I have a question....

[tail end charlie]

I don't know if I would go that far. Italy and France also lagged behind in V12 development. Britain and Germany were far ahead of everyone else for some reason.

Germany had the opposite problem. They lagged behind in air cooled radial engine development. Consequently aircraft designed for operation from KM Graf Zeppelin all used liquid cooled V12 engines.

In the early days of the schneider trophy the italians had reat in line engines but stopped development due to politics

 

[Gixxerman]

The stories I find incredible (but often seen so I doubt they are mere myth) is of American (radial) aircraft coming back with a cylinder shot off or mashed.
How the hell oil loss didn't kill what was left of the engine I do not know but something incredible was going on in the construction of those things.
Very impressive engineering (or sheer luck)?