Italian Air Force bomb Debden 1940
It could be possible that he was having his leg pulled or that the dates may be off a day or two,but most of the other entries in his have seemed to pan out.For example I had no idea that the Italians bombed England but he was told this story ...
Monday 19th May 1941
We had an interesting lecture by a fighter test pilot. He told us that when the Italians raided Debden, the airfield’s anti-aircraft guns hit an Italian bomber. This aircraft exploded and blew up the one flying behind, which broke in two, and sucked the gunner out of his plane. By some strange twist of good fortune his parachute opened. He floated down and landed on the airfield. More bombers were approaching so the Italian released his chute and ran for the nearest cover. The ground staff was amused to see him diving into their air-raid shelter.
The Italian Air Force -Corpo Aereo Italiano- played a small part in the Battle of Britain when they were stationed in Belgium. On 24 October 1940, a flight of Fiat BR 20s attacked the port of Harwich and caused minor damage On the 29 October fifteen BR.20s bombed Ramsgate and flew several more raids over the following week.
I can't find out any further details of the date of this incident or the name of this lucky crew member.
Motherbird