Spanish combat supplied practical lessons for wartime readiness. During an interception by Polikarpov I-16 fighters, an SM.79 took roughly twenty-seven bullet hits, including strikes on fuel tanks, without being destroyed. Its defensive fire also discouraged fighters from attacking at close range. The SM.79-II added oxygen equipment and addressed instability and vibration that otherwise limited high-speed performance, while technicians learned how to keep the type operational. A six-hour night mission from Guidonia to Barcelona demonstrated that it could carry an 800-kilogram bomb load over long distance. World War II brought stronger opposition: Italian raids struck France and French shipping, Gladiators contested attacks on Malta, and the aircraft remained in use from North Africa and Ethiopia to Greece and Yugoslavia.
Chapter · 28:22-35:59
Survivability, maintenance lessons, and early-war service
Combat damage, high-speed instability, long-range night bombing, and harder opposition show how Spanish experience prepared the SM.79 for a wider but more dangerous war.