Milano Pausi was born on 9 September 1918 in Trieste.

On 1 October 1939, he was commissioned (in Servizio Permanente Effettivo).

On 16 December 1940, the 23^o Gruppo (previously part of 3^o Stormo but now Autonomo) with 20 Fiat CR.42s (70^a, 74^a and 75^a Squadriglie) and three hack Caproni Ca.133s arrived in Tripoli to help trying steam Operation Compass, which was mauling the Italian forces. The Gruppo had experienced brief (and quite unlucky) action at the beginning of the war against France, and then it had moved to Sicily where they had seen extensive action against Malta.
They were led by their CO, Maggiore Tito Falconi (a famous aerobatic pilot that had held the world record in inverted flight going in a Caproni 113 biplane racer from St. Louis to Chicago in 1933 and a veteran of the Abyssinian Campaign where he had gained some ground victories and of the Spanish Civil War where he had claimed many (mostly shared) aerial victories) in a 70^a Squadriglia fighter.
Pilots in the 70^a Squadriglia were Tenente Claudio Solaro (acting CO), Tenente Gino Battaggion, Sottotenente Oscar Abello, Sergente Ubaldo Marziali, Sergente Balilla Albani, Sergente Maggiore Celso Zemella and Sergente Cesare Sironi.
Pilots in the 74^a Squadriglia were Capitano Guido Bobba (CO and already credited with one over Spain and three individual and a probable Hurricanes over Malta, which made him one of the top scoring Italian pilots up to that moment), Tenente Mario Pinna, Sottotenente Sante Schiroli, Sergente Maggiore Raffaele Marzocca, Sergente Emilio Stefani, Sergente Giuseppe Sanguettoli and Sergente Manlio Tarantino.
Pilots in the 75^a Squadriglia were Tenente Pietro Calistri (CO), Tenente Ezio Maria Monti, Sottotenente Giuseppe De Angelis, Sottotenente Renato Villa, Maresciallo Giovanni Carmello and Maresciallo Carlo Dentis.
The pilots in the Ca.133s were Tenente Marino Commissoli, Sergente Pardino Pardini (70^a Squadriglia), Tenente Lorenzo Lorenzoni (74^a Squadriglia), Tenente Pausi, Sottotenente Leopoldo Marangoni (brother in law of Maggiore Carlo Romagnoli) and Sergente Leo Mannucci (75^a Squadriglia)).
The Gruppo landed at Tripoli-Castel Benito at 17:15. Celso Zemella’s fighter was left behind at Pantelleria after an engine breakdown.

On 19 December, the 23^o Gruppo moved to Z1 landing ground at Ain el Gazala.

