Giorgio Apostolo collection
It's a picture of the Italian ace Franco "Robur" Bordoni-Bisleri.
I've ever seen it without furter specifications about the time it was taken, or with the specification: "Athens - October 1941", so, I never thought a lot about it.
Only recently, looking better at the aircraft on the background I recognized that the picture couldn't have been taken in autumn 1941 (when Bisleri's 83th Squadriglia was equipped with the Macchi 200).
The two aircrafts infact (even that of lt. Bordoni-Bisleri is recognizable by some particular of the cowling) are clearly a couple of SAI Ambrosini 207.
The picture could have been taken only in the period from 18/07/1943 to 08/09/1943, when the 83th Squadriglia based in Cerveteri (near Rome) togheter with at least two other squadriglie of the same 18th Gruppo of 3rd Stormo.
In july 1943 infact the 12 pre-production aircrafts (from MM8425 to MM8436) were delivered to the 3rd Stormo for operational evaluations, and based in Cerveteri.
Some fonts reports that they formed an entire squadriglia (without specifications), that saw no action during that period.
Knowing the conditions of RA in that period however, it's easy to say that things aren't probably so simple. The squadriglie based at Cerveteri infact were used contemporary for the protection of Rome, Naples and all the railway junctions between the two cities. They made several scrambles a day, flying everything the ground crews were able to make airworthy. It's impossible to think that, in those conditions, 12 brand new fighters saw no action at all. Normally, in the RA, the newest and the most prestational aircrafts goes to the more skilled pilots, so, it's hard to think that the newly nominated commander of 83th Squadriglia lost the occasion to use the newest fighter.
The photo seems to confirm that.
During that period, Franco Bordoni-Bisleri scored seven victories, flying an unclear mix of aircrafts (surely Macchi 205 and 202, but others too). So, it's possible that some of those victories belonged to one of the Stefanutti's wonders.
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