looking for info about Italian pilots

[Gian83]

I am looking for info about these Italian WWII pilots:

Alessandro Abba
Ottorino Ambrosi
Gianpiero Faroni

If possible I would like to have both info and pictures of these three:

Pietro Serini (11 kills according to the Third Reich Factbook)
Edoardo Crainz
Mario Semolic (also spelled Marij Semolich)

Thanks in advance,
Gianmaria

[Andy H]

Do you have any further info as to what units they flew with and have you contacted Lupo or visited his site?

Andy from the Shire

[Gian83]

Abba was in the 4th ANR Squadriglia named "Gigi Caneppele"

During WWII Serini was in the 75th Squadriglia of the 23rd Gruppo and was later transferred to 161st Gruppo Autonomo till his death on 25th June 1943.

Crainz served with the 394th Squadriglia of the 160th Gruppo during the Greek campaign.

Faroni was in the 385th Squadriglia of the 157th Gruppo autonomo at Araxos in 1942. In 1944 he passed to the 1st Gruppo Caccia ANR, under the command of Adriano Visconti, he was demobilised just before the end of the war.

Ambrosi was in the 368th Sq. in ops against France, later that year he was transferred to Benghazi where he scored one kill.

This is all I have on those pilots but please verify this info if you can, they may be incorrect, I am sorry but I had no chance to verify them.

If you need to contact me my address is [email protected]

BTW I have been in contact with Lupo for quite a while and I posted a similar message on the Comando Supremo Board where I first met him.

Gianmaria

[Andy H]

Thank you for the extra information I'll keep a look out for the names.

Andy from the Shire

[sylvieK4]

I don't know if these will help your particular search or not, but the following are a few sites about Italian aviation during the Second World War. If they do not help you, maybe someone else interested in the Italian air program would like to take a look at them too.

http://www.ww2wings.com/wings/italy/italymain.shtml

http://www.teamblau.it/iwai/start.html

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/ ... italy.html

An image from the last site listed:
[/img]

[Lupo Solitario]

...I realized there should be a mistake.

Andy (I think you were talking about me), apart I'm not a encyclopedia, Comando Supremo is NOT my site, the webmaster is my dear friend Jim Heddlesten, I only gave some contribute and I'm actively present on the forum, no more. Actually I have not websites (also if I'm projecting one...)

bye

Lupo

[Andy H]

Apologies Lupo, I always thought it was yours

BTW, There is a great article by Jon Guttmann on Teresio Martinoli (The Italian Ace of Aces) in this month's edition of World War II.

aNDY FROM THE sHIRE

[gabriel pagliarani]

Sottotenente Alba was killed by friendly fire (flak) over Ravenna on March 3, 1945. But he was not servicing in IV Gruppo but in II Gruppo. I don't know his complete name. Are both the same person?


-1 month later-
Sorry, I just received a letter from an eye-witness that I enclose: the killing not happened near Ravenna but at Dossobuono (Verona). The poor pilot was burned while crashing.

[shabicht]

For Mario Semolich look Marij Semolič on Slovenian page of Wikipedia, he served in Yugoslav air force after the war!!

[TISO]

I found something on Eduardo Crainz on Biplane aces:
http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_crainz.htm

[Klemen L.]

For Mario Semolich look Marij Semolič on Slovenian page of Wikipedia, he served in Yugoslav air force after the war!!

The problem I have (had) with Sergeant Marij Semolich (or Sergente Mario Semoli as he was called in Regia Aeronautica) is that none of his air victories can be confirmed. According to this Wikipedia article he shot down at least nine Allied aircraft before September 1943. However he doesn't appear to be on any list of Italian air aces. All what can be confirmed so far is that he was indeed a pilot, had a rank of Sergente-Pilota and started his military career in the home 4° Stormo in Gorizia.

http://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marij_Semoli%C4%8D

lp,

Klemen