04 28 1945 Lonate Pozzolo
 

Seen today on Italian tv (on raiStoria channel) a documentary where a partisan commander from the "Valsesia" garibaldini division says that his troops occupied Lonate Pozzolo (close to Milan) airfield on April 28, 1945. There they found an airplane in flying conditions and painted underneath it the name "Valsesia", before flying it over Milan in order to drop leaflets on the town.I have never seen images of this aircraft and had never heard this story before. Does anybody out there know if it was a German or an ANR plane? Who was its pilot? Is there a photograph of it in the new partisan livery?Many thanks,Andrea

Re: 04 28 1945 Lonate Pozzolo
 

Anything is possible in those confusing and confused days...

Anyway, from time to time there are rumours of isolated "captured" planes allegedly flown by the partisans in the few days - if not hours - where the confusion allowed such things to be done (and before the Allied troops and Commands settled in the North).

Unfortunately, not a single documentary proof of those rumours has been shown so far, so we are left to believe or not to those accounts only by trusting more or less the sources.

However, considering that photographs of the dozens of abandoned ANR aircraft on Northern Italy's airfields have yet to surface, it is of no surprise that most of those facts are still sorrounded by a thick haze.

Hope it helps

Re: 04 28 1945 Lonate Pozzolo
 

Ferdinando,Thank you very much for your kind answer. Let's hope those photographs of abandoned planes will surface, some day soon. And that they will persuade you to change your mind and write another of those wonderful (and kindly treasured) books of yours.All the best,Andrea