Luftwoller - great work on the D.520. I have one started of the Taiya 1/48 kit with the Pend d'Oreille update set that is not available anymore. The French Midnight blue is hard to find for the cockpit color. Gunze has it.
There is also a publication by La Bancarella Aeronautica in Italian/English co-text entitled "Aerei Francesi nella Regia Aeronautica" (French Aircraft in the Regia Aeronautica). Stormo carries it as well as Pacific Coast Models.
Here's the second part of that article.
Here is Part II of the interview.
Enjoy!
A. Was the Macchi MC.200 any better than the CR.42?
Q. Yes, it was better, but still obsolete compared to English machines. It still had an open cockpit, that anyway in Africa was not the worst thing... We landed near Benghazi, where I had previously shot down, with the CR.42, two Blenheim that were going to bomb the port and afterwards I shot down another one. I saw many of them passing by in front of my nose, for a very simple reason: they were faster than us. If we were at high altitude we could catch them, otherwise it was impossible. The Blenheim was a light bomber and was escorted by the Beaufighter, a heavy fighter: two very beautiful machines.
From Benghazi we went to Ouadi-Tamed (?) and there, since we kept eating those dry biscuits and cans, one day I had a great idea. I took a CR.42 and flew over the Ouadi. There were many gazelles there drinking and hiding in the bush, but with the noise of the airplane they fled in the open field and I shot three or four of them. A truck got them and then there was meat for everybody. Another time we were in the Bomba (?) gulf and I said to the weapon smith: "Today we're going to have fish, take out the fuses from the 50 kg bombs". He did it and after the bobs went into the water, we had half a meter fishes coming up! I could even provide our group with some cars, because during a pursuit fly, or I'd better say a night recognition to intercept commandoes that attacked our airports by night, I saw a lot of abandoned cars in the middle of the desert. Once back I told this to our commander, Capt. Giuntella, and he gave me some specialists and a truck. We hadn't cars. With just got a SPA 38 truck, a barrel of gasoline and a barrel of water, a machine gun from a crashed aircraft installed on the roof. We went like this. We found the cars, there was no sign of bullets, no corpses, all those cars were English, and some from the Gaullist army. We even found some weapons. We were rather excited and we could salvage a lot of stuff. Some of the cars worked, others we had to pull them with the SPA. We were about to depart when we heard a single rifle shot, we couldn't tell from where it came and we returned fire with the MG, shooting it the air. We saw a man coming out from the bush, dirty and with torn clothes, with a red long beard and the hands in the air. He was the gunner of a Blenheim who bailed out after it was hit during a bombing over Tobruk. He wandered in the desert until he arrived there and there he staid for almost thirty days drinking the water of the radiators. We also understood why these cars were abandoned: they were in the middle of a minefield. My companions were worried, but little by little we managed to get out undamaged. We got back with our aircraft searching for us, we brought back some trucks and a French Peugeot that we offered to our commander. I found a V-engine Guzzi with the plate of Turin (TO). These cars were very useful later on, during the 5,000 km retreat when they got El-Alamein.
We were in Abu-Agad (?) when in the meanwhile they installed on our airplanes racks for special bombs, the "Mazzolino" bombs, that were very powerful bombs but with an aluminum body. It was said that with such bombs the Germans took the Maginot line. The problem was that if one got back with these bombs still attached to the racks, he could easily explode, and unfortunately that happened twice. Thus, they took off those racks and installed those for a couple of 50 kg bombs. So we also had to work as bombers, in particular when we advanced up to Marsa-Matruh where we joined the other group of ours euipped with the new Macchi 202. The fact that we were acting as fighter-bombers explain our badge: an angry wasp holding a dagger in one hand, which represents the fighter-interceptor, and the other hand in a boxing glove, which means fighter-bomber.
Q. Was the Macchi 202 a definitely better airplane?
A. It was already a competitive aircraft for sure. Anyway, when it was confronted to swarms of P-40 and Spitfires, even this machine couldn't do much.
Q. Was the Spitfire a tough one?
A. The Spit was a very tough one... it had lot of machine guns, plus two 20 mm cannons and it was faster. The 202 was significantly inferior in terms of speed and weapons. At a certain point the 4th Wing, which seemed the better Italian wing (later on, its commanders became Chief of the Air Force) and thus was always provided with the best aircraft, was called back when the situation started to deteriorate and it left us, the XVIII Group, its Macchi 202 and we gave our 200 to those poor guys of the VIII Wing who still had the CR.42. Finally, once we had a competitive airplane, it was a nightmare, since swarms of enemy fighter started to come against us.
