Armando Piragino was born on 29 September 1904 and was from Livorno.

On 1 November 1925, he was commissioned (in Servizio Permanente Effettivo).

On 11 July 1932, Capitano Piragino took command of the 96^a Squadriglia after Capitano Innocenzo Monti.
On 6 April 1936, Capitano Marco Minio Paluello took command of the unit after Capitano Piragino.

He was promoted to Tenente Colonnello on 17 April 1939.

On 1 April 1940, Tenente Colonnello Piragino took command over the 10^o Gruppo after Maggiore Vincenzo Dequal.

When Italy declared war on the Great Britain and France in June 1940, the 10^o Gruppo, 4^o Stormo C.T. was stationed in Libya. The unit was at the time equipped with the Fiat CR.42.

At 07:45 on 19 June, four Gladiators from 33 Squadron flown by Squadron Leader D. V. Johnson (N5782), Flight Lieutenant G. E. Hawkins (N5765), Flying Officer A. H. Lynch (N5764), and Sergeant Roy Leslie Green (L9043) accompanied by Flying Officer Peter Wykeham-Barnes (Hurricane Mk.I P2639) of 80 Squadron and two Blenheim IFs from 30 Squadron took off from Mersa Matruh to patrol between Bug Bug and Sollum.
At 09:40, they sighted a formation of nine Fiat CR.42s (in other sources it is stated that it was five CR.42s and either seven CR.32s or Ro.37s). The Fiats were slightly below and to the port side of the British fighters, who were in an ideal position to make an attack.
Wykeham-Barnes shot down the leader of the Italian fighters whilst he was doing a vertical turn, with a short burst at full deflection. The Gladiators claimed two more CR.42s, but lost 24-year-old Sergeant Green (RAF No. 44754) when he was shot down despite some violent aerobatics.
The returning RAF pilots reported that although the enemy was superior in numbers, they lacked the aggression of the Gladiator pilots and gradually retreated towards the Libyan border. Wykeham-Barnes found it difficult to get his sights on the Fiats, because they were so very manoeuvrable, but eventually one of them made a mistake and he was able to get in a good burst of shells, which caused the CR.42 to dive away with smoke trailing behind it. He did not actually see it crash, but it was later confirmed as being destroyed by the ground forces. The Gladiators and the Hurricane were then forced to break off the combat by lack of petrol and ammunition. On their way back to Mersa Matruh they had to land at Sidi Barrani to refuel and rearm. The Gladiators were back at 10:10 and Wykeham-Barnes at 10:30.
The Italian aircraft had been from the Tobruk T2 based 10^o Gruppo C.T. At 08:40, five aircraft of the 84^a Squadriglia took off to escort a formation of five Breda Ba.65/A80s of the 159^a Squadriglia, 12^o Gruppo Assalto and nine CR.32s from the 8^o Gruppo, heading to attack enemy vehicles between Sollum and Sidi El Barrani. The Bredas took off at 07:20, commanded by Capitano Duilio Fanali. The Italian fighters of the 84^a Squadriglia were flown by Tenente Colonnello Piragino, Capitano Luigi Monti, Sergente Maggiore Ugo Corsi, Sergente Giuseppe Scaglioni and Sergente Narciso Pillepich (almost certain MM5552). Monti, who was the pilot with the longer war experience insisted with his commander to increase the number of aircraft participating in the escort, but without avail. The assault planes were out in a search-and-destroy mission and firstly they had to find targets. In doing so they started with a pass between Amseat and Bardia, then a second one going beyond Sollum then a third one. In this way, a lot of time was lost and the RAF could scramble its aircraft. The Fiats were over the Bredas, turning at 2000 metres when a number of Glosters and Hurricanes (the Blenheims were not seen at all while the Hurricane was, as usual, misidentified as a Spitfire) suddenly attacked them. After a sharp engagement, three pilots came back to T2. The missing pilots were Corsi and Piragino. A CR.42s (Corsi, who was killed) was clearly seen to fall into the sea after being hit by a Hurricane, while nothing was known of the second CR.42. The Ba.65s came back safely, without seeing enemy planes that were obviously too busy with the 4^o Stormo planes and didn’t engage them. However, returning to T2, the Breda flown by Sergente Maggiore Pietro Scaramucci suffered an engine breakdown and crash-landed, being written-off as a consequence.
Sergente Giuseppe Scaglioni returned claiming a Gladiator (probably Green) and a damaged Spitfire, Sergente Pillepich claimed two damaged Gladiators and Capitano Monti claimed a damaged Gladiator. The same evening a “British communiqué” advised that six (!) British fighters were lost in exchange for two Italians. So all participating pilots in this combat were credited with six shared victories because this was the only combat of the day for Italian units. Some days after, a British message dropped on Bardia informed that Piragino was wounded in a leg after crashing at Sollum and prisoner. Scaglioni described the combat:

