Italy
Capitano Claudio Solaro
Italy
Capitano Claudio Solaro
Claudio Solaro was born in Crusinallo d'Omegna, in the province of Novara on 10 February 1914.
He volunteered to the Spanish Civil War in 1936 after having got his commission as Sottenente. In Spain he served in the 26a Squadriglia of the XVI Gruppo “La Cucaracha”. This unit was equipped with Fiat CR.32s.
On 23 August 1938 he claimed a Polikarpov I-16 “Rata”.
On 30 October 1938 he was shot down over enemy territory. He parachuted successfully but was taken POW. He was released from prison in February 1939.
When he returned to Italy in September 1939 he received a permanent commission ‘by war merits’.
He was promoted to Tenente in October and posted to the 70a Squadriglia, 23o Gruppo, 3o Stormo C.T. This unit was equipped with Fiat CR.42s.
When the war started on 10 June 1940 3o Stormo was sent to the French border to take part in the attacks on southern France.
Solaro took part in the big attack on French airfields on 15 June.
After a very short resettling period at 3o Stormo’s home base at Mirafiori, the 23o Gruppo became Autonomo on 9 July and moved to Sicily to take part in the attacks on Malta.
On 28 July 1940 Solaro took command of the 70a Squadriglia, 23o Gruppo Autonomo C.T., which was at this time equipped with Fiat CR.42s. Solaro was to command the 70a Squadriglia until 1943.
Newly arrived reinforcement of Hurricanes allowed a strong reception of a raid over Malta during the morning on 23 November 1940. Ten 34o Stormo S.79s escorted by eighteen CR.42s of 23o Gruppo raided Takali and eight Hurricanes scrambled to intercept the raid as it came over Fifla at 16,000 feet. George Burges in Hurricane V7548 attacked five of the bombers in company with a couple of fighters. He thought he hit one “pretty hard”, and saw it going down, although he did not see it crash. He then shot pieces of another. Sergeant Robertson in V7474 (which had arrived on the island on the 17th November) also tried to attack the bombers, but was attacked himself by six CR.42s. He took evasive action, and fired at four, reporting that his fire tore the fabric from the top wing of one, which went into cloud. He claimed this as a probable, but it was only credited as a damaged. Meanwhile the Italian pilots were after the Hurricanes, Capitano Guido Bobba, Tenente Claudio Solaro and Sergente Pardini each claiming one shot down, while all the pilots of the 75a Squadriglia claimed a fourth between them. Flight Lieutenant H. F. R. Bradbury’s aircraft was hit badly and he force-landed at Luqa. All the Italian fighters returned safely to their base.
At sunset on 24 November, six CR.42s of the 23o Gruppo C.T. from Comiso attacked the airfield of Luqa (called Mikabba by the Italians) on Malta. The pilots participating in the attack had been selected among the best of the unit (Maggiore Tito Falconi (Gruppo CO), Tenente Solaro, Capitano Guido Bobba (CO 74a Squadriglia), Capitano Ottorino Fargnoli (CO 70a Squadriglia), Tenente Ezio Maria Monti and Sottotenente Domenico Tessera). They strafed from very low altitude, claiming one plane in flames for sure and additional damage. Back at base, the Italian War Bulletin credited them of three ground victories. They had in fact managed to burn Wellington “F” of 38 Squadron (the machine of Pilot Officer Timmins) in transit from Marham to Egypt, and according to post war British studies, they had possibly destroyed an additional machine of 148 Squadron. During the return journey, Tenente Monti became disoriented while escaping the attentions of a British night fighter and used all its fuel before reaching Comiso, being obliged to bale out over Stagnone di Marsala.
Pilot Officer Timmins was immediately sent back to England to collect a replacement machine.
On 16 December the 23o Gruppo moved to North Africa, where it took part in the defensive operations against the British forces, following operation crusade.
