Italy - Spanish Civil War

page generated: April 22, 2003

compiled by Allan Magnus

References:

1. WWII Biplane Aces
2. Italian Aces of World War 2, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces #34, Richard Caruana & Giorgio Apostolo, Osprey Publishing, London 2000
3. Aero Fan, No. 69, April-June 1999, Giorgio Apostolo Editore, Milan, Italy
4. Wings Over Spain: History and Images of the Civil War 1936-39, Angelo Emiliani and Guiseppe Ghergo, Giorgio Apostolo Editore, Milano 1997
5. Dust Clouds in the Middle East, The Air War for East Africa, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Madagascar, 1940-42, Christopher Shores, Grub Street, London 1996
6. Legion Condor, Karl Ries & Hans Ring, Schiffer Military History, West Chester, PA 1992
7. Malta: The Spitfire Year 1942, Christopher Shores, Brian Cull & Nicola Malizia, Grub Street, London 1991
8. Air Aces, Christopher Shores, Presidio Press, Novato, California 1983
9. Fighters over Tunisia, C. Shores,H. Ring, W. Hess, Spearman 1975

Notes:
     The following is from the book, "Wings over Spain", page 182. It is included to provide
     a perspective on what conditions affected victory counts for the Italians in Spain. Where
     this book and the other references intersect, I have chosen the victory counts found in
     "Wings over Spain".
	"The Aviazione Legionaria never introduced a method for the attribution of victories
	 over enemy aircraft to the individual fighter pilots. Therefore, there is no list of
	 Italian aces in Spain, nor can official documents - the war diaries of the squadrons
	 and of the groups - permit the compilation of such a list now. While during the first
	 months of the war, when combats took place between single airplanes or flights, the
	 shooting down of an enemy can be attributed to a fair degree of certainty to individual
	 action of a pilot, the situation becomes different when combats involve dozens of 
	 airplanes in furious dogfights and in small proportions of sky.  In this case, diaries
	 report the number of victories claimed assigning their merit often "in cooperation"
	 to all pilots who took part in that specific action. Further differences are produced
	 according to the way in which reports are written in different units of the Aviazione
	 Legionaria, and even in the efforts placed by the commanders in documenting the
	 operational activities of their units."