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The Legionary Air Force ((イタリア語:Aviazione Legionaria), (スペイン語:Aviación Legionaria)) was an expeditionary corps from the Italian Royal Air Force. It was set up in 1936 and sent to provide logistical and tactical support to the rebel faction after the pro-Fascist military coup which marked the onset of the Spanish Civil War. This air force would fight the conflict against the Spanish Republic alongside its Nazi German equivalent, the Condor Legion, and the Italian ground troops of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie. They served from August 1936 to the end of the conflict in March 1939. Their main base of operations was Majorca in the Balearic Islands.〔(Air War in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39 )〕 ==History== At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, the rebel armies in Spanish North Africa led by Francisco Franco had about 30,000 troops and Moroccan nationals under his command, along with some artillery units. In order to transfer his troops and material to mainland Spain, on 24 July 1936, Franco turned to the Italian consul in Tangiers and then directly to major Luccardi, the military attache in the Italian consulate. Through them Franco tried to convince Benito Mussolini to send twelve transport aircraft, twelve reconnaissance planes, ten fighter aircraft, 3000 aerial bombs, antiaircraft machine guns and at least forty five transport ships. At first Mussolini was reluctant to send them, despite his sympathy for Franco, but his son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano put pressure on him and he changed his mind on July 25. Ciano had in the meantime spoken with two representatives of the Spanish monarchy about thirty fighter planes and other equipment sent by the French government that would arrive on August 2. On July 27 Mussolini ordered the under-secretary for the Regia Aeronautica, general Giuseppe Valle, to send 12 three-engined Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers with crews and the relevant specialists. These would form the first unit, initially known at first as ''Aviación del Tercio''〔''Enciclopedia Ilustrada de la Aviación'': Vol.3, pag. 682, Edit. Delta, Barcelona. 1982 ISBN 84-85822-38-2〕 and set out at dawn on 30 July from Cagliari-Elmas on Sardinia, where they had picked up three officials from the Scuola di Navigazione di Altura at Orbetello, the 'gerarca' Ettore Muti and the tenente-colonnello Ruggero Bonomi. The aircraft crews and the specialists were all volunteers from 7th, 10th and 13th Stormo and were provided with civilian clothes and fake documents. All the Italian symbols on the planes had been blotted out to prevent an international incident with pro-Republican European governments. Fake documents stated that the planes were being sold to the Spanish journalist Luis Bolin. Not all of the Fascist Italian planes sent to the rebel faction reached Morocco - the plane commanded by Angelini crashed in the Mediterranean, that under Mattalia crashed near Saïda (in a French-controlled part of Morocco), and that commanded by Lo Forte had to make an emergency landing near Berkane (also in French Morocco) and was seized by the local authorities. The nine survivors of the Moroccan crashes were provided with nationalist papers and transferred to the airport at Tetuan, from which they helped over the following days to escort the transport ships ''Araujo'', ''Ciudad de Alicante'' and ''Ciudad de Ceuta'', which together carried 4,000 men, 4 artillery batteries, 2 million cartridges and 12 tons of other munitions to mainland Spain. Encouraged by this first operation's success, Mussolini began to send a more steady stream of munitions, personnel and supplies under the name of ''Aviación Legionaria'', ''Aviazione Legionaria''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aviazione Legionaria」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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