4

The ground war Lieutenant-General Richard O’Connor’s counter-offensive, Operation Compass, started

on 9 December and by 15 December, all Italian troops had been driven out of Egypt. The ground operations in this important campaign are covered under each consecutive day.

Regia Aeronautica Fighters

On 2 December, cap. Renzo Maggini was forced to return command of the 90a Sq., 10o Gr., to ten. Giovanni Guiducci for a second time and prepared to return to Italy after a relapse of his wounds from 28 June.

Cap. Giuseppe Aurili (formerly of the 84a Sq.) arrived back from Italy after a period of illness on 7 December to take command of the 90a Sq. but suffered a car accident on 8 December together with cap. Renzo Maggini. Maggini died while Aurili remained critically wounded, so ten. Guiducci resumed command for the third time.

Cap. Luigi Monti returned as CO of the 84a Sq. on 7 December after two months in Italy due to illness, to relieve cap. Vincenzo Vanni who instead replaced cap. Giuseppe D’Agostinis as CO of the 91a Sq., when D’Agostinis was forced to return to Italy due to illness.

On the eve of Operation Compass on 9 December, the fighter forces had the following strength: The  151o  Gr. (CO magg. Carlo Calosso) was based at  Amseat A3. Its three squadriglie had

the following combat strength: The 366a Sq. (CO cap. Bernardino Serafini) – ten CR.42s (probably all combat-ready). The 367a Sq. (CO cap. Simeone Marsan) – nine combat-ready CR.42s, one at the SRAM of El Adem. The 368a Sq. (CO cap. Bruno Locatelli) – nine combat-ready CR.42s. One of the aircraft had just

been equipped with a camera at El Adem to carry out photographic reconnaissance.

December 1940

A section of CR.42s of

the 91a Sq. from Z1,

in December 1940.

[Ufficio Storico Stato

Maggiore AMI]

4

SAMPLE

Two aircraft of the 366a Sq., flown by s.ten. Carlo Albertini and serg. Di Carlo, took off at 07:05 to perform a protection flight over the airfield from 07:05.

At 07:25, after an air alarm over the phone that warned of an enemy aircraft that was heading towards the airfield, ten. Guglielmo Chiarini of the 366a Sq. scrambled from Amseat A3.

At 07:30, a Bristol Blenheim was seen high over the airfield and serg.magg. Cesare Chiarmetta from the same unit immediately took off and pursued the enemy. Since the latter made a big turn over the airfield, Chiarmetta managed to reach the same height, but was too far away to shoot at it. The British aircraft, realizing that it was pursued, climbed easily into the cloud overcast that was cov-ering almost the entire sky at 5000 m. Chiarmetta gave up the chase and landed back at base at 08:00.

Meanwhile, Chiarini had arrived over Sollum to try to intercept the enemy on route to the target. Here he  realized that the anti-aircraft artillery was firing. Following the bursts of  the AA shells, he could see, at a higher level and at a distance, a monoplane chased by a CR.42. He started after it, tenaciously trying to not lose sight of it. At some point the Bristol disappeared into the clouds and when it appeared again Chiarini spotted it and attacked. After a few raking bursts in the belly (145 7,7mm and 121 12,7 mm rounds), the enemy aircraft was burning and fell south-east of Rabia.

Chiarini landed back at base at 08:30. 113 Sqn (whose records for the period are totally missing) lost Blenheim Mk.IV T2073 in the

morning when it came down at Sidi Barrani, possibly due to enemy action. P/O J. N. Owen was wounded and taken to Number 8 General Hospital. The Wireless Operator/Air Gunner Sgt Joseph Crawford and Observer Sgt Albert Michael Goldfeather were both KIA. In fact, squadron HQ of “A” Sqn. 11th Hussars reported that at 08:30 a Blenheim was shot down by a CR.42 approximately south east of Rabia and the pilot, injured, was picked up by the unit ,while the rest of the crew was killed, thus confirming the claim of Chiarini.

