Popular accounts of the Spanish Civil War often reduce foreign intervention to the higher-profile German Condor Legion. Italy also sent the Corpo Truppe Volontarie on the ground and the Aviazione Legionaria in the air, support that materially strengthened Franco's war effort. Italian units observed the Condor Legion's bombing of Guernica in 1937, but SM.79 operations had already begun at the end of 1936. The aircraft flew from the Balearic Islands over Catalonia and eastern Spanish cities, inflicting heavy civilian casualties. Of roughly one hundred committed SM.79s, only four were recorded as combat losses, although accidents claimed others. The damage inflicted and survived drove revisions that produced the SM.79-II, which entered service in October 1939 and shaped Italian judgments about military readiness.
Chapter · 21:25-28:19
Italian air power in the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War section restores Italy's large but often overlooked intervention and follows SM.79 operations from the Balearic Islands to the improved wartime model.