Curtiss Kittyhawk Mark III, FR817, GL-O, "Lady Godiva", of No. 5 Squadron South African Air Force undergoes servicing at Mileni landing ground, North-East of Foggia, Southern Italy. The No 5 Squadron SAAF was at Mileni from October to December 1943 and therefore the photo date from this period. Equipped with Kittyhawk as replacement of the Tomahawk in January 1943, the No 3 Squadron SAAF moved in Sicily in August 1943 and thereafter was based in Mainland Italy. In September 1944 the Kittyhawk were replaced with Mustang III. Victor Sierra

Lady Godiva in Italy

Three Spitfire of South African Air Force’s No 40 Squadron flying over the Alps Austrian side, likely early 1945. After operations in North Africa, in June 1943 No.40 Squadron, by now equipped with the Spitfire, moved to Malta, from where it flew tactical reconnaissance missions and also a number of offensive sweeps during the invasion of Sicily. After a brief time in Sicily, the Squadron moved to mainland Italy following the front’s reposition and a detachment was sent to Araxos, Greece, in December 1944-January 1945, to support the Allied forces that prevented a Communist take-over after the German retreat. In April-May 1945 the No 40 SAAF was deployed in the Treviso area, North East Italy, and after the end of the war the squadron was used, from to fly reconnaissance missions, also from bases in Austria, along the Yugoslav border, a tense area as Tito made claims on Italian territory. The Squadron finally disbanded on 20 October 1945, and its aircraft (Spitfire XI) went to no 225 Squadron RAF based at Campoformido. Victor Sierra

From desert to Alps

From 1941 local auxiliaries volounteer troops operated with the Italian forces commands all over Yugoslavia. It was in Dalmatia that some of those those units were initially named for the first time as "Anti Communist Volunteer Bands", a name who - later modified - became of general and official use with the reorganization of June 1942. 
These particular volounteer troops, named MVAC, (Milizie Volontarie Anti-Comuniste), differently to many other Yugoslavian collaborationist militias, were regular forces of Italian Army, commanded by Italian high officers and mixed Italo-Yugoslavian medium officers. They sweared loyalty to Italian Kingdom and were part of Italian armed forces. DVX