This post will serve 2 skins from the same squadron, a 109G-6 now and a 109G-14 when it's finished. Both are aircraft from 2 Squadriglia "Diavoli Rossi", 2 Gruppo Caccia (2nd Squadron "Red Devils", 2nd Fighter Group) of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana "Republican National Air Force" (ANR).
This Bf 109G-6 was flown by Mario Bellagambi in late 1944 from Villafranca airfield in Verona, Italy. After the capitulation of Italy in 1943, Bellagambi joined the ANR in northern Italy to continue fighting against the Allied forces in MTO. In 1944 he was promoted to the position of commander of the "Diavoli Rossi" squadron. A veteran of the Balkan and Greek campaigns as well as defensive actions over Sardinia, Sicily, and mainland Italy, he would achieve 14 victories over the course of the war.
This aircraft was delivered to the ANR directly from German stock and originally featured the full compliment of German markings. the crosses on the upper and lower wings were mostly removed before the ANR insignia was applied over them. Italian flag emblems with a yellow toothed border were painted on the fuselage and vertical stabilizers. For some reason, the standard practice was to leave the fuselage crosses intact. The Italian flag on the fuselage has the leading section in an unknown color, which I chose to depict as blue. It is based on nothing more than my repatriation that shows a shade distinct from the red, white, green, and yellow colors used in the emblem, but it's closest to the green in tone and brightness. The "Diavoli Rossi" emblem is painted on both sides of the nose and on the rear fuselage is Bellagambi's number of "0" and a white tailband still standard to Axis aircraft in Italy well into 1944.
