While the Ba.65 was being blooded over Spain, a two-seat version, the Ba-65bis, had been developed, and export orders for the Breda assault monoplane had been solicited. Fifteen aircraft with 14K engines were ordered in 1937 by the Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIAF), 13 of which were Ba.65bis two-seat planes equipped with a hydraulically operated Breda L dorsal turret mounting a 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine gun; the remaining two were dual-control trainers. Ten single-seat Ba.65s were delivered to the Soviet Union, and in 1938, 20 Ba.65s equipped with Piaggio P.XI C.40 engines, 17 single-seat attack planes and three dual-control trainers, were delivered to Chile. In 1939, 12 Ba.65bis models with Fiat A80 engines and power turrets were ordered by Portugal for its Air Force. In 6/37, a Ba.65 was experimentally fitted with an American Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engine in anticipation of an export order from Nationalist China that was never placed.
When Italy entered World War II in 6/40, the Regia Aeronautica had 154 Breda Ba.65s in its inventory, including 119 fitted with Fiat A80 RC41 engines and a small number of Ba.65bis two-seaters with a manually operated 12.7mm machine gun in the rear gunner's pit rather than the Breda L turret. Owing to the unsatisfactory performance of the Fiat A80 RC41 under desert conditions, all Ba.65s with that power plant were re-engined with the Isotta-Fraschini-built Gnôme- Rhône 14K before being committed to North Africa. In 9/39, Ba.65s equipped the 101st and 102nd Squadrons of the 19th Group of the 5th Stormo, the 159th and 160th Squadrons of the 12th Group, and 167th and 168th Squadrons of the 16th Group, both components of the 50th Stormo. Soon after Italy entered the war on 6/10/40, however, it became clear that the large single-engine attack bomber was as ungainly and vulnerable to enemy fighters as was its British contemporary, the Fairey Battle. During the Italian invasions of France and Greece, Ba.65s were conspicuous by their absence. By mid- 1940, the only Ba.65s in a position to see any combat were those of the 50th Stormo in North Africa, and even they ended up contributing little to Italian operations there. The principal units involved were the 159th Squadron and the 160th Squadron. Usually their missions involved flying about 150 miles to attack British tanks, armored cars and other vehicles from altitudes of about 1,000 feet. Due to a shortage of high-explosive bombs, however, the Bredas usually carried incendiary bombs that caused little destruction on rocky ground or in sand, which tended to contain the fires they caused. Steady attrition, a shortage of spare parts and a realization by the Italian army that the Ba.65s were not really an effective weapon resulted in the replacement of the Bredas in the 160th Squadron with the Fiat C.R.32 quater, a close-support fighter-bomber adaptation of the 1932-vintage C.R.32 biplane fighter. The embarrassing superiority of the C.R.32quater over its supposedly more modern monoplane contemporary was underlined on 8/4/40. Six Ba.65s of the 159th Squadron attacked British vehicles at Bir Taib el Esem, while six Fiat C.R.32s of the 160th Squadron waited 3,000 feet above to follow up their strike. The Bredas were about to make their third and last strafing run when they encountered a Westland Lysander of No. 208 Squadron, escorted by four Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters of No. 80 Squadron. The Gladiators promptly attacked the Bredas downing two of them. At that point, however, the C.R.32s dove on the British fighters, claiming three of the Gladiators. The fourth Gladiator was damaged but returned to its base.
In September, the 168th Squadron, equipped with 14K-powered Bredas, commenced operations alongside the beleaguered 159th. In 12/40 the British went over to the offensive, and the Ba.65s, joined by a few reinforcements from Italy, fought valiantly but vainly to stem the onslaught. At the end of December, the 168th Squadron, its aircraft decimated by foul weather conditions as well as combat losses, was disbanded. At the end of 1/41, the advancing British found six dilapidated Ba.65s lying abandoned at Benghazi airfield. The surviving aircrews of the 159th Squadron were transferred either to fighter squadrons or to dive-bombing units equipped with the Junkers Ju-87B Stuka.
The Ba.65's ill-starred combat career was briefly revived on 5/2/41, when hostilities broke out between British forces in Iraq and that country's anti-British, pro-German chief of the National Defense Government. Among the Iraqi aircraft that attacked the RAF base at Habbaniya that day were some of the 13 Ba.65bis machines that had been delivered to Iraq in 1938 and assigned to No. 5 Squadron, RIAF. Although three British aircraft were destroyed on the ground in the initial strike, subsequent Iraqi sorties were disrupted by Habbaniya's defenders. Later that same day, Flying Officer J.M. Craigie, flying a Gladiator of Habbaniya's ad hoc fighter flight, was about to land when he saw a Ba.65 coming in to bomb the field. Pulling up, he fired at the Breda and forced it to break off its attack, although he failed to bring it down. Over the next few weeks, damage from aerial opposition and ground fire, combined with inadequate maintenance facilities and an insufficient supply of spare parts, eventually grounded all the Iraqi aircraft. Despite some desultory aid from the Germans and Italians, the Iraqis failed to drive out the British, who were soon invading Iraq. On May 31, an armistice was signed ending the Iraqi revolt and the fighting career of the Breda Ba.65.
Article By JDG, Specifications courtesy JDG and Alberto Rosselli.
Specifications
Crew 1 or 2 (Depending on Model)
Horsepower 1,000 HP
Weight 3,490 Kg
War Load Kg. 500/1000m
Engine (1) Fiat A80 RC 41
Max Speed 430 Km/h
Max Ceiling 7,900 (8,300Meters)
Fixed Weapons 2/12,7 Breda Safat (wings), 2 7/7 Breda Safat (wings)(aft)
Range 550/800 Km
Sources:
Jon Guttman, "Italy's Breda Ba.65 was not the best ground-attack plane to see action in World War II--it may well have been the worst"
William Green, Warplanes of the Second World War (10 vol.), Doubleday, 1960-68.
Bill Gunston, World War II Japanese and Italian Aircraft, Chartwell, 1985.
Jonathon Thompson, Italian Civil and Military Aircraft 1930-45, Aero, 1960.
Chris Bishop (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, Barnes & Noble, 1998.
Christopher Shores & Brian Cull, Dust Clouds in the Middle East, Grub Street, 1996.
Christopher Shores & Hans Ring, Fighters Over the Desert, Arco, 1975.
Enzo Angelucci & Paolo Matricardi, World War II Airplanes (2 vol.), Rand McNally, 1978.
