Italy
Sottotenente Armando Moresi
Italy
Sottotenente Armando Moresi
14 December 1918 - 20 July 1944
| Date | Decoration | Note |
| ??/??/49 | Medaglia d’argento al valor militare (1st) (Posthumous) | 1940-43 |
| ??/??/54 | Medaglia d’argento al valor militare (2nd) (Posthumous) | 1940-43 |
| ??/??/42 | Medaglia di bronzo al valor militare | 1940-43 |
Armando Moresi was born in Libya on 14 December 1918.
On 25 October 1940 was Sottotenente Armando Moresi transferred to the 96a Squadriglia, the 9o Gruppo C.T. Together with the 10o Gruppo they formed the 4o Stormo C.T. and was equipped with Fiat CR.42s operating in North Africa.
On 20 November, 208 Squadron despatched two Lysanders to reconnoitre an area bounded by Sollum, Sofali and Buq-Buq. They were L4724 piloted by Flight Lieutenant Burnard and L4728 piloted by Pilot Officer Waymark that took off from Qasaba at 14:20 and 14:15 landing back at 16:35 and 16:20 respectively (another Lysander, possibly L6874, an attached 6 Squadron aircraft piloted by Flying Officer T. H. Davison, was out in the same area). 33 Squadron provided nine Hurricanes (including Flying Officer Vernon Woodward (N2498), Flight Lieutenant Ernest Dean (P 3818), Flying Officer John Mackie (P3724), Squadron Leader Charles Ryley (P3970), Flight Sergeant Harry Goodchild (N2640), Flying Officer Frank Holman (P3724) and Pilot Officer Charles Dyson (N2640)) as escort. It is possible that the unaccounted pilots were one or two pilots from 274 Squadron since a quartet of Hurricanes from this Squadron, piloted by Flight Lieutenant R. V. Evers-Swindell, Pilot Officer Ernest Mason, Pilot Officer Thomas Patterson and Second Lieutenant Frederick Johannes Joubert, together with Pilot Officer Strange and Second Lieutenant Bester (who followed with the ground party) were detached on attachment to 33 Squadron on 14 November. On 21 November, Evers-Swindell, flew back from Fuka to have repairs on his fighter, reportedly damaged in a running fight with CR.42s. It seems almost sure that the “running fight” was the below described action, so it is possible that R. V. Evers-Swindell was present.
The escort took off from Fuka Satellite airfield at 14:15, with one section of three protecting each Lysander while a third section provided top cover. At the same time, a formation of six Gladiators from 112 Squadron would sweep the same general area.
East of Sidi Barrani, 18 CR.42s intercepted them and one Fiat half-rolled and dived away after being fired on by a Hurricane. It is possible that this aircraft later was credited as a destroyed to Flying Officer Mackie, who in a letter sent home to Canada on 4 December recalled:
“Just before I went on leave we had one of two bits of fun up here. On one occasion, you may have heard about it on the radio, fifteen of us got mixed up with sixty wop fighters. We lost none, and got at least eight of them. I got one of these, although not in a very convincing way from my point of view, as I didn’t see it go in. Another pilot saw the start and the finish of it. Anyhow, it sure was a mix-up. I have never seen so many machines milling around in such a small amount of sky.”However, after this both sides started to guard each other without giving battle with the Italians uncertain to tangle with the faster Hurricanes and the British finding it difficult to close in on their more manoeuvrable opponents.
“The Lysanders were to be ‘covered’ against enemy air attacks by six Gladiators from my squadron - three flying at 12,000 feet, and three, led by myself, at 15,000 feet. ‘Top cover’ was to be provided by six Hurricanes, flying at 20,000 feet. The Hurricanes had strict orders to beat a hasty retreat if they met with enemy aircraft in large numbers, as it was thought at that time that they would be ‘easy meat’ for the move manoeuvrable C.R. 42’s, the single-seater Italian opposite number of the Gladiator.The 9o Gruppo actually lost only three shot down and four damaged but two pilots were killed. The three shot down pilots were Sottotenente Carlo Agnelli of the 96a Squadriglia, who was killed, Sergente Francesco Putzu of the 97a Squadriglia, who was killed, and Tenente Gon (who usually flew CR.42 MM5605/96-2), who recalled:
We had been patrolling for about 10 minutes, when I reported forty CR 42s, in eight sections of five, flying from the direction of Libya, at approximately 25,000 feet, 5,000 feet higher that the Hurricane ‘top-cover’. To my dismay, the Hurricanes were soon speeding home, with a CR 42 sitting neatly on each tail. Our six Gladiators were left to finish the fight, for the Lysanders, their task completed, were heading for home, too.
