S79 lost on 9 June 1941

[Laurent Rizzotti]

On 9 June 1941 four Hurricanes of 249 Sqn RAF were sent out from Malta after a radar plot, and intercepted 50 miles out to sea four S.79s of 193° Squadriglia, 87° Gruppo, 30° Stormo B.T., which were being ferried from Sicily to Castel Benito in Libya. The bomber flown by Sottoten. Marcello Weber was shot down in flames into the water.

Crew:
S. Ten. Pil. Marcello Weber (pilot)
M.llo Pil. Luciano Fabbri (co-pilot)
Av. Se. Mot. Antonio Palmieri
Av. Sc. Mont. Umberto Micheli
Av. Sc. R.T. Nicola Mascellaro
Av. Sc. Arm. Lamberto Mariani

According to "Malta: the Hurricane years" and "249 at Malta", both the pilot and co-pilot were rescued, the other crew being lost.

But two other sources, http://website.lineone.net/~remoslie...0Prisoners.htm, and the database of Italian war graves (http://www.difesa.it/Il_Ministro/ONO...istrativo.aspx) say Weber died on 9 June 1941.

And in both books above, there is a detailled story how an RAF HSL rescued a Hurricane pilot who bailed out aftert this combat and then found one of the wings of the Italian bomber with the very badly burned pilot on it. There is no mention of another Italian survivor in this story, and as it took place closer to Libya than to Malta, I doubt there was another British boat in the area, so my guess is that the "very badly burned pilot" was in fact the co-pilot, and was in fact the only recovered survivor.

Can someone confirm this ? I will also be interested in the serial of the lost S.79.

Thanks in advance