Me109F lost in Tobruk the 7th December 1941

I want to thank Michael and Dave for the valuable information given and ask for an extra effort to have more data on the German side because these Italian fighters were escorting a squadron of JU87 and in that battle were involved around 40 planes.
The aim of my research is to know the fate of two pilots on two Italian Macchi 200 shot down by the RAF and/or SAAF day 7th dec 1941 hours 11.45 am. in the area of El Adem and Bir el Gobi .
The two Italian fighters and the pilots were never found.
The names of these brave pilots are:
Cap Armando Farina
Ten Guido Sturla

Thanks again

I found 3 battles mentioned in “Luftkampf zwischen Sand und Sonne” , German edition of Christopher Shores / Hans Ring: “Fighters over the Desert” on the 7th December 1941. First was quite early, before 07.00, second one after 10.00, the third about 1 hour later, take off in Tobruk. I believe you are interested in the 3rd one. Involved was 274. Sqn. (SAAF). West of El Adem they found 15 Ju 87, 6 Bf 109, and 12 Italian fighters of all types. The 109´s flew high cover, diving for shots and going up again. The Italians seemed to be trained tactically far worse. 2 Macchi MC 202 were shot down by Sqn.Ldr. Linnard and PO Keefer, 2 more probable ones by Sqn.Ldr. Linnard and PO Weeks. PO Moriarty shot down one Ju 87 and one Fiat G-50, Sgt. Parbury destroying a downed Ju 87. 3 Hurricanes were shot down, (FL Hobbs, PO Sutton, PO Gains) by 3 Bf 109. Pilots were Lt. Marseille, Ofw. Espenlaub, Uffz. Grimm. There is no mention of any loss of a Bf-109 during this battle. Maybe the Italian Macchi MC 202 were mistakenly recognised as 109`s? But there is a mention of the loss of 2 Bf-109 during the earlier battle (10.00 onwards. The authors presume that these 2 109`s were Italian ones. (1 MC 202, 2 Bf-109, one damaged Fiat G-50), allied unit was 1.SAAF Sqn.

Michael

P.S.: Translated and paraphrased by me, if wanted i can scan the relevant part

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