The last Italian bombing mission of the day on 27 December 1940 was again against Sollum. Four SM 79s from the 41^o Stormo under Tenente Colonnello D’Ippolito and four bombers from the 216^a Squadriglia, 34^o Stormo, led by Tenente Romanini took off from Tmini at 14:30.
They were escorted by fighters from the 23^o Gruppo and 10^o Gruppi. Maggiore Tito Falconi was at the head of the formation of the first unit, which also included Tenente Claudio Solaro, Sottotenente Oscar Abello and Sergente Ubaldo Marziali from the 70^a Squadriglia, Tenente Mario Pinna, Sottotenente Pausi and Sergente Giuseppe Sanguettoli from the 74^a Squadriglia and Tenente Pietro Calistri, Tenente Ezio Maria Monti, Maresciallo Giovanni Carmello, Sergente Leo Mannucci and Sottotenente Leopoldo Marangoni from the 75^a Squadriglia.
It seems that the bomber formation split and the 41^o Stormo attacked British mechanized units in Halfaya and Gabr Bu Fares under heavy AA that damaged, although slightly, all the aircraft. The SM 79s of the 34^o Stormo attacked ships in Sollum harbour and were intercepted by many Hurricanes. The SM 79s were totally unable to defend themselves because of icing on all the guns and one of them was shot down. This was Sottotenente Aldo Peterlini’s bomber and Peterlini was killed together with three of his crew (Sergente Maggiore Arturo Scagnetti (second pilot), Aviere Scelto Motorista Alcide Frizzera and Aviere Scelto Radiotelegrafista Gioacchino Scuderi). The other two members of the crew (Primo Aviere Armiere Ciancilla and Primo Aviere Montatore Fiore) where able to bale out. Tenente Pandolfi’s aircraft was riddled by enemy bullets (probably RD) while the other two SM 79s were less seriously damaged although suffering some wounded among their crews.
They had been intercepted by 33 Squadron which claimed three SM 79s and one probable and probably two CR.42s during offensive patrols performed by pairs of Hurricanes over Sollum. They also claimed one SM 79 and one CR.42 damaged. Vernon Woodward claimed one of the probable CR.42s and the damaged CR.42.
Falconi’s pilots recorded combat with many Hurricanes, one of which was claimed as probable by the 70^a Squadriglia and six more were damaged. Tenente Solaro and Sottotenente Abello returned with damaged fighters. Solaro had been hit by AA fire and Sottotenente Abello by British fighters. Calistri and his men claimed a shared Hurricane and four more damaged. They landed back at 16:55. A shot down Hurricane was also recorded by the 74^a Squadriglia, which also recorded a SM 79 shot down by AA fire.
The CR.42 escort from the 10^o Gruppo was composed of seven fighters from the 90^a Squadriglia (Tenente Giovanni Guiducci, Tenente Franco Lucchini, Sottotenente Alessandro Rusconi, Sottotenente Neri De Benedetti, Sergente Alfredo Sclavo, Sergente Bruno Bortoletti and Sergente Enrico Botti), six from the 84^a Squadriglia (Capitano Luigi Monti, Tenente Antonio Angeloni, Sottotenente Bruno Devoto, Sergente Maggiore Salvatore Mechelli, Sergente Domenico Santonocito and Sergente Piero Buttazzi) and six from the 91^a Squadriglia (Maggiore Carlo Romagnoli, Capitano Vincenzo Vanni, Sottotenente Andrea Dalla Pasqua, Sottotenente Orlando Mandolini, Sottotenente Ennio Grifoni and Sergente Elio Miotto). Tenente Guiducci reported that the heavy AA immediately hit one of the SM 79s, which was shot down. Then five monoplanes (Hurricanes and Spitfires(!)) tried to attack but were immediately counterattacked and one of them was shot down. Later, another attempt by a lone British fighter failed after the intervention of the Italian escort. The 90^a Squadriglia pilots expanded 320 rounds of ammunition and it seems that in the end the victory was assigned to the whole formation as a Gruppo victory. It seems that it was the same aircraft claimed independently by the two Squadriglie of the 23^o Gruppo.

On 2 January 1941, the 23^o Gruppo recorded an escort mission to SM 79s bombing Sollum Harbour. The fighters took off at 14:45 and the participating pilots were Maggiore Tito Falconi, Tenente Claudio Solaro, Tenente Gino Battaggion, Tenente Marino Commissoli, Sergente Maggiore Balilla Albani and Sergente Ubaldo Marziali of the 70^a Squadriglia, Tenente Mario Pinna, Tenente Lorenzo Lorenzoni, Sottotenente Sante Schiroli, Sottotenente Milano Pausi, Sergente Manlio Tarantino and Sergente Giuseppe Sanguettoli of the 74^a Squadriglia and Tenente Pietro Calistri, Tenente Ezio Maria Monti, Sottotenente Renato Villa, Maresciallo Giovanni Carmello, Maresciallo Luigi Pasquetti and Sergente Leo Mannucci of 75^a Squadriglia. Together with them were some CR.42s from the 10^o Gruppo flown by Capitano Luigi Monti, Sottotenente Bruno Devoto, Sergente Domenico Santonocito, Sergente Piero Buttazzi, Sergente Corrado Patrizi and Sergente Mario Veronesi of the 84^a Squadriglia, Tenente Giovanni Guiducci, Sottotenente Neri De Benedetti, Sergente Luigi Contarini and Sergente Alfredo Sclavo of the 90^a Squadriglia and finally Maggiore Carlo Romagnoli, Capitano Vincenzo Vanni and Sergente Maggiore Lorenzo Migliorato of the 91^a Squadriglia.
While coming back from the action Maggiore Falconi led his men in a strafing attack in the Capuzzo area, Tenente Pinna’s pilots claiming three armoured cars destroyed. Falconi’s CR.42 returned hit in many places by the AA reaction. All the fighters were back at 17:20.

