Info wanted on Gottfried Von Banfield

Hello,

I'm a french forumite and I'm looking for info on the famous Autrian Navy Ace Gottfried Von Banfield. What I know of him comes from O'Connor's book on Austrian aces. I'd like to know about his life afer the war :
- Did he became an Italian citizen ?
- What did he do during world war 2 ?
- Did he fly operationaly after being wounded in 1918 ?

Any info would be appreciated.

[AGO]

Salut David,
1)Soon after the end of the war Banfield left Trieste, wich was now in Italian territory and emigrated to Britain.He worked, performing different duties, in some companies in Scotland linked to world of naval rescues.In 1923 he managed to take the Italian citizenship and in 1925 returned to Trieste (note that the Italian one was his third citizenship since he already was an Austrian and British citizen!)
2)In the 20s he continued to work in the world of naval rescues (in 1920 he had married,in Britain, the daughter of the prosperous Istrian shipbuilder Diodato Tripcovich and was therefore, once back in Italy, accepted in the Tripcovich company).During WWII he continued to work with the Tripcovich. In particular he worked to the rescue of the battleship "Conte di Cavour"
sunk at Taranto in the well known strigbag raid.
3)Yes,and he substained also some hard combats with Italian seaplane fighters.

Read his autobiography: "Gottfried v. Banfield, der Adler von Triest"

A bientot

AGO

[leo]

If you ever get to Vienna, it might be worth your while to visit the Army Military Museum in the Arsenal District. Both times I was there they had a display on Banfeld. In fact, he was the only austrian flyer even mentioned. The book store there probably ha some material on this pilot.