Italian ace Leonardo Ferrulli

[Ludovico Slongo]

Dear Vinman,

first of all I want to tank you for trying to help me in this research of information, it was very kind of you.
The source of Massimello and Apostolo I used when speaking of the seven victories claimed during the first tour of this pilot over North Africa is the very good Osprey book quoted also by you.
Some lines after your quotation there is also written:" (...) Ferrulli made full use of his Spanish war experience during his first tour in North Africa, claiming six Hurricanes and a Blenheim destroyed. (...)"
It is known that Massimello uses almost only the so called "primary sources" in his researches so it is higly likely (although not sure) that this kind of official documents are also the source for the piece of info regarding these seven claims. I was just wondering if somebody else in this forum was in possess (and wanted to share) these info.
Regarding 91 sq, its war diary for the 1940 period still exists and is preserved in the Historycal Office of the Italian Air Force (in fact it is the source from which I took my info), the problem here is that this diary is not the original one but one that was reconstructed in 1941 after the loss of the original with the sinking of the merchant ship Città di Messina that was taking back to Italy the ground personnel of 4° Stormo on 15 January 1941. The reconstruction was not very precise (as were the original documents written day by day after the debriefing of the differet actions) and it seems that it lacks the description of many victory claims (and perhaps also of some complete combats). In fact I was wondering if Massimello used the log-book of Ferrulli (or of some of his fellow comrades) as source for the "seven claims".
Just a last note. I completely agree with you about the "fantastic" job done almost daily by Hakan.

Thank You again,

Ludovico.