Record-setting aircraft Although Italy did not win the prestigious
Schneider Trophy, state support for aeronautical feats was maintained as one element of
Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini's long term
propaganda campaign to promote and win prestige for
fascist Italy and his government. Following a pair of initial successes, further
Sparvieros received specialised modifications for the purpose of establishing new speed records. The SM.79 prototype
I-MAGO was modified to carry a payload of of bombs internally, which enabled it to attempt speed records while carrying a payload. On 23 September 1935, it flew for with a load at an average speed of , breaking six separate world records in the process. As on the prototype, the "hump" was not fitted to some of the first production aircraft, these being transformed into performance aircraft, designated as the
SM.79CS. One of these aircraft established further records during 1937; powered by an arrangement of three Piaggio P.XI RC.40 engines (providing a combined thrust of ), it averaged over with a payload. This record then improved to , while another SM.79 achieved in the / category. Unofficially, a speed of was later achieved in the same category. A group of five SM.79CSs went on to enter the Paris-
Damascus–
Istres race.
I-CUPA,
I-FILU and
I-BIMU took the first three positions, while the other two were placed sixth and seventh, the latter of which was heavily damaged in Damascus. A pair of
Fiat BR.20s had also competed in the same race, but were only able to achieve a joint sixth place (with a SM.79) and an eighth place. Three of the SM.79CSs were modified to increase their endurance, allowing them to traverse the
Atlantic Ocean and reach Brazil. On 24 January 1938, the three aircraft took off; 11 hours later, they landed in
Dakar,
Senegal, where they refuelled before heading for
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; on 25 January, two of the three arrived at 22:45 local time. However, one of the aircraft suffered a technical fault, forcing the crew to land at
Natal,
Northeastern Brazil; this SM.79 remained there for some time, and was eventually donated to the
Brazilian Air Force.
Regia Aeronautica Introduction The 12°
Stormo (Wing) was the first to be equipped with the SM.79, starting in early 1936, and was involved in the initial evaluation of the bomber, which continued throughout 1936. The Wing went operational on 1 May 1936 with the SM.79 successfully completing torpedo launches from a target distance of in August 1936. The torpedo bomber variant was much more unstable and harder to control than the civilian version (and much less precise than its successor, the
SM.81). Its capabilities were still being explored when the Spanish Civil War broke out, and a number of SM.79s were dispatched to support the
Nationalists. Following its service in the Spanish Civil War, the
Sparviero came into use with 111° and 8° Wing. By the end of 1939, there were 388
Sparvieros in Italian service, spread across 11 wings that were either partially or totally equipped with this aircraft. The type also participated in the Italian
occupation of Albania during autumn 1939. By the beginning of the Second World War, a total of 612 aircraft had been delivered, making the
Sparviero the most numerous bomber in the whole of the
Regia Aereonautica, assigned to a total of 14 wings (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 41 and 46).
Spanish Civil War The SM.79 saw action for the first time when serving with the
Aviazione Legionaria, an Italian unit sent to assist
Franco's Nationalist forces during the
Spanish Civil War. The
Sparviero started its operational service at the end of 1936 when 8°
Stormo B.T. (Bombardamento Tattico), with
Gruppi XXVII° and XXVIII°, under the command of
Tenente Colonnello Riccardo Seidl, was sent to Spain. Deployed to the
Balearic Islands, the unit was named "Falchi delle Baleari" (Balearic Falcons) and operated over
Catalonia and the main cities of eastern Spain, attacking the
Second Spanish Republic. During the three years of the civil conflict, in excess of 100 SM.79s served as bombers for the
Aviazione Legionaria, of these, only four were recorded as being lost in combat.
