The author wishes all book friends a happy Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Third Wing of the Italian Air Force Fighter was one of the earliest fighter units established in the country, and it was also the first batch of air force units to invade French airspace after the war, so it was attacked by the French Air Force in the war.

The 3rd Fighter Wing was the absolute workhorse at the time, with the second largest number of fighters of any fighter wing, equipped with fifty brand-new CR.42 fighters, all of which were well-maintained and ready for operation.

Here we need to first introduce the basic establishment of the fighter unit of the Italian Air Force, each Italian fighter wing is subordinate to two squadrons, each squadron is composed of three squadrons, each squadron is subordinate to two or three squadrons, which seems to be no different from most European countries. The problem is that the Italian squadron is divided into twin aircraft, which means that the Italian flying squadron will only have six to nine aircraft, even if it is fully established, which is half the number of units of the same level in other countries. A fully manned Italian main wing is the size of one and a half brigades of the Luftwaffe, and the Italian Air Force is usually seriously short of equipment and personnel.

The combat readiness of the 3rd Fighter Wing is among the first class in the Italian Air Force, and it should be said that it deserves to be the old combat unit of the Italian Air Force.

Many of the pilots in the wing have participated in the Spanish Civil War and have rich experience in actual combat, although they have included many children of officials and eunuchs who have come to gild, but on the whole this wing still has a certain combat effectiveness.

The Italian Air Force had a group of the best "aerobatic pilots" in Europe at the time, and what they were best at was somersaults at low altitudes, which was dangerous but could show off in front of girls.

The CR.42 was a fighter that had been outdated since its development, and Air Marshal Italo Balbo was to blame for the fact that the pioneer of Italian aviation and the founder of the Air Force was an avid aviator who loved aerobatics in his youth and had a soft spot for biplanes with excellent grappling capabilities.

The procurement of the Italian Air Force is not distributed according to the performance of the aircraft, but the interests of all the participating companies are equally shared, which seems to be a bit similar to Germany, it should be said that Germany has copied the policy of the Italian government, in fact, this is the result of collusion and compromise between the government and the big arms companies.

It should be fortunate that the German side has finally retained some of the competition mode, and the giants also know that the investment in technology research and development is because of the efforts of German aviation technicians, Germany's aviation technology is still ranked in the forefront of the world until the defeat. But Italy is different, the group of arms giants are paddling and eating the old money the whole time, even if the outdated aircraft are still purchased by the government as usual, and whatever new technology is needed, it will be asked to the Germans, anyway, Hitler will meet all Mussolini's requirements in order to save face.

However, the situation is now completely different from history, and Germany stopped its technical assistance to Italy completely at the beginning of the month. At present, the Italian arms dealers have begun to have a headache, because many weapon models have been upgraded halfway, if they rely on their own development, if they want to produce results, I don't know if they have to wait until the Year of the Monkey, if they can't complete the task handed over by Rome within the deadline, Mussolini feels that he has lost face, who knows what crazy things that guy will do.

One of the victims was the CR.42 fighter, which Fiat had originally intended to replace with German-made DB601 engines, which would increase the speed of the biplane to 500 kilometers per hour. The 38 air-cooled engine has only 840 horsepower and a maximum flight speed of about 440 kilometers per hour, which is already lagging behind the first-class European models in an all-round way, and can only barely compete with the fighters developed in the twenties and thirties.

In the early days of the French battlefield, the 3rd Fighter Wing was confronted by the second-line units of the French Air Force, and because of the brilliant victory of the German army, the French army as a whole panicked and the morale of the troops was generally low. However, it was under such unfavorable conditions that the French fighter pilots flew second-line fighters such as the D510 and NID.62, which were also outdated, and still fought a one-to-one battle with the Third Fighter Wing.

Immediately, when the main force of French fighters transferred back from the front line entered the battlefield, it was the turn of France's latest D.520 and SNCAO.200 fighters to teach the Italian Air Force how to man. Speaking of which, this was the first time that Xu Jun and Petain joined forces to pit Mussolini fiercely, and the French and Germans had an amazing tacit understanding in trapping the Italians, which no one could have imagined before the war.

