S.M. 79-II

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davenport49
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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Thu Mar 16, 2023 8:36 am

Okay, I need some more help:
Squadron/Signal Savoia Marchetti S.79 in Action, shows 193-1 upper wing fasces with white background, saying they "have been oversprayed with Green paint" (p. 37). The profile in the middle of the book seems to show no white background for the underside fasces. Do these appear correct?

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by Editor » Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:34 am

The camo looks fabulous maybe a few touchups to fill in blank area with our airbrush or use smaller templates but I don't think you could have hoped for better color and camuflage accuracy.

In regard to the top wing fasces, the plane should have left the factory with a white base but in the photo the background appears clear. There are cases of the wing fasces over-sprayed (removed with just a black circular border) in July-August 1943 but it seems unlikely the background was over sprayed with green at this stage of the war. If you look closely at the photo you can see the camo mottle extends from below the fasces to underneath the markings. A directive was issued in Oct. 28 1942 for transparent wing fasces so the photo was likely taken sometime in 1942:

Regia Aeronautica - Directives

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davenport49
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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Thu Apr 20, 2023 10:00 am

I'M BACK!!! :biggrin:

This project is nearly finished. What little information I've found about 193-1 are references to the squadron in the Osprey book, "Savoia-Marchetti S.79 Sparviero Bomber Units", p. 56-63, and the photo and profile in Squadron/Signal "Savior Marchetti S.79 in Action". I know the aircraft was involved in the Siege of Malta, my current area of interest, but nothing more. If anyone has additional information, I would be really interested in knowing.

If all goes well, I'll soon be posting photos of the past 8-month's work.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by Editor » Fri Apr 21, 2023 9:28 am

Hey Richard I look forward to your completed model, send in an article.

The history of individual aircraft are rare except if the plane was flown by an ace or catalogued (MM) in a unit's logbooks. Below the unit history from Chris Dunning's book Courage Alone:

87 Gruppo
Squadriglie 192, 193
Stormo 30

The SM 79 was first received in 1938 and used in Albania the following year. On 12 June 1940 an SM 79 of 193 Sq carried out the unit's first sortie of the war - a ninety-minute reconnaissance of Tunisian air bases. Bombing began the next day, in the same areas.

Operations over Malta began on 6 July, two aircraft being lost over La Valetta harbour four days later. The island's shipping routes were also attacked in July. As Sciacca was unsuitable for use at night, training for such duties was done at Castelvetrano. Night procedures subsequently used the latter for night take-off, and Sciacca for day landings and maintenance, The first of these sorties was made on 23 July. From 13 to 23 August the unit was busy training new crews. An escorted day raid over Malta was made the next day. More training then continued until 20 September.

Between January and March 1941 the unit was the only Italian bomber unit assisting the Germans in operations against Malta. With the night raids, armed reconnaissance and day raids on shipping, the unit was kept very busy until August when it withdrew to Italy.

Following re-equipment and training with the Z1007bis the unit moved to the Aegean. Thus began a period of night raids on such targets as Port Said, Ismailia, Alexandria and Cyprus. It also resumed day and night attacks on shipping in the eastern Mediterranean, along with reconnaissance for ships and aircraft missing in that area. In July 1942 five SM 82s of the Sezione Bombardamento Largo Raggio (Long Range Bomber Section) joined the unit for operations against Alexandria. From 15 December the Gruppo also made
raids on Beirut, Tripoli, Tobruk and Haifa.

From January 1943 armed reconnaissance missions were flown along the Syria-Palestine coastline together with convoy escorts and anti-submarine sorties in the Aegean area. These remained the regular duties of the unit until it disbanded on 25 August.

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