SAIMAN 202 ITAL in Finland

[musec04]

Hello,

Currently on ebay there is a photo of a Saiman 202 with the large marking ITAL on the fuselage and wings at:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/294452819857...YAAOSwHathY-Dn

The photo is captioned as being taken in Finland. Does anyone know why a Saiman with such non-standard markings was in Finland?

Regards,

Clint

[Gianandrea Bussi]

It could be an aircraft used by an italian war journalist - some of them had a S.202 temporarily assigned - or by the local italian embassy.

[Matti Salonen]

A Saiman 202 flown by an Italian Major came to Pori/Finland from Stockholm-Bromma on 31 July 1941 and left Pori back to Stockholm-Bromma on 14 August 1941. Unfortunately I have not the registration of this aircraft. Because the aircraft visited also Helsinki-Malmi airport during its stay, the photo can be taken either at Pori or at Helsinki-Malmi, although the landscape is more reminiscent of Pori.

Matti

[musec04]

Hello,

Thank you both for the replies.Could it be that the letters ITAL were applied to the aircraft because of the journey to Stockholm,so as to be visible to swedish air defences ? With this in mind are other Italian aircraft flying to Sweden known to have adopted this practice? Conversely,if this is just erroneous speculation on my part are other examples of wartime Italian aircraft known with the ITAL applied - possibly either as used by members of the press or Italian embassies?

Regards,

Clint

[Gianandrea Bussi]

i've never seen such a marking "ITAL".
In the volume 10 of the serie "dimensione cielo" I read that at march 31, 1942 two S.202 were assigned to the air attaché in Bucarest and Budapest and other four to pilot-journalist, one of them being Magg. Vittorio Beonio-Brocchieri (MM 51534) but I don't know the date of allocation of the aircraft to him.
ciao


Gianandrea

[Mikael Olrog]

I doubt that ITAL was applied for the benefit of Swedish Air Defences, that's just speculation. A lot of traffic, Swedish as well as foreign civil and military flying with both Axis and Allied aircraft took place throughout the war without anyone making such arrangements for the Swedish Air Defences. THere were special routes that aircraft were to fly and the flights were also pre-approved so the air defences knew about them.

The Airfield logbook for Bromma is preserved in archives, an interesting reading. There must have been a few awkward situations when RAF and Luftwaffe personel met on the tarmac or in the terminal.

[musec04]

Hi Mikael,

Fair comment it was just speculation as indeed is the whole of post No.4 in this thread. Thanks for the answers so far, I'm still hoping for a non-speculative answer for the rationale for the unudual markings.

Regards,

Clint

[Leendert]

I wonder if the big markings ITAL have anything to do with the various declarations of war that were made between Finland, Italy and the Soviet Union at the time the Saiman was in Finland, apparently first half of August 1941.
Italy declared war on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 and Finland (again) on 25 June 1941. Flying over Suomi the Italian a/c had to appear 'friendly' for Finnish fighters and not to be mistaken for an intruding Soviet airplane.

Regards,
Leendert

[Kari Lumppio]

Originally Posted by Leendert

I wonder if the big markings ITAL have anything to do with the various declarations of war that were made between Finland, Italy and the Soviet Union at the time the Saiman was in Finland, apparently first half of August 1941.
Italy declared war on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 and Finland (again) on 25 June 1941. Flying over Suomi the Italian a/c had to appear 'friendly' for Finnish fighters and not to be mistaken for an intruding Soviet airplane.

Regards,
Leendert

To be precise, I think Finland has never declared war to Soviet Union. After the larger scale Soviet bomber attack June 25th, 1941 Finnish Parliament and Government simply stated that Finland was (again) in state of war. But did not declare war (de jure) to any nation.

I wonder if the ITAL word is from the 1939-1940 period when neutral and other countries painted national flags and nation names on for example transport planes? I remember seeing DENMARK, SCHWEDEN, EESTI, FINNLAND. IIRC neutral country ships carried these markings, too. There may have been some sort of international recommendation or even rule for that, but I have never found such.

Cheers,
Kari

[Lennart Andersson]

Thanks to Mats Averkvist, from the Bromma Airport log:

30.07.1941 ITAL Saiman 202 State-owned Dep 13:43 Arr 16:33 From Malmö-Bulltofta
31.07.1941 ITAL Saiman 202 Brenie-Brocchinie(?) ? Stat-owned Arr PK 14:00 Dep 11:56 Flew towards Finland
14.08.1941 ITAL Saiman 202 Dep PK 08:40 Arr 10:43 Back from Finland
16.08.1941 ITAL Saiman 202 Arr CH 18:37 Dep 15:35 To Copenhagen

PK probably Pori