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From the pics I have seen the flying suits used by CR32 pilots (pre-war at least) looked to be white or a very light colour. Maybe blue, green or grey? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Stephen

From the picture on page 41 of #4 Fiat CR.32 by Ali D'Italia, the hat or cap, I guess there's a technical term for it, is a very light color, presumably white or a cream color. It is certainly not blue or green. None of the pictures really show a pilot in uniform, so I can''t help with the color of the suit.

Try Stefano's articles in the History Articles page; there should be photos of CR.32 pilot uniforms - all white.

Since all the pictures I have/have seen are B&W, the suits appear white. However, I wasn't sure if they were off white slightly tinted towards the colours I mentioned. I didn't mean to imply a darker colour. Thank you.

Stephen

Well, I'm not an uniform expert, but images can say more than words. The following are from various books by Emiliani-Ghergo-Vigna, published by Intergest/Albertelli in the Seventies. The first is by Regia Aeronautica: i fronti africani:



Magg. Ettore Muti (right) wears the RA's summer suit, made by white linen or cotton. Duke of Aosta has a shiny suit (silk? velvet?) that had been probably made for him, due to his rank and/or size (he was 1,98 m tall!)

The following two are from Regia Aeronautica: il settore mediterraneo, and show the winter suit, whose the fur collar jacket was known as Marus, after its factory's name.




However, towards the end of the war, blue grey suits (probably of German origin) had been used, as shown by these pilots of 150° Gruppo at Sciacca (Sicily) in summer 1943 (note the Bf 109F-4 behind them). The image is by Regia Aeronautica: la guerra in Italia.



The life vests you can see above are of the inflatable type. However, early in the war and in the Thirties (so at the time of CR.32s), the life vests were just filled with cork cylinders. As you can see they were uncomfortable and also, it seems, rather uneffective. They were ironically nicknamed salsicciotti (large sausages). The image is by Nicola Malizia's L'Aeronautica Militare Italiana in 645 foto, Ed. dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri.



Stefano

Interesting photos. I notice the top photo shows the giant sized pilot on the left wearing what could be called standard issue brown shoes, and the chap on the left appears to be wearing some sort of a camouflage shoe.

With the second photo of the two pilots adjusting the Mae Wests, the color of the suit does appear to be some sort of khaki color. The pilot on the left appears to have black boots. I would ask if the Mae Wests are a pale yellow as the photo renders or a bright yellow to facilitate rescue?

Skipping down to the last color photo of the six airmen, the suits do appear to be a German gray color with a creamy/light khaki colored jacket. The Mae Wests appear to be washed out of color in this photo.

Nevertheless, all are great reference photos. Thanks for posting them for us.

How relevant is this post to this topic?

http://stormomagazine.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=234

This is interesting. Found this while searching for other stuff. Don't know how much it will help this particular post but here goes anyway.

http://www.rathbonemuseum.com/IT/ITmain.html

I have a couple of photos but don't know how to add them. They are on my computer, not a site. The flying suits are not in the majority and may not have been used in Spain.

Stephen
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You cannot post pictures from your computer. The pictures have to be uploaded to a host site some where like Flickr, Fotki, or Photobucket or some such place. Then you link to them by pasting in the url of your photo here.

I found this site a few days ago. I think you'll find what you are looking for. (You may need to register to see all the photos):

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... p?t=252583

two-o-five wrote:I found this site a few days ago. I think you'll find what you are looking for. (You may need to register to see all the photos):

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... p?t=252583

Wow, great find. Thanks for the 411.