There was not a friendly cloud in the sky, and the powerful desert sun made the enemy aircraft very difficult to see. Forthwith, they carried out the German tactics of remaining aloft, and sending down their more experienced men to finish us off one by one .but it was not to be!
With the first attacks, we broke formation, and it was every man for himself. I soon found myself very much alone, until unfriendly tracer bullets from behind, passed through the space between my right wings. I immediately steep-turned to the left, and caught sight of my attacker as he completed his dive and prepared to re-join his pals up higher, by means of a roll off the top of a loop.
Seizing my chance, I opened full throttle and followed him to the top of his loop, half rolled in formation with him, and was just about to open fire, when my aircraft stalled and flicked into a spin .not enough speed! I decided my best means of survival was to continue the spin, in the hope that he would think I had been badly hit. This was a fighter tactic from World War I, and it worked! Whilst I was spinning, I looked upwards and caught a glimpse of my adversary circling at his original height, waiting for me to crash into the desert. I came out of the spin at about 8,000 feet, no doubt much to his surprise, and didn’t have to wait long for him to dive down to finish me off.
So started a long tail-chasing session. At first, my mouth became rather dry, but after a second or two, my mind became crystal clear, and I was determined to turn the tables on him. Slowly I began to gain ground, and soon part of his tail was in my sights, but I realized it would not have been great enough. When his engine came into my sights, I pressed the firing button, and was immediately cheered to see pieces of fabric or metal ripping off his fuselage, just behind the cockpit.
The Italian pilot turned so quickly in his mad effort to escape, that he pulled his aircraft into a spin, following a ‘high-speed stall’. I followed him down, and fired at him as he tried to recover, and he promptly went into another one. On recovering from his second spin, he must have pulled an emergency boost control to give him extra speed, for he left my Gladiator ‘standing’.
However, my opponent was not easily scared, and turned about a mile away to come back at me like a bull at a gate. We both opened fire, and when it seemed that a head-on collision was inevitable, he pulled out to my left in a climbing turn. For a second, I was able to fire at his exposed fuselage, and then, with throttle fully open, I climbed into the sun, into an advantageous position. To my horror, my engine stalled near the top of the climb, and I had to carry out the usual drill of closing the throttle and opening it again, slowly. Full power came back, and looking down, I could see my opponent looking for me. This time, I had the advantage of height, and I was nicely lining him up in my sights when he saw me, and tried to turn in underneath me.
Slowly twisting, and with the right deflection, I raked him with bullets from nose to tail, at almost point-blank range. I pulled out of my dive, to regain height, and saw him commence another spin from which he did not recover. I felt immensely relieved, somewhat shaken, and eventually joined up with two stray Gladiators, and returned to Mersa Matruh. I was pleased to learn later that seven aircraft had been shot down in the engagement, and that all the Gladiator pilots had survived the fight, although two had made forced landings.
I shall never forget that day. It was my first one-against-one air battle, and the longest time I had engaged a single enemy aircraft... “
“This day [strangely enough he recorded it as on 1 November but this is for certain an error] I lost the dearest of all my wingmen [Carlo Agnelli]. We were up with all the Gruppo and the three Squadriglie were stepped at different heights. The lowest escorting a reconnaissance plane, mine (96a Squadriglia) at 3000 metres while the third stay higher. The highest group had already engaged the enemy when I saw one of our planes diving almost vertically followed by a Gloster. I made a violent overturning that my wingmen were unable to follow [again without radio equipment the Italian formation was broken at the beginning of the combat and whatever numerical advantage was impossible to put into full use] when I reach a distance suitable to open fire I had to wait because there was the risk of hitting my comrade [with the same burst aimed at the fighter that was following him] I had to concentrate only on the aim [the wingmen were far away] so I couldn’t look around and was attacked by two Glosters. With the first burst of fire they shot away my propeller, so without propulsion I could only manoeuvre to avoid further damage. All the height lost I force-landed and the English pilots that had already stopped firing while I was gliding down for my final approach flew past me waving their hands.According to the official records of the 4o Stormo, however, it seems that during the dive Gon’s guns went out of synchronisation and when opening fire he cut his propeller with the first shots.
