Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
#1894703
Ladies and Gentlemen,

A friend of mine of Italian background, raised in Peckham, now an academic resident in Australia needs to write a book chapter as per the thread title:

The questions could be:
-what are British views of Italian military aviation between 1911 and 1943.
-what are moments of particular British interest in the Italian air force.
[These might be: first air bombing in history carried out by Giulio Gavotti in Libya the first of November 1911; Dannunzio's flight over Vienna 9 August 1918; publication of General Giulio Douhet's 'The Command of the Air' 1921; various innovations by Giovanni Battista Caproni; Cesare Balbo decennial cruise to Chicago 1 July 1933 with lading in Northern Ireland; Use of gas and air bombing of the red-cross in the Ethiopian war 1935-36; Italian air force in the Spanish civil war including Guernica 1937-39; Italian air force in the Second World War including the battle of Britain.]
-any article or book dealing with British views of the Italian air force.

From my own perspective it's a bit of a specialist area, and although an aviation enthusiast it's not an area where I would claim any specialist knowledge. I don't know whether the Schneider trophy counts a military aviation but that may be worthy of inclusion. Other than that I think some Italian aircraft took part very briefly in the Battle of the Britain and were hopelessly outclassed, and also were involved in trying to subdue Malta and were ultimately unsuccessful.

If anyone has any views or further information please let us know.

Many thanks in advance.

Charles.
#1894854
Time was when I would just have pointed you directly at the Key Publishing Historic Forum. One post there and you would have had more info from knowledgable sources than you would ever need or want.

Regrettably the publishers have managed to destroy it by their own efforts and it's now where go should you want to study tumbleweed

I'll have an ask around, but my remaining sources tend to be professional historians, and I'm guessing you'd not want to be buying this info?

Rob P
Charles Hunt liked this
#1894899
I don't have anything helpful to say I'm afraid, sorry.
But wanted to say that it was a surprise to find out recently that the Italian air force participated in the Battle of Britain. A small expeditionary force was based in Belgium from September 1940 and carried out attacks on East coast targets. They don't seem to have done very well and stayed only until early 1941.
http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/falco_bob.htm
Charles Hunt liked this
#1894903
From a quick glance at my aviation bookshelves, some possibly not very helpful (except, perhaps,as negatives) allusions:

a. 'The War in the Air' (Gavin Lyall, 1968) is an anthology of short extracts from personal RAF and Allied air- and groundcrew memoirs, but sorted only by date, without an index. However, a quick glance through these shows that the RAF faced and expected to face much stiffer opposition when Luftwaffe supplemented or replaced Regia Aeronautica in Greece and North Africa

b. I have copies of the 1930, '40, '41 and '42 "Jane's". All show (presumably from open sources at the time!) an impressive range of Italian aircraft, aero-engines, and companies making them; even the Caproni CC1/2 jets (first flights 1940, presumably publicised before Italy entered war).

c. 'Behind the Enigma' (Ferris, 2020) is the Authorised history of GCHQ and its antecedents, for which the (distinguished Canadian historian) author had unfettered access to the Retained WW2 internal Histories (written just after WW2 by pre-war academic historians who had been at Bletchley Park). The Regia Aeronautica is little mentioned as an important target for BP, although their ciphers (both 'export Enigma' and other) were exploitable; however, Regia Marina ones are (and were important for Taranto, Matapan, Malta, ..). On the Italo-Ethiopian War, Italian Diplomatic ciphers (accessible and exploitable by GC&CS in London) are mentioned, but not Regia ones.

I shall continue to delve :)
Dave W, Charles Hunt liked this
#1894970
Daniele del Giudice, "Take Off" pub Harvill, 1996
ISBN 186046 203 0
Is fictional, but has some good descriptions of WWII Italian air force flying.
I enjoyed this a lot, but the translator did a poor job with some of the technical terms - air speed indicator is given as anemometer for example.
Not a historical source, but atmospheric anyway.
Charles Hunt liked this