Fiat BR.20 Cicogna
The BR.20 Cicogna ("stork") was a twin-engine medium bomber built by Fiat Aviazione, the first all-metal Italian bomber to enter service. Designed by Celestino Rosatelli, it flew on 10 February 1936 and entered service that September; more than 500 were built, scoped by variant as at least 233 of the original model, 264 to 279 of the improved BR.20M and 15 of the final BR.20bis. It fought in Spain from 1937, in Japanese service over China, and then across the Mediterranean, over Britain with the Corpo Aereo Italiano, in North Africa and on the Eastern Front. Outpaced by newer fighters, it ended the war on maritime patrol and training duties; the last example was retired in 1946 and none survive today.
Why It Mattered
The Fiat BR.20 Cicogna — "stork" in Italian — was the first all-metal Italian bomber to enter service, and History of War calls it a very modern aircraft when it appeared in the mid-1930s. Celestino Rosatelli designed it for Fiat to meet a 1934 Regia Aeronautica requirement for a new medium bomber; the prototype flew on 10 February 1936 and the type entered service that September with the 13° Stormo. Vintage Aviation News judges that, at its introduction, the BR.20 was one of the most capable bombers in the world in terms of speed and payload. The regime made it a showcase: it became a focal point for Mussolini's propaganda machine. In March 1939 the single long-range BR.20L, the Santo Francesco, flew nonstop from Rome to Addis Ababa in 11 hours 25 minutes, another publicity flight for the regime. Its front-line life was short, but its career was long and wide, running from Spain and China before the war to the Mediterranean and the Eastern Front during it.
Design Notes
Rosatelli's design was a low-wing, twin-engine monoplane of mixed construction. The fuselage was a welded steel-tube framework, skinned with duralumin over the forward and centre sections and fabric-covered aft, ending in a twin tail. The wing was metal, built in three sections, and the main landing gear retracted hydraulically into the engine nacelles. Two Fiat A.80 radial engines gave the speed that had made the type competitive in 1936, but in service they proved unreliable. Where Italy's trimotor bombers carried a third engine in the nose, the BR.20's twin layout left the nose free for the bombardier, and its bombs were racked horizontally in an internal bay rather than stacked vertically, which improved accuracy. A crew of four or five flew the aircraft; its defensive armament was light.
Operational History
The BR.20's combat debut came in the Spanish Civil War, when six aircraft were delivered to the Aviazione Legionaria at Tablada, Seville, in June 1937; seven more had arrived by July 1938. Over Spain they were often too fast and too high for Republican fighters to intercept, and their stability suited them to high-altitude photo reconnaissance during the Battle of the Ebro. Nine of the thirteen sent to Spain survived the war and were handed over to the Spanish Air Force. Japan bought 82 aircraft, shipped from Italy and designated the Army Type I heavy bomber; flying from Manchuria beyond escort range, they suffered heavy casualties against Chinese fighters and were phased out of operational service by September 1939. Italy entered the Second World War on 10 June 1940, and the improved BR.20M was used briefly in the invasion of France, losing five aircraft to French fighters and anti-aircraft fire. That autumn Italy formed the Corpo Aereo Italiano in occupied Belgium, with the BR.20 as its primary bomber for the campaign against Britain. On 11 November 1940, in the corps' largest operation and one of its only three daylight raids on the United Kingdom, ten BR.20s aiming for Harwich, escorted by 40 CR.42s, lost three bombers and three fighters, with no RAF aircraft lost. History of War notes the raid was repulsed with heavy losses and not repeated; the Italians bombed only at night thereafter, achieved limited success, and the BR.20s were recalled to Italy in January 1941. The type also attacked Malta, bombed British Commonwealth forces at Tobruk in North Africa, and flew long-range bombing and reconnaissance missions on the Eastern Front from August 1942 to April 1943. By the Italian surrender in September 1943, only 67 BR.20s remained in service, used mainly for maritime patrol and training.
Afterlife
The surviving aircraft spent the rest of the war as transports and trainers, and the last BR.20 was retired from the Italian Air Force on 7 June 1946. No example has survived to be preserved in a museum. Two underwater wrecks are documented off the Italian coast. One is BR.20 MM.21503, badly damaged on a raid against Hyères on 13 June 1940 and ditched off Santo Stefano al Mare; its wreck, a war grave 48 metres down, has been visited and documented by divers. Items recovered from the second wreck, off San Leone near Agrigento in Sicily, are on display at the Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943 in Catania.