There is a hotel in Italy that has a framed Italian newspaper cutting, dated 1 February 1941, on its wall showing a sketch of an aerial incident. The sketch shows an Italian aircraft purposefully colliding with a British bi-plane. The story told by the hotel owner is that his father, surname Polettini, was the one survivor from a 2 man crew of the Italian aircraft. He further states that the aircraft was based at Vicenza as part of either 50 or 51 Group of Regia Aeronautica and that the mission of the British aircraft was to bomb enemy positions somewhere in the Greek/Albanian theatre of war. I really don't know where to start with this one. I am looking for sources that might give credence to this story. Also, if it is true, trying to find the British aircraft involved. I do understand that No 3 Squadron RAAF were operating Gladiators against the Regia Aeronautica at that time. Could they be a possible?
Cant seem to find anything of that in the Squadrons history - 3 Squadron History WW2 - 1939 to Alamein 1942 TD added There is also this link - 3 Squadron RAAF - Stories
Try No 80 Sqn RAF. No.80 Sqn RAF - Squadron Details - Aviation Directory They were in Greece from Nov 1940 in Gladiators - famous pilots 40 kill ace Pat Pattle and Roald Dahl Roald Dahl: The fighter pilot
I pulled out my copy of Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete 1940-41 to see what I could find out. Nothing really matches the description in the time frame with regards to British aircraft. No ramming incidents mentioned at all. Of note here is some info on the 50 and 51st Gruppo in June 1940 http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/CGSC/CARL/nafziger/940IFAB.pdf More info found here: Google Translate (please excuse the google translate mash up) The aircraft the two units were flying was the Cant Z.1007 which carried a crew of 5 CANT Z.1007 - Wikipedia As to the aerial ramming story, the Cant Z1007 was involved in an aerial ramming incident that was quite famous: Marinos Mitralexis - Wikipedia The aircraft rammed was from 50 Gruppo and flown by Sottoten. Beniamino Pasqualotto, who was killed, four surviving crew bailing out to be captured. Perhaps this is the incident, conflated and mixed up by a wartime propaganda image, that the relative is recalling.
