WOW389 Fiat G.50 Freccia

Description

The Fiat G.50 was Italy’s first single seat monoplane all metal airplane. It first entered service in 1938 and saw service in the Spanish Civil War where it performed well against the Communist aircraft fielded against it. Armed with only 2 machine guns the Fiat G.50 suffered against the much more heavily armed and nimbler Hurricanes/Spitfires of the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Relocated back to the Mediterranean, the Fiat G.50 soldiered on due to the lack of a suitable replacement, but in the hands of an experienced pilot could compete with Allied adversaries like the Hurricane and P-40’s. Its greatest heyday came about during the Finnish Winter War and then the Continuation War where Fiat G.50’s proved worthwhile adversaries of the Soviet forces, on one day shooting down 13 out of 15 Soviet type SB bombers. The kill ratio for Fiat G.50’s in this theatre was in the region of 33/1 in their favour.

Our 1/32 scale Mahogany aircraft model measures 28cm in width and 25cm in length. It was one of a number of machines that took part in an action as follows against the Allies:
At 10:00 (Axis time) on 3 September 1941, 23 G.50bis of 20o Gruppo took off led by Tenente Colonnello Bonzano, to make a strafing attack in the Sidi Barrani area. They arrived over LG 05 at 11:35 (GMT), strafing 1 SAAF Squadron’s Hurricanes and damaging three of these, also riddling every tent with machine-gun fire. The Italian pilots believed that they had destroyed eight aircraft and many vehicles on the ground here.

Claiming pilots from 352a Squadriglia were Sergente Maggiore Otello Bonelli (1 Hurricane), Capitano Luigi Borgogno (1 damaged Hurricane), Sergente Maggiore Renato De Silvestri (1 damaged Hurricane), Maresciallo Maurizio Iannucci (1 damaged Hurricane), Sergente Giuseppe Mirrione (1 Hurricane), Sottotenente Giorgio Oberwerger (1 damaged Hurricane), Sergente Maggiore Francesco Pecchiari (1 Hurricane) and Sergente Maggiore Francesco Visentin (1 probable Hurricane).

All the figures and accessories shown are for scale reference purposes and are not included.