Aviazione Legionaria
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Legionary Air Force | |
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Aviazione Legionaria | |
The Legionary Air Force (Italian: Aviazione Legionaria, Spanish: Aviación Legionaria) was an expeditionary corps from the Italian Royal Air Force that was set up in 1936. It was sent to provide logistical and tactical support to the Nationalist faction after the Spanish coup of July 1936, which marked the onset of the Spanish Civil War.
The corps and its
History
At the outbreak of the
Through them, Franco tried to convince Benito Mussolini to send twelve transport aircraft, twelve reconnaissance planes, ten fighter aircraft, 3000 aerial bombs, anti-aircraft machine guns and at least forty-five transport ships. Mussolini was initially reluctant to send them, despite his sympathy for Franco, but under pressure from his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano, he changed his mind on 25 July. Ciano had in the meantime met with representatives of the Spanish monarchy to arrange the transfer of about thirty fighter planes and other equipment, which would arrive on 2 August, that would be sent by the French government.
On 27 July, Mussolini ordered the undersecretary for the Regia Aeronautica, General Giuseppe Valle, to send 12 three-engined
The aircraft crews and the specialists were all volunteers from 7th, 10th and 13th Stormo and were provided with civilian clothes and fake documents. All Italian insignia on the planes had been blotted out to avoid an international incident with European governments that supported the Republicans. Fake documents stated that the planes were being sold to the Spanish journalist
Not all of the Italian planes sent to aid the rebel faction reached Morocco since the plane commanded by Angelini crashed in the Mediterranean, that of Mattalia crashed near
Encouraged by the success of this first operation, Mussolini began sending a steady stream of munitions, personnel and supplies under the name of Aviación Legionaria or Aviazione Legionaria.
Bombing operations
Besides military targets, the Aviazione Legionaria carried out a great number of strategic bombings of cities in the Spanish Republican rear area. They were intended to terrify the civilian population into surrender. The most significant one was the 1936 bombing of Madrid, ordered by General Franco, in which the city's residential areas were subject to heavy bombardment with the exception of the upper-class Salamanca district, which was assumed to contain many Nationalist supporters. Three Italian bombers attacked the Renteria bridge on the outskirts of Guernica,[3] prior to the Condor Legion's bombing of Guernica itself on 26 April 1937, followed by an attack on Almeria.[4]
In 1938, Italian planes carried out most of their large-scale bombing operations by striking the cities of
Aftermath
On 12 May 1939, the last Italian aircrew embarked for Italy on the ship Duilio at
The ratio of results to men and machines lost was positive but also confirmed the commanders of the Regia Aeronautica of their mistaken belief that biplanes and triplanes were still valid in modern combat. In fact, the age of air warfare dominated by those aircraft was waning, and it was becoming evident that radio needed to be mounted on all aircraft and that targeting had to be done with special instruments, rather than by sight.
Aircraft and units
Twelve Fiat CR.32 biplanes arrived in Melilla aboard transport ships on 14 August 1936 (405 would be sent to Franco by the end of the operation), and by the end of August, the Cucaracha squadron was formed at Cáceres with aircraft of that type. Initial dispatches of aircraft were followed by more numerous ones. In March 1939, eleven new Fiat G.50 Freccia monoplane fighters were sent, to be based at Ascalona, but they ultimately never saw action. In addition to the aircraft, Italy provided a number of well-trained men, sending more than 6,000 in total: 5,699 airmen and 312 civilians.
Various types of bombers were sent to Franco's forces, including 55 three-engined
The unit's recognition symbols were
Altogether, a total of 764 aircraft were sent:
- 376 Fiat CR.32
- 12 Fiat G.50 Freccia
- 13 Fiat BR.20
- 100 Savoia-Marchetti SM.79[7]
- 84 Savoia-Marchetti SM.81
- 3 Savoia-Marchetti S.55
- 23 Breda Ba.65
- 6 Breda Ba.28
- 3 Macchi M.41
- 10 CANT Z.501
- 4 CANT Z.506
- 25 IMAM Ro.41
- 36 IMAM Ro.37
- 16 Caproni Ca.310
- 10 Caproni A.P.1
- 53 transport aircraft
- 20 seaplanes
- 10 troop carriers
See also
References
- ^ Gustavsson, Håkan. "Air War in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39". Håkans Aviation Page.
- ISBN 84-85822-38-2.
- ^ Pedriali 1992, p. 210.
- ^ Heiberg 2004.
- ^ Heiberg 2004, p. 133.
- ISBN 88-04-44940-3.
- ^ Thomas 2006, p. 938.
Bibliography
- Heiberg, M. (2004). Emperadores del Mediterráneo: Franco, Mussolini y la Guerra Civil Española (in Spanish). Barcelona: Crítica. ISBN 8484324702.
- Pedriali, F. (1992). Guerra di Spagna e Aviazione Italiana (in Italian). Rome: Ufficio Storico dello Stato maggiore Aeronautica.
- Thomas, H. (2006). The Spanish Civil War. London, UK: Penguin Books.