World War II (1940-1945)

The wars in Ethiopia and in Spain have dissipated equipment, supplies and resources. Economic, industrial and material fragility add on to technological and cultural delays. And yet, in June 1940, Mussolini decides to pursue an expansionist policy that is incompatible with the military tools he has at his disposal. In 1940-1943, even the Air Force wears out in a war that disperses its forces in a quantitatively and qualitatively unequal fight with the British and American adversaries. Overcome by the armistice (8 September 1943) and not prepared to address its effects, the air forces split up into the National Republican Air Force, that arises in central-northern Italy occupied by the Nazi-Fascists, and the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force in southern Italy freed by the Allies.

World war II in the air (1938-1945)*