30 October 1940 - 28 April 1945

Pietro Calistri was born in Verona on 30 October 1940.

He served as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War.

During the morning of 21 July 1940, three S.79s of 34^o Stormo B.T. and six escorting CR.42 appeared over Malta. One of the bombers was hit by anti-aircraft fire and came down in the sea 30 kilometres from Cap Pressaro off the Sicilian coast. Believing that this indeed was the case, the RAF sent out a Swordfish floatplane (K8369 flown by Flight Lieutenant Leslie Gregory) shortly after midday, but this failed to return. A second Swordfish, which followed, reported finding only a number of oily patches. Meanwhile however Saro London K5261 piloted by Pilot Officer E. C. Minchinton, a Canadian in RAF, had found the wreckage of the S.79 floating in the sea 35 miles north of Malta, and took photographs of this. The aircraft was then attacked by two CR.42s while flying at only 300 feet, the gunners claiming one of these shot down, before returning undamaged. No CR.42 was however reported missing.
The Italian version of events differs considerably. The crew of the S.79 were subsequently rescued, reporting that after landing in the sea they had been attacked by a Saro London. This aircraft had in turn been attacked by a CR.42 of 72^o Squadriglia, 17^o Gruppo, flown by Tenente Calistri, who shot it down with ease. The British pilot, reported by the Italians as a 'Captain Leslye', "survives - our prisoner", was in fact the missing Swordfish pilot Flight Lieutenant Leslie Gregory, who was captured. His crew of Corporal Victor Alfred Kemp (RAF No. 550575) and AC1 F. C. Williams were unfortunately lost.
20-year-old Kemp, who was from Middlesex, is commemorated at the Malta Memorial and Williams is most probably still listed as MIA.

23^o Gruppo CT under the command of Maggiore Tito Falconi started to arrive at Tripoli after a move from Sicily on 16 December 1940. On 19 December they moved to Z1 landing ground at Ain el Gazala and comprised 70^a, 74^a and 75^a Squadriglias commanded by Tenente Claudio Solaro, Capitano Guido Bobba and Tenente Calistri.

