In the summer of 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini watched with growing dissatisfaction the inaction of Italian troops stationed in Libya. After the death of Marshal Italo Balbo (killed in a S.79 bomber, accidentally shot down by Italian anti-aircraft artillery near Tobruk on June 28), Marshal Rodolfo Graziani became the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in North Africa. He tried to gather the necessary forces for the offensive required by Rome against Egypt. Finally, under threat of appeal, he reluctantly launched an attack on September 13, 1940.
After the armistice in 1943, some pilots fled north to form the Republican Air Force and continued to fight for Mussolini. The majority of the Regia Aeronautica, however, took up arms against the Axis, flying over 4,000 missions between September 1943 and May 1945.
Italian Air Force operations on the Allied side at the beginning of the last year of the war.
In June 1940, the Italian Air Force was in serious crisis. This is best seen in the units serving in North Africa within the Comando Aeronautica Libia ( Libya Air Command - since July 4 it was redesignated the 5th and Squadra Aerea or "5th Air Force" ).
The Air Force of the Kingdom of Italy on the battlefield of North Africa during World War II
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