[Ludovico Slongo]

this is a list of Books in English language regarding Italian Air Force during WW2.

(My personal opinions are inside brackets)



Titles of perhaps all the books that covers this subject in a general way are already in your hand, I can only add:

· Regia Aeronautica vol.2, Pictorial History of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana and the Italian Co-Belligerant Air force 1943-45, by Ferdinando d’Amico and Gabriele Valentini, Squadron signal publications, Carrollton, 1986 ISBN 0-89747-185-7.

(the book is one of the few, -possibly the only one- that covers the period from September 1943 to June 1944, D’Amico and Valentini togheter with Gregory Alegi, Giovanni Massimiello, Cesare Gori, Giancarlo Garello and recently Gianandrea Bussi are among the best researchers on Italian AF history. You always obtain good value from their books)

Then I know that another “general” title exists:

· Italian Military Aviation, by Frank Mc Meiken; published in 1984 ISBN 0-90459741-5. But I’ve never read it.



(In my opinion the presentation that Shores did of Regia Aeronautica in the opening chapter of Squadron’s Special Regia Aeronautica vol.1 still remains the most objective and complete up to now even if it dates the seventies and much new information have came to light since then.

The book of Werner Neulen seems also good to me, seventy pages of it are devoted to this topic.)



Then there are titles regarding specific campaigns. You can find a lot of information on the following titles:



· Air war for Yugoslavia Greece and Crete by Chris Shores, Brian Cull and Nicola Malizia (covers quite in detail the 1940-41 operations in the Balkans).

· Malta, the Hurricane Years 1940-41

· Malta the Spitfire Year 1942 from the same authors (are invaluable sources regarding operations over Malta and the Mediterranean).

· Dust clouds in the Middle East (is the best source in whatever language for 1940-41 operations in Italian East Africa).



(As far as I know no book in English covers the participation of Regia Aeronautica to the Russian campaign in 1941-42 and the opening operations against France in 1940, for the last theatre you’ll find some information of the fighter vs fighter combats in Hakan Gustavsson’s Biplane fighter ace site.

The participation of Italian Air Force in the Battle of Britain in 1940 is probably better covered, my personal opinion is that a very-very good and comprehensive description of those events is now present in Hakan Gustavsson’s Biplane fighter ace site.)



Operations over Sicily in 1943 are partly covered by:



· Spitfires over Sicily by Brian Cull, Nicola Malizia and Frederick Galea.



(As far as I know there is nothing specifically on the homeland defense in 1943.)



The most important campaign fought by Italians during WW II was without doubt the North African’s one.

Fighters over the Desert and Fighters over Tunisia cover this topic, (together with them I can warmly suggest



· Hurricanes over Tobruk by Brian Cull and Don Minterne.



Then there is also.



· The Desert Air War, by Richard Townshend Bickers.

(But don’t look for it if you aren’t interested just in hearing how bad the “Ities” were compared with RAF’s heroes.)



Chris Shores also gave a general view of Italian air force operations in the Mediterranean theatre in



· Pictorial History of the Mediterranean Air War volume three.



(In my opinion the problems with the books of Shores about North African campaigns, is that they tend to take to face value all the information coming from English sources and don’t give the same weight to those coming from the Italian ones.

This attitude gives a quite unbalanced vision of the event (it is however still the best available). Another problem is that with the appearance of Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean, Regia Aeronautica tended to disappear from the fights descriptions apart from the losses suffered and this is particularly true in the book about Tunisia.)



Then there are many books on specific planes. If You are interested let me know and I’ll add a complete list of them.



Best Regards



Ludovico