimore goes in action

Italian Regia Aeronautica and RAF’s high ranks greeting the crews of the Stormo Baltimore, the Italian co-belligerent Air Force bomber squadron established on 1st July 1944 on Campo Vesuvio airfield, near Naples, and equipped with former RAF Martin Baltimore and personnel of pre-armistice Regia Aeronautica’s former torpedo aircraft and bombardment units. The Stormo, first commander Ten. Col. (Lt. Col.) Noziglia replaced afterwards by the Lt. Col. Roveda, was composed by two Gruppi: 132nd Gruppo (commander Maggiore Massimiliano Erasi) with 253nd Squadriglia (Cap. Marescalchi) and 281st Squadriglia (Cap. Giulio Cesare Graziani), and 28th Gruppo (commander Maggiore Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia replaced by Ten. Col. Moci after his death on a take-off accident with a Baltimore) with 19th Squadriglia (Ten. Sanseverino) and 260th Squadriglia (Cap. Scapellato). After the training, August-October 1944, 50 pilots qualified on the Baltimore, total 1,390 h/flights, average 28 hours/day, some accidents and incidents caused by the diversity of the airplane respect the Italian aircrafts, on 11 November 1944, the Stormo Baltimore’s 132nd Gruppo was transferred at Campomarino, near Termoli, Province of Campobasso, Molise, and assigned effectively to Balkan Air Force’s 254th Wing. On 3 December 1944 at Campomarino arrived also the 28th Gruppo and so the Stormo Baltimore’s structure was complete with four Squadriglie each with eight Baltimore. Victor Sierra

The Stormo Baltimore’s birth

Airplanes of the Stormo Baltimore’s 28th Gruppo in flight over the Southern Italy. Now with full structure, after the arrival at Campomarino on December 1944 of the 28th Gruppo, after only three months of operational activity, the Stormo Baltimore, on January 1945, was classified first of the 254th Wing’s units for war results. The missions over Balkans of the Stormo included raids against many targets as the harbor of Arsa (Raša) in Istria, Senj harbor, Busocava station, anti-aircraft batteries, bridges, ground troops, material’s storages. On 21 February 1945, during a mission over the Raša’s coal basin the Baltimore of the 132nd Gruppo’s leader, Maggiore Massimiliano Erasi, was downed by the Flak. Erasi was killed together his three crewmen, awarded of the gold medal, and replaced by the Capt. Giulio Cesare Graziani. With the arrival of the spring, the Italian Baltimores was employed against the German troops retreating from the Balkans. After a series of raids of the Stormo Baltimore the German garrison of the Rab island, around 600 men, was forced to surrender to Jugoslav partisans. The Stormo Baltimore’s last mission was on 5 May 1945 when 24 aircraft, heading to Zagreb station, was called back because the hostilities end. The balance of the Stormo Baltimore’s activity from January 1945 until 5 May 1945 was: 4,886 flight hours in war missions, 425 flight hours for other missions, 1,554 missions/aircraft during 189 sorties in flying formations (average 9-24 airplanes at a time), 1,225 tons of bombs dropped. This results was recorded in the space of only 144 flying days. Losses: three Baltimore downed, 16 KIA, 4 MIA plus few crewmen killed in flight accidents. As the Repubblica Sociale Italiana’s air force had only a torpedo aircraft unit (the proposed bomber unit was dismisses by Mussolini’s order), the Stormo Baltimore was “de facto” the last bomber unit in the Italian Air Force’s history. Victor Sierra