Rounding off our survey of aircraft of the major combatants in Second Front, this article lists the ratings, and a few notes, for WW2-era Italian military aircraft -- including military aircraft not shown in Second Front. (Previous columns covered American, British, and German aircraft.) Civil aircraft, and military aircraft of types not shown in Europa (most recon types) are ignored.

A Note on Designations: The model designations for the air units correspond as closely as possible, given space limitations on the counters, to the actual aircraft designations, based on the originating nation's designation, even for aircraft in service of another nation. For example, Sweden imported Italian Ca 313 bombers; designated the B16 in Swedish service, Europa would show their Italian designation, Ca 313.

Not every single model of a particular aircraft is shown. When two models are virtually identical, rate out the same, and have no game reason for being differentiated, all are factored into the most significant model designation.

Italian Aircraft Designations

The Italian military did not use a standardized system for designating its aircraft -- unlike the other major combatants in the war. Instead, the Italians simply used the manufacturers' own aircraft designations. For the most part, the manufacturers designated their aircraft according to their own intemal systems. In the late 1930s, the Italians attempted to ensure that a designation's numeric portion would differ between different aircraft. (Previously, the different aircraft could have the same number, such as the Breda 32, Breda's 3-engine 11-passenger monoplane transport, and the CR.32, Fiat's l-engine biplane fighter.)

Layout

Despite the lack of standardized designations, most Italian designations followed a similar layout:

Let. # (for example, CR.32)

Let.: Letter Designation. The lettered portion of a designation was typically an abbreviation, sometimes a full name. It could be a manufacturer's name (example, Breda), abbreviation (example, SM for Savoia-Marcheni), designer's abbreviation (example, Z for Filippo Zappata), or the aircraft's purpose (example, CR for Caccia Rosatelli, a fighter (caccia) designed by Celestino Rosatelli). A period (typically) or a space (occasionally) separated the lettered designation from the numeric designation.

#: Numenc Designation. Almost all Italian aircraft sported a number, assigned by the manufacturer. Typically, the number related to the sequence in which a manufacturer developed an aircraft design. For example, Fiat developed a line of single~enginc biplane fighters: CR.I (in 1923), CR.2, CR.10, CR.20 (in 1926), CR.30, CR.32 (in 1933), CR.33, CR.40, CR.41, and CR.42 (in 1939). "Typically," of course, does not mean "always," and a manufacturer could assign a numeric designation that did not relate to its previous practice. For example, the CR.25 (1939) and CR.23 (1943) were twin-engine monoplane fighters with no relation (other than manufacturer and designer) to the CR biplanes.

As noted above, in the late 1930s, the Italians attempted to ensure that numeric designations would differ between different aircraft.

The Italians often added a suffix to the numeric designation, to denote models or modifications of the basic aircraft. Again, there was no standard system, and manufacturers used a range of suffixes: letters in alphabetic order (A, B, C, etc.) to show models, abbreviations (for example, Ca 311M, "M" for Modificato, modification; or Re 2001CN, "CN" for Caccia Notturna, night fighter), or words (such as idro, for "hydro," a plane converted for use as a seaplane). The most common sufffixes indicated sequential variations to a design:

• bis for the second variation (for example, the CR.32bis was a modification of the CR.32).
• ter for the third variation.
• quater for the fourth variation.

Europa uses the manufacturers' designations, shortening them where necessary so that they can be displayed on the counters. The most significant change is that "Breda" is abbreviated as "Ba" (and not "Br," as this could cause confusion with the "BR" bombers from Fiat, a different manufacturer).

In addition to designations, many aircraft had names, either offcial names or unoffcial nicknames.

Italian Aircraft Design

Italy's dismal performance in World War II, coupled with the obsolescent state of the Italian Air Force in 1939-41, has given Italian WW2 aircraft an undeservedly poor reputation. With a few notable exceptions, the Italians designed good, sometimes superb aircraft. In the mid 1930s, the Italians probably had the best aircraft in the world -- followed by the Soviets and British. Mid-thirties success, however, was followed by stagnation in design later, which lasted until the war began in earnest for the Italians.

Eclipse

Three factors led to thc eclipse of Italian air power in the war. The first was the Spanish Civil War, which "proved" to the Italians that highly-maneuverable fighters (that is, lightly armed biplanes) could rule the skies. This led Italy to perpetuate its biplane force -- only to discover that maneuverability mattered little when high-speed, heavily armed monoplanes could both set the terms of an engagement and bring down their prey with the first shot that hit.

This mistake was by no means as ludicrous as it seems in hindsight -- some of the early monoplanes that flew in Spain were not superior to biplanes. Instead, biplane fighters had almost 20 years of design behind them and future innovation was unlikely to improve their characteristics substantially, while monoplane fighters were new-fangled weapons, with plenty of scope for improvement.

When, by the late 1930s, monoplane fighters' advantages were clear to almost all, Italy had lost valuable time, and its initial (and few) monoplane fighters of 1939-40 were far behind the quality of Britain's, France's and Germany's monoplanes. Once Italian forces were engaged in WW2, the reality of the situation quickly set in. Italian aircraft designers compensated by designing successive generations of capable monoplane fighters -- by the time Italy surrendered, Italian fighters were just about as good as the best German and Allied fighters.

The second factor was that Italian industry did not produce a high- performance engine. Instead of the twin-engine medium bombers favored elsewhere in the world, Italian aircraft designers had to add a third engine for their bombers, sticking it on the nose of the aircraft. This increased the machine's weight without increasing the bomb load. Further, it made bombing more difficult: a solid engine took the place of a glass nose from which the bombardier could aim the drop with best accuracy. Low- powered engines also affected the capabilities of fighters, once Italy abandoned the biplane tradition. The engine problem was eventually solved by acquiring Gennan aircraft engines and producing them under license.

The third factor was the low production rate of Italian industry. Italian industry simply couldn't build enough aircraft to reequip and expand the Italian air force. In fact, it couldn't even replace the moderate losses incurred by the air force, with the consequence that Italian air force strength declined almost continuously throughout the war. Thus, by the time the Italian aviation had overcome the legacy of the Spanish Civil War and had obtained powerful engines, there was no way to translate this air power potential into reality. When Italy surrendered in 1943, it had first-rate fighters and the best 4-engined bomber the Axis ever produced, but only a few dozens of these aircraft were flying against the thousands of British and American aircraft assaulting Europe.

Italian Aircraft Ratings in Europa