Malta The SM.79 began to lose its reputation for invulnerability when RAF
Gloster Gladiators and
Hawker Hurricanes were encountered over the fortress-island Malta, at the centre of the Mediterranean, in June 1940. A
Sparviero had the dubious honour of being the first aircraft to fall on Maltese soil during the Second World War: on 10 July 1940, an estimated twenty SM.79s without escort arrived to bomb the dockyard,
Manoel Island,
Tarxien and
Żabbar. They were attacked by Gladiator fighters; during the engagement, one bomber, piloted by
Sottotenente Felice Filippi from 195a
Squadriglia, 90°
Gruppo, 30°
Stormo Bombardamento Terrestre, came down in flames just behind the Knight's watchtower east of
Fort San Leonardo. The air victory was credited to Flying Officer Frederick Taylor. At least one Italian bailed out, but his parachute was on fire and he was killed.
Other theaters A small number of SM.79s saw service in
Ethiopia; according to Apostolo, it was the most advanced aircraft to be deployed to the theatre by either side. On the western side of Italian East Africa, at
Diredawa, 6a and 7a
Squadriglie of 44°
Gruppo operated twelve SM.79s each. Italy also had six SM.79s as part of the reserve forces but two of them were under repair. The
Sparviero was the only type present that had not participated in the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The SM.79s of Italian East Africa first saw action on 13 June 1940, when nine of them took off from Diredawa to attack
Aden. The SM.79 flown by
Sottotenente Ruffini was hit by anti-aircraft fire from a British warship and crashed. Two Gloster Gladiators then intercepted the remaining bombers; Pilot Officer Stephenson's Gladiator attacked the
Sparviero of
Capitano Serafini, which had been damaged by anti-aircraft fire, but the Gladiator was hit by the SM.79's dorsal gunner, forcing it to crash-land. Serafini managed to land at
Assab, but his aircraft was a write-off; another Savoia Marchetti was damaged, but landed at the same base. These few aircraft were later reinforced by others which were modified to fly at an economical speed over Sudan for the hazardous ferry flight of over . They could not, however, do much to help Italian forces in Ethiopia, which were forced to surrender in spring 1941. The same period saw the five Iraqi SM.79Bs and the 45 SM.79Ks in Yugoslavian service unable to mount a successful defence in either Iraq or Yugoslavia. During the
North African campaign, around 100 SM.79s served in 10, 14, 15 and 30 Wings, bombing mainly non-strategic targets in the desert. The British offensive in December hit the
Regia Aeronautica hard and many wings (a total of nine by May 1941) were phased out because of losses caused by enemy aircraft and ground fire. (the remains were still there in 2003). At the beginning of 1941 only around 40 SM.79s were still present in Libya, and by the end of 1941 only one operational squadron remained. In the
Second Battle of El Alamein, many
Sparvieros were used for defensive tasks, such as countering
SAS teams in the desert, and in anti-ship roles. From autumn 1940, SM.79s were used against the
Kingdom of Greece, then Yugoslavia. They continued to be hampered in their operations by the
Royal Air Force, but also by poor weather conditions. Over the Mediterranean, the
Sparvieros were used in reconnaissance missions and anti-ship attacks.
