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Re: Luftwaffe Uses Of P-47s and P-51s In Combat?
While the story about Col Tondi (not Rotondi and not Lt Col or Lt) is well known, the listed site also retell a "Martin Caidin type" of story about an Italian pilot named Guido Rossi, which of course is pure fiction.
That story never happened! Not even Hollywood seems to have believed in it.....since we have not even a movie about it....
Col Tondi was the chief test pilot of the Italian Test Center at Guidonia and after sufficient test flights the Lightning was used in a few scrambles against USAAF bomber attacks.
He performed one interception and shot down one USAAF B-17F, and that was it.
I seriously doubt the story about another B-17 shot down on Sept 4th.
By that time Tondi had found out through his ground staff that the fuel the Italians used had seriously damaged the Lightning's fuel tanks and the aircraft was simply very unsafe to fly at all.
Cheers
Stig
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