Spain
Lieutenant General Carlos Bayo Alessandri
Spain
Lieutenant General Carlos Bayo Alessandri
When the Spanish Civil War begun Carlos Bayo Alessandri served as a machine-gunner/bomber in the Cordoba Breugets, were he remained until spring 1937.
He then went to Pilots’ School and from there he was posted to the He51 group.
He joined 2-G-3 in November 1937. This unit was equipped with the Fiat CR.32.
On 28 December 1937 he attacked a Chato head on over the crossroads at Albarracín, scoring some hits. He made a second attack from astern and the enemy fighter began to lose height and crashing behind Republican lines.
On the afternoon of 6 January 1938, Lieutenants Vázquez and Bayo went to the defense of a unit of He111s that was being attacked by enemy fighters. Vázquez attacked the lower group hitting a Chato, which fell in flames to the east of Teruel, while Bayo was successful in destroying a second Chato.
At 08:00 on 29 January, García Pardo and Bayo spotted Russina tanks moving to attack Nationalist positions at Cabezón, in the Singra sector. They attacked these at low level with machine-gun fire, and shortly after found eleven more tanks attacking to the east of Celadas. Returning to base their ammunition exhausted, they located five tanks on the plain near Singra, with five more behind them.
In March 1938, the Group took part in Aragón offensive and on the 12th of the month, 2-G-3 encountered enemy aircraft attempting to stop the sweeping advance. During the afternoon eighteen Fiats, led by Ángel Salas, escorted Ju52s on a raid, and having completed this task made a sweep of the front as far as Híjar, where they encountered twenty Chatos. In the ensuing dogfights, Salas claimed one probable, while Garcia Pardo destroyed one Chato, which fell near Híjar. The wreckage of this machine was recovered subsequently, and a piece of it was retained, on which ensuing victories of 2-G-3 were recorded, as well as the names of all those in the group who were killed. Guerrero set fire to another Chato, whose pilot took to his parachute from a very low height. Julio Salvador attacked another machine, which began to trail smoke, but he was unable to continue his attack as his Fiat was almost out of fuel; unable to return to his base at Tauste, he had to land at Saragossa. Carlos Serra, Bayo and de Hemricourt each were successful in shooting down an enemy machine.
On 4 May Commander Salas had his fuel and water tanks holed by machine-gun fire from the ground, forcing him to make an emergency landing at Aguilar aerodrome, which had been occupied only days before. During the same sortie the Fiats flown by Bayo, Muntadas and de Hemricourt all received damage from ground fire.
On 14 August, Groups 2-G-3 and 3-G-3 attacked a formation of Ratas, which were pursuing some He111s over Gandesa. Other Chatos and Ratas later joined in the battle.
Group 2-G-3 claimed three Ratas (García Pardo, Bayo and de Hemricourt) and 3-G-3 claimed two more (Joaquín García-Morato and O’Connor). 2-G-3s record of operations described the combat:
“García Pardo attacked some Ratas which were pursuing an He111, shooting down one of the which fell near to Mora de Ebro … Lieutenant Bayo attacked three Ratas and succeeded in destroying one which fell on the edge of the Blanerías mountains. Later he attacked a Chato, but was unable to ascertain whether it was destroyed as damage to his engine forced him to land at Horte…The Republican side reported that 1st, 3rd and 4th Squadrons fought against 90 enemy aircraft, which included seven Bf109s and 27 He111s, and claimed the destruction of three Fiats and one He111. They lost one Rata from 4th Squadron and two more pilots were injured. Republican pilot Meroño also managed to get a Rata back to base with half of the elevator shot away. According to Nationalist records no bomb fell on this day, and the only Fiat to be lost was that of Second Lieutenant Mesía (3-75) which did not return to base. Lieutenant Bayo (3-127) had to make a forced landing and Second Lieutenant Alonso Fariña (3-139) was wounded and landed at Puig Moreno. Second Lieutenant Manrique’s Fiat was hit 30 times, but he managed to get back to base at Escatrón. Krug’s He51 was also badly mauled by enemy fire, but he too got back to base at Mas de las Matas.