[Gon, tried to burn his plane without success and succeeded to reach an Italian outpost the day after]
Back at base, I discovered that information about the missing pilots (we were three) were lacking.
A sergeant [Sergente Francesco Putzu] was seen to jump with parachute and another of our planes was seen to crash after a hard fight, all believed it was mine because the other missing pilot (my dear wingman) was too ‘green’ to be able to fight against three enemies as the pilot of the crashed plane did.
The encounter with Botto was tragicomically. I went to his room and he was waiting for me near the door and as just as he saw me he threw himself right into my arms through the three steps that divided us. But I was too weak and was unable to sustain him so we fell embraced on the ground.”
On 18 April 1942, he was commissioned (in Servizio Permanente Effettivo) due to war merits and received the rank of Sottotenente.
In 1943, Moresi served in the 22o Gruppo.
B-24Ds from 98th BG raided Naples in the evening on 11 April 1943, forcing the 22o Gruppo and 51o Stormo to take off at full strength. At Capodichino, eight MC.202s, three MC.200s and three Re.2005s were scrambled at 18:35 while 15 MC.202s from the 51o Stormo scrambled from Capua.
Six or seven B-24s were claimed destroyed in the Naples area. Three of them were destroyed 18:35-19:35 by the Re.2005s from the 362a Squadriglia when Sottotenente Moresi claimed two and one shared with Maresciallo Marecello Baccara. A fourth was claimed 18:40-19:50 as a shared by four MC.202s from the 20o Gruppo; Tenente Gustavo Castellano (151a Squadriglia), Sottotenente Stefano Bolduri (352a Squadriglia), Tenente Berardo Crucioli (352a Squadriglia) and Sottotenente Bruno Citelli (353a Squadriglia). A fifth was claimed as a shared among eight unknown pilots from the 155o Gruppo at 18:40-19:50. It is also known that Maggiore Vittorio Minguzzi (CO 22o Gruppo) claimed a shared B-24 together with two other pilots at 19:05 while flying a Re.2005 but it’s not known if this claim is included in the claims above. One B-24 was also claimed by Flak over Naples.
The MC.202s from the 155o Gruppo claimed two additional B-24s as damaged between 18:40-19:50. These claims were made by Tenente Pietro Zanello (351a Squadriglia) and Sottotenente Pierpaolo Paravicini (360a Squadriglia).
Sottotenente Moresi’s Re.2005 was hit by return fire and he was forced to bale out and was rescued while Tenente Gustavo Castellano’s (151a Squadriglia) MC.202 was shot down; he baled out but unfortunately drowned.
The 98th BG reported being intercepted in the Naples area at 17:15-17:25 and claimed seven fighters shot down and three probably destroyed:
Staff Sergeant Sauer tail gunner in B-24D 42-40102 from 345th BS claimed one destroyed Bf 109 and one probably destroyed MC.202.
Staff Sergeant Frantz tailgunner in B-24D 42-11776 from 345th BS claimed one destroyed Bf 109.
Sergeant Tuegeon left waist gunner in B-24D 198/C from 344th BS claimed one probably destroyed Bf 109.
Technical Sergeant Bray front gunner in B-24D 41-23781 from 343rd BS claimed one destroyed Bf 109.
Sergeant Pyles gunner in B-24D 41-23781 from 343rd BS claimed one destroyed MC.202.
Staff Sergeant Ely waist gunner in B-24D 815/G from 415th BS claimed one destroyed Bf 109.
