Savoia-Marchetti SM.79

In [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], around 100 SM.79s served in 10, 14, 15 and 30 Wings, bombing mainly non-strategic targets in the desert.

On one of the first days of the war, following an attack made by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] bombers on an airfield near [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], an SM.79 arrived carrying [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and at least eight other persons, among them the father of the Italian film director [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Anti-aircraft guns, possibly from the cruiser [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], downed the aircraft and all were killed.

It was declared a tragic accident by the Italian government, though suspicions have lingered that Balbo's death may actually have been ordered by Mussolini.

Balbo had already started to protest the continuous tactical missions asked of the Regia Aeronautica, which were reducing its effectiveness.

The British offensive in December hit Italian aviation hard and many wings (a total of nine until May 1941) were phased out because of losses.

The tasks in which many aircraft were involved were in attacking British land forces, with bombing and strafing.

The losses caused by Hurricanes and ground fire increased, so at the beginning of 1941 only around 40 machines were still present in Libya and by the end of 1941, only one operational squadron remained.

In the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] many Sparvieros were used for defensive tasks, such as countering [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] teams in the desert, and in anti-ship role.

From autumn 1940, SM.79s were used against [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], then Yugoslavia. They continued to be hampered in their operations by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], but also by poor weather conditions.

Over the Mediterranean, the Sparvieros were used in reconnaissance missions, and anti-ship attacks.

Torpedo-Savoias

Early history

Italy declared war on Britain on 10 June 1940 and attacked Malta the following day starting the Axis' [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which was to continue for three years.

The Allies' base at Malta was strategically situated to be a threat to communications between Europe, Italy and North Africa.

The Sparviero launched its career as torpedo-bomber on 25 July 1940 when a new unit was established after several years of experiments. The "Special Aerotorpedoes Unit" was led by Colonel Moioli.

After having ordered the first 50 torpedoes at Whitehead Industries, on 10 August 1940 the first aircraft landed at T5 airfield, near Tobruk.

Despite the lack of an aiming system and a specific doctrine for tactics, an attack on shipping in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was quickly organized.

There were experiments for many years but still, no service, no gear (except hardpoints) and no tactics were developed for the new speciality.

This was despite previous Italian experiments into the practice of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in 1914, 26 years before.^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}

15 August 1940 saw the first action under way, with five SM.79s that were modified and prepared for the task of torpedoing enemy shipping, sent to El Adem airfield.

Among these aircraft pilots were Buscaglia, Dequal and other pilots destined to became "aces."

The journey was made at an altitude of 1,500 m (4,920 ft) and after two hours, at 2130, they flew over Alexandria and began attacking the ships.

This first attack was unsuccessful.

The aircraft had only 1,000 m (3,280 ft) of runway for takeoff, so two of the fuel tanks were left empty to reduce weight.

This gave an endurance of five hours, with a journey of 4.33 hours.

After this first action, only Buscaglia and Dequal, after over five hours, returned, both aircraft damaged by anti-aircraft fire.

Buscaglia landed on only one wheel, with some other damage.

The other three Savoias, attacking after the first two, were hindered by a fierce anti-aircraft defence and low clouds, so they returned to their base without releasing their torpedoes.

However, all three ran out of fuel, were forced to jettison the torpedoes which exploded in the desert, and then force-landed, three hours after the attack.

Two crews were rescued later, but the third (Fusco) was still in Egypt when they force-landed.

The crew set light to their aircraft the next morning, which alerted the British who then captured them.

These troubles were experienced within a combat radius of only about 650 km (400 mi), in clear contrast with the glamorous performances of the racer Sparvieros a few years before.[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

Many other missions followed, on 22–23 August (Alexandria), 26 August (against ships never found), and 27 August (Buscaglia against a cruiser).

The special unit became known as the 278ima Squadriglia, and from September 1940 carried out many attacks on ships, including on 4 September (when Buscaglia had his aircraft damaged by fighters) and 10 September, when Robone claimed a merchant ship sunk.