Lieutenant de Hemricourt fired at one Rata without any result; and then attacked some Ratas engaged with other Fiats, hitting one which fell in a wood to the north of Reus.”
On 2 September in a single attack, Salas destroyed three Katiuskas, and then capped this by damaging the aircraft flown by the leader of the 1st Escuadrilla de Moscas squadron that was escorting them. This pilot, Jose Martin Redondo (the son of the mayor of Madrid), took to his parachute and was guarded by Salas until he had almost reached the ground. Salas, before flying away, raised an arm in salute, and Redondo responded in a similar manner.
This event must have been well known in the Government zone, as it was reported from several sources.
In this combat 2-G-3 rounded also claimed four more Ratas (Vázquez, Alcocer, Bayo and Esteban Ibarreche Arriaga) and one more Katiuska (Salvador Serra).
The Katiuskas flown by Blas, Monzónis and Pavía were shot down. These were all from the 4th Squadron of Grupo 24 led by Ricote.
When Salas landed at Mérida he received news that his brother, Ignacio, had just been killed in the Ebro sector, during an attack on Bot by another Katiuska squadron.
The Colonel in Charge of the 1st Air Brigade sent the following congratulations to Salas:
“The part played by the group under your command in today's operation has filled me with pride and it gives me great satisfaction to have people under my command who know how to make the best use of prevailing circumstances. It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you personally, and the whole of your unit, to whom I hope you will convey this message.”
On 20 September a series of daily battles began, culminating in fierce combats on 2 and 3 October. Groups 2-G-3 and 3-G-3 fought jointly in all these battles, achieving a total of twenty-five victories (17 by 2-G-3). Of these Bayo claimed four.
On 15 October four squadrons of Fiats made a combined sortie, three from 2-G-3, and one from 3-G-3. They succeeded in destroying two Ratas (Bayo and González Guzmán), one for each group. Salas, Vázquez and Bayo each damaged another.
The battle of the Ebro ended in the middle of November and after this Bayo was transferred to 5-G-5, which was equipped with German monoplanes (Bf109s and He112s). Bayo, however, didn’t claim anything while flying in this unit.
After the end of the war he was decorated with the Cruz Militar (the Military Medal) and promoted for his services during the war. The medal was however not presented to him until the day of Our Lady of Lareto in 1941, by which time he was involved in a new war!
Bayo ended the Civil War with 11 biplane victories of which six were I-16s and five were I-15s.
He later volunteered for combat in Russia and was part of the 1o.Escuadrilla Azul, (Escuadrilla Expedicionaria) which was formed with 17 pilots with Salas as the Commander. Some of them were veterans of the Spanish Civil War and had a combined score of 79 aerial victories.
The unit crossed into France on 24 July 1941, later arriving in Germany in late part of the month.
They were assigned to training at the Jagdfliegerrschule 1 at Werneuchen near Berlin.
After completing their training on Bf109E’s, the 1o.Escuadrilla left for Russia on 26 September.
At first the Spanish pilots were worried that they would arrive late to see any action, since they were kept informed of the progress of the German advance towards Moscow.
The 1o.Escuadrilla received a total of 12 Bf109E-4s and –7s and they were assigned to JG27, VIII FliegerKorps of LuftFlotte 2. They were known as the “15 Spanische Staffel”, and they started to fly their first combat operations on 2 October and suffered its first pilot causality in that same day. Escorting German bombers and reconnaissance aircraft, they operated from 12 different airfields.
On 7 October, the Escuadrilla undertook 42 sorties and in the course of the day, Commendante Ángel Salas Larrazábal shot down an “I-18” for his third personal and unit victory while Captain Bayo claimed a damaged MiG-3.
On 13 October, Captain Bayo claimed an I-18 while Lieutenant Esteban Ibarreche Arriaga claimed a biplane.
On 14 October, Salas in the company with three other pilots in a “free hunt” near Kalinin surprised three DB-3 bombers. In the resulting combat Salas claimed two, while Captain Bayo destroyed the third DB-3, but during the heat of the combat Salas and Bayo collided resulting in Salas Bf109’s rudder being partially destroyed but he made it back to base.
