Friday, 10 February 2017

Macchi C.200 - Foreign Users

The Macchi C.200 Saetta (Arrow in Italian) was an Italian fighter designed and put into service just before the outbreak of the World War II. It was used by various foreign users, apart from the Italian Regia Aeronautica and both by the Co-Belligerent Italians and the Italian Social Republic.
The United Kingdom captured one of them which belonged to the 157º Gruppo Autonomo Caccia Terrestre (157th Land Fighter Autonomous Squadron) in September 1943 during the Sicilian campaign.
Some of them were used by the Luftwaffe when they seized them after the armistice of September 1943 and pushed them into service with some squadrons based mainly in central-northern Italy.
The United States Army Air Force (commonly known as USAAF) also captured some of them in the battlefields of Tunisia in 1943 which belonged to the 357 Squadriglia and incorporated them into service with the 86th Fighter Squadron.
Also, the USSR captured some of them which served with the Italian Expeditionary Force in Russia. However, as the profile is based on a black & white photo of the nose, it should be taken as semi-hypothetical.
And as we're friends of what-ifs, and knowing that Denmark was interesting to buy some of them, (in fact the contract was signed on 1st of April 1940 and Germany invaded 8 days later), we included an hypothetical profile bearing Danish colours and markings.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.200
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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