At 09:15 on 26 December, eight Gladiators from 3 RAAF Squadron took off from the LG south-west of Sollum to escort a Lysander doing artillery reconnaissance over Bardia. The Lysander failed to appear. At approximately 14:05 (obviously during a third patrol) two flights of five SM 79s escorted by a number of CR.42s were observed a few miles north-east of Sollum Bay. A separate formation of 18 CR.42s was following the bomber formation and escort 2,000 feet higher as top cover. Two Gladiators attacked the bomber formation whilst the remainder climbed to meet the higher formation. The attack on the bombers was broken off when the higher formation attacked the Gladiators. In the ensuing combat, Flight Lieutenant Gordon Steege and Flying Officer Wilfred Arthur each claimed a destroyed (seen to fall into the sea) and a damaged CR.42. Flying Officer Peter Turnbull, Flying Officer John Perrin and Flying Officer Alan Rawlinson each claimed one probable.
The CR.42s were 14 fighters from the newly arrived 23^o Gruppo led by the CO, Maggiore Tito Falconi and 22 CR.42s from the 10^o Gruppo. The CR.42s from the 23^o Gruppo included three from the 70^a Squadriglia (Tenente Claudio Solaro, Sergente Pardino Pardini and Tenente Gino Battaggion), five from the 74^a Squadriglia (Capitano Guido Bobba, Tenente Lorenzo Lorenzoni, Sottotenente Sante Schiroli, Sergente Maggiore Raffaele Marzocca (forced to return early due to a sudden illness) and Sergente Manlio Tarantino) and five from the 75^a Squadriglia (Tenente Calistri, Tenente Ezio Monti, Sottotenente Renato Villa, Sottotenente Leopoldo Marangoni and Maresciallo Carlo Dentis). The fighters from the the 10^o Gruppo included seven from the 91^a Squadriglia (Maggiore Carlo Romagnoli, Capitano Vincenzo Vanni, Capitano Mario Pluda, Sottotenente Andrea Dalla Pasqua, Sottotenente Ruggero Caporali, Sergente Maggiore Lorenzo Migliorato and Sergente Elio Miotto), nine from the 84^a Squadriglia (Capitano Luigi Monti, Tenente Antonio Angeloni, Sottotenente Luigi Prati, Sottotenente Bruno Devoto, Sergente Domenico Santonocito, Sergente Corrado Patrizi, Sergente Piero Buttazzi, Sergente Luciano Perdoni and Sergente Mario Veronesi) and six from the 90^a Squadriglia (Tenente Giovanni Guiducci, Tenente Franco Lucchini, Sottotenente Alessandro Rusconi, Sottotenente Neri De Benedetti, Sergente Luigi Contarini and Sergente Giovanni Battista Ceoletta), which had taken off at 13:00.
They were escorting ten SM 79s from the 41^o Stormo under Tenente Colonnello Draghelli and five SM 79s 216^a Squadriglia, 53^o Gruppo, 34^o Stormo, led by Tenente Stringa. The SM 79s had taken off from M2 at 12:25 and attacked Sollum harbour’s jetty (reportedly hit) and two destroyers inside Sollum Bay (with poor results because of the heavy AA fire). AA from the ships hit four bombers from the 34^o Stormo; one of them, piloted by Sottotenente Bellini had to force land close to Ain El Gazala with the central engine out of action. Returning pilots reported an attempt to intercept by some Gladiators but the escort repulsed the British fighters. They landed without further problems at 15:15.
Over the target, immediately after the bombing, the Italian fighters reported the interception of “enemy aircraft” alternatively “many Glosters” or “Hurricanes and Glosters”. The 70^a Squadrigli pilots claimed a shared Hurricane, this was possibly an aircraft from 33 Squadron. This unit’s ORB reported that during the day’s patrols many SM 79s and CR.42s were intercepted with one CR.42 believed damaged. Two Gladiators confirmed and two probables were shared between the whole 10^o Gruppo. Another Gladiator was assigned to the 23^o Gruppo (in the documents of 75^a Squadriglia but this is not confirmed by the other two Squadriglie). Many Glosters were claimed damaged by Tenente Lorenzoni, Sottotenente Schiroli, Sergente Tarantino, Sottotenente Marangoni, Tenente Calistri, Tenente Monti and Sottotenente Villa. The CR.42s were back between 14:30 and 15:05.
No Gladiators were lost even if three of them were damaged (all repairable within the unit). The Australians had done a very good job indeed, facing a formation four times more numerous (even if it seem improbable that all the Italian fighters were able to join the combat). From the Italian reports it seems that only the front sections of the escort (including the 74^a, 75^a and the 84^a Squadriglie) were engaged in a sharp dogfight with the Gladiators. The Australians were able to shot down the CO of the 74^a Squadriglia, Capitano Guido Bobba, who was killed when his fighter fell in flames into the sea and damaged Tenente Lorenzoni’s fighter, who landed at T2 (and came back to Z1 the day after). Three more CR.42s were damaged when Tenente Angeloni was forced to land at T5 before reaching Z1, Sergente Veronesi’s fighter was damaged and Sottotenente Prati was forced to make an emergency landing short of T2 (his fighter was reportedly undamaged and only suffering for a slight engine breakdown). Maggiore Falconi’s fighter was also heavily damaged but managed to return. The morning after Angeloni was able to return to Z1 with his aircraft.
Capitano Guido Bobba was awarded a posthumously Medaglia d’Argento al Valor Militare. He was replaced as CO of the 74^a Squadriglia by Tenente Mario Pinna.

On 4 January 1941, he shot down a Hurricane near Bardia. This was 26-year-old Flight Sergeant Joseph Charles Hulbert (RAF No. 564868) of 274 Squadron in N2625, who was killed.
Hulbert, who was from Hampshire, is commemorated at the Alamein Memorial, Egypt.

On 6 February 1941, he was promoted to Capitano.

During March 1941 23^o Gruppo CT moved back to Sicily to take part in the raids against Malta again.

During the early summer of 1941 a test batch of Reggiane Re.2000bis were issued to a Sezione Sperimentale of the 23^o Gruppo Autonomo C.T. at Comiso, Sicily. In July 1941 these were formed into an autonomous 377^o Squadriglia under command of Calistri at Trapani. This command was later passed on to Tenente Giorgio Solaroli.

Calistri was later transferred to 76^a Squadriglia, 7^o Gruppo, 54^o Stormo C.T.

On 24 June 1942 Mussolini flew in at the controls of his personal S.81, from Elmas, Sardinia, to San Pietro, Sicily, to decorated aviators. In the presence of the Chief of general staff of the Aeronautics, Generale S. A. Rino Corso Fougier (commander of the C.A.I. during the Battle of Britain), Capitano Calistri and Sergente Domenico Facchini, both from 76^a Squadriglia, were decorated by the ”Duce”.

