Fiat G.50 Freccia
The Fiat G.50 Freccia (Arrow), built by Fiat Aviazione and first flown on 26 February 1937, was Italy's first all-metal monoplane fighter. Around 778 were built, most of them by Fiat's CMASA subsidiary: 212 G.50s, 421 of the longer-range G.50bis and 108 two-seat G.50B trainers. Manoeuvrable but underpowered and lightly armed, it was evaluated in Spain in 1939 and fought over France, Belgium, Greece and North Africa. Its most successful service was with Finland, which ordered thirty-five against the Soviet Union and kept the type in front-line use until 1944. A single G.50bis survives, in Belgrade.
Why It Mattered
The Fiat G.50 Freccia was Italy's first all-metal monoplane fighter to enter air force service, marking the country's move away from the biplane fighters its pilots knew best. It was underpowered and under-armed beside its British and German contemporaries, but it was very manoeuvrable, and that handling won it a following among Italian fighter pilots. Around 778 were built, most of them by Fiat's CMASA subsidiary, yet Italian production was spread across four fighter types at once rather than concentrated on a single design. Its basic soundness was demonstrated when most of its fuselage was matched with a more powerful licence-built Daimler-Benz engine to produce the Fiat G.55 Centauro, which History of War ranks among the best Italian fighters of the war.
Design Notes
The G.50 was designed by Giuseppe Gabrielli, who began work in April 1935 and reshaped the design to satisfy an Italian Air Ministry specification of 1936. It was a low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, with only the control surfaces fabric-covered. Power came from the 840 hp Fiat A.74 RC.38 fourteen-cylinder radial engine. The monoplane layout bought speed, up to 293 mph, some 26 mph faster than the Fiat biplane, although the Macchi design was another 21 mph faster again. Armament was only two 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns carried on top of the fuselage, firing through the propeller arc, with 150 rounds for each gun. The prototypes and first forty-five aircraft had a fully enclosed cockpit, which was deeply unpopular amongst Italian fighter pilots used to open biplane cockpits, so the majority of G.50s were built with a semi-open cockpit.
Operational History
The first twelve G.50s were sent to Spain in January 1939, flown by the Gruppo Sperimentale da Caccia, but the civil war ended before any useful experience could be gained. The first handful of G.50s had entered Italian service at the end of 1938; by June 1940, 118 aircraft were in service, and the type saw some limited service during the brief war with France. Forty-eight G.50s went to Belgium in 1940 with the Italian air corps for the Battle of Britain, but the type lacked the range to operate usefully over Britain, and no clash with British fighters is recorded. Over Greece it performed well against the Gloster Gladiator but less well against the Hawker Hurricane, and it was withdrawn between December 1940 and February 1941. The G.50bis, with increased fuel capacity, reached North Africa in late December 1940 and fought there through 1941, before being replaced by the Macchi C.200 and C.202 at the end of that year. Finland ordered thirty-five G.50s late in 1939; delivery was delayed by the Germans, and thirty-three aircraft were eventually received. With squadron LLv 26 the Finnish aircraft flew their first mission on 26 February 1940 and were credited with eight victories before the Winter War ended. In the Continuation War it coped badly with the Finnish cold and suffered from light armament, yet ten Finnish aces managed some of their victories in it, and it remained in front-line service until May 1944. Across both wars the Finnish squadron was credited with 99 enemy aircraft shot down for three G.50s lost in combat, a victory-to-loss ratio of 33 to 1. Croatia received nine or ten aircraft; History of War reports they were probably not used, while Wikipedia describes Croatian G.50s flying strafing missions against partisans.
Afterlife
Only 48 G.50s were still in front-line service at the Italian armistice, and Italian use of the type faded quickly afterwards. The two-seat G.50B, used by the Italian Fighter School, outlasted the fighters in Italy: one survived the war and remained in use until 1948. Finland, which had kept the type in front-line service until May 1944, struck the last G.50 off its inventory on 13 December 1946. Yugoslavia's post-war air force also used the type for some time, with aircraft taken over from Croatia. A single G.50bis is the only known survivor: held by the Museum of Aviation at Surčin, at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport, it was reported in September 2010 to be undergoing restoration.