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 23o Gruppo led by the CO, Maggiore Tito Falconi and 22 CR.42s from the 10o Gruppo. The CR.42s from the 23o Gruppo included three from the 70a Squadriglia (Tenente Solaro, Sergente Pardino Pardini and Tenente Gino Battaggion), five from the 74a 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 75a Squadriglia (Tenente Pietro Calistri, Tenente Ezio Monti, Sottotenente Renato Villa, Sottotenente Leopoldo Marangoni and Maresciallo Carlo Dentis). The fighters from the the 10o Gruppo included seven from the 91a 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 84a 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 90a 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 41o Stormo under Tenente Colonnello Draghelli and five SM 79s 216a Squadriglia, 53o Gruppo, 34o 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 34o 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 70a 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 10o Gruppo. Another Gladiator was assigned to the 23o Gruppo (in the documents of 75a 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 74a, 75a and the 84a Squadriglie) were engaged in a sharp dogfight with the Gladiators. The Australians were able to shot down the CO of the 74a 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 74a Squadriglia by Tenente Mario Pinna.
On 4 January 1941, Hurricane Mk.Is of 33 and 274 Squadrons patrolled the battle area during the British push towards Tobruk in Cirenaica. A pilot from 33 Squadron claimed a CR.42 over Bardia-Tobruk, Pilot Officer S. Godden (V7558) of 274 Squadron claimed two more and Flight Sergeant T. C. Morris also of 274 Squadron claimed a forth. Morris’ aircraft (V7293) was however hit in the radiator and he made a forced-landing. Flying Officer T. L. Patterson (P2643) was also hit and obliged to force-land.
These actions had been fought against S.79-escorting CR.42s of 10o and 23o Gruppi. The Italian pilots returned reporting that they had attacked a large British formation and claiming two Hurricanes and a probable Blenheim. One Hurricane was claimed by Tenente Colonello Carlo Romagnoli, 10o Gruppo commander, and the other by Maresciallo Leonardo Ferrulli of 91a Squadriglia. Tenente Solaro returned claiming the probable Blenheim.
The Italians lost three aircraft, Sottotenente Ennio Grifoni of 91a Squadriglia was shot down in flames, Sottotenente Bruno Devoto force-landed at Tobruk’s T5 landing ground and Tenente Gino Battaggion of 70a Squadriglia was wounded and force-landed at Ain el-Gazala. Battaggion who had been escorting S.79s bombing armored cars in the Bardia area, recalled:
”At 18,000 feet I saw two Hurricanes in front of me. I began shooting. They shot at me too. Suddenly, I felt a hit. An explosive bullet broke the windshield into many pieces and I was slightly wounded in the head. The explosion broke my goggles and wounded me in one eye. With blood oozing down my face, I lost consciousness for some seconds, perhaps ten or twenty. I recovered consciousness due to the air rushing into the cockpit and found that the aircraft was spinning. I managed to recover from the spin and when I was near the ground fired a burst at some trucks. My wingman signalled to me that one wheel of my aircraft was damaged but I managed to land at Ain el-Gazala, near an ambulance. I landed at the slowest speed possible, holding the weight of the aircraft on the one serviceable wheel, and succeeded in stopping without overturning. The personnel near the ambulance recovered me and for about three months I could not fly because the eye gave me a lot of trouble. Some splinters had been extracted from my head – some of them are still there.”
Between 07:55 and 10:05 on 28 January, an offensive patrol was flown by Tenente Solaro, Tenente Marino Commissoli, Sergente Maggiore Balilla Albani of the 70a Squadriglia together with some other pilots of the Gruppo over Derna-Mechili where they strafed British armoured vehicles.
On 16 February, he was promoted to Capitano on war merits.
23o Gruppo returned to Sicily in April 1941.
On 28 September 1941 he destroyed one Blenheim, which fell in the sea about 30km south-east of Capo Granitola, Sicily. At the time Solaro was flying a MC.200, a few which had now been received by the unit.
Solaro also flew in the night defence of Palermo during this period together with 23o Gruppo's commander Maggiore Tito Falconi. In this task they used an all black MC.200. During one of his night sorties he fired his guns at a twin-engined aircraft, but wasn’t able to ascertain the outcome of his attack.
