Top 10: Best Italian planes of World War 2

The Sparviero defied expectation - although it has become aviation history's archetypal trimotor bomber, the wonderfully ugly Romanian-built SM.79JR was a twin (and the fastest of the lot). Although very fast by world standards during the conflict in Spain, the SM.79's primary attributes during the Second World War were its sturdy construction and excellent reliability.

9: Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero

In action during the Spanish Civil War the Sparviero proved highly effective and more or less immune to interception, which was lucky as the Italians did not possess a fighter fast enough to escort it. Of the 100 or so aircraft committed to Spain only four were lost on operations.

In the Second World War, SM.79s sank a considerable amount of Allied shipping and damaged much more, notably the battleship HMS Nelson, and the best year for the Aerosiluranti torpedo units was 1941 when during the course of 87 attacks, nine ships totalling 42,373 tonnes were sunk and another 12 were damaged.

8: Fiat CR.42 Falco ('Falcon')

A ludicrous, conceptually outdated dinosaur or a fighter ideally suited to the specific operating conditions in which it found itself? The CR.42 was, like its great adversary the Gloster Gladiator, arguably both. Fiat had been happily building a succession of effective and successful biplane fighters bearing the initials of designer Celestino Rosatelli since the CR.1 of 1923.

Featuring a radial engine in place of the V-12 unit of its immediate predecessor, the CR.32, the Falco appeared too late to see combat use in the Spanish Civil War, a conflict which had already made plain the shift from biplane to monoplane fighters was effectively inevitable.

8: Fiat CR.42 Falco ('Falcon')

Over North Africa and Malta the Falco proved adequate, capable of dealing with the Hurricane if well handled (RAF units were forced to come up with tactics specifically to deal with such a manoeuvrable foe), and during the invasion of Greece the CR.42s demolished the defenders: officially destroying 162 aircraft destroyed for the loss of 29 of their own.

In contrast to Britain’s biplane Gloster Gladiator which was built in comparatively small numbers, the seemingly outdated Fiat was manufactured in greater numbers than any other Italian aircraft of the war with just over 1800. One of only three serious contenders for the title of best biplane fighter of WWII, the CR.42 was more useful and effective than its old-fashioned design would have one believe.

7: Macchi MC.200 Saetta ('Lightning')

Possessed of a charmingly bumblebee-like aesthetic the Saetta was, like the Spitfire, the fighter follow-on to a swathe of fast, radical and highly successful seaplane racing aircraft built to compete in the Schneider Trophy air races. Unlike Reginald Mitchell's Spitfire, the Saetta was radial powered and looked nothing like its Macchi MC.72 forebear.

Powered by the Fiat A74 radial, like the slightly earlier G.50 Freccia, the MC.200 made much better use of this reliable but only modestly powerful engine. A relatively small aircraft, the MC.200 followed the precedent set by the G.50 by initially appearing with a cutting edge enclosed cockpit but having this feature discarded in short order.

7: Macchi MC.200 Saetta ('Lightning')

Entering service in the summer of 1939, the MC.200 was either the third or fourth best operational fighter in service anywhere in the World at the outbreak of war (after the Bf 109, Spitfire and the Hurricane) but by the time Mussolini jumped in on the side of Germany a whole bunch of new fighters had come to be.

During the three years the Regia Aeronautica were in action, the Saetta flew more combat sorties than any other Italian type and, initially, was highly successful. Over North Africa it could outmanoeuvre both the P-40 and Hurricane. Bomb-armed MC.200s sunk the British destroyer HMS Sikh off Tobruk in 1942. Over the Eastern Front the MC.200 shot down 88 Soviet aircraft in exchange for 15 of their own.

6: CANT Z.506B Airone ('Heron')

What could be better than a slender Italian trimotor bomber? Why, a slender Italian trimotor bomber on floats of course. Although in the Z.506's case, it was one of the vanishingly few seaplanes to be developed into a successful landplane rather than the other way round, in 1939 a developed version of the design entered service (on land) as the Z.1007 Alcione.

