Gladiator Cr.42 Falco 1940–41
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GLADIATOR CR.42 FALCO 1940–41 HÅKAN GUSTAVSSON & LUDOVICO SLONGO © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com GLADIATOR CR.42 FALCO 1940–41 HÅKAN GUSTAVSSON AND LUDOVICO SLONGO © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com CONTENTS Introduction 4 Chronology 6 Design and Development 8 Technical Specifications 16 The Strategic Situation 21 The Combatants 32 Combat 44 Statistics and Analysis 70 Aftermath 77 Further Reading 79 Index 80 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com INTRODUCTION When Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940, its main opponent was Great Britain and the Commonwealth (the war against France only lasted two weeks). The battlefield for these two opposing forces was predominantly the Mediterranean, with a particular focus on North Africa, Malta and Greece. Fighting also took place further afield in East Africa. Italy was not well prepared for this war, and its entry into it seems to have been mostly an opportunistic gamble by the nation’s leader, Benito Mussolini, who longed for a share in the spoils of war. Although its armed forces struggled valiantly, Italy was to suffer humiliating defeats during the autumn and winter of 1940 until the intervention of German forces, which turned the Allied tide of victory until the autumn of 1942. For the British, the Mediterranean was a secondary front. The key objective for Allied forces in-theatre was to keep the Suez Canal open to allow vessels to travel between the homeland and India. However, it became more important after the immediate threat of invasion of Britain had diminished in the winter of 1940-41, being the only theatre where Allied forces could meet their opponents on the ground. Much propaganda was initially generated following the exploits of British and Commonwealth troops on the battlefields of North Africa in particular, and this duly resulted in British strengths being routinely overrated, while those of its Italian opponents were underrated. On these battlefields, the last, and arguably the best, biplane fighters clashed – Italy’s Fiat CR.42 and Britain’s Gloster Gladiator. The respective types’ deployment on these fronts was of slightly different origin. Drawing upon experience during the Spanish Civil War, the Italians (and also the Soviet Union) still believed that there was 4 a place in a modern war for the biplane fighter, complemented by monoplanes, while © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com Britain had progressively transferred its Gladiators to secondary fronts, re-equipping its fighter units on the Channel Front with modern Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires. Thus, these two outdated biplanes formed the major equipment of the fighter forces in the Mediterranean area for the first months of the war. The authors have spent many years researching the participating air forces in these battlefields, with the aim of overcoming all British and Italian propaganda in order to be able to produce an unbiased account of what really happened, and provide a fair description for both of the sides involved. 5 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com CHRONOLOGY 1934 1939 12 September First flight of the SS.37 Gloster Spring The first CR.42s are delivered to Gladiator prototype. the Regia Aeronautica. The first unit o 1935 to be allocated the type is 53 Stormo C.T. 3 April Gladiator prototype taken on 3 September Great Britain and France declare charge by the Air Ministry and war on Germany and World War II given the military serial K5200. begins. At this time there are still 1937 four Gladiator squadrons within 16 February The first Gladiator I, K6129, is Fighter Command in the UK. taken on RAF charge. 1940 22 February The first Gladiators, 10 May The first aerial victory for the K6130-K6137, enter service with CR.42 is claimed by a Belgian No. 72 Sqn at Tangmere. example over a German Junkers 1938 Ju 52/3m. 24 February First known victory credited to a 10 June Italy enters World War II by Gladiator when four Chinese declaring war on Britain and examples share in the destruction of France. an Imperial Japanese Navy 14 June First combat between RAF and Nakajima E8N ‘Dave’ Regia Aeronautica fighters. CR.42s a reconnaissance floatplane. of 90 Squadriglia claim a Gladiator 23 May First flight of the Fiat CR.42. destroyed, although none were September During the Munich Crisis the actually lost. RAF’s frontline strength includes 19 June Gladiator pilots (from No. 33 Sqn) five Gladiator squadrons. make their first claims for victories over the CR.42 when they engage fighters from 10o Gruppo C.T., which loses two aircraft. A single Gladiator is shot down in return. Gladiator Is of No. 72 Sqn undergo maintenance in a hangar at Church Fenton in