Biplane fighter aces

The Commonwealth

Lieutenant H. P. Smith, SAAF no. 47530V

Smith served in 2 SAAF Squadron between 11 November and 4 December 1940 and was then posted to 1 SAAF Squadron.

On 27 December, a formation of six CR.42s, led by Tenente Niso Provinciali and composed, among others, of Sottotenente Fiorindo Rosmino, Sottotenente Filippo Sola and Sergente Maggiore Enzo Omiccioli (the last two detached from the 413a Squadriglia), took off at dawn from Góndar to carry out a raid on Gedáref. The Italian fighters were spotted promptly, and at 06:20 Gladiators scrambled from 'Azaza with Captain Gerald Le Mesurier, Lieutenants Leonard le Clues Theron, Thomas Condon, E. A. Jarvis and Smith.
North of Gedáref, at an altitude of 2400 meters, the South African pilots sighted and attacked the two covering CR.42s flown by Sottotenente Sola and Sergente Maggiore Omiccioli. After a few manoeuvres, one of the CR.42s crossed in front of Captain Le Mesurier, whose guns jammed. The two CR.42s split up with Lieutenants Condon and Jarvis chasing after Sola, firing at his fighter (MM6987 in charge of the 413a Squadriglia) repeatedly until they saw the aircraft crash 8 kilometres east of Gedáref. Omiccioli was instead pursued by Lieutenant Theron, who, however, came too close to his wake, so much so that the Gladiator became unstable. Omiccioli immediately took advantage of this and managed to escape his pursuer by diving.
The other CR.42s, meanwhile, machine-gunned a train stopped at the Gedáref station, some cavalry units and, on the way back, set fire to four trucks on their way from Gedáref to Showàk.
Antonio Raffi account differs in some details from the official reports, but in any case it is an interesting account of what happened:

“I had moved back to Gura, in squadron command, and the Gondar section remained under the command of Tenente Provinciali, who in those days with 6 CR.42 made an offensive reconnaissance in Upper Sudan. Towards noon, having reached the Gedaref vertical at 6000 metres, with reduced engines, they spotted some activity on the field of Gedaref and its surroundings. As they descended, they machine-gunned a Wellesley on the field and found an Indian cavalry regiment exercising nearby, causing considerable damage (by the way, this episode was confirmed to me by some Indian soldiers when I was captured prisoner in the hospital at Dessiè where I had been admitted for purulent dysentery). Then, continuing the action, they machine-gunned an ammunition train stopped at the Gedaref station, which blew up, then they spotted in the bush opposite a row of tankers, to be precise three with two trailers each, which they set on fire. At that moment, the low-altitude machine guns were attacked by Glosters. In the ensuing fight, we lost one aircraft, but my pilots reported three Glosters shot down, which were given as probable.”
Bulletin No. 201 claimed the shooting down of two Gladiators, while two others are reported to have crashed without being able to ascertain their fate and the fifth was seen to escape. Tenente Rosmino, on the other hand, referring to this combat, noted in his post-war reconstructed flight logbook of four aircraft shot down in collaboration. The Bulletin gives a very different version of the event from the British one, claiming that the entire Italian formation attacked the Glosters, then machine-gunned them on the ground after having eliminated or put them to flight. The two alleged victories would have been achieved by Omiccioli, who would write to his fiancée:
“I am proud to announce a new air victory, on 27 December we raided an enemy airfield in the Anglo-Swiss Sudan, in com-bat we shot down four Gloster Gladiator type aircraft, two of which were charged to me, one on fire, the other forced to land. This brought the number up to seven.”
As for Sottotenente Sola, the Italians didn’t immediately declared his loss: the other pilots claimed to have last seen his ”aircraft in flight difficulty due to decreased speed after action” and were unable to specify whether he ”made use of his parachute or landed”. The pilot was only declared missing after his failure to return and Filippo “Pippo” Sola was not officially declared dead until 28 April 1953. 24-years-old Sola, from Bologna, had arrived in the AOI with the 409a Squadriglia, and had then probably been transferred to the 414a Squadriglia and after the dissolution of the latter unit to the 413a Squadriglia.
The South African pilots, although aware of the attack on the base, didn’t report having faced any other adversaries apart from the two aforementioned aircraft. Evidently, Sola and Omiccioli were successful in attracting the attention of their opponents, thus protecting their comrades. The Bulletin does not mention any losses other than Sola's, but a note in the personal file of Tenente Provinciali’s personal file kept at the Central State Archive shows that his CR.42 MM4400 was damaged "in combat" and had to be repaired at SRAM: at this point it is logical to think that it was hit by ground fire.
The SAAF states that all aircraft returned to base and that the only damage suffered was a 12.7mm explosive projectile that hit the propeller of Lieutenant Condon’s Gladiator N5789 and rendered it unserviceable.
The shooting down of a CR.42 was credited to Lieutenant Condon.