On 17 September, after an unsuccessful day attack, Buscaglia and Robone returned at night, attacking the British ships that shelled [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

One torpedo hit [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], damaging this [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to the extent that the ship remained under repair until September 1941.

After almost a month of attacks, this was the first success officially acknowledged and proven.

After almost a month of further attacks, a newcomer, Erasi, flew with Robone on 14 October 1940 against a British formation and hit [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], a modern cruiser that lost her bow and needed 13 months of repair.

After several months, and despite the losses and the first unfortunate mission, the core of the 278 ima was still operating the same four aircraft.

The last success of this squadron was at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], when Buscaglia damaged another cruiser, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], despite the anti-torpedo netting surrounding the ship.

This powerful Royal Navy vessel was out of commission for nine months whilst repairs were made.

The aircraft continued in service until a British bomb struck them, when the usual mounting of the torpedo under the belly led to a "chain reaction" which destroyed them all.[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

1941

The year started out badly, but improved in April, when many successes were recorded by SM.79s of the 281 and 280 ima.

They sank two merchant ships, heavily damaged the British cruiser [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (which was out of service for nine months) and later also sank the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

However, one SM/79 was shot down 25 nm north west of Gozo on 3 June, landed in the sea and stayed afoat for some time. Further Italian successes came in August, when the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was damaged.

The large merchant ship SS Imperial Star (10,886 tonnes/12,000 tons) was sunk by an SM.79 in September.

The 130 and 132 Gruppo were also active during the autumn.

On 24 October, they sank the Empire Pelican and Empire Defender, on 23 November they sank the Glenearn and Xhakdina, and finally, on 11 December they heavily damaged the Jackal.^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}

The year ended with a total of nine sunken and several damaged Allied ships.

The Italians had lost 14 torpedo bombers and sustained several damaged in action.

This was the best year for the Italian torpedo bombers and also the year when the SM.84, the SM.79's successor was introduced.

Overall, these numbers meant little in the war, and almost no other results were recorded by the Italian bombers.

Horizontal bombing proved to be a failure and only dive bombers and torpedo-bombers achieved some results.

The damaging of the British cruisers was the most important result, but without German help, the Italians would have been unable to maintain a presence in the Mediterranean theatre.

The 25 Italian bomber wings were unable to disturb the British forces, as the Battle of Punta Stilo demonstrated.

Almost all of the major British ships lost were due to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] attacks, with the damaging of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and the sinking of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and Ark Royal.

The British fleet was left without major ships in their Mediterranean fleet leaving the Axis better situated to control the sea.[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

1942

The Axis fortunes started to decline steadily during 1942.

Over 100 SM.79s were in service in different Italian torpedo squadrons. In addition to its wide-scale deployment in its intended bomber-torpedo bomber role, the Sparviero was also used for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], reconnaissance and transport missions.

In the first six months of 1942, all the Italo-German efforts to hit Allied ships had only resulted in the sinking of the merchant ship Thermopilae, which was by an aircraft flown by Carlo Faggioni.

The Allies aimed to provide Malta with vital re-supplies and fuel through major convoy operations at all costs.

The first was the Harpoon convoy, and almost all the Axis air potential was used against the convoy.

14 June saw the second torpedoing of Liverpool, by a 132° Gruppo Savoia, putting it out of action for another 13 months.

Regardless of where the torpedo struck, (amidships in the case of Liverpool, aft as for Kent, or forward as happened to Glasgow) the cruisers remained highly vulnerable to torpedoes, but no Italian air attack managed to hit them with more than one torpedo at once.

On this day the merchant ship Tanimbar was sunk by SM.79s of 132°, and finally the day after [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], already damaged by two Italian cruisers, was sunk by pilot M. Aichner, also of the 132° Gruppo.

For years, this victory was contested by the Italian Navy, that claimed to have sunk Bedouin with gunfire.[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]