Question on the Italian air force

With the state of the Luftwaffe during late 1944-45 I wonder where they thought they would get the fuel and other supplies for them? They were having a hard enough time with just keeping their own ME-262s Flying.

 

Flying with the Republica Socialista Italiana (RSI) in the north. Adriano Visconti, with 19 victories prior to September 1943, brought his total up to 26 with the RSI, thereby becoming the World War II Italian ace of aces, but he ended up sharing a fate similar to that of the Duce he had so faithfully served -- shot as he was surrendering to left-wing Italian partisans in Milan on April 29, 1945.

 

Visconti... sadly shot from behind by communists... A true infortune.

I wrote a short biography on the man, but it's in portuguese:

Sala de Guerra: Adriano Visconti

 

JC, Julio, nice exchange all around. These kinds of posts make this a truly learning forum. I learn something new here everyday.

As to the Italians learning how to fly the Me-262 . . . that's going to be a real stretch considering the state of Germany and the Luftwaffe.

 

I've always felt the Italians were more akin to the Japanese than the Germans in their philosophy of combat aviation. They favored light, maneuverable, airy crates even stubbornly fighting fully enclosed canopies.

One thing for cetain, they had some 1st class, innovative aircraft designers.

 

Thanks JF. Glad to be of service sometimes LOL. Like I said its hard to believe at that late stage that they would be considering it due to the scarcity of resources.

 

That's the sad thing about the Italian air force. They had good designers and aviators. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for the Allies, things didn't work out for the Italians.

 

Yes... Fuel was always a matter for Italy. During 20's and 30's, it was common to say that England "held a knife in Italy's neck", due to her dominance of the two ocean-accesses to Mare Nostrum (the Med). Italy always depended on fuel importation, and Germany was not willing to give more than small quantities to them, since it had it's own fuel problems.

 

The most costly, and difficult to operate of all armed forces is the Airforce...skilled pilots take years to train sufficiently (as Germany and Japans later war years proved) Manufacturer's must constantly be upgrading, and designing aircraft..for what worked in 1940, was outdated and outclassed by 1945. Mechanics, outfitters,airfields must be trained, built, moved, and rebuilt.

Italy designed fantastic planes, and had some very skilled pilots...but the skill, or knowledge on how best to use these is a constant debate...i.e.BoB, Stalingrad re-inforcements, etc, air coverage of fleet movements, Malta

bf109 Emil

 

in Goerings biography 123 million litres of aviation fuel and hundreds of new fighters where discovered when Rommel was sent to shore up defenses after a possible rumour a secret meeting with the new leader of Italy was sent to eisenhower seeking a peace settlement...also i will add when i check out this copy again how many thousands of barrels of oil where socked away for naval ships..yet these ships remained in port for the last year of conflict for lack of fuel oil...i will gather this info as any searched from numerous search engines come back nil....also before the planes could be sent or taken by Germany...engine blocks where shot and parachutes ripped...the officers responsible for this where to be found and hung for 3 days at italian airfields under orderds of Goering...but none came to be...source...Hermann Goering..A Biography by Irving

 

Italian theme bump

 

You hit that nail square on the head. The Facist politicians seemed to actually be trying to cripple their armys with bad leaders. Both Hitler & Mussolini used the tactic of 'division' to keep potiential opponents from organizing against them. and both loved to interfere in decisions over complex issues that were completely outside their experince or education. Hitlers appointment of men like Goering and Sepp Dietrich to vast responsibility makes the elevation of just about any Allied general look inspired.