Derided by their foes and patronised by their major ally, the armed forces of Italy during World War II have not been given the subsequent level of historical attention they deserve. The Regia Aeronautica entered the war (a little late) fresh from a spectacularly successful campaign in the Spanish Civil War, where Italian aircraft had proved to be amongst the world’s best. Second World War Italian aircraft design was often brilliant, but was unfortunately dependent on Italian industrial output, which was not. Here is a totally subjective top ten of these relative rarities. Che figo!

10. Fiat G.50 Freccia (‘Arrow’)

How many Italian fighters achieved a 33/1 kill loss ratio during the Second World War? If your answer to the second question is ‘none’: well, you’re half right – as we shall see. Designed by Guiseppe Gabrielli, who would later rustle up the pretty G.91 jet for NATO use, the Fiat G.50 was the first Italian monoplane fighter and fitted with such amazing novelties as retractable undercarriage and an enclosed cockpit. The latter feature was discarded fairly rapidly, though not, as has often been suggested, due to the highly conservative nature of Italian fighter pilots but rather because it was virtually impossible to open in flight. Even the most forward-thinking and radical fighter pilot is generally in favour of the idea of escaping the aircraft in the event of, say, a massive terrifying fire. Dangerous canopy notwithstanding, 12 examples of the G.50 were sent to Spain to be evaluated under combat conditions although none actually took part in any fighting so this evaluation could be considered inconclusive at best. Gifted to Spain at the end of the conflict these G.50s would later see combat in Morocco but by that time the Freccia had been in action against both the French and British. A few G.50s were committed to the Battle of Britain but despite flying 479 sorties failed to intercept a single British aircraft. The little Fiat did better with Italian forces in North Africa but its career could hardly be described as spectacular.

Sadly for Italy, the amazing kill to loss ratio mentioned above was actually achieved by the Freccia in service with the Finns who operated 33 G.50s from the end of the Winter War, through the Continuation War and on until 1944 when these now quite aged aircraft were withdrawn from the front line. Finnish Fiat pilots shot down 99 Soviet aircraft for the loss of only three of their own, representing the best ratio of victories to losses achieved by any single fighter type in the service of a specific air arm during the war. Despite this amazing achievement Finnish pilots apparently still preferred the MS.406, Hurricane and Brewster Buffalo, not least as the open cockpit of the G.50, whilst pleasant on a Spring day over the Mediterranean was not a particularly attractive place to be in the depths of a Finnish winter – at least they didn’t have to worry about opening the canopy to bale out though. After the G.50s were phased out of service they remained operational as trainers until the end of 1946 when the spare parts supply ran out. The G.50 was, in fairness, a fairly lacklustre aeroplane but who could reasonably ignore that insane 33 to 1 success rate?

9. Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero (‘Sparrowhawk’)

A bit an oldie (in 1940s terms) having first flown way back in 1934, the Gobbo maledetto (‘damned hunchback’, the nickname deriving from the SM.79’s pronounced hump just behind the cockpit) was one of aviation’s great survivors. After setting a swathe of records in the mid 30s the SM.79 became likely the best bomber committed to the Spanish Civil War, outlived the aircraft specifically designed to replace it (the now obscure SM.84) and ended its war as the Axis’ most potent torpedo bomber before relaxing into a surprisingly long postwar dotage. All this whilst enjoying a cosmopolitan existence in some quite unexpected air forces (Brazil anyone?) and like the best old stagers, the Sparviero defied expectation – although it has become aviation history’s archetypal trimotor bomber, the wonderfully ugly Romanian built SM.79JR was a twin (and the fastest of the lot). Although very fast by world standards during the conflict in Spain, the SM.79’s primary attributes during the Second World War were its sturdy construction and excellent reliability, neither of which represented a quality associated with Italian engineering in general.

In action during the Spanish Civil War the Sparviero proved highly effective and more or less immune to interception, which was lucky as the Italians did not possess a fighter fast enough to escort it. Of the 100 or so aircraft committed to Spain only four were lost on operations. Early operations during WWII were quite successful but the SM.79’s great speed advantage had evaporated by 1940, operating against the latest British fighters over North Africa and Malta, the SM.79’s reputation for apparent invulnerability was lost. Nevertheless, it remained a reliable if unspectacular medium bomber for the duration of Italy’s involvement in the war. However, as a torpedo bomber the SM.79 suddenly found itself in intense and effective action, gaining considerable fame at home in the process. The torpedo version of the Sparviero dispensed with the draggy ventral gondola containing the bomb aimer and resulted in a faster aircraft and although able to carry two air-launched torpedoes, only one was ever carried on combat missions. The SM.79s sank a considerable amount of Allied shipping and damaged much more, notably the battleship Nelson, and the best year for the Aerosiluranti torpedo units was 1941, when, during the course of 87 attacks, nine ships totalling 42,373 tonnes were sunk, and another 12 were damaged. The top Sparviero torpedo pilot was Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia, credited with over 90,718 tonnes of enemy shipping sunk and much decorated. Buscaglia was shot down and presumed dead on 12 November 1942. As a result, after the Italian armistice, an anti-shipping unit, the 1° Gruppo Aerosiluranti, was named in his honour by the Fascist Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (ANR). Ironically however Buscaglia had actually survived, and was serving in the Co-Belligerent Air force, fighting alongside the Allies. The SM.79 continued to operate as a torpedo aircraft until late 1944 when the last two surviving ANR Sparvieros flew the final mission on 26 December, bowing out with a flourish by sinking a 5000-ton vessel off the Dalmation coast.

