Did you know Britain tried to buy Fascist warplanes?

"Any port in a storm," the saying goes, and the adage is certainly true when you face wartime emergencies and can't be picky. One World War II example of this principle was Britain's attempt to acquire planes at any cost, from any seller just before the war broke out... even Fascist Italy.

The Munich Agreement of 1938 managed to (temporarily) stave off war, when Britain, France and Italy agreed to let Nazi Germany annex a part of Czechoslovakia without intervening. The writing, however, was on the wall, and Britain embarked on a rapid expansion of its armed forces. One thing they urgently needed were planes.

France couldn't sell them any, as they were busy building up their own air force. Neither could the United States, as the cash-and-carry principle wouldn't make its way into the Neutrality Acts (America's Politics Before World War II) for another year, until after the war began. Britain turned to an old World War I ally, though one steadily drifting away from them: Italy.

Mussolini's gradual political alignment with Hitler's Germany, as well as Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, was driving a wedge between them and Britain, but British leadership still hoped they could score a few hundred planes, and that Italy was repeating its World War I strategy of sitting on the fence until the last moment and then joining Britain and France. From an Italian perspective, Britain was an important trading partner: both Britain and Germany were selling coal to and buying foodstuff and other goods from Italy. Mussolini was playing a balancing game, trying not to alienate either of the country's two major trade partners too much.

A British delegation traveled to Rome in January 1939 to meet with Mussolini and secure amicable relations. Future contact turned British attention to Count Giovanni Battista Caproni, founder of the Caproni aircraft factory. Britain was interested in buying the Ca.310 Libeccio reconaissance / bomber craft for use as a training plane, but the talks petered out.

Britain found a new sense of urgency in September, when Germany invaded Poland (The Battle of Westerplatte) and Britain and France declared war on Germany in retort. Italy was still willing to deal, and Britain ended up ordering several hundred Ca.310-s, similar but newer Ca.313-s, with an eye to later also purchase Reggiane Re.2000 Falco fighters. All this was to be part of a package deal that also involved buying agricultural produce and Italian field guns.

After much complex negotiation, the deal was ready by early February 1940... when Mussolini reneged on the whole thing. He justified his decision by saying he wanted to avoid "misunderstandings" with Germany, and that Italy needed the field guns for itself. A few more British attempts to get the deal going again ended going nowhere, as the Duce was, ultimately, committed to sticking with Hitler in the coming war.

In the end, maybe it was all for the better, as wartime deployment of the planes proved them to be not that good, and Commonwealth forces ended up capturing many of the field guns in North Africa, anyway.

Join us on our Britain at War or Italian Campaign Tours to explore the iconic aircraft used by the Allies and the Axis forces!