italian sabotages

B-24 sabotage in Italy?

A 15th AF vet told me about 1-2 B-24 explosions shortly after takeoff.
The guess was that small pressure sensiutve bomb was placed into a wing wheel wheel and when the gear retracted, an explosion would occur.

The vet was just passing on what he heard, it happened at a different base (he was a B-17 pilot) but I know he wasn’t “winding me up”. “Army” stories being what they are, who knows how accurate the story is.
Has anyone else ever heard of this?

hello Alex
Thank you for your opinion .Maybe you are right .It’s always difficult to find the truth.

Well, maybe there’s another point that might have been missed: if the Beau opened fire it’s even probable it might have suffered from damage caused by explosions over the target. Considering the very low altitude this is a probable explanation.
The sabotage of inverted shells usually caused the weapon jamming, nothing more nothing less. Those Beaufighter pilots and navigators were really brave and all my admiration and respect goes to the crews who lost their lives while doing their duty, no matter what flag they fought for. It was above all a war of brave men, never forget it.

cheers

Alex

Hello,
during the week-end,I received more precise informations regarding this incident,”Doc” ADAM is refering to.
-date :6/4/1944
-squadron 272 based at Alghero (Sardinia)
-plane Beaufighter X LZ488 -H
-crew :Acting Squadron Leader René DEMOULIN Pilot ,F/S J.S.BARKER ,gunner
Miising
– 3 assumptions :
a) too low pull-up while identifying a spanish ship
b) ennemy fire (the ship seems to be unarmed )
c) sabotage by pushing inverted shells in the guns by italian mechanic( version Doc ADAM )
circumstancial report :”4 Beaus escort to R P Beaus of N° 39 Squadron.Sighted 1 M V 1200 Tons in position 4235 N E off Port-Vendres (FR) .As the ship had red cross markings,it was not attacked .Aircraft H made an attack on a small vessel 2 miles NE of the MV.No strikes were seen but other aircraft saw the third part of the starboard wing of H break off and flames came from the engine ;The Beaufighter struck the water about fifty yards behind the boat.Aircraft “D” circled the spot for somez minuts,but the only remains seen were a dinghy and some small objects “
Where is the truth ?

I dont know much about the sabotages made to the Allies, but I know of sabotages of ANR aircrafts(ANR was the airforce who kept on fighting against the Allies after the 1943 armistice). I met several pilots and techinicians of the time, and I’m currently following the activity of a wreck recovery association and I have two examples that might give u an idea of what the thing was like.
U dont need to stuff a parachute to sabot a plane, sometimes u can just flip a small piece and cause a lot of troubles. A S.79 Sparviero engineer told me about a common way of saboting torpedoes: the torpedo warhead was activated by a small propeller placed in the torpedo body, that was covered by a small L metal plate. When the torpedo hit the water the thin L plate was pulled back and let the water get in and activate the small prop. If u installed the L plate in the opposite way it didnt move from its position and thus the torpedo did not arm.
In the recovery of a Macchi 205 wreck some friends of mine found a creepy thing: one of the bullets of the cowl MGs was placed in the belt upside down. Belts were manually composed by armorers and a mistake like this was nearly impossible to pass unobserved to the armorer’s eyes, since he built and placed the belts in place personally.
There are dozens of stories like these, and many more that we’ll never know, but that’s the way it was..
Fuel contamination was another issue at the time, but that was more often a matter of low quality than sabotage.

cheers

Alex

P.S.
Veltro, did u get my private message?

Italian sabotages

hello all

regarding the P40(F?) that was pulled from the Italian coast a few years back (and is currently, I believe, displayed in as-found condition), I think that they found a parachute stuffed into the radiator intake; if I recall the magazine article correctly (FlyPast?), this was credited to Italian ground crew; does anyone have the particular article in question?

cheers

gregv

That’s what I love about this forum, so many intelligent people. I feel very fortunate that I can be lazy and just sit back and soak all this knowledge in. 😀

Cheers, to aviation historians everywhere!

Steve

😀

Yes, and this year I hope to read another one

There was mention of this in a book I read last year –

We know Dave you’re just saying that to impress Mike. 😀

There was mention of this in a book I read last year – ‘Beckoning Skies’ by Bryan Young. He was an RNZAF pilot who flew with an RAF sqn in the Med andAfrican area, and then went on to attack Italy. Awesome book, a MUST READ. So descriptive and he photographed everything too.

Anyway they found themselves, after some time attacking Italy, on the same side as their former foe when they’d given in. They had to share the same base as Italian squadrons who’d been told to change sides and fight with the Allies. The Brits and Kiwis didn’t trust them one bit because there were still many Fascists among the crews of these Italian squadrons who were bitter at their country’s capitulation. He may have even mentioned sabotage, or the fear of it, from memory, but it did not occur on any of their aircraft. I think they posted guards against it.

The same thing may have been told in ‘Green Kiwi Versus German Eagle’ by Norby King too from memory. Norby had a very similar career to Bryan, until they both left the Med area, Norby went to 485 Sqn in England and Bryan went to India.

Italian mechanics

It would be good to have more details about the Italian mechanic rumour.
As far as I know, Italian aviation personnel only worked on Italian aircraft. For instance, the Spit V were returned to the RAF for overhaul.
On the other hand, the RAF (not the USAAF) regularly raided the Italian workshops to requisition hard-earned or repaired machine tools, equipment, vehicles and almost everything else. There are boxfuls of complaints in the archives about this.
Thousands of Italians were formed into labour battalions employed to fulfill Allied (but I suspect largely British) needs in Southern Italy. They carried out heavy jobs like digging ditches, repairing roads etc., thereby releasing British resources for other duties.

Veltro

PS – by the way, Such A Bloody Experience, Never Again! and – Better On A Camel.

Oh, attack of the heavy brigade. So where did your cars get built, Robbo & DB? Buy British? Or not… 😀 😉