the summer of 1937. The aircraft closest to the camera has a 6 Fairey-Reed type three-bladed metal propeller. (Rennie Cafley) © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com An overturned CR.42 of 365a Squadriglia, 150° Gruppo, probably after an accident suffered in Greece by Sergente Domenico Facchini on 13 November 1940. (Roberto Gentilli) 1941 1943 29 May CR.42 pilots claim their final 15 February Last known Gladiator claim, when successes over the Gladiator when a Finnish example from LeLv 16 three aircraft of ‘Squadriglia Speciale downs a Soviet R-5 over Kärkijärvi. Iraq’ are credited with two victories 1945 and one probable over Al Habbaniyah, Iraq. 8 February Possibly the last claim made by a 24 October Last known claim in combat CR.42 when aircraft from the between Gladiators and CR.42s, Luftwaffe’s Nachtschlachtgruppe 7 when a pilot of No. 3 Sqn, South are involved in combat with P-38 African Air Force, is credited with Lightnings of the 14th Fighter the destruction of a Fiat fighter in Group (FG) over Croatia. Three the Ambazzo area of East Africa. CR.42LWs fell to the USAAF fighters, but a P-38 is also claimed by an unknown German pilot. The 14th FG lost two Lightnings during this mission. Two burnt out Gladiators destroyed on the ground in Greece, possibly at Paramythia, in early 1941. (Roberto Gentilli) 7 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT GLOSTER GLADIATOR As the last biplane fighter to enter RAF service, the Gloster Gladiator marked the end of an era. It is worth noting that it was put into service after the Hurricane and Spitfire had been ordered into mass production. In 1930 the Air Ministry issued Specification F.7/30, calling for a replacement for the Bristol Bulldog. The specification called for a maximum speed of 250mph, an armament of not less than four forward-firing machine guns and such ease of handling as to enable the fighter to be operated both by day- and nightfighter squadrons. The specification also required the use of the Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine. Designs were submitted by Hawker, Fairey, Bristol, Westland, Vickers and Supermarine (with its original inverted-gull-wing Spitfire). None of these proposals was found to be satisfactory. Although the Gloster Aircraft Company did not submit a design, further orders were placed for its Gauntlet fighter due to the inability of the British aviation industry to provide the RAF with a satisfactory design to replace it. The advent, as yet only on paper, of the Spitfire and Hurricane monoplane fighters threatened to eliminate the F.7/30 requirement altogether. It was only when it seemed that a gap might occur in defence requirements between the biplane fighter’s demise 8 and Service acceptance of the monoplanes that Gloster realised that a development of © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com the Gauntlet might well meet the F.7/30 requirements and win worthwhile production A line-up of Gladiator Is, with contracts. The company began construction of a prototype (the SS.37) in the early K6143 nearest the camera, at the Gloster Aircraft Company spring of 1934 and completed it in September of that year, when it made its maiden factory before delivery to No. 72 flight in the hands of Flt Lt P. E. G. Sayer. Powered by a 645hp Bristol Mercury VIS Sqn. This photograph was radial engine and armed with two Vickers and two drum-fed Lewis machine guns, the probably taken in early February prototype achieved a speed of 242mph at 11,500ft. 1937, as K6143 was delivered to The Air Ministry sponsored protracted evaluation trials, and transferred the the unit on the 12th of that month. It was subsequently sent prototype to RAF charge as K5200 on 3 April 1935. In June of that year production to No. 112 Sqn when this unit plans were put forward, frontline aircraft being fitted with the 840hp Mercury IX formed on 11 May 1939, and engine, four Vickers Mk V guns (pending the delivery of Browning 0.303-in guns was then shipped to North Africa. from BSA) and improved wheel discs. Within two weeks of the plans being unveiled, Later, K6143 served with ‘K’ production specification F.14/35 had been drawn up and agreed and a contract for Flight and No. 117 Sqn. On 20 23 aircraft awarded to Gloster as a result of the RAF’s Expansion Programme. June 1941 a tyre burst on landing at Khartoum and the The Bristol Mercury VIIIA (or later the Mercury IX) engine was a shorter-stroke aircraft swung and was damaged 1935 development of the renowned Jupiter. A single-row nine-cylinder engine, it beyond repair. (Vincent Jones) produced 840hp for takeoff from sea level up to 1,000ft and had a maximum continuous climbing rate of 700-730hp at sea level and 795-825hp at 13,000ft. Its continuous cruising power was 685hp at 13,000 ft, and maximum (all-out) power for five minutes was 840hp at 14,000ft.