1º Gruppo Caccia activity - 19 Mar 44

[veltro]

Håkan,
the source of such claims in Tony Wood's list are a couple books of an author whose info have been verified through the years to be at least incorrect in many istances, particularly about attributing claims.

The names and info I supplied are coming directly from an original wartime document typed ans signed by the "Ufficio Voli" of 1° Gruppo and listing all the claims of the unit attributed to individual pilots from 3 January to 2 May 1944. Here is the scan of the relevant part...



That out of the seven claims reported by the document for the combat(s) of 18 March, only one was confirmed by the Germans, can be surprising, but for instance the reverse happened on 28 March, when all the nine claims of the Italians were confirmed by the Germans. (This of course doesn't mean that such claims were verified and confirmed, this being a completely different story, as many of us certainly know...)

Also, the Tony Wood's list reports all the claims as taking place at 09.30, which is entirely incorrect, as there were two different combats in completely different areas (Porto Baseleghe and Lubiana are more than 125 kms from each other) and in different timings.

Concerning the claims of Sq. Montefusco I think you should refer to the book of Giancarlo Garello "Centauri su Torino", who did a fantastic work in researching all the claims of the unit.

Hope it helps.