At 14:00 on 29 January 1941, 1 SAAF Squadron took off to attack Gura, with six Hurricanes (Major Lawrence Wilmot, Captain K. W. Driver, Lieutenants John Hewitson, Andrew Duncan, Hendrik Johannes Piet Burger and Leonard le Clues Theron) flying as top cover to five Gladiators, which would strafe. As they approached the Hurricanes run into several S.79s and a large number of CR.42s, which were seen over the airfield, the bombers having just returned from a raid over the front, and the fighters having scrambled at the approach of the South African aircraft. Captain Driver at once attacked an S.79 as it was going in to land, and shot it down in flames, two members of the crew baling out. The Gladiators then arrived, led by Captain Brian Boyle. These also met the Fiats, Lieutenant Smith (Gladiator N5851) and Lieutenant E. A. Jarvis each claiming one shot down.
Capitano Antonio Raffi, commander of the 412a Squadriglia, was above with two of his pilots, Tenente Luciano Cacciavillani and Maresciallo Aroldo Soffritti (they scrambled at 15:20), and he saw the Hurricane shoot down the S.79 before he could intervene. He then spotted the Gladiators, which he believed to be six strong, and at once, a great dogfight begun, during which the South Africans saw many Fiats falling away. Driver meanwhile had seen Adi Ugri landing ground on which four S.81s were dispersed, and attacking these, he left one (claimed as a S.79) in flames.
On return to base the combat with the Fiats was fully discussed, and it was decided that five had been shot down, one each by Lieutenant Smith and Lieutenant Jarvis, the other three being impossible to allocate to individual pilots. All the SAAF aircraft returned safely, although one Gladiator (N5831) had been hit by a single bullet.
This proves how easy it was to overestimate the damage caused, and indeed the numbers involved, in a whirling dogfight. Although several CR.42s were hit and damaged, none was in fact shot down. Tenente Cacciavillani's CR.42 was badly damaged by 50 hits, and Maresciallo Soffritti's was also damaged. Capitano Raffi’s own aircraft was hit five times and he recorded that he took ten bullets in his parachute and lost the fabric in the fuselage close to the cockpit and the tail plane. It seems that Raffi’s fire hit and damaged Lieutenant Smith Gladiator, who landed unhurt. The Italians reported combat against four Hurricanes and six Gladiators and reported one Gladiator shot down. Tenente Cacciavillani fired 60 rounds of 7.7mm, and claimed a Gladiator probably destroyed (shared) (strangely enough, this claim has been cancelled by a pen line in his logbook).

On 3 February six Gladiators from 1 SAAF Squadron flew forward to a new landing strip called ‘Pretoria’ early in the morning where they refuelled. Five of them (Captain Brian Boyle (N5824), Lieutenant Andrew Duncan, Lieutenant Robin Pare, Lieutenant Servaas de K. Viljoen and Lieutenant Smith) took off again at 11:45 to strafe airfields in the Gondar area, to the south. A landing site was spotted to the south of Azozo on which five Ca.133s were bombed up. The Gladiators attacked and claimed all five in flames. The Italians reported only one as actually destroyed in this attack.
Seeing CR.42s scrambling from Azozo, they flew over to investigate and Boyle, Pare, Viljoen and Smith claimed a shared damaged S.81 on the ground there when they reported that they had shot the wing off it while Lieutenant Duncan chased after a CR.42. The Gladiators were then attacked by Fiats and a big dogfight began. In the combat Captain Boyle claimed a Fiat shot down. Boyle reported that his claim was made towards the end of the dogfight and he was so close to the Fiat that he saw the enemy pilot clearly as he tried to bale out before crashing into the mountains.
Sergente Maggiore Enzo Omiccioli was shot down and killed in this combat. Reportedly he had scrambled alone.
The Gladiators then carried out a reconnaissance in the area, looking for reported Italian movements. On return, Lieutenant Smith crashed on landing at Azaza when starboard tyre burst and the aircraft slewed onto its side while Boyle suffered a flat tyre from the fight.

Smith continued to serve in the Squadron until 22 June 1941 when he returned to South Africa.

Smith ended the war with 1 biplane victory.

Claims:
Kill no. Date Time Number Type Result Plane type Serial no. Locality Unit
  1941                
1 29/01/41 15:20- 1 CR.42 (a) Destroyed Gladiator II N5851 Gura airfield 1 SAAF Squadron
  03/02/41 11:45- 1/5 Ca.133 (b) Shared destroyed on the ground Gladiator   S Azozo 1 SAAF Squadron
  03/02/41 11:45- 1/5 Ca.133 (b) Shared destroyed on the ground Gladiator   S Azozo 1 SAAF Squadron
  03/02/41 11:45- 1/5 Ca.133 (b) Shared destroyed on the ground Gladiator   S Azozo 1 SAAF Squadron
  03/02/41 11:45- 1/5 Ca.133 (b) Shared destroyed on the ground Gladiator   S Azozo 1 SAAF Squadron
  03/02/41 11:45- 1/5 Ca.133 (b) Shared destroyed on the ground Gladiator   S Azozo 1 SAAF Squadron
  03/02/41 11:45- 1/4 S.81 Shared damaged on the ground Gladiator   Azozo 1 SAAF Squadron

Biplane victories: 1 destroyed, 5 shared destroyed on the ground, 1 shared damaged on the ground.
TOTAL: 1 destroyed, 5 shared destroyed on the ground, 1 shared damaged on the ground.
(a) Claimed in combat with 3 CR.42s from the 412a Squadriglia, which all were damaged but no losses were suffered. 1 SAAF Squadron claimed 5 CR.42s while suffering 1 lightly damaged Gladiator.
(b) The Italians reported only one as actually destroyed in this attack.

Sources:
Luciano Cacciavillani's personal logbook courtesy of Cacciavillani family (Luciano jr and Alberto)
Dust Clouds in the Middle East - Christopher Shores, 1996 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-898697-37-X
I Cavalieri Erranti - Ludovico Slongo, Stefan Lazzaro, Eugenio Eusebi, Michele Palermo and Danilo Ventura, 2023, ISBN 978-88-87952-37-7
Springbok Fighter Victory: East Africa Volume 1 1940 – 1941 – Michael Shoeman, 2002 African Aviation Series No. 11, Freeworld Publications CC, ISBN 0-958-4388-5-4
Additional info kindly provided by Stefano Lazzaro, Michele Palermo and Ludovico Slongo.




Last modified 31 August 2026