He was promoted to Tenente on 6 February 1942.

At 10:15 on 5 September, six Hurricane IIds of 6 Squadron took off to attack a reported nine or more tanks. Six Hurricane IIbs of 7 SAAF Squadron gave medium and twelve of 127 Squadron were above. The formation was ordered back due to the presence of hostile fighters, but 127 Squadron was attacked by some 20 or more and Pilot Officer A. L. Rebman was shot down, crash-landing north of Lake Maghra. He was picked up safely by an army unit. He had probably fallen foul of the 15 MC.202s of the 23^o Gruppo which were providing protection to Italian armoured forces. The pilots of these reported meeting a large formation of Spitfires and P-40s at 09:30, claiming four P-40s shot down and one probable south of El Alamein. Three claims were made by Tenente Ezio Monti (75^a Squadriglia), Sergente Aldo Orsucci (75^a Squadriglia) and Tenente Milano Pausi (75^a Squadriglia) while the fourth was claimed as a shared between Capitano Giorgio Tugnoli (74^a Squadriglia) and Sergente Maggiore Celso Zemella (70^a Squadriglia). The probable was claimed by Sergente Maggiore Emilio Stefani (70^a Squadriglia).
Capitano Claudio Solaro (70^a Squadriglia) force-landed with MC.202 MM9059 within Italian lines.

He was killed in North Africa on 20 October 1942.

At the time of his death, Pausi was credited with 1 shared biplane victory and a total of 1.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1940
	27/12/40	14:30-	1/3	Hurricane (b)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	74a Squadriglia
	1941
	02/01/41	14:45-17:20	1/6	Armoured car	Shared destroyed on the ground	Fiat CR.42		Capuzzo area	74a Squadriglia
	02/01/41	14:45-17:20	1/6	Armoured car	Shared destroyed on the ground	Fiat CR.42		Capuzzo area	74a Squadriglia
	02/01/41	14:45-17:20	1/6	Armoured car	Shared destroyed on the ground	Fiat CR.42		Capuzzo area	74a Squadriglia
	1942
1	05/09/42	09:30	1	P-40 (b)	Destroyed	MC.202		S El Alamein	75a Squadriglia

Biplane victories: 1 shared destroyed, 3 armoured cars shared destroyed on the ground.
TOTAL: 1 and 1 shared destroyed, 3 armoured cars shared destroyed on the ground.
(a) Claimed in combat with Hurricanes from 33 Squadron, which claimed two probable CR.42s and one damaged without losses. The 10^o and 23^o Gruppi claimed 3 Hurricanes and 1 probably shot down with another 10 damaged while suffering 3 damaged CR.42s.
(b) Probably claimed in combat with Hurricane IIbs from 260 Squadron, which lost 1 Hurricane (pilot safe). 23^o Gruppo claimed 4 and 1 probable P-40s while losing 1 MC.202.

Sources:
A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945: Volume Two – Christopher Shores and Giovanni Massimello with Russell Guest, Frank Olynyk & Winfried Bock, 2012 Grub Street, London, ISBN-13: 9781909166127
Annuario Ufficiale Delle Forze Armate Del Regno D’Italia Anno 1943. Part III Regia Aeronautica – 1943 Istituto Poligrafico Dello Stato, Roma
Ministero della Difesa
Desert Prelude: Early clashes June-November 1940 - Håkan Gustavsson and Ludovico Slongo, 2010 MMP books, ISBN 978-83-89450-52-4
Desert Prelude: Operation Compass - Håkan Gustavsson and Ludovico Slongo, 2011 MMP books, ISBN 978-83-61421-18-4
Elenco Nominativo dei Militari dell’ A. M. Decorati al V. M. Durante it Periodo 1929 - 1945 2 Volume M - Z