Italo Balbo

Ferrara, 1896-Tobruk, 1940

The Transoceanic Flights and the Decennial Air Cruise

An officer of the Alpine Corps and of the ‘Arditi’, an elite special force of WWI, he is one of the founders of the Ferrara Fascism (1920) and a head of the most violent Po Valley ‘squadrismo’ (action squad organisation). A Quadrumvir of the March on Rome, he becomes undersecretary (1926) and then a minister (1929-1933) of the Italian Royal Air Force. As an Air Squad General, he conducts several Mediterranean and two Atlantic cross-overs (December 1930-January 1931 and July-August 1933), the last on the occasion of the Decennial Air Cruise. A ‘Marshal of the Air Force’ and Governor-General of Libya (1934-1940), his Savoia-Marchetti SM79 is downed by mistake by the Italian anti-aircraft batteries in June 1940. Gold Medal of Aeronautic Valor.

Bibliographical references
Segrè, Claudio G. | 2000 Italo Balbo: una vita fascista. Bologna: Il mulino.