At the beginning of 1942, the 23o Gruppo joined the 18o Gruppo to establish the 3o Stormo again. The units reassembled at Mirafori to be re-equipped with Macchi MC.202s.
The unit returned to North Africa and took part of the Axis offensive into Egypt during the summer and fall of 1942.
In less than three months, from 31 July to 20 October, Solaro claimed eight enemy aircraft. He also claimed several shared during this period, being engaged in dozens of aerial combats.
On 31 July 1942 a formation of 12 MC.202s from 70a and 74a Squadriglias surprised a squadron of Kittyhawks, who were attacking German lines at Bir Mukeisin with a squadron of Spitfires as escort. Totally was the allied group twice as big as the Italian was.
Despite this the Italian fighters attacked and during the following dogfight five of the enemy fighters were claimed as destroyed. In this combat enemy aircraft were claimed by Capitano Giorgio Tugnoli, Capitano Solaro, Sergente Maggiore Celso Zemella, Sergente Maggiore Mantelli. The fifth was claimed jointly by Tenente Moruzzi, Tenente Spinelli, Sottotenente Sprinelli Barrile and Sottotenente Carlo Brigante Colonna. Capitano Tugnoli and Sergente Maggiore Stefani claimed two more aircraft as probables. Eleven more of the enemy aircraft was shot at.
All the Italian aircraft returned to base.
At 10:05 on 29 August 1942 eleven Kittyhawks from 2 SAAF Squadron and eleven Tomahawks from 5 SAAf Squadron patrolled the forward areas, meeting a reported ten plus Bf109s and MC.202s.
The 2 SAAF Squadron claimed one fighter shot down and five damaged when Lieutenant Bennetts claimed a MC.202, Lieutenant Lancelot Charles Henry Hope claimed a damaged Bf109 and a damaged MC.202, while Captain Parsonson and Lieutenant Hojem each claimed a damaged MC.202. Lieutenant Morrison claimed a damaged Bf109. Lieutenant Joseph Kourie (SAAF no. 104000) of the unit was shot down and killed.
5 SAAF Squadron claimed two fighters and two probables when Second Lieutenant Smith claimed a MC.202, Lieutenant Lindebergh a Bf109 and Captain Colman and Major Pearce claimed a probable Bf109 each. Pearce aircraft was damaged in this combat.
No Luftwaffe aircraft sxeems to have been in the air at this occasion but it seem that they had clashed with 23o Gruppo, which scrambled to intercept and identify eleven P-40s. During the following combat the Italian pilots claimed five SAAF aircraft. One was claimed by Maggiore Luigi Filippi, one by Capitano Solaro and two by Sottentente Farinetti. One more was claimed as a probable by Tenente Marinone.
On 31 August 1942 two Italian formations from 23o Gruppo flew a fighter sweep over the front-line to protect Italian and German troops.
Maggiore Luigi Filippi led one eight-plane formation and Capitano Solaro led the other ten-plane formation.
The Italian fighters intercepted a dozen of Boston bombers escorted by two squadrons Kittyhawks. Maggiore Filippi and his formation attacked the main enemy formation while Solaro and his formation attacked a smaller group of British aircraft. The combat was fierce but lasted only a few minutes. In fact it was so short that Tenente Giorgio Solaroli who led the Italian top-cover, never got any opportunities to intervene.
During the combat Solaro, Sergente Maggiore Albani and Sergente Maggiore Celso Zemella each claimed Kittyhawks (even if Zemella claimed that his opponent had been a Spitfire). Maggiore Filippi and Capitano Mario Pinna claimed a fourth Kittyhawk together.
On 5 September and 10 November he was forced to crash-land due to combat damage, but managed to get out unharmed both times.
On 10 October he intercepted three Fairey Albacores and claimed two of them.
3o Stormo was the last unit to leave Tripoli’s sky and withdraw from Libya to Tunisia and from this the war’s end was not far.
