AEROPLANE TO AEROPLANO

     June 28, 1940. The shooting-down of Italo Balbo's airplane.       by Alberto Alpozzi (Translated from Italian by L. Pavese)      The Kingdom of Italy had entered Second World War just eighteen days ago.      It was 5:30 pm on June 28, 1940. The Britons had just carried out an air attack near the Italian base of Tobruk. High columns of black smoke were rising in the sky.      Two large airplanes, which for their shape looked like bombers, approached Tobruk airport at low altitude.      In the harbor of Tobruk there were the Italian Royal Navy cruiser San Giorgio and the submersible boat Bragadin . They were providing anti-aircraft protection, in conjunction with ground-based artillery, and they opened fire to defend from a possible second wave of bombing. A view of Tobruk harbor taken from a British RAF aircraft during the WWII      One of the two aircraft was hit and...

     Researching Fulvio Setti, the author of the text I translated and published on this post, I discovered that during the 1930's he had been the Italian national champion in the 110 meter hurdling race. At that time little he knew about the deadly hurdles he would have to face in a few years, as a transport pilot in the Italian Royal Air Force.     Italy entered the war in June of 1940. Benito Mussolini was convinced the conflict was going to be over very soon, once France had fallen, and, in his own ruthless words, he just wanted "one thousand casualties to bring, as a victor, to the negotiating table."  B ut the war went on, and for the Italian forces, thrown into the cauldron ill-equipped and without the backing of a strong industrial capability, the conflict turned into a slow but inexorable process of consumption which consumed men and machines, until the inevitable defeat, foreign invasion, and the catastrophe of the 1943 to 1945 period.   ...