Interesting stuff, I didn't know anything about this unit until now. Great link Eric.
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(Gabriele Luciani)During the second world war many enemy aircraft were captured by the Regia Aeronautica (the Royal Italian Air force 1923-1943): aircraft that would envitably undergo evaluation and comparative testing. The largest aircraft to fall into Italian hands was the Consolidated B-24 D 1-CO "Liberator" s/n 41-23659, nicknamed the "Blonde Bomber II", based at Bengasi airfield (Libia). This B.24 was used by the "Pyramiders" squadron, the 98th Bomber Group formed from a mixed crew of anglo-americans of the 47th Bomber Wing, a formation of 15th Air Force. On 20.2.1943 after a bombing mission at Napoli, the "Blonde Bomber II" landed at Pachino, a small airfield near Siracusa, in Sicilia. The pilot Lt. Dan Story, deviating from his course as the sun was setting and believing to be heading in the direction of Malta shot several flares to confirm his direction, and apparently seeing return signal flares from the ground, according to Allied practice. Interestingly after the war, Lt. Story claimed his aircraft was hit in one of its engines by Italian anti-aircraft guns during the bombing mission over Naples and attempted to land his B.24 at the nearest airfield in Malta. However photos after the landing at Pachino do not confirm damage to the engines and the propellers do not appear to be feathered...The landing was not all happy because the Blonde Bomber II came off the runway sliding into mud... Immediately Italian units surrounded the "Liberator" and it took one volley of machine gun fire to persuade the crew to rush from the aircraft, leaving the aircraft intact. In the following days, the B.24 was pulled out and repainted with the national Italian insignia over the previous USAAF/RAF insignia: interestingly the nickname on the right side and the pin-up girl painted on the port side of the front of fuselage remained unchanged as did the camouflage "desert pink" and neutral gray. On 24.2.1943 members of Centro Sperimentale (Test Centre) of the Regia Aeronautica at Guidonia (near Rome) arrived at Pachino. A few days were necessary for the pilots to familiarize themselves with the B.24 and on 4.3.1943 Captain Giovanni Raina, using the remaining "American" fuel in the tanks of the aircraft took the Blonde Bomber II into the air at Fontanarossa airfield, near Catania: Italian aviation fuel was too corrosive for the allied tanks and in Fontanarossa airfield there was German fuel on hand. From Fontanarossa on 6.3.1943, Cap. Raina flew to Guidonia: during the months of March through May 1943, the B.24 was thoroughly checked over at the Centro Sperimentale. The plane was then transferred to Foligno airfield, near Perugia in June. On 19.6.1943, by demand of the Luftwaffe, the Blonde Bomber II was transferred to Germany at Rechlin test centre for evaluation: after some days, a German ferrying crew of some experience lead the B.24 to the end of a special runway used to test undercarriages ... only for it to rupture! The fragile front undercarriage of the B.24 then broke and the Blonde Bomber II so remained in German hands...
mosquitoman said:Ju-287 prototype- the one with the swept forward wings