Solaro ended the war with 2 biplane victories and a total of 12 destroyed.
During the war Solaro was awarded with two Medaglie d’argento al valore militare (Silver medals for military valour), three Medaglie di bronzo al valore militare (Bronze medals for military valour), three Croci di guerra (War Cross) and the German Iron Cross 2nd Class.
Solaro remained in service after the war and took an active part in the rebirth of the Italian Air Force. During this period he was posted both to operational units and to the Headquarters.
He retired as Generale di Squadra Aerea.
Claims:
| Kill no. | Date | Time | Number | Type | Result | Plane type | Serial no. | Locality | Unit |
| 1938 | |||||||||
| 1 | 23/08/38 | 1 | I-16 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | Spain | 26a Squadriglia | ||
| 1940 | |||||||||
| 2 | 23/11/40 | 1 | Hurricane (a) | Destroyed | Fiat CR.42 | Fifla | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 24/11/40 | sunset | 1/6 | Enemy aircraft (b) | Shared destroyed on the ground | Fiat CR.42 | Luqa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 24/11/40 | sunset | 1/6 | Enemy aircraft (b) | Shared destroyed on the ground | Fiat CR.42 | Luqa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 24/11/40 | sunset | 1/6 | Enemy aircraft (b) | Shared destroyed on the ground | Fiat CR.42 | Luqa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 26/12/40 | -15:05 | 1/3 | Hurricane (c) | Shared destroyed | CR.42 | Sollum area | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 26/12/40 | -15:05 | 1/13 | Gladiator (c) | Shared destroyed | CR.42 | Sollum area | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 1941 | |||||||||
| 04/01/41 | 1 | Blenheim | Probable | CR.42 | Bardia-Tobruk | 70a Squadriglia | |||
| 3 | 28/09/41 | 1 | Blenheim (d) | Destroyed | MC.200 | off Sicily | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 1942 | |||||||||
| 4 | 31/07/42 | 1 | P-40 | Destroyed | MC.202 | Bir Mukeisin area | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 5 | 29/08/42 | 1 | P-40 (e) | Destroyed | MC.202 | North Africa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 6 | 31/08/42 | 1 | P-40 | Destroyed | MC.202 | North Africa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 7 | 03/09/42 | 1 | P-40 | Destroyed | MC.202 | North Africa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 8 | 02/10/42 | 1 | Spitfire | Destroyed | MC.202 | North Africa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 9 | 10/10/42 | 1 | Albacore | Destroyed | MC.202 | North Africa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 10 | 10/10/42 | 1 | Albacore | Destroyed | MC.202 | North Africa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 11 | 20/10/42 | 1 | P-40 Kittyhawk | Destroyed | MC.202 | North Africa | 70a Squadriglia | ||
| 12 | 20/10/42 | 1 | P-40 Kittyhawk | Destroyed | MC.202 | North Africa | 70a Squadriglia |
Sources:
3o Stormo, storia fotografica - Dai biplani agli aviogetti - C. Lucchini and E. Leproni, 1990 Gino Rossato Editore kindly provided by Jean Michel Cala with translations kindly provided by Birgitta Hallberg-Lombardi
Assi Italiani Della Caccia 1936-1945 - 1999 Aerofan no. 69 apr.-giu. 1999, kindly provided by Jean Michel Cala
Courage Alone - Chris Dunning, 1998 Hikoki Publications, Aldershot, ISBN 1-902109-02-3
Capitano Claudio Solaro (Galleria degli Assi) - Giovanni Massimello, 1998 Aerofan nr. 64 gen-marzo 1998, kindly provided by Jean Michel Cala.
Fighters over the Desert - Christopher Shores and Hans Ring, 1969 Neville Spearman Limited, London
Hurricanes over Tobruk - Brian Cull with Don Minterne, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-11-X
Malta: The Hurricane Years 1940-41 - Christopher Shores and Brian Cull with Nicola Malizia, 1987 Grub Street, London, ISBN 0-89747-207-1
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Additional information kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo.