Designed by Filippo Zappata, the Z.506 was one of the last frontline aircraft to use classic wood construction for the majority of the airframe. Starting life as a 12-seat commercial aircraft, the Z.506 which immediately set a bunch of speed, range and payload records.

6: CANT Z.506B Airone

Despite its wooden construction, the Airone was noted for its ability to operate in unusually rough seas and was kept busy throughout the Second World War, raiding coastal installations, attacking shipping with torpedoes, engaging in long-range maritime patrol and reconnaissance and occasionally acting as a transport and communications aircraft, a role for which its commercial origins made it well suited.

Despite its many years of yeoman service, the Z.506B is best known these days, as the only aircraft in the west to be successfully hijacked by prisoners of war. On 29 July 1942 a Z.506B rescued the crew of a ditched Bristol Beaufort. During the subsequent flight to Taranto the British airmen overpowered their rescuers and flew the aircraft to Malta and freedom.

5: Macchi MC.205V Veltro ('Greyhound')

The culmination of a distinguished line of Macchi fighters that began with the MC.200, the Veltro combined the excellent German Daimler-Benz DB.605 engine (in licence built form as the Fiat RA.1050 R.C.58 Tifone) with the beautiful handling of the Macchi MC.202 Folgore (itself essentially a Saetta re-engined with a DB.601 V-12) to produce an airframe well up to world standard.

It was also the first Italian fighter of the war to feature a decent armament, boasting a standard fit of two 20-mm cannon and two 12.7mm (.50 in) machine guns. Although inferior to both of its contemporaries, the Re.2005 and G.55, the Veltro was still a magnificent performer, and was able to be produced in decent numbers immediately.

5: Macchi MC.205V Veltro

As a developed version of an extant type, the aircraft's handling was a known quantity to many of its pilots who were already flying the MC.202 - and the Macchi handled exceptionally well. Noted British test pilot Eric Brown thought it one of the finest aircraft aircraft he ever flew, noting what a delight it was to fly, and how it was the match of any Allied fighter.

In its 'Serie V' form sported one of the world's best aero-engines and it was well armed. The top-scoring MC.205 pilot was Sergente Maggiore pilota Luigi Gorrini who officially destroyed 14 aircraft in the Veltro and Italy's most successful WWII fighter pilot Major Adriano Visconti shot down 11 of his 26 confirmed victories in the MC.205.

4: Piaggio P.108

Curiously, none of the Axis nations showed any great interest in strategic bombing. Germany and Japan both viewed military aviation as primarily a tactical adjunct for armies in the field - or navies in the case of Japan - and the only heavy bomber to be built in numbers was the Luftwaffe's unreliable Heinkel He 177 Greif.

However, another large strategic bomber was built by the Axis: the Piaggio P.108B (B for Bombardiere), and it was lucky indeed for the Allies that it was manufactured in trivial numbers, for it ranked amongst the world's best. First flown in 1939, one of the P.108's test pilots was Bruno Mussolini, son of the Italian leader, who lost his life in 1941 when he crashed one of the brand-new bombers into a house.

4: Piaggio P.108

Despite this unfortunate accident, it was clear that Piaggio's heavy bomber was an outstanding aircraft, comparing very well with the latest Allied 'heavies'. With a top speed just under 300 mph, it was slightly faster than a Lancaster or a B-17, carried a bombload about halfway between the two and boasted a similar range.

It sported a technically advanced defensive armament, including remotely controlled turrets on the outer wings. The aircraft was also immensely strong, this level of over-engineering led to an aircraft with an arguably overweight structure but the sheer strength of the airframe undoubtedly contributed to crew confidence in their unusually robust machine.

3: Reggiane Re.2005 Sagittario ('Archer')

Had Mussolini not thrown in his lot with Hitler and invaded France in May 1940, Reggiane would have built 300 Re.2000 Falco fighters for the RAF, which seems somewhat crazy given that a mere three years later the much more potent Re.2005 Sagittario was successfully challenging the Spitfire over the skies of Sicily.

