Italian Forces

Italian seaplanes

Archivio Centrale dello Stato

A pair of Italian seaplanes IMAM Ro.43, which still have the pre-war all silver finish, flying over Southern Italy, August 1940. The Ro.43 was the standard maritime recce plane launched by catapult on board of the Italian Navy’s warships. Early the Ro.43 had over the fuselage the name of its ship replaced after the outbreak of the war by a three digit number: in this case number 421 is the number 1 plane of the “Luigi Cadorna” cruiser while 432 is the number 2 plane of the “Alberto Di Giussano” cruiser, both “Condottieri class”. Victor Sierra