Use as a torpedo bomber 1940 On 25 July 1940, the
Sparviero formally commenced service as a
torpedo bomber (
Aerosilurante in
Italian) as a new operational unit, the "Special Aerotorpedoes Unit" (headed by Colonel Moioli), was established following several years of experiments involving the type. After having ordered the first 50 torpedoes from
Whitehead Torpedo Works, on 10 August 1940, the first aircraft landed at T5 airfield, near Tobruk. Despite the lack of an aiming system and a specific doctrine for tactics, an attack on shipping in
Alexandria was quickly organized. There had been experiments for many years but still, no service, no gear (except hardpoints) and no tactics were developed for the new role. This was despite previous Italian experiments into the practice of
aerial torpedoing in 1914, 26 years earlier. On 15 August 1940, the type's first combat sortie saw five SM.79s that had been modified and prepared for the task dispatched to El Adem airfield. Among their pilots were Buscaglia, Dequal and other pilots destined to become "aces." The journey was made at an altitude of and after two hours, at 21:30, they arrived over Alexandria and began attacking ships, but unsuccessfully. The departure airport had only of runway for takeoff, so two of the fuel tanks were left empty to reduce weight, giving an endurance of five hours for a 4.33-hour journey. Only Buscaglia and Dequal returned, both aircraft damaged by anti-aircraft fire. Buscaglia landed on only one wheel, with some other damage. The other three SM.79s, attacking after the first two, were hindered by a fierce anti-aircraft defence and low clouds and returned to their base without releasing their torpedoes. However, all three ran out of fuel and were forced to jettison the torpedoes which exploded in the desert, and then force-landed three hours after the attack. Two crews were rescued later, but the third (Fusco's) was still in Egypt when they force-landed. The crew set light to their aircraft the next morning, which alerted the British who then captured them. These failures were experienced within a combat radius of only about , in clear contrast with the glamorous performances of the racer
Sparvieros just a few years before. In April many successes were recorded by SM.79s of the 281a and 280a
Squadriglie. They sank two merchant ships, heavily damaged the British cruiser (rendering her out of service for nine months for repair and refit) and later also sank the
F-class destroyer . However, one SM.79 was shot down north west of Gozo on 3 June, landing in the sea and staying afloat for some time. Further Italian successes came in August, when the
light cruiser was damaged. The large merchant ship SS
Imperial Star (12,427 GRT)) was damaged by an SM.79 on 27 September during
Operation Halberd which resupplied Malta; unable to tow it to Malta it was scuttled by
HMS Oribi. In the same Operation the
battleship was torpedoed and damaged by a SM.79 which in turn was shot down. The 130° and 132°
Gruppi were also active during the autumn. On 24 October, they sank the merchant vessels and , on 23 November they sank the merchant vessels
Glenearn and
Xhakdina, and on 11 December they heavily damaged
Jackal. The year ended with a total of nine Allied ships sunk and 30 damaged; for 14 torpedo bombers lost and another 46 damaged in action. This was the best year for the Italian torpedo bombers and also the year when the SM.84, the SM.79's successor was introduced. Overall, these numbers meant little in the war, and almost no other results were recorded by Italian bombers. Horizontal bombing proved to be a failure and only dive bombers and torpedo-bombers achieved some results. Most of the major British ships lost were due to
U-boat attacks, with the damaging of , and the sinking of and , whereas the most significant success of Italian torpedo bombers were the damaging of HMS
Nelson and of some cruisers. After the
Raid on Alexandria by Italian frogmen of
Decima MAS, the British fleet was left without major ships in their Mediterranean fleet, leaving the Axis better situated to control the sea. August saw heavy attacks on the 14 merchant ships and 44 major warships of the
Operation Pedestal convoy, the second Allied attempt to resupply Malta past Axis bombers,
minefields and
U-boats. Nine of the merchant ships and four of the warships were sunk, and others were damaged, but only the destroyer and the merchant ship MV
Deucalion were sunk by Italian torpedo bombers. Although damaged, the tanker , a key part of the convoy, was towed into
Grand Harbour to deliver the vital fuel on 15 August 1942 to enable Malta to continue functioning as an important Allied base, a major Allied strategic success. By winter 1942, in contrast to
Operation Torch, 9 December was a successful day when four SM.79s sank a
Flower-class corvette and a merchant ship, with the loss of one aircraft.
Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia, another prominent member of the Italian torpedo-airforce who was credited with over 90,718 tonnes (100,000 tons) of enemy shipping sunk, was shot down the day after saying "We will probably all be dead before Christmas". The risks of attempting to overcome the effective defences of allied ships were too great to expect much chance of long-term survival, but he was later rescued from the water, badly wounded. On 18 November, the light cruiser was torpedoed and badly damaged during
Operation Stone Age. Despite the increased activity in 1942, the results were considerably poorer than those of the previous year; the efforts made by the bombers were subject to heavy criticism and widely deemed to have been insufficient. Many debated the possibilities of torpedo manufacturing defects or even sabotage: the first 30 used in 1940 had excellent reliability, but a number of later torpedoes were found to be defective, especially those made at the Naples factory. During Operation Harpoon, over 100 torpedoes were launched, but only three of these had hit their targets.
