Thursday 30 September 2021

Caproni Ca.309, foreign users

 
The Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli ("Southern or desert wind" in Italian) was an Italian aircraft of the 1930s which was also used in the World War II. It was used by Italy, but also by many other users:
  • Australia: A single Ca.309 was captured on ground by Australian troops in 1943 and used by the No.3 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). It was used by personnel of that squadron for liaison and light transport duties. 
  • United Kingdom: It's not that obvious, but it seems that an unidentified squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF) had also one captured machine in use. This was not the same as the Australian one as it was painted entirely different and had different armament. It was up-armed with an additional machine gun placed under the nose.
  • Germany: There are some photos of a single machine painted with Luftwaffe markings. Most probably it was used by the Luftwaffe in Italy.
  • Paraguay: During late 1937 Paraguay requested three machines, of which only two of them were delivered in September 1938. They were used first by the Paraguayan Cuerpo de Aviación del Ejército (Paraguayan Army Air Corps) until 1945 and were later transferred to Líneas Aéreas de Transporte Nacional, the Paraguayan national airline back then. As we couldn't find graphical evidence of a Ghibli under Paraguayan colours, the drawing shown below should be considered as speculative.
  • Italian Social Republic: After the Italian armistice, two Ca.309 were employed by the Italian Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (National Republican Air Force - The Air Force of the Italian Social Republic) in many liaison and light transport flights. These two machines had to deal with fighter strafing attacks when parked on ground or they even had to land on bombed airstrips.
    It's recorded that one of the two machines, was destroyed on ground when it was taxiing for taking off, after its fuselage floor collapsed due to overloading, as it was fully loaded with stocks and spare parts. 









Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.309
2. flyinlions.eu/storia/aviazione/item/233-caproni-cab-ca-309-ghibli.html (translated)
3. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.309 (translated)

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