Aviazione Legionaria (Italian Legionary Air Force)

The Aviazione Legionaria was an expeditionary corp from the Fascist Italy, which helped to the pro-Fascist band during the Spanish Civil War. It was the Italian equivalent of the German Condor Legion. It served since 1936 to 1939, with its base in Majorca, Balearic Islands.

Instead Francisco Franco tried to convince Benito Mussolini to send him aircraft support, Mussolini denied it, but the pressure of Galeazzo Ciano changed his mind and he sent him thirty fighter planes.

Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 Sparviero (bomber, transport)

Fiat G.50 Freccia Arrow (fighter)

Fiat BR.20 Cicogna (bomber)

Breda Ba.65 (attacker)

Later, Italy sent 12 Sparvieros with some experimented crew. This would be the first unit, known as Aviación del tercio. The crews were provided with civilian clothes and fake documents, and the aircraft symbols were blotted because they wanted to prevent an international incident with the pro-Republican European governments.

Not all these airplanes came to their destiny; two of them, because of some bad cicumstances, crashed or did an emergency landing before arrived at the Nationalist Spainish territories in Morocco.

Bombing of Barcelona on March 1938

This was one of the most important operations of this corp during the Spanish Civil War.

On 15 March 1938, the French government decided to reopen its frontier with Spain, so the Soviet supplies begun to pass to Barcelona; this supposed the decission of Mussolini to carry out a massive bombing against this city. There were 17 raids by the Italian Sparvieros bombers at three hours intervals between 16 and 18 March. The only opossition to these raids was a little anti-aircraft artillery, with no fighter cover until the morning of 17 March. This attack supposed the throw of 44 tons of bombs by the Aviazione Legionaria and the death of more than 1000 civilians, between other damages.