The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 'Sparviero' (eng: 'Sparrow') was a three-engined Italian medium bomber with a wood-and-metal structure with a cantilever low-wing monoplane trimotor, with a retractable taildragger undercarriage. Originally designed as a fast passenger aircraft, this low-wing monoplane, in the years 1937-39, set 26 world records that qualified it for some time as the fastest medium bomber in the world. It first saw action during the Spanish Civil War and flew on all fronts in which Italy was involved during World War II.
Development
The SM.79 project began in 1934 and was conceived as a fast, eight-passenger transport capable of being used in air-racing (the London-Melbourne race). The fuselage was made of a welded tubular steel frame and covered with duralumin in the forward section, duralumin and plywood on the upper fuselage surface, and fabric on all other surfaces. The wings were of all-wood construction, with trailing edge flaps and leading edge slats (Handley-Page type) to offset its relatively small size. The SM.79 project began in 1934 and flew for the first time later that year on 28 September 1934. Originally planned to use the 597 kW (800 hp) Isotta-Fraschini Asso XI Ri as powerplant, the aircraft reverted to the less powerful 440 kW (590 hp) Piaggio P.IX RC.40 Stella, a license-produced Bristol Jupiter on which many Piaggio engines were based. The engines were subsequently replaced by Alfa Romeo 125 RC.35s (license-produced Bristol Pegasus).
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Into service
The 12° Stormo (Air Wing) was the first to be equipped with the SM.79, starting in early 1936. 12 Wing was involved in the initial evaluation of the bomber, which continued throughout 1936. Its capabilities were still being explored when the Spanish Civil War broke out, and a number of SM.79s were dispatched to support the Nationalists. By 4 November 1936, there were only six SM.79s with enough crew to fly them operating in Spain. At the beginning of 1937, there were 15 SM.79s in total, and they went on to be used in Spain throughout the conflict. By the end of 1939, there were 388 Sparvieros in service, with 11 wings partially or totally made up of this aircraft. They also participated in the occupation of Albania in autumn 1939. There was almost 600 SM.79-I and II aircraft that were in service when Italy entered World War II, and these aircraft were deployed in every theatre of war in which the Italians fought. Combat experience revealed some deficiencies in the SM.79: the lack of oxygen masks for high altitude operation, instability, vibrations experienced at speeds over 400 km/h (250 mph) and other problems were encountered and sometimes solved. The SM.79 was the most numerous bomber in the whole of the Regia Aereonautica, assigned to a total of 14 wings. Not all of these wings had Gruppi (groups) entirely equipped with the SM.79. Every squadron had around nine to 10 aircraft, but this included second line aircraft, so the force of each squadron consisted on average of around seven to eight bombers, and every wing had around 30 bombers.
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In Action
It was on the fortress-island of Malta at the centre of the Mediterranean in June 1940 that the SM.79s started to lose their reputation of invulnerability, when Gloster Gladiators and Hawker Hurricanes were encountered. The Sparviero began its torpedo bomber (Aerosilurante in Italian) career on 25 July 1940 when a new unit was established after several years of experiments. The first sortie under way on 15 August 1940 saw five SM.79s that had been modified and prepared for the task sent to El Adem airfield. The journey was made at an altitude of 1,500 m (4,920 ft) and after two hours, at 21:30, they arrived over Alexandria and began attacking ships, but unsuccessfully. In 1941, the year started out badly, but improved in April when many successes were recorded by SM.79s of the 281st and 280th . They sank two merchant ships, heavily damaged the British cruiser HMS Manchester and later also sank the F class destroyer HMS Fearless. However, one SM.79 was shot down north west of Gozo on 3 June. Further Italian successes came in August, when the light cruiser HMS Phoebe was damaged. The large merchant ship SS Imperial Star was sunk by an SM.79 in September. The 130th and 132nd Gruppi were also active during the autumn. In October and November, they sank 4 merchant ships, and on 11 December they heavily damaged the Jackal. The year ended with a total of nine Allied ships sunk and several damaged. The Italians had lost fourteen torpedo bombers and sustained several damaged in action. Overall, these numbers meant little in the war, and almost no other results were recorded by Italian bombers. Horizontal bombing proved to be a failure and only dive bombers and torpedo-bombers achieved some results. The damaging of the British cruisers was the most important result, but without German help, the 25 Italian bomber wings would have been unable to maintain an effective presence in the Mediterranean theatre.
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On the Defence
The Axis fortunes started to decline steadily during 1942. Over 100 SM.79s were in service in different Italian torpedo squadrons. In addition to its wide-scale deployment in its intended bomber-torpedo bomber role, the Sparviero was also used for close support, reconnaissance and transport missions. In the first six months of 1942, all the Italo-German efforts to hit Allied ships had only resulted in the sinking of a single merchant ship. Despite the increased activity in 1942, the results were considerably poorer than those of the previous year. The efforts made by the bombers were heavily criticized as being insufficient. Many debated the possibilities of torpedo manufacturing defects or even sabotage: the first 30 used in 1940 had excellent reliability, but a number of later torpedoes were found to be defective, especially those made at the Naples factory. During Operation Harpoon, over 100 torpedoes were launched with only three hitting their targets. The last operation was in September 1943, and resulted in the damaging of the LST 417, on 7 September 1943. On 8 September, when the Armistice with Italy was announced, the Regia Aeronautica had no more than 61 SM.79s, of which 36 were operational.
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Other Air Forces
The SM.79 saw action for the first time when serving with the Aviazione Legionaria, an Italian unit sent to assist Franco's Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. The 'Sparviero' started its operational service at the end of 1936 when 8° Stormo B.T. (Bombardamento Tattico), with Gruppi XXVII° and XXVIII°, was sent to Spain.
Favourable reports of reliability and performance during the Spanish Civil War led to the 1938 Kingdom of Yugoslavia's order of 45 aircraft generally similar to the SM.79-I variant, designated the SM.79K. They were delivered to Yugoslavia in 1939, but most were destroyed during the 1941 Axis invasion by their crews or by advancing Axis forces.
In 1937, the Bucharest government of Romania, ordered 24 twin-engined SM.79B bombers fitted with 746 kW/1,000 hp Gnome-Rhône Mistral Major 14K radial engines. These aircraft, however, proved to be underpowered. Consequently, in February 1940 Romania ordered from Italy eight machines equipped with two Junkers Jumo 211 inline engines of 1,200 hp (890 kW) each. These aircraft were designated JIS 79 (J for Jumo, I for Italy and S for Savoia) and were delivered in 1941-2. A further 72 SM.79s were built under licence. Twin-engined versions were sold to Brazil and Iraq.
The SM.79 was an outstanding aircraft when first introduced, but inadequate by the start of the war, though it was certainly the best-known Italian aeroplane of World War II. It was easily recognizable due to its distinctive fuselage dorsal "hump", and was well liked by its crews who nicknamed it 'Gobbo Maledetto' (damned hunchback). It was the most widely produced Italian bomber of World War II, with some 1,300 built, remaining in Italian service until 1952.
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Cr.32
Cr.42 Falco
G.50 Freccia
G.55 Centauro
C.200 Saetta
C.202 Folgore
CZ.1007 Alcione
Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 'Sparviero'
