Unwittingly, sometimes, in the hurry to answer or to formulate a hypothesis about the problem under discussion, it happens to "play by ear" as meaning that one do not take some more time to check all the available sources. Then, when the amount of documents, collected over the years, begins to become very consistent, you are likely to forget some of these sources, either because it's been a long time since the last time you consulted them, either also because the brain and memory are not those of the past. At least that's what happens to me.
After having read the reference made by Ferdinando to 1 Squadron SAAF, I remembered to have somewhere that O.R.B. along with some others too.
However, I reviewed all the reports searching, from April to July 1945, something interesting and helpful for our problem. Assuming that part of the staff of the following units, 1, 2, 5 and 12 SQD SAAF (I miss just that of 3 SQD), 3 sqd RAAF, 43, 112, 250, 260 and 450 RAF, was present on the Campoformido airfield in the days before May 28, 1945 to participate in the "Fly Past" demonstration, I tried to find, in their reports, some mention of enemy aircraft found abandoned on that airport. I found lots of interesting information but none about that subject.
What has emerged, however, is that the various units used the name Tissano to indicate both the airfield of Lavariano South and the concrete runaway of Risano and often, in their reports, used both names interchangeably. Just about this point it is interesting a note ,on pages 259 and 260 of 250 Sqd RAF O.R.B, that states:
"Weather improved, but still unfit for flying Five aircraft were ferried from Lavariano L.G. to Tissano L.G. The remainder of the aircraft were taxied across. The new strip, being concrete, is more favourable for winter flying. It lies adjacent to the Lavariano grass-strip and is connected by taxi tracks." " on the 22nd January, the Lavariano grass strip was vacated, and the nearby concrete strip at Tissano was brought into use for the Wings and Squadrons. The move was carried out smoothly."
With regard to the issue of where the photo was taken, I decided to seek information from Roberto Bassi, who is the author of the two books: "Il cielo di Campoformido", Part I and Part II. Bassi is very familiar with the airport because he was born and has always lived in Campoformido but also because he has served there, for some years, as a helicopter pilot with the 5th Reg "Rigel".
This is what he says: ...
Maniago is to be excluded... there is no mountain in the background and the mountanis are very close to that place (the pictures show the same plane taken from two different angles so at least in one of them some mountains had to be visible).
It should be Campoformido, what you see in the picture is definitely not a bank but one of the many splinterguard walls built by the Todt (as a child I used to play there and there were a lot of those walls). These defenses were placed south of the road leading from Campoformido to Basaldella and reached a height of about 4-5 meters. ...
At this point, in my opinion, we have the almost certainty that the picture was taken in Campoformido in the days after May 16, 1945, the date on which 3 Squadron SAAF was transferred to this airport. Although, in fact, I have not the O.R.B. of his unit, however, I found, on
http://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/SAAF/3_wwII.html that in May 1945 the Squadron moved from Villafranca directly to Campoformido where he remained until September of the same year.
Now, the last thing left to do is to find out the Werknummer of that aircraft, but I think this could be a very difficult task to accomplish.
This is the list of the reports at my disposal. If someone is interested in them I can provide a copy.
1 Sqd. SAAF AIR 27/10-11-12-13 War Diary from January 1943 to July 1945
2 Sqd. SAAF AIR 27/23-24-25 O.R.B. from January 1944 to July 1945
5 Sqd. SAAF AIR 27/67-68-69 O.R.B. from January 1942 to October 1945
5 Sqd. SAAF AIR 27/72 Appendices from January 1943 to April 1944
12 Sqd. SAAF AIR 17/172-173-174 O.R.B. from May 1941 to October 1945
12 Sqd. SAAF AIR 17/179 Appendices from July 1943 to April 1944
3 Sqd. RAAF AIR 27/40-41 O.R.B. from September 1940 to December 1943
3 Sqd. RAAF AIR 27/43-44 Appendices from January 1941 to July 1945
450 Sqd. RAAF AIR 27/1885-1886 O.R.B. from January 1943 to August 1945
450 Sqd. RAAF AIR 27/1888-1889 Appendices from January 1943 to July 1944
43 Sqd. RAF AIR 27/444 -445-446 O.R.B. from January 1943 to May 1947
112 Sqd. RAF AIR 27/873-874 O.R.B. from January 1941 to May 1945
225 Sqd. RAF AIR 27/1936 O.R.B. from January 1943 to December 1943
250 Sqd. RAF AIR 27/1501-1502 O.R.B. from April 1941 to December 1946
250 Sqd. RAF AIR 27/1504-1505 Appendices from May 1941 to March 1943
260 Sqd. RAF AIR 27/1501-1502 O.R.B. from November 1940 to August 1945