The Third Wing lasted only two months before being removed from the front-line battlefield, because if they did not do so, the pilots would be ready to mutiny, the losses of the fighters were too serious, and they could only rely on military discipline to barely maintain basic order, and the hearts of the officers and men were full of frustration and defeat, and for the first time, deserters appeared in this glorious unit.

In fact, this was not the case only with the 3rd Wing, which had become extremely common on the Alpine front, and compared to the air force, which had an independent supply system and was temporarily well stocked, the situation of the army was even more difficult, and the war-weariness of the officers and men was more serious, and the Romans could only suppress it strongly, but could not think of an effective way out of this predicament.

In fact, the best way was to immediately cease war with France, but this was absolutely unacceptable to Mussolini, and no one even dared to make a similar suggestion, for fear of being hated by the new era Caesar. The Roman high command would also approve plans for an invasion of Greece at such times, partly because they wanted to re-boost the morale of the officers and men who were about to fall to the floor with a brilliant victory, and to cover up the awkward situation of the Italian army on the French frontier at this time.

After the 3rd Fighter Wing withdrew from the front line, it spent several weeks replenishing personnel and equipment while calming the traumatized hearts of the surviving officers and men. During that time, the Italian officers and soldiers indulged in pleasures, numbing their nerves with alcohol and sound, forgetting the fatigue of aerial combat and the sorrow of the loss of their beloved comrades.

At present, it seems that the effect of this method is quite significant, at least on the surface, the 3rd Fighter Wing has returned to normal operation, and after the addition of some new pilots, the combat effectiveness has been restored to a certain extent on paper, the morale has also been improved, and the smiles on the faces of the officers have reappeared.

Originally, in the plan of the Roman High Command, the 3rd Fighter Wing was to be transferred to Greece together with the 4th Fighter Wing, where almost all the main forces of the Italian Air Force remained on the mainland, and three of the eight fighter wings at the beginning of the war had been transferred, two of the remaining wings were in the Libyan colony, the other two were on the Alpine French border, and only this one wing remained in north-central Italy, and several independent brigades and squadrons remained around Rome and on the Mediterranean coast. However, most of them are newly formed units, and although they are equipped with the latest fighters, the pilots generally lack actual combat experience, and they still need to undergo a lot of flight training if they want to really give full play to the combat effectiveness of the new fighters.

The 3rd Fighter Wing was initially stationed near Milan, and in order to be able to support the Greek battlefield at any time, they were transferred to Venice, which happened to be a rat falling into a rice tank, and this group of pilots lived an unusually extravagant and extravagant life during this period.

When the city of Verona gave a warning, the third wing immediately dispatched a brigade, but before the group flew away, the traces of the German army were found near Vicenza, and what made the Italian commander even more alarmed was that Udine, an important city at the easternmost point of the northern border of Italy, suddenly lost contact with the outside world, and then the defenders of Motellliano and San Michele Altagliamento were also in a hurry, and Parmanova was raided by German paratroopers.

In less than three hours, the German forward troops were less than eighty kilometers from the city of Venice, and although the numbers of these German units were not known, it was certain that there would be no fewer than three divisions, at least one of which was a regular panzer division.

Venice, the capital of the province of Veneto, was in danger, but the Italians had very few troops left at hand, and even if Rome could muster some reinforcements, it would be useless at this point. The only thing the soldiers could do at this time was to do everything in their power to preserve the glory of the Kingdom of Italy and fight a war that was bound to be lost against the mighty invaders.

The 3rd Fighter Wing was dispatched, and the 18th Group, which was relatively well-organized, organized the existing 20 Fiat fighters into two groups, half of which carried 100 kg of bombs under the belly, and the other half of the CR.42 escorted to Vicenza to support the local defenders.

As a result, in the mountains less than ten kilometers southwest of the city, the 18th Fighter Group ran headlong into the mixed German formation.

PS: Sorry, there is only one chapter today, if possible, I will try to make up for it tomorrow with a double update.

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