[Gianandrea Bussi]

Dear Dr. Prien,

on 11 september 1943, S.79 of Raggruppamento Aerosiluranti were order to fly from Siena to Sardinia.
According to the infos present in the book “Cinque anni alla 253a Squadriglia” written by gen. Enrico Marescalchi, 253a Sq. commander, who flew one of the aircraft that made that flight (even though his formation wasn't attacked) and in the book “Nato per Volare” by Ottone Sponza (by then pilot in the 278a Sq.), one aircraft (Ten. Nannini, 252a Sq., 104° Gruppo) came back to Siena after having been attacked by five german fighters north of La Maddalena , damaging the aircraft in a "hurried" landing. The 278a Sq. formation took off after the Ten. Nannini landing. In the Bocche di Bonifacio area Sponza saw a CZ.1007 with flaps and undercarriage down, being chased by two Bf.109: then one of the german fighters attacked his S.79, that was hit and he had to crashland in the sea. Two Fw.190 then attacked the S.79 piloted by S. Ten. Coci, who had to go down in the sea too, near Capo Testa, The two other aircraft of the same units (Ten. Faggioni, Ten. Ruggeri) overflew at first Milis and then Borore (in Sardinia) but they came back to Siena because in the first field they didn’t get a green signal rocket and in the second one they get a red signal rocket and some hit by guns.
All the crewmembers of the Sponza and Coci aircraft managed to survive: the first ones came back to mainland Italy via Corsica; the second ones reached Sardinia
According to another source ( "Storia degli aerosiluranti italiani", by Gen. Carlo Unia) Nannini was attacked by 5 Fw.190 and the attack would be happened just off the Tuscany coast.

On 11 september 1943 the Raggruppamento Bombardamenti with its CZ.1007 flew from Perugia to Sardinia too.
According to the Gino Lodi “L’Aeronautica Italiana nella Guerra di Liberazione”, two CZ.1007 were shot down by flak in the Bocche di Bonifacio area. At least one other CZ.1007, flown by Ten. Sanseverino, was badly damaged by flak: Sanseverino, in his book “Le nuvole sotto”, writes that , before being hit by flak from barges in that area, he saw a Bf.109 that didn’t attack. He managed to land at Alghero. In the history of the 88° Gruppo (“88°, Storia di un Gruppo”) I read that the two CANT shot down by flak were from this unit.
In the book by Nino Arena “La Regia Aeronautica 1943-1946”, part one, he writes that german fighters shot down two CZ.1007 that day: than he mentions the heavy flak encountered by Italian bombers and the return fire made by some CZ.1007 crews against german fighters.
So, the CZ.1007 lost should be two, shot down by flak or, according to Arena, by fighters. The three aircraft claimed by III./JG 77 seems to fit to the loss of one or more CZ.1007.

Best regards

Gianandrea Bussi