Mc202s in Dodecanese Oct/Nov 1943?

[Brian]

Hi guys

Were there any Macchi 202s flying from Kos and Rhodes in October/November 1943? If so, which unit(s) were involved?

Cheers
Brian

[veltro]

AFAIK, no Italian Cobelligerent Air Force aircraft (by that time there were only that and the ANR, and in their very early starting days...) operated from outside Southern Italy (by that time a few units still were in Sardinia but later moved to the peninsula), so I guess that might be the case of some wrong ID, unless there are photographs to back up such question...

[Andy Saunders]

Hi Brian

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Have been trying by PM but no response.

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[Brian]

Hi Ferdinando

Actually I did mean ANR units. There were reports of Mc202s being strafed on Kos during October, and Mc202s intercepting Allied aircraft during this period. Presumably misidentifications then.

Cheers
Brian

[veltro]

In case of hypothesis of ANR aircraft, this is even more out of question.

Apart from torpedo-bomber S.79s operating from Greece in July-August 1944 and of Transport S.81s operating in North-East Europe in the Spring-Summer of 1944, no other ANR aircraft ever operated outside Italy and beyond the area South of the Apennines dividing Tuscany and Emilia Romagna (a couple shuttle missions to/from Austria were made together with the Luftwaffe in the spring of 1944).

Some damaged and inefficient planes could have been left behind by the Regia Aeronautica after the Armistice in former airfields, which could account for the strafed ones.

The rest is wrong ID by Allied Pilots (they even identified Fiat G.50s over Lake Balaton instead of Rumanian IAR 80/81s...).

[Brian]

Hi Ferdinando

Many thanks for clarifying the position. Yes, in the light of your information, clearly misidentifications by Allied pilots.

Cheers
Brian

[Brian]

Hi Ferdinando

Apparently a book on 154° Gruppo written in 2008 by Eugenio Eusebi and Pietro Mazzardi states that aircraft fom this unit escorted German bombers raiding Leros in November 1943. Mc202s, CR42s and G.50s were based on Rhodes, so when did they depart?

I'm now confused again!

Cheers
Brian

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I haven't find any evidence with Google but it seems to me that German pilots used some captured Macchis over the Aegean during the autumn 1943. Or at least I read that years ago.

For sure JG 77 used MC 205 in Italy, so maybe I'm mixing things happening in distincts theaters.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Brian

Apparently a book on 154° Gruppo written in 2008 by Eugenio Eusebi and Pietro Mazzardi states that aircraft fom this unit escorted German bombers raiding Leros in November 1943.
Brian

This would be surprising given the Italians' quitting the Axis in September and the Germans' subsequent treatment of Italian troops in the Aegean including massacres, imprisonment and deportation to forced labour in the Reich.

[veltro]

I know nothing about Italian fighters flown by Germans in the Dodecanese... seems to me quite an extravagant info, to use a mild euphemism...

Also, I repeat, no ANR fighter units or pilots ever operated outside Italy, and that's a fact.

Of course this has to do with the reliability of sources and texts and I cannot speak for others. Nevertheless, the statement of planes from 154° Gruppo of Regia Aeronautica escorting German bombers two months after the Armistice is so pure fantasy that can only be explained with a typo from the printer...