“Over Bir el Gib we were surprised by a number of Glosters and a Hurricane that attacked with height advantage giving us a lot of trouble. I saw the commander doing a violent overturning while I was doing a break on the left, this manoeuvre put me behind a Gloster that I shot down with my 12,7 mm guns.
I lost sight of the commander immediately and after landing I knew he was missing. In the same combat we lost Sergente Maggiore Corsi shot down by a Hurricane that I attacked trying to distract it from its action but in vain. For sure Corsi was taken by surprise because he was considered a pilot of exceptional skill and the very best aerobatic pilot of the Stormo.”

On instruction from HQ 202 Group, Flight Lieutenant Black of 208 Squadron, flew over Bardia on 24 June and dropped by parachute messages from Italian prisoners shot down over Egypt. In this way news on Tenente Colonnello Piragino, Sergente Maggiore Ugo Corsi and the crews of the two Savoia SM 79s of the 15^o Stormo that had collided during the night bombing mission on Mersa Matruh were received.

After Piragino’s capture, Capitano Giuseppe D’Agostinis took over the command of the 10^o Gruppo and held it until 11 July, when he passed it to the new CO, Maggiore Carlo Romagnoli.

Piragino ended the war with 6 shared victories, these being claimed while flying the Fiat CR.42.

Piragino continued to server in the Air Force after the war.

Between 1 January 1951 and 1 March 1952, Colonnello Piragino served as CO of the 5^o Stormo C.B.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1940
	19/06/40	1/5	Enemy fighter (a)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	10o Gruppo
	19/06/40	1/5	Enemy fighter (a)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	10o Gruppo
	19/06/40	1/5	Enemy fighter (a)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	10o Gruppo
	19/06/40	1/5	Enemy fighter (a)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	10o Gruppo
	19/06/40	1/5	Enemy fighter (a)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	10o Gruppo
	19/06/40	1/5	Enemy fighter (a)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	10o Gruppo

Biplane victories: 6 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 6 shared destroyed.
(a) Claimed in combat with 33 Squadron, which claimed four victories for the loss of Sergeant Roy Leslie Green (RAF No. 44754), who was shot down and killed. The 84^a Squadriglia claimed six victories for the loss of two CR.42s (Tenente Colonnello Piragino POW and Sergente Maggiore Ugo Corsi killed).

Sources:
Ace of Aces: M T StJ Pattle - E C R Baker, 1992 Crécy Books, Somerton, ISBN 0-947554-36-X
Annuario Ufficiale Delle Forze Armate Del Regno D’Italia Anno 1943. Part III Regia Aeronautica – 1943 Istituto Poligrafico Dello Stato, Roma
Desert Prelude: Early clashes June-November 1940 - Håkan Gustavsson and Ludovico Slongo, 2010 MMP books, ISBN 978-83-89450-52-4
Diario Storico 92^a Squadriglia C.T. kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo.
Diario Storico 94^a Squadriglia C.T. 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
Fiat CR.42 Aces of World War 2 - Håkan Gustavsson and Ludovico Slongo, 2009 Osprey Publishing, Oxford, ISBN 978-1-84603-427-5
Fighters over the Desert - Christopher Shores and Hans Ring, 1969 Neville Spearman Limited, London
Il 5^o Stormo - Giuseppe Pesce and Nicola Malizia, 1984 STEM Mucchi, Modena
Il Breda 65 e l'Aviazione d'Assalto - Giancarlo Garello, 1980 Ed. dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri, Rome, kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Il Fiat CR 42 l’ultimo biplano da caccia Italiano – Nicola Malizia, 2003 Editrice Innocenti, Grosseto, kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
L’8^oGruppo caccia in due conflitti mondiali - Giuseppe Pesce, 1974 S.T.E.M. Mucchi, Modena, kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Quelli del Cavallino Rampante - Antonio Duma, 1981 Editore Dell'Ateneo, Roma, kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
The Desert Air War 1939 – 1945 – Richard Townshend Bickers, 1991 Leo Cooper, London, ISBN 0-85052-216-1, kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Additional info kindly provided by Stefano Lazzaro and Ludovico Slongo.