Page 93 - La Grande Guerra dei Carabinieri

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Lugo, 1918. Un momento dei funerali del Maggiore pilota Francesco
Baracca, il più famoso degli assi della caccia italiana durante la prima
Guerra Mondiale, caduto sul Montello il 19 giugno 1918. (Roma, Mu-
seo Centrale del Risorgimento, Album C, 279).

Bibliografia di riferimento: l’articolo si basa sul contenuto di di-
versi volumi pubblicati dall’Autore e in particolare su L’aviazione
italiana nella Grande Guerra (Mursia, 2011), L’aviazione italiana
a Caporetto (Gaspari, 2012), Ali sulle trincee. Ricognizione tatti-
ca ed osservazione aerea nell’aviazione italiana durante la Gran-
de Guerra, I dirigibili italiani nella Grande Guerra e L’aviazione
italiana e il bombardamento aereo nella Grande Guerra (Ufficio
Storico dello Stato Maggiore Aeronautica, 1999, 2005 e 2013).
Lugo, 1918. A photo of the funeral of the Major Francesco Baracca,
the most famous among the bravest Italian fighter pilots during World
War I, shot down on Montello hill on 19 June 1918.

Italian Aviation
Aviation in the Great War

n 24 May 1915, at the outbreak of hostilities, Italy had 58 aircraft, including dirigible balloons, aerostats
and airplanes. The rapid evolution of the conflict and the increased production of aircraft led to the de-
O mand for new recruits, opening the Army Aviation Corps to the Carabinieri. As a result of wartime op-
erations, Italian industry, too, started a series of initiatives aimed at guaranteeing a supply of airplanes, which
were necessary, but initially limited to the activities of aerial observation to direct artillery fire. An extremely
important process was also developed to train vast numbers of pilots, who were admitted to the first stages of
basic training only after careful psychological, physical and medical exams, never before seen, so meticulous,
in which even one of the fathers of Italian psychiatry played a part: Father Agostino Gemelli. These aforemen-
tioned individuals represented the spine of the young Italian Air Force Corps that obtained noteworthy results
in the domination of the so-called third dimension of battle: the air. The Army Aviation Corps distinguished
itself on all fronts in Italy and in Albania thanks to the activities they carried out, from mere observation to
bombardment and fighting, thus providing important contributions throughout the conflict, in particular to
the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo (May 1917), the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo on the Banjšice Plateau (August
1917), the Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo) (November 1917), the Second
Battle of the Piave River (June 1918) and the battle of Vittorio Veneto.