In addition to Italy the SM.79 flew with Yugoslavia against the Germans, in twin-engine form with Iraq against the British and with Brazil. Romania went the whole hog and licence-built their own twin-engine version which they used against the Soviets. Probably the most surprising operator was the RAF, four SM.79s flew in British colours with 117 squadron from May to November 1941. After the war the tiny nation of Lebanon (an SM.79 could traverse the entire country from west to east in 14 minutes) bought four Sparvieros and flew them until 1965, representing the last Italian WWII aircraft in service anywhere in the world. Both surviving SM.79s are ex-Lebanese aircraft.

As an interesting but totally irrelevant aside, one of the Sparviero‘s wartime pilots was Capitano Emilio Pucci who would later gain considerable fame as one of Italy’s most successful fashion designers. As well as producing the first one-piece skiing outfit, Pucci bridged the fashion/aviation divide when he designed six complete collections for Braniff Airways’ hostesses, pilots and ground crew between 1965 and 1974. Marilyn Monroe was also a fan, ultimately she was interred in a Pucci gown. Pucci died in 1992 at the age of 78 but the design house that bears the name is still going strong.

8. Fiat CR.42 Falco (‘Falcon’)

A ludicrous, conceptually outdated dinosaur or a fighter ideally suited to the specific operating conditions in which it found itself? The CR.42 was, like its great adversary the Gloster Gladiator, arguably both. Fiat had been happily building a succession of effective and successful biplane fighters bearing the initials of designer Celestino Rosatelli since the CR.1 of 1923. All featured distinctive w-shaped warren-truss struts which eliminated the need for virtually all bracing wires and the CR.42 was the logical culmination of this line, a line that would likely have continued had not the Second World War cruelly stamped out any future for the biplane as a viable combat machine. Featuring a radial engine in place of the V-12 unit of its immediate predecessor, the CR.32, the Falco appeared too late to see combat use in the Spanish Civil War, a conflict which had already made plain the shift from biplane to monoplane fighters was effectively inevitable. Despite this, and proving Fiat’s canny awareness of the world fighter market, the CR.42 enjoyed considerable export success with significant orders being placed by Hungary, Sweden and Belgium, the latter two nations operating the Fiat alongside the Gloster Gladiator and it was in Belgian service that the CR.42 first fired its guns in anger. In the brief Belgian campaign Falcos scored five confirmed kills, including two Bf 109s, before the country fell to the Germans but this would not be the last time the Fiat flew against Axis forces. In the meantime there followed an extremely busy couple of years for the Fiats with their nation of origin.

In June 1940, Mussolini’s tardy (and ultimately fatal) decision to join Germany in the invasion of France saw the CR.42 committed as an escort fighter to a brief series of spectacularly successful bombing raids on French airfields. In air-to-air combat with French monoplanes the Falco fared adequately: five CR.42s were lost in exchange for eight (though possibly as high as 10) French fighters. Later the same year the East African campaign saw the pinnacle of the Falco‘s career as the three squadrons committed to the theatre tangled for the first time with the RAF and came out decisively on top, for example on one occasion in November CR.42s tangled with RAF Gloster Gladiators and destroyed seven for no loss. The top-scoring biplane ace of the Second World War, Mario Visintini, scored all but two of his 16* officially credited victories during this campaign. Over North Africa and Malta the Falco proved adequate, capable of dealing with the Hurricane if well handled (RAF units were forced to come up with tactics specifically to deal with such a manoeuvrable foe), and during the invasion of Greece the CR.42s demolished the defenders: officially destroying 162 aircraft destroyed for the loss of 29 of their own. Slightly later the Royal Hungarian Air Force took its CR.42s into action on the Eastern Front and during six months of action the Hungarian Fiats shot down 24 Soviet aircraft for the loss of only two CR.42s. Over the course of 1941 however, it was becoming increasingly clear that the Falco simply did not have the performance necessary to deal with modern monoplane fighters and it increasingly switched, very successfully, to the ground attack role. The fine handling and outstanding manoeuvrability of the CR.42 allowed it to evade both fighter attack and ground fire at low level and the Falco proved a highly accurate close support asset. So effective was the aircraft that after the Italian capitulation of 1943 German authorities had the CR.42 returned to production for Luftwaffe use as light night attack bombers: an order for 200 CR.42LWs, purpose-built for nocturnal use was placed with Fiat in Turin of which around 112 were completed. Meanwhile some CR.42s flew operationally with the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force alongside Allied forces in the Balkans. Most Co-Belligerent use was as a training aircraft but the Falco became one of very few combat aircraft to have fought alongside the Luftwaffe, fought as a part of the Luftwaffe, and fought against the Luftwaffe. 

