Winchesters in WW1 Italy?

[5thDragoons]

Hello from the wilds of Nebr!

A friend with a black belt in google-fu referred me here for a research question. I collect Italian arms and militaria. I have no dedicated Regia Aeronautica items and am looking into the following:

Reading a book published in Germany, I see mention that in 1915, the Italian flying corps was equipped with Model 1907 winchesters in .351 caliber.

Is this fact? On-line, I found that England, France, Russia and US flyers were equipped with that model but no mention of Italy.

Any information or points in the right direction for further research will be sincerely appreciated!

Steve

[Old Man]

You might want to re-post this, Sir, up in the 'Aircraft' forum, at the top of the listings. It is an armament question, and so is appropriate for that forum, which is much more trafficked. It is more likely you will get an answer there.

We do have some members who are very knowledgeable about Italian matters, particularly 'lupodimontenero', and hopefully this will be seen.

A lot of odd things fetched up in aeroplanes in the early days, and it would be hard to rule out any item. The French certainly did use these rifles in the air; I have seen a reliable reference state they were issued to observers in some machines employed for long-range reconnaisance as late as 1916, as a sort of back-up for their machine-guns. I have never seen an account of English use of rifles in air combat that mentioned anything but the standard Enfield by name.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by Old Man

I have never seen an account of English use of rifles in air combat that mentioned anything but the standard Enfield by name.

Williams and Gustin, "Flying Guns World War I", Airlife 2003, does mention British use of Winchester 1886 rifles in cal .45-90 by the Brits, though it is noted that these were "not formally approved for service". Both the UK and the French used the Winchester self-loading carbines, but there is no mention in this book of their use by Italy. Doc

[duedicoppe]

Dear friends,
I have never seen a document or a picture about the use of the Winchester rifle in the Italian air service. As far as I know, in the first months of the war the Italian airmen had Moschetto '91 and Mauser pistol.
Paolo