Q. When did you realize what was happening, I mean the defeat of El-Alamein?
A. Quite late, even if we worried by the bombings that became progressively more frequent, by day and by night. And from far away we saw the first line that was hammered by their artillery. But until that time our place was left in peace, we were in Abu-Agad (?), near the seaside. Even when we kept some lights on by night their airplanes wouldn't touch us. But one night, instead... one of their bombers made a couple of tours and dropped two shattering bombs, in order to kill our people rather than destroy the aircrafts. They were not bombs conceived to explode deep, they killed a lot of pilots. That night I was in my bed in the tent, some ones were awake playing cards. Lights on inside and outside, and there were no shelters, the only protection was a line of empty petrol cans near the see, with some barbed wire and a heavy machine gun to protect us from sea incursions. I was sleeping on my camp bed, the tent was closed, I can't remember who opened it but I just ran out half naked. Me first, followed by Sandini and Scocchetti and the bomb fell among us. I jumped in the hole we used as a latrine, which was already full of people. I heard shouts, people calling for help, I was naked because the little dress I had was torn off by the explosion. I found Scocchetti keeping his belly while his intestine was coming out...
Lambertini was mortally wounded on his back and died beside me; another, who seemed to have nothing, was killed just by the air blast. We lost 12 among pilots and specialists. Another guy amputated his leg himself with his knife, poor Leo, while we were bringing him to the hospital. Then, the retreat began. An indescribable scene, it was difficult to believe what happened, what I've seen. We moved with our airplanes that were left, from base to base, or anywere we could land, we waited for Germans bringing us the gasoline during the night, sometimes the dropped it without looking were it went. We refueled the airplanes, armed them and waited the enemies to approach with their tanks and when they were almost arrived at the airfield we took off to meet them. Strafe, then fly back to another airport: we did like this 4,000 km. At the end we arrive in Tripoli at the Melaca (?) where there was a car circuit where they were running a car race, we had nothing to eat, nothing to drink. Uniforms and trousers were kept together with some brass wire, dirty. We had to move to Zuara, but four pilots were ordered to stay there with the Lt. Speicher and, once everybody was gone, to roll some gasoline cans into the warehouses. Inside there was just anything. Mountains of coffee, the, uniforms, desert gears. We had to pour gasoline and then shoot inside in order to make everything burn. There were mountains of bottled water from Ciampino, mountains of dresses, we had some fun opening a lot of crates, we were curious. We broke everything, I found a crate full of Leica cameras and put four of them around my neck, but I lost them on the way. We shot inside and burned everything. Then we arrived in Sfax and then Medelin and then Korba. By now, we were in Tunisia. I remember I stole the sheets of Maj. Camarda and I had the opportunity to participate to the battle of Kesserine, where the Americans were badly beaten by the Germans, and we were escorting German tanks, as it has been depicted on a painting made by an association of American air force aces directing two important museums. I know that in Arizona, in Mesa, there is a big picture of myself, together with one of Maj. Visconti, they invited me in America several times, but I don't feel to go there. They also invited me in London, and also in Munich (Monaco?), at the end they came here and made me sign a lot of pictures made by a painter showing myself, as a member of the Italian fighter air force, while I am escorting German Tigers in Tunisia. That painting is exposed near other paintings depicting the actions of Clostermann, the French, of Adolf Galland, the German, of Townsend, for England: the greatest air aces. I signed 600 of them and then they sold them for more than half a million! (of Liras, about 250 €). A friend of mine saw this, a guy who, after the war, had to go in America for fear, there were many of ours who went to America and there became civilian pilots.
Q. Now it's 1943: Tunisia, Sicily, war turns badly. What did you feel?
A. I was not sent to Sicily... however, we understood that war was lost after El-Alamein. We saw what resources they had, we shot down ten and, the day after, the double were attacking us. Instead, we couldn't anymore replace the losses and we begun lacking airplanes; we retired and left the airplanes to who was staying.
Q. In the summer of 1943 massive bombing of Italian cities begun: almost every city was hit and in particular the bigger ones, Naples, Genoa, Turin, Milan and, finally, Rome. What did you do to defend?
A. The II Wing came back to Italy, in Milan, and we were equipped with Macchi 202 and some Messerschmitts thet the Germans gave us. Since we were a very compact group, thy deployed us for the defense of Rome. We were in Ciampino, and we were leaded by Falconi, a very good guy but who was envied and hated until he became world champion of inverted flight; he was an independent man doing in his own manner, ignoring the bureaucrats of the Ministry. We were all deployed in south Ciampino, the whole wing, and although we were supposed to defend Rome we were often called to help over Naples that was just weakly protected by some autonomous squadron. Our Wing consisted in six Squadrons, more than sixty airplanes. One night, our bombers were taking off from north Ciampino in single actions, the SM. 79, one every five minutes. A Beaufighter had gotten on the tail of a SM.79 and had followed it to find out from where it had departed. When ours shot the signaling rocket to land, also the English aircraft was spotted and it was shot down by German flak.
Comm. Falconi said: "If that guy has communicated by radio our take-off position, tomorrow they will destroy our airport." By now they attacked their targets with at least two hundred four-engine bombers, massive formations.
Falconi didn't wait for the Ministry's order but at dawn ordered all efficient aircrafts to take off and head to Cerveteri, in the north of Rome. We went there.
I'll post the third and final part of this article later.
Mike T.