1943 ,
Sicily Prior to 1943, the survival chances of the
Aerosiluranti had diminished steadily: on average, a SM.79 would be shot down after just three missions. The year opened with attacks against Allied shipping off North Africa, during which they were unable to accomplish many successes. During July, the
Allies invaded Sicily with an immense fleet. The
Sparvieri were already obsolete and phased out of service in bomber Wings and its intended successors, the SM.84 and Z.1007, were considered to be failures, while the latter were not produced in enough numbers. As a consequence, the latest version of the
Sparviero was retained for performing torpedo attacks, being considerably faster than its predecessors. Before the invasion, there was a large force of torpedo aircraft: 7
Gruppi (groups), 41, 89, 104, 108, 130, 131 and 132nd equipped with dozens of aircraft, but this was nevertheless a weak force. Except for the 104th, based around the
Aegean Sea, the other six
Gruppi comprised just 61 aircraft, with only 22 serviceable. Almost all the available machines were sent to the
Raggruppamento Aerosiluranti, but of the 44 aircraft, only a third were considered flight-worthy by 9 July 1943. Production of new SM.79s continued to fall behind and up to the end of July only 37 SM.79s and 39 SM.84s were delivered. Despite the use of an improved engine, capable of a maximum speed of , these machines were unable to cope with the difficult task of resisting the invasion. They were too large to allow them to evade detection by enemy defences, and their large aircrew requirement resulted in heavy losses of personnel. In the first five days SM.79s performed 57 missions, at night only, and failed to achieve any results, with the loss of seven aircraft. Another three aircraft were lost on 16 July 1943 in a co-ordinated attack with German forces on , which was hit and put out of combat for many months. SM.79s were not equipped with
radar, so the attacks had to be performed visually, hopefully aided by moonlight, while the Allies had ship-borne radar and interceptor aircraft. On 8 September, when the
Armistice with Italy was announced, the
Regia Aeronautica had no fewer than 61 SM.79s, of which 36 were operational. Following the signing of the Armistice, the SM.79s based in southern Italy (34 altogether) were used by the
Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force as transport aircraft in support of the Allies; those that remained in the North (believed to number roughly 36 aircraft) continued to fight along German forces as part of the
Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana or were incorporated into the
Luftwaffe. A small number of SM.79s remained in service in the post-war
Aeronautica Militare, where they served as passenger transports into the early 1950s.
RSI service: 1943–1945 After the Armistice, the
Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI) decided to continue using the SM.79s as torpedo-bombers. But only 15 more
Sparvieri were built after the armistice, while five were overhauled by the Reggiane factories. Counting the aircraft taken over from the
Regia Aeronautica, new deliveries and aircraft in workshops and depots, the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (ANR) had 73 SM.79 at its disposal. They were mostly SM.79-III type. This version featured strengthened armament and had no ventral "bathtub" turret. They were based mostly in Venegono. Two secondary bases were
Merna di Gorizia and
Perugia, in
Umbria. The first missions attempted to oppose the
Anzio landings, The
Gruppo Buscaglia suffered heavy losses on 4 April, when 13 unescorted SM.79s, during a ferry flight from Lonate Pozzolo to Perugia, were bounced by
P-47s: five