Underwhelming Italian industrial performance saw the exceptionally promising Sagittario produced in small numbers (of 750 ordered, 54 were built) and flown in combat by only one unit. The most exciting looking of the Serie V fighters powered by the Fiat built Daimler Benz DB 605 engine, the Re.2005 was a logical development of the slightly humdrum Re.2001 Falco II.

3: Reggiane Re.2005 Sagittario

The Re.2005 also maintained an unfortunate feature of the earlier aircraft in that it was a complicated airframe, both time-consuming and expensive to build which is small potatoes if you had the massive industrial capacity and wealth of, for example, the US but Italy in the 1940s was seriously strapped for cash.

RAF Wing Commander Wilfrid Duncan Smith believed the Re.2005 'Sagittario' to be a very potent aircraft. Having had a dogfight with one of them, he was convinced the British Spitfires would have been hard-pressed to deter it if the Axis had a few squadrons equipped with 2005s at the start of the Sicily campaign or in operations from Malta.

2: FIAT G.55 Centauro ('Centaur')

The best Italian fighter of the war, the Fiat G.55 was so good that a team of German experts concluded it was the best fighter in the Axis, possibly the world. Kurt Tank, designer of the Fw 190 had nothing but praise for the G.55 and went to Turin to look at its potential for mass production.

Sadly for the Axis it was pointed out that the Fiat took three times as long to build as a Bf 109, and whilst the Centauro was a better fighter, it wasn't three times better and production plans were abandoned.

2: FIAT G.55 Centauro ('Centaur')

The FIAT featured three 20-mm cannon supplemented by two 12.7 mm machine guns which represented a terrific punch for a mid-war single-engine fighter and totally overturned the stereotype of the underarmed Italian fighter. More relevantly it was more than adequate to bring down an American heavy bomber.

Ultimately 274 examples were built during the war and the Centauro formed the equipment of four ANR frontline fighter squadrons, details of Luftwaffe usage remain obscure but the type was apparently flown operationally by German pilots. After a year or so it was replaced in Italian units by the Bf 109G, much to the chagrin of pilots.

1: Savoia-Marchetti SM.82 Kanguru ('Kangaroo')

This was the best transport aircraft of the Axis to see production in any numbers. So useful was it that after 1943 large numbers served both the Allies and Germany and the Kanguru remained in service with the Italian air force until the early 1960s. Neither glamorous nor particularly attractive, the SM.82 was however likely the most useful aircraft produced by Italian industry during the conflict.

If called upon to function as a bomber it could carry an impressive bombload of up to 4000kg. Its modern external appearance belied a quite old-fashioned construction, no fancy monocoques or stressed skin here, the SM.82's fuselage consisted of a steel tube framework covered in sheet metal over the forward fuselage but plywood and fabric elsewhere, much like a massively enlarged Hawker Hurricane. The wing however, was almost entirely constructed of wood.

1: Savoia-Marchetti SM.82 Kanguru ('Kangaroo')

In the same year as its first flight the prototype SM.82 caused something of a stir by flying for 10,000km non-stop in 56 hours 30 minutes. Production aircraft began to be received by the Regia Aeronautica during 1940 and the type was in great demand for the duration of the war, not least as there were never enough of them thanks to typically dismal rates of industrial output.

The Kangurus were kept busy throughout 1940 and 41 supplying Italian forces in East and North Africa, one of the most notable transport actions taking place during the latter half of 1940 as SM.82s supplied 51 complete CR.42 fighters with a further 51 spare engines to East Africa.

1: Savoia-Marchetti SM.82 Kanguru ('Kangaroo')

The early war years also saw the Kanguru perform several audacious bombing missions such as attacks on Gibraltar but the most spectacular of all was a raid on British-controlled oil refineries at Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. As detailed in this map, taking off from the island of Rhodes, after bombing Bahrain, four SM.82s turned south and landed in Italian-controlled Eritrea in East Africa; the whole mission lasted over 15 hours.