Bayo claimed a DB-3 on 17 October (alternatively on 18 October).
The 1o.Escuadrilla Azul received the orders to return to Spain on 6 January 1942.
During their time in Russia the unit flew a total of 460 missions, were engaged in 94 aerial combats and destroyed 10 enemy aircraft plus four on the ground, for the loss of 5 pilots (one KIFA, three MIA and one KIA) plus one wounded in action.
Bayo totally claimed 3 victories and 1 destroyed on the ground during his time in Russia.
Carlos Bayo ended the war with 11 biplane victories and a total of 14. All of the biplane victories were claimed during the Spanish Civil War.
Bayo passed away on 1 February 1979.
Claims:
| Kill no. | Date | Number | Type | Result | Plane type | Serial no. | Locality | Unit |
| 1937 | ||||||||
| 1 | 28/12/37 | 1 | I-15 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | Albarracín area | 2-G-3 | |
| 1938 | ||||||||
| 2 | 06/01/38 | 1 | I-15 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | Teruel area | 2-G-3 | |
| 3 | 12/03/38 | 1 | I-15 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | Híjar | 2-G-3 | |
| 4 | 14/08/38 | 1 | I-16 (a) | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | 3-127 | Blanerías mountains | 2-G-3 |
| 14/08/38 | 1 | I-15 (a) | Damaged | Fiat CR.32 | 3-127 | Blanerías mountains | 2-G-3 | |
| 5 | 02/09/38 | 1 | I-16 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | 2-G-3 | ||
| 6 | 15/10/38 | 1 | I-16 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | 2-G-3 | ||
| 15/10/38 | 1 | I-16 | Damaged | Fiat CR.32 | 2-G-3 | |||
| 7 | ??/??/38 | 1 | I-16 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | 2-G-3 | ||
| 8 | ??/??/38 | 1 | I-16 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | 2-G-3 | ||
| 9 | ??/??/38 | 1 | I-16 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | 2-G-3 | ||
| 10 | ??/??/38 | 1 | I-15 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | 2-G-3 | ||
| 11 | ??/??/38 | 1 | I-15 | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | 2-G-3 | ||
| 1941 | ||||||||
| 07/10/41 | 1 | MiG-3 | Damaged | Bf109E | Russia | 1o.Escuadrilla Azul | ||
| 12 | 13/10/41 | 1 | I-16 | Destroyed | Bf109E | Russia | 1o.Escuadrilla Azul | |
| 13 | 14/10/41 | 1 | DB-3 (b) | Destroyed | Bf109E | Kalinin area | 1o.Escuadrilla Azul | |
| 14 | 17/10/41 (c) | 1 | DB-3 (d) | Enemy aircraft | Bf109E | Russia | 1o.Escuadrilla Azul | |
| ??/??/41 | 1 | Enemy aircraft | Destroyed on the ground | Bf109E | Russia | 1o.Escuadrilla Azul |
Biplane victories: 11 destroyed, 2 damaged.
TOTAL: 14 destroyed, 3 damaged, 1 destroyed on the ground.
(a) Claimed in combat with I-16 from 1st, 3rd and 4th Squadrons who lost at least one I-16 and got three more damaged while claiming 3 CR.32s and 1 He111. 2-G-3 claimed three I-16s and 3-G-3 claimed two more while losing one CR.32 and getting 3 more damaged.
(b) According to German sources this was claimed as an SB-3.
(c) Alternatively on 18 October.
(d) According to German sources this was claimed on 18 October 1941.
Sources:
Air War over Spain - Jesus Salas Larrazabal, 1974 Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, Surrey, ISBN 0-7110-0521-4
Angel Salas Larrazabal - A Fighter Ace in Two Wars (WWII Ace Stories) - Santiago A. Flores, 2001
Några leva än - F. G. Tinker, 1939 T. V. Scheutz Bokförlag AB, Stockholm
The Facile Fiat...Rosatelli's "Italian Fighter" - Air Enthusiast/Twenty-Two
The Legion Condor - Karl Ries and Hans Ring, 1992 Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 0-88740-339-5
Additional information kindly provided by Christer Bergström, Ondrej Repka and Tom Semenza.