In contrast to the Gloster Gladiator which was built in comparatively small numbers, the seemingly outdated Fiat was manufactured in greater numbers than any other Italian aircraft of the war with just over 1800 known to have been built. One of only three serious contenders for the title of best biplane fighter of WWII, the CR.42 was more useful and effective than its manifest conceptual obsolescence would have one believe.

*Subsequent research by aviation historian Christopher Shores, suggests that Visinitini’s total was higher than that officially recognised at the time and that he actually destroyed 20 enemy aircraft.

7. Macchi MC.200 Saetta (‘Lightning’)

In the late 1980s, I was a very young aviation enthusiast and still believed all the jingoistic popular myths bandied around about most of the aircraft of WWII, such as ‘all Italian aircraft were shit’. It came as a great shock to me therefore to read in Bill Gunston’s ‘Combat Aircraft of World War II’ (Salamander Books 1978) the words “in combat with the lumbering Hurricane it proved effective, with outstanding dogfight performance and no vices”. Lumbering Hurricane?! Outstanding dogfight performance?! I was aghast and amazed and although I didn’t realise it at the time, the concept of history being subject to nuance, interpretation and outright falsehoods had been subtly introduced into my brain. The aircraft inadvertently responsible for this Road to Damascus style aviation-history awakening was the Macchi MC.200 and it remains, (probably coincidentally, though who knows?), one of my all-time favourite aircraft. Possessed of a charmingly bumblebee-like aesthetic the Saetta was, like the Spitfire, the fighter follow-on to a swathe of fast, radical and highly successful seaplane racing aircraft built to compete in the Schneider Trophy air races. Unlike Reginald Mitchell’s Spitfire, which resembles its floatplane ancestors quite closely with Rolls-Royce V-12 engine and slender airframe, the Saetta was radial powered and looked nothing like its Macchi MC.72 forebear despite both being the work of the great designer Mario Castoldi. Powered by the Fiat A74 radial, like the slightly earlier G.50 Freccia, the MC.200 made much better use of this reliable but only modestly powerful engine. A relatively small aircraft, the MC.200 followed the precedent set by the G.50 by initially appearing with a cutting edge enclosed cockpit but having this feature discarded in short order. The armament was typical of contemporary Italian fighters in that it was pathetic, two 12.7 mm (.50-in) machine guns, but this was actually double the armament specified in the original specification. At least the pilot had an indicator in the cockpit showing how much ammunition was left. An unusual feature was that one wing was slightly longer than the other to cancel out the rotation of the propeller. Rather than simply counteracting the torque, the enlarged left wing put the asymmetric force created by the airscrew to useful work by generating lift. Initially the Saetta was something of a handful, prone to entering an unrecoverable spin, but adoption of a different wing profile solved the problem before Italy entered the war and the aircraft’s handling was effectively viceless.

Entering service in the summer of 1939, the MC.200 was either the third or fourth best operational fighter in service anywhere in the World at the outbreak of war (after the Bf 109, Spitfire and depending on your opinion, the lumbering Hurricane) but by the time Mussolini stopped dithering and jumped in on the side of Germany a whole bunch of new fighters had appeared that were at least as good, such as the Curtiss P-36 and Dewoitine D.520. Italian industry had suffered in the past from a lack of standardisation and as a reaction to this the MC.200 remained in production virtually unchanged from the first examples in 1939 all the way through to Italy’s capitulation in 1943 (the final examples produced as a back-up to more advanced fighters that were held up by shortages of the Alfa Romeo R.A.1000 Monsone engine) and as such the Saetta was overtaken and then gradually left behind by the pace of fighter development. The worldbeater of 1940 was a distinctly pedestrian performer by 1943. Nonetheless during the three years the Regia Aeronautica were in action in WWII the Saetta flew more combat sorties than any other Italian type and, initially at least, was highly successful. Over North Africa the Macchi could outmanoeuvre both the P-40 and Hurricane, the most numerous Allied fighters in the theatre, the airframe was rugged and performance was roughly equivalent, especially in the case of the Hurricane which had its speed impaired by the adoption of a large dust filter necessary for operations in the desert. Like many early war fighters the Saetta saw its role shift to the ground attack role and it first saw action as a fighter bomber in North Africa. Bomb armed MC.200s managed to sink the British destroyer Sikh off Tobruk in 1942. Over the Eastern Front the MC.200 made up a significant part of the Italian Expeditionary force which downed 88 Soviet aircraft in exchange for 15 of their own.