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Re: Luftwaffe vs. Italian airforce
I have to amend my previous statement.
According to more reliable italian sources, the two CANT Z. 1007 lost on 11 september 1943 were shot down by german AAA; at least another one,
MM 25427 from 86° Grp. 191a Sq., was badly damaged by the AAA.
The two lost aircraft belonged almost for sure to 261a Sq., 88° Gruppo.
On the very same 11 september 1943, two S.79 were shot down by Bf.109 near the Sardinia coast- They were two torpedo aircraft of the 278a Sq. of the 132° Gruppo. One source wrote that they were MM 24231 and MM 24492 but, according to Coccarde tricolori, the first one was still operated by the Air Force (so called Co-belligerant) in january 1944 so the identification is not sure.
The pilot of one of the two S.79 was Ottone Sponza, that then served in the torpedo unit of the ANR. The german fighter attack forced two other
S.79 of the same unit to come back to Siena: the pilot of one of them
was the famous torpedo aircraft ace Carlo Faggioni, who served and lost his life in combat with the ANR.
Ciao
Gianandrea
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