Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (1943-1945): The Aviation Of The Italian Social Republic (Library of Armed Conflicts), by Eduardo M. Gil Martinez, Kagero Publishing 2018
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state with limited recognition that was created during the later part of World War II, existing from the beginning of German occupation of Italy in September 1943 until surrender of German troops in Italy in May 1945.
The Italian Social Republic was the second and last incarnation of the Italian Fascist state and was led by Benito Mussolini and his anti-monarchist Republican Fascist Party. The Italian Social Republic (RSI) exercised nominal sovereignty in Northern and Central Italy, but was largely dependent on German troops to maintain control.
In July 1943, after the Allies had pushed Italy out of North Africa and subsequently invaded Sicily, the Grand Fascist Council—with the support of King Victor Emmanuel III—overthrew and arrested Mussolini. The new Italian government began secret peace negotiations with the Allied powers. When the Armistice of Cassibile was announced (8 September 1943), Germany intervened, seized control of the northern half of Italy, freed Mussolini and brought him to the German-occupied area to establish a satellite regime. The Italian Social Republic was proclaimed on 23 September 1943.
Around 25 April 1945, Mussolini's fascist republic collapsed. In Italy, this day is known as Liberation Day. On this day a general partisan uprising, alongside the efforts of Allied forces during their final offensive in Italy, managed to oust the Germans from Italy almost entirely. At the point of its demise, the Italian Social Republic had existed for slightly more than nineteen months. On 27 April, partisans caught Mussolini, his mistress (Clara Petacci), several RSI ministers and several other Italian Fascists while they were attempting to flee. On 28 April, the partisans shot Mussolini and most of the other captives. The RSI Minister of Defense Rodolfo Graziani surrendered what was left of the Italian Social Republic on 1 May, one day before that the German forces in Italy capitulated—this put a definitive end to the Italian Social Republic.
Α new book from Kagero...
Continuing with the study of the lesser known Air Forces that fought in the skies of Europe during World War II, this book is about the part of Italian Air Force that after the Armistice in 1943 remained under the command of Benito Mussolini and allied to Germany instead of joining the Western Allies: the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (ANR). At the same time two different Italian Air Forces were operational in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, although they didn´t fight each other.
The Spanish author of this book, Mr. Eduardo M. Gil Martinez, has done a lot of research in many previous works on the subject and the result is very interesting: 92 pages in B5 format (24cm x 17cm), complete with many black & white, some color photographs, maps and color profiles of fighter aircraft (mainly Bf109s, Fiat G.55s and Macchi MC.205).
The book is written in english language and its text is easy to follow, although there are some annoyingly repetitive syntax/writing mistakes, affecting smooth sentence fluency (editing/proofreading alarm here) but do not detract from the overall good quality of the contents. Another rather weird thing is that the author emphasizes -many times- that “he uses this work to pay tribute to all the members of the ANR that fought with the Germans defending the skies and the grounds of Italy” (…against the liberating Allies!) and “…this text serves as a tribute of Italians immersed in a war that they knew it was lost, but by sacrificing their lives they tried to stop the Allied bombings over their land…” (!). Surely it was a miracle that “the two Italian Air Forces did not need to actually fight each other”! These purely personal and sentimental statements, full of nationalistic pride one might add, have little connection with bare facts & history and anyway will sound provocative (and practically useless to say the least) to some readers - especially modelers…
However, the author is at his best describing the organization of the ANR by its founder, Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Botto, the return of more than 1000 italian aircraft seized ny the Luftwaffe after the Armistice and the addition of many german types like Bf109s to this force. Fighter groups, Bomber groups, Transports, etc are described in detail regarding their organization and operations between the end of 1943 till April 1945 in chronological order. Several color maps show the local action and air bases plus photos of Italian Aces and their aircraft. The excellent color profiles are very detailed and will inspire a lot of modelers to try some different camouflage patterns in their builds.
An interesting chapter deals with the types of ANR Italian fighters and their respective allied opponents, something like a comparison.
The Torpedo-bomber group chapter is equally interesting, dealing with torpedo-carrying aircraft like SM79 and their operations and missions, including the Aegean Sea and areas over Greece. A last chapter is about the ANR national markings and colors.
All in all a very interesting book on a rarely covered historical and modeling subject. If you like to know more about the ANR and you are looking for fancy camouflage patterns for your Macchi, Fiat or Bf109G scale models, then this is the perfect book for you. You can order it on line here.
