CFS2
Another WWII veteran pilot is gone
Hi everybody.
I had announced earlier that I the opportunity to meet Italian Air Force ace Luigi Gorrini, still alive at the time, was offered to me. Unfortunately, the meeting was postponed due to his health problems. I just received news that he passed away three days ago.
He was the last surviving Italian WWII fighter pilot. He was undoubtedly old at 97 years of age, yet what pushed him over was the loss of his beloved wife few months ago. Since then, I was told that he refused to see anyone and even rejected medical treatment.
Luigi Gorrini was born in Alseno, province of Piacenza, less than 8 km from my hometown. He was a youth fried of my uncle's, mother side, and also well known by my father family. Sadly, I never had the chance to meet him.
He joined Regia Aeronautica before WWII and entered in action with his unit in June, 1940. He flew a Fiat Cr.42 biplane on the French-Italian front, then he was sent with the Italian Corpo di Spedizione to Ursel, Belgium, to join the Battle of Britain in November 1940. There he met and made friend with Werner Molders, who provided better cold climate equipment for the Italian aviators, all ill-equipped to fly at those latitudes. Gorrini received from Molders a Luftwaffe mae-west, which he wore throughout the entire WWII and afterwards. He still had it at present time. During the BoB he had a close encounter with RAF ace Peter Townsend and both wounded each other slightly, only to meet after the war and become friends. Molders was starting transitioning Italian fighter pilots onto the Bf109E, when Italy gave up the BoB expedition.
Gorrini's unit was then sent to the North African front, re-equipped with Macchi C.200's first, replaced later by Macchi C.202's. There, he witnessed the death of Luftwaffe ace Hans Joachim Marseille. In the beginning of 1943 his unit was called back to Italy and chosen to defend Roma from the increasing Allied air war activity, while his unit started receiving the first Macchi C.205 Veltros.
After the 09/08/1943 Italian armistice, he joined the Northern Italian fascist republican air force instead of the co-belligerant air force, because he felt he had to defend his family and his friends, trapped by the armistice in Northern Italy, behind German front lines.
In his 2011 interview, recorded on DVD, he stated: "Not a single RSI (fascist Italian Social Republic, the part of Italy not yet liberated, a puppet state in the hands of the Germans) fighter pilot chose to fly for them because he was a convinced fascist. Not even because we were ashamed Italy had betrayed the Germans, like someone later wrote. We were all born here and we were all front-line veterans, we knew what bombs could do to people."
The increasing Allied tactical air offensive, designed to force the German armies occupying Central and Northern Italy to an early surrender, thus strangling Germany, was targeting civilian towns and cities. In Italy, with its limited territorial configuration, industrial settlements were (in many cases still are) right at the outskirts of towns, sometimes in the middle, including main railways, railyards and other tactical targets the Germans could use to supply their troops.
In an age when a bomb hitting within 500 yards from the target was considered "on target", keeping civilian involvement and losses to a minimum was almost impossible. So, RSI fighter units, against overwhelming odds, tried to disperse Allied bombers before they reached civilian settlements, flying together the few Luftwaffe units still active. Always with their families and loved ones in mind, the same tragedy of war for everybody all over.
During this period, Gorrini, was awarded by the Luftwaffe with an Iron Cross.
When the war ended here on April 25th, 1945, Gorrini and other RSI pilots were arrested by Italian communist partisans and jailed on charge of cooperation with the enemy. Some of them, like RSI 1o Gruppo commander Adriano Visconti, were treacherously and summarily executed without trial by the partisans. Gorrini spent in jail quite some time, but with the onset of the Cold War and the need for experienced pilots for the newly born republican Italian Air Force, he was official pardoned by the Italian President and joined the I.A.F. until he retired in the early 1970's. He even flew F-84F with the 1950's aerobatic military team "Getti Tonanti".
But the pardon for having fought for "the wrong side" after the armistice never came fully. He deserved the Gold Medal for Military Valour, same as the Congressional Medal of Honour in the U.S., for his war combat records, but the award was always stopped in a way or another until he finally received it overdue many years later. He was the only WWII pilot alive to be awarded a Gold Medal for Military Valour. The few others were all awarded post-humously.
Gorrini flew for Regia Aeronautica Fiat CR.32, Fiat CR.42, Fiat G.50, Macchi C.200, Macchi C.202 and Macchi C.205. For RSI he flew Macchi C.205 primarily and, on occasions Fiat G.55. He also had the chance to fly Bf109s, but never in combat.
With the post-WWII republican IAF he flew P-51D Mustang, F-86F Sabre, F-84F Thunderstreak and F-104G/S Starfighter.
The attached below is the profile of the Macchi C.205 he flew for RSI. The profile depicts also the Gold Medal for Military Valour I wrote about.
May you fly forever in blue, peaceful skies, Luigi Gorrini. RIP.
Stefano 'kelticheart' Denti
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I'll have the chance to talk to a real WWII pilot, who even flew with the disgraceful C.A.I. in the Battle of Britain! 
Originally Posted by Rami
Oh, WOW!
to convert MVG3d's splendid C.205 to CFS2. Another top-priority project on my list that I haven't been able to tackle yet because my application to obtain 48-hrs days, instead of just 24, hasn't been accepted yet by the upper floors Directional Centre.
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