Sparvieri were shot down and 27 crew members were killed. According to other sources, this encounter occurred on 6 April and four out of seven SM.79s were shot down, while the other three crash-landed. early on, Marini set about planning a mission over Gibraltar.). The defenders were taken by surprise, and all the aircraft successfully launched their torpedoes, but three SM.79s ran out of fuel and were forced to land in Spain. Initial claims by the Italians were four ships sunk, totalling 27,216 tonnes (30,000 tons). British sources however stated that no ships were lost, due to an effective system of defence. Regardless, this was the largest enemy incursion over Gibraltar in four years of war The following data shows the decline in effectiveness of the SM.79 as a torpedo bomber: • During 1940, two squadrons made 39 sorties and 17 attacks; the damaging of 27,578 tonnes (30,400 tons) of shipping was attributed to these squadrons in this period. • In 1941, a total of 14 squadrons conducted 225 sorties and 87 attacks, which were responsible for the sinking of nine ships (42,373 tonnes/47,700 tons) and another 12 being damaged (75,841 tonnes/83,600 tons). • During 1942, 24 squadrons comprising 307 aircraft performed 60 attacks, sinking 10 ships (27,624 tonnes/30,450 tons) and damaging three 29,157 tonnes (32,140 tons). • In 1943, 18 squadrons made 221 combat sorties, during which three ships were sunk (12,519 tonnes/13,800 tons) and another four were damaged (32,024 tonnes/35,300 tons). After a time, the RSI torpedo-bombers based in
Ghedi in October 1944 became operative again, with 10 aircraft. On 25 December 1944 they attacked a convoy in
Adriatic Sea off
Ancona, and
Capitano Bertuzzi hit a 7,000-ton freighter with a torpedo. The following day, a formation of Republic P-47 Thunderbolt destroyed 14 "Sparvieri" on Lonate Pozzolo airfield. The only two serviceable SM.79s left flew the last operational mission of the group and sank a 5,000-ton ship in the Adriatic off the Dalmatian coast.
Results against Allied warships Throughout the conflict, SM.79s were credited with the sinking of a number of Allied warships, including the
destroyer HMS Fearless on 23 July 1941, the destroyer
HMS Bedouin on 15 June 1942, the destroyer
HMAS Nestor on 16 June 1942, the destroyer
HMS Foresight on 13 August 1942, the
sloop HMS Ibis on 10 November 1942, the
corvette HMS Marigold on 9 December 1942, the auxiliary anti-aircraft ship
HMS Pozarica on 29 January 1943. Additionally, several more Allied warships were torpedoed and suffered serious damage as a result of attacks by the SM.79s. These included the
heavy cruiser HMS Kent on 18 September 1940, the
light cruiser HMS Liverpool twice, on 8 October 1940 and on 14 June 1942, the light cruiser
HMS Glasgow on 7 December 1940, the light cruiser
HMS Manchester on 23 July 1941, the light cruiser
HMS Phoebe on 27 August 1941, the battleship
HMS Nelson on 23 September 1941, the light cruiser
HMS Arethusa on 18 November 1942, and the
aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable on 16 July 1943.
Radio controlled flying bomb During 1942, General
Ferdinando Raffaelli reportedly came up with the idea of packing an SM.79 with explosives and a
radio control device. On 12 August 1942, as the
Operation Pedestal convoy was steaming off the
Algerian coast, a SM.79 drone, a
Z.1007bis guide plane and an escort of five
FIAT G.50 fighters flew out to intercept it. Once the pilot of the SM.79 had set his aircraft on a course toward the Allied ships he bailed out, leaving the Z.1007bis crew to guide the flying bomb the rest of the way by radio. Historians have generally accepted that this incident was an accident.
Yugoslavia SM.79 Favourable reports of the type's reliability and performance during the Spanish Civil War led to the 1938
Kingdom of Yugoslavia's order of 45 aircraft generally similar to the SM.79-I variant, designated the
SM.79K. They were delivered to Yugoslavia in 1939, but most were destroyed during the
1941 Axis invasion by their crews or by advancing Axis forces. During several sorties against German and Italian forces they managed some success in
Kačanik Gorge. Some of these aircraft escaped to Greece, carrying King Peter Karadjordjevic and his entourage. A few survived, one to be pressed into service with the pro-Axis forces of the
NDH, and four which became AX702-AX705 in the
RAF.
Others A number of twin-engined versions were sold to
Brazil (three with
Alfa Romeo 128 RC.18 engines) and
Iraq (four with
Fiat A.80 RC.14 engines). ==Variants==