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Re: Italian Bomber plane losses June 1940
Dear Robert,
a French and apparently very precise source (Le Fiat BR 20 par Yves Domange avec Juan Arrez Cerda and Kazuhiko Osuo , LELA PRESSE collection profils Avions n°7 April 2004) reported the action of De Michelis as happened betwen 16.05 and 20.10. It sems that he had to crash-land at the end of the return trip, far from his airfield so "technically" he was shot-down, and this was due to the action of "twelve enemy fighters" .
French researcher Arnaud Gillet in his "Les victories de l'aviation de chasse Francaise 16 may -4 juin 1940" written with the help of Peter Taghon reports that no air action is officialy recorded by the French Air Force during the day in that sector and this is perhaps due to an error in recording the dates of some missions. Gillet tries also to give an identity to the victor of De Michelis and guesses that he could had been Lt. Robert Martin of GC III/6 that the day after was credited of two victories against BR 20s even if he didn't shot a single round of ammunition. So perhaps his mission had been recorded on a wrong date.
From my side I can only add that Hakan discovered some years ago a French fighter pilot -Sgt Roger Grosjean- that according with his livret matricule (whose information were told to Hakan by the son of the pilot) had been shot down in the Var region by Italian fighters on June 1940. Nothing else emerged from this pilot but in my opinion this fact gives a perhaps small clue, that French fighters whose actions were not recorded, were active in the sector in that period. Perhaps the attack on De Michelis was carried out by some of them.
Ciao
Ludovico
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