At 08:15, a reconnaissance SM.79 of the 175a Sq. flown by ten. Finardi took off from T5 and confirmed the British attack when it discovered more than 190 enemy vehicles in the general area

Fiat CR.42 of the 9o Gr.

captured by British troops,

December 1940. Another

picture of this aircraft

appears on page 28.

[via Przemek Skulski]

18

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The history of 4th Armoured Brigade reported: “The  swift, bold stroke produced strong reaction from the  Regia

Aeronautica, which made life very unpleasant and also strained the Q [7th Queen’s Own Hussars] resources almost to a breaking point.”

Finally the Official History of I. S. O. Playfair: “the  4th Armoured sent forward a  force to  cut the  road between

Tobruk and  Bardia, and  by  nightfall of  the  14th the  armoured cars of 11th Hussars had done so; but it soon became impossible to main-tain the brigade so far forward and they were ordered instead to capture

Sidi Omar…” Lysander L6877 of ‘B’ Flight 6 Sqn, flown by F/Lt Denziel Thomas St Hugh Dawes and with

Observer Sgt Richard Chantry, failed to return from a tactical reconnaissance sortie over Italian units in the Maddalena area. Army units found the wreckage, and the crew was buried near the air-craft. The aircraft was presumed shot down by ground fire. This was the first operational loss for 6 Sqn in three months of operations.

At the end of the day, the 82a Sq. had only two CR.42s combat-ready out of the ten on hand, the 77a Sq. had seven (out of the twelve on hand - one reinforcement machine was received during the day) and the 78a Sq. had four.

Despite very light losses in combat, the efficiency of the 13o Gr. was steadily going down. After the  last patrol, the 151o Gr. also received orders to abandon T2 and  retreat to Derna.

The squadriglie ground echelons started during the evening with part of the materiel coming from the abandonment of A3 still unpacked. At least one CR.42 of the 368a Sq. (MM5655) had to be abandoned due to an unserviceable engine. The flyable but not combat-ready CR.42s were ordered to Benghazi Benina.

Six Wellingtons of 38 Sqn led by F/Lt Duder and five of 37 Sqn led by S/Ldr Golding attacked Bardia during the night, meeting practically no opposition. Crews reported that as they were ar-riving at the target Blenheims were seen to drop incendiary bombs, which caused very large fires in the petrol dump.

Italian sources reported that during the night, Derna was bombed and strafed with an S.81 be-ing burnt out. Another raid is recorded against Tmimi with an S.81 destroyed (it is possible that this is a mix-up). No known British raid could be related with these losses, so it seems that they were suffered during the night raid of the previous day and incorrectly reported on this day.

The tail of Fiat CR.42

MM5605/96-2 usually

flown by Ten. Aldo Gon.

[Gon via Fulvio

Chianese-Associazione

culturale 4° Stormo di

Gorizia]

Wrecked and burnt out

Breda Ba.65/K14 of the 50o

Stormo, December 1940.

66

SAMPLE

Operations73 Sqn patrolled over Tobruk, meeting no enemies. The  missions ended at  11:00 because

of a sandstorm. 274 Sqn missions were curtailed by  the  same sandstorm, but  the unit received a visit from

Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore. 208 Sqn reunited at Gambut.3 Sqn RAAF also received a visit from Longmore in the morning, with the news that the squad-

ron would be equipped with Hurricanes in due course (one flight at a time). The squadron flew no operations at all.

33 Sqn reported no action due to a sandstorm. The only attempted mission for an SM.79 from the Va Squadra ended in tragedy, when an air-

craft from the 175a Sq. RST piloted by s.ten. Giuseppe Anelli crashed during take off from Benina. All the crew were lost (second pilot serg.magg. Gino Recagno, cap. osservatore Felice Ciaccio, allievo aviere montatore Italo Pecamicio, primo aviere motorista Adriano Novelli, primo  aviere fotografo Gaspare Cudia, primo aviere R.T. Antonio Barolini and primo aviere armiere Belgio Bellanti).

Burnt-out CR.42 some-

where in North Africa.

[via Marco Gargari]

A damaged and engine-

less CR.42 of 82a Sq.

abandoned at a desert

airfield in North Africa, in

December 1940.

[via Marco Gargari]

136

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