In August 1942, the 54^o Stormo operated from Pantelleria.

On 17 August 1942, an Italian convoy departed from Naples. The convoy had air cover provided by two CR.42s, two MC.200s and four MC.202s from 54^o Stormo CT, in addition to at least four Ju88s. At 16.00 the convoy was located 35 miles west of Lampedusa by six torpedo-carrying Beauforts from 86 Squadron. The Beauforts were covered by two Beaufighters of 235 Squadron whilst eight long-range Spitfires f 126 and 185 Squadrons provided high level fighter protection. All of the RAF units came from Malta. The Ju88s attempted to intercept the Beauforts, but they claimed damage to one of the Junkers and one Macchi. In return Calistri claimed one Beaufort probably destroyed and Sergente Romano one damaged. As the action unfolded at low-level, the covering Spitfires were not ordered down into the fray and consequently failed to engage.

After the Italian surrender in September 1943, he joined the the Italiana Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (ANR).

In April 1945, Capitano Calistri belonged to the 1^o Gruppo Caccia.

On 28 April 1945, it seems that he was one of the Italians captured by Italian partisans at the same time as Benito Mussolini. 15 of the prisoners were selected by the partisans to be executed together with Mussolini and Calistri was one of these (even if it seems that he had no connection with Mussolini).

At the time of his death, Calistri was credited with 2 biplane victories.
During his career, he was decorated with the Medaglia d’argento al valor militare, Croce al merito di guerra, Medaglia commemorativa della campagna di Spagna and Medaglia di benemerenza per i volontari della guerra Spagna.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1940
1	21/07/40		1	Saro London (a)	Destroyed	Fiat CR.42		35 miles north Malta	72a Squadriglia
	26/12/40	-15:05	1/13	Gladiator (b)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	75a Squadriglia
	1941
2	04/01/41		1	Hurricane (c)	Destroyed	Fiat CR.42		near Bardia	75a Squadriglia
	1942
	17/08/42		1	Beaufort	Probable	? (d)		35m W Lampedusa	76a Squadriglia

Biplane victories: 2 and 1 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 2 and 1 shared destroyed, 1 probable.
(a) No Saro London was destroyed or damaged during this combat. The aircraft was most probably a Swordfish floatplane (K8369 flown by Flight Lieutenant Leslie Gregory) that went missing this day. The Italians captured the pilot but the rest of the crew of Corporal V. A. Kemp and AC1 F. C. Williams were unfortunately lost.
(b) Claimed in combat with Gladiators from 3 RAAF Squadron, which claimed 2 and 3 probables without any losses, and possibly Hurricanes from 33 Squadron, which claimed a damaged CR.42 during the day. The 23^o Gruppo claimed 1 Hurricane and 1 Gladiator and the 10^o Gruppo claimed 2 and 2 probable Gladiators while losing one CR.42 and getting five more damaged.
(c) Flight Sergeant J. C. Hulbert of 274 Squadron in Hurricane Mk.I N2625, who was killed.
(d) It has not been possible to verify what kind of aircraft Calistri used at this combat. 76^a Squadriglia was equipped with CR.42s, MC.200s and MC.202s at this time.

Sources:
1^o Gruppo Caccia - 1998 Aerofan no. 67 oct.-dec. 1998 kindly provided by Jean Michel Cala
Adriano Visconti Asso di Guerra - Giuseppe Pesce and Giovanni Massimello, 1997 kindly provided by Jean Michel Cala.
Annuario Ufficiale Delle Forze Armate Del Regno D’Italia Anno 1943. Part III Regia Aeronautica – 1943 Istituto Poligrafico Dello Stato, Roma
Courage Alone - Chris Dunning, 1998 Hikoki Publications, Aldershot, ISBN 1-902109-02-3
Hurricanes over Tobruk - Brian Cull with Don Minterne, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-11-X
Light Blue 'Stringbags' - The Fairey Swordfish in RAF service - 1998 Air Enthusiast no. 78 nov/dec 1998 kindly provided by Jean Michel Cala
Malta: The Hurricane Years 1940-41 - Christopher Shores and Brian Cull with Nicola Malizia, 1987 Grub Street, London, ISBN 0-89747-207-1
Malta: The Spitfire Year 1942 - Christopher Shores and Brian Cull with Nicola Malizia, 1991 Grub Street, London, ISBN 0-948817-16-X
Ministero della Difesa - Banca Dati sulle sepolture dei Caduti in Guerra
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Italian Campaign
Additional information kindly provided by Ivan Martens and Ludovico Slongo.