 Italian light cruiser Emmanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta and Eugenio di Savoia on route to an area  north of Tripoli,to drop  German contact mines , May 1, 1941.  In the night of 18 to 19 December 1941 a strike force bound for Malta  consisting of three cruisers and four destroyers,struck the minefield.   The light cruiser Neptune and the destroyer Kandahar struck mines and sank. Another cruiser was damaged but  repaired in 13 weeks. 


Mine dropping

Libya, Summer 1940: Fiat CR.42 of the Regia Aeronautica’s 4th Stormo in mission. The planes are part of the 9th Gruppo, 73rd, 96th and 97th Squadriglia, moved to Libya from Gorizia, North-East Italy, on July 1940 with 33 CR.42 as reinforcement of the other 4th Stormo’s Gruppo, the 10th Gruppo (84th, 90th and 91st Squadriglia) already in Libya at moment of the Italy’s entry in the war (10 June 1940) and based with 27 CR.42 at Benina, East Sector Tobruk of the 5th Squadra Aerea (5th Air Squad), Comando Aeronautica Libia (Libya Air Command). With the arrival of the 9th Gruppo, the 4th Stormo’s forces come together under an only command. All the CR.42 of this photo has over the fuselage the 4th Stormo’s emblem, the “Cavallino Rampante” ("Prancing Horse") or, briefly, the “Cavallino” (Little Horse) for the Italian aviator, ancient personal emblem of the WW1 ace, Francesco Baracca (a former Cavalry’s Officer). But some planes, as the 96th Squadriglia’s CR.42 in background, show on the fin the “Gamba di Ferro” (Iron Leg) emblem, adopted, but not officially, by the pilots of the 9th Gruppo, Ernesto Botto, for all peoples “Gamba di Ferro”. Note the white upper wing tips of all aircraft, adopted by the Italian plans acting in North Africa to avoid mistakes with the enemies airplanes, in particular in the case of the Fiat CR.42 the British Gloster Gladiator. Victor Sierra

The “Cavallino” goes to war

Italian fighters Fiat CR.32 looking in the water of a pool after a storm. Photo taken at Ghedi Airfield, Northern Italy, before the WW2, likely on 1937 when many other CR.32s fighting in Spain during the Civil War. The CR.32s are planes of the 357th Squadriglia, 22nd Gruppo, 52nd Stormo. Today Ghedi, near Brescia, isn’t an airfield as that of this photo, but a modern NATO air base, the “home” of the Tornado-IDS of the 6th Stormo “Diavoli Rossi” (Red Devils). Victor Sierra