The top turret gunner in B-24D 782/E from 415th BS claimed one destroyed Bf 109.
The tail gunner in B-24D 782/E from 415th BS claimed one probably destroyed FW 190 (most probably one of the MC.200s).
Technical Sergeant L. Johnson engineer/gunner in B-24D 782/E from 415th BS claimed one destroyed Bf 109.
343rd BS lost B-24D 41-23781 ‘U’ ”Arkansas Traveler II” over Naples with Lieutenant George Groff and nine crew becoming MiA. 415th BS lost B-24D 42-40197 ‘I’ ”Hot Rocks” when it had its’ tail blown off by a small aerial bomb 9,6km south of Naples at 17:18. 1st Lieutenant Keane B. McGhee and three of the crew were KiA while five became PoWs. The aerial bomb was supposedly dropped by an MC.200 and fused to explode mid-air.
Moresi continued to serve in the 4o Stormo after the Armistice in 1943 when this unit was part of the Aeronautica Co-Belligerante.
During the late summer of 1944, when his unit was converting from Macchi MC.205Vs to P-39 Airacobras, he was killed when he spun into ground from low altitude.
At the time of his death, Moresi was credited with 1 probable biplane victory and a total of 2.
Moresi is buried in Genova.
Claims:
| Kill no. | Date | Time | Number | Type | Result | Plane type | Serial no. | Locality | Unit |
| 1940 | |||||||||
| 20/11/40 | 14:40-16:30 | 1 | Gladiator (a) | Probable | Fiat CR.42 | Sidi Barrani area | 96a Squadriglia | ||
| 1943 | |||||||||
| 1 | 11/04/43 | 18:35-19:35 | 1 | B-24 (b) | Destroyed | Re.2005 | Naples area | 362a Squadriglia | |
| 2 | 11/04/43 | 18:35-19:35 | 1 | B-24 (b) | Destroyed | Re.2005 | Naples area | 362a Squadriglia | |
| 11/04/43 | 18:35-19:35 | 1/2 | B-24 (b) | Shared destroyed | Re.2005 | Naples area | 362a Squadriglia |
Biplane victories: 1 probably destroyed.
TOTAL: 2 and 1 shared destroyed, 1 probably destroyed.
(a) Claimed in combat with Hurricanes from 33 and 274 Squadrons and Gladiators from 112 Squadron. 9o Gruppo claimed seven victories and two probables while losing three CR.42s, getting four more damaged and losing two pilots KIA. 112 Squadron claimed eight victories for no losses, 274 Squadron possibly suffered one damaged Hurricane while 33 Squadron possibly claimed a CR.42 without losses.
(b) Claimed in combat against B-24Ds from 98th BG, which claimed 7 fighters destroyed and 3 probably destroyed while losing 2 B-24Ds. The 22o, 20o and 155o Gruppi claimed 6 or 7 destroyed B-24s and 2 damaged while losing 1 Re.2005 (pilot safe) and 1 MC.202 (pilot KiA). 1 B-24 was claimed by Flak.
Sources:
33 Squadron Operations Record Book
A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945: Volume Three – Christopher Shores and Giovanni Massimello with Russell Guest, Frank Olynyk & Winfried Bock, 2016 Grub Street, London, ISBN-13: 9781910690000
Annuario Ufficiale Delle Forze Armate Del Regno D Italia Anno 1943. Part III Regia Aeronautica - 1943 Istituto Poligrafico Dello Stato, Roma
Diario Storico 73a Squadriglia kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Diario Storico 97a Squadriglia kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Elenco Nominativo dei Militari dell’ A. M. Decorati al V. M. Durante it Periodo 1929 - 1945 2 Volume M - Z
Hurricanes over the sands: Part One - Michel Lavigne and James F. Edwards, 2003 Lavigne Aviation Publications, Victoriaville, ISBN 2-9806879-2-8
Ministero della Difesa - Banca Dati sulle sepolture dei Caduti in Guerra
Quelli del Cavallino Rampante - Antonio Duma, 1981 Editore Dell'Ateneo, Roma, kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Additional information kindly provided by Ian Acworth and Ludovico Slongo.
