THE NIGHT OF THE SWORDFISH / La notte dei "Pescispada"

THE NIGHT WHEN THE SWORDFISH CONQUERED THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA /

La notte in cui i "Pescispada" conquistarono il Mediterraneo

Fairey Swordfish Torpedo Bomber

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It would have been really interesting to know what sir John Arbuthnot Fisher would have said, if only he could have be present to the intrepid action of the British naval air force which, during WWII, with a night of raids conquered the supremacy over the Mediterranean Sea.

With the twin night raid pushed through on 11 November 1940 over Taranto, the main port of Italian navy, the Fleet Air Arm inflicted to Italy one of the worst loss of the history of war at sea.

THE LOST DUCK  /  La "Papera" perduta

American soldier on DUKWs in Venice, May 1945

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Lake Garda, Tuesday 11 December 2012. A winter morning like many others, when the cold goes right through the bones and the smell of lacustrine’s water spread in the air. On the lake’s surface last fog is clearing. You can hear the slosh of the lake. Then the engine’s noise of “Volunteers of lake Garda” dinghy going out on the lake. It is pointing a precise spot between Porto S. Nicolò and Azzurra Bay, straight in front of Sabbioni beach.

Might be because of the cold weather or because of the time but on the bank there is only one man that is glumly looking the boat.

For whom is passing by the bank he could look like an elderly that is looking the lake plus the usual show of a boat running away. But Carlo Bombelli, this’s his name, is not there for a case: He has been the man who pointed the “spot”.

OPERATION FRESHMAN / Operazione Freshman

Royal Engineers

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A little shed. A little olive drab plywood shed was what in 1985 in Fyljesdalen, Norway, four men from Royal Air Force (RAF) and one historian from Norwegian Army were looking at.

The little scraped DP349 sign in a corner let them eyes shine. They found it! The Horsa glider that in 1942 tried to stop the Nazis run to the atomic bomb was in front of them.

The poor remains, rotten and bloated of water were the last token of a daring attempt to stop insanity.

EDITORIAL / Editoriale

Dauntless

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How to start a blog?
The flatness in my brain easily shows that I have no clue.
Why am I doing that?
Now brace yourself.  Beside my personal enthusiasm that, with unevenness, always pushed me in studying these historical facts I have seen that billions of little details, facts, events are the pieces that built reality.