Italians invent air warfare

[ozzy72]

I always knew they'd done the first bombing from the air but this really colours in the picture, very interesting 8-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13294524

[Strategic Retreat]

Not saying this because I am Italian myself, as I am VERY critique towards my own even more than towards others, but really the way the article closes is something of a put off.

Ever since the start of the so called civilization, humanity as a rule has found a way to pervert EVERYTHING, even the smallest and innocentest thing, for war use... and I'm NOT going to offend anyone by making examples... yet those Brits find a way to shift the moral weight of the all the aerial bombings ever happened since 1911, making three excellent examples nonetheless, upon Italy?

I REALLY expected better from BBC.

[Webb]

I wouldn't worry, SR,

Everyone remembers Italy as the country that almost barely beat Ethiopia 25 years later.

[ozzy72]

Ouch Webb

[Strategic Retreat]

No Ozzy, it's true. The main difference between someone else (not speaking of anyone in particular, here) who staunchly defends his nation's past choices and me is that I don't try and hide behind poor excuses to make my country look better.

Italy, during the twenty years when Baldy was in power, was armed only slightly better than during the first world war (and those who accurately study that war from Italy's point of view are punctually horrified at our soldiers' equipment and amazed we managed in the end to be on the winning side), and hardly under the sole point of view of air power and was woefully unready to enter war in 1940, having won the various skirmishes up to then only thanks to have resorted to cheating (too long a list to be reported here)... but then... when in the buttons room there's a self-important delusional scoundrel whose only hopes were to use the (fortunately never happened) victory of OTHERS to hog something for himself, never exposing his sorry hide but throwing the best men of a generation to the wolves in the vainglorious hope to make himself look good... this is what happens. :-/

And looking at the present, I can safely say that my countrymen have learned NOTHING from past disasters.

This is the difference between those who make distinctions between their own against the others and me. What I was complaining about in my last post here, though, was not the attempt of making Italy look bad in itself, but the BBC's not-so covert attempt to almost say: "If it wasn't for them starting, we wouldn't have followed suit"...

Yeah right. Pull the other one, Brit. Pull the other one.

[Hagar]

What I was complaining about in my last post here, though, was not the attempt of making Italy look bad in itself, but the BBC's not-so covert attempt to almost say: "If it wasn't for them starting, we wouldn't have followed suit"...

Yeah right. Pull the other one, Brit. Pull the other one.

After carefully reading the article through several times it doesn't suggest that to me at all. I think you're reading more into it than was intended.

In fact the title of this topic is misleading. They might have been the first to put it into practice but the Italians did not invent air warfare.

"# [glow=yellow,2,300]January 1910 - US army practices aerial bombing,[/glow] using sandbags as dummy bombs

# [glow=yellow,2,300]1 November 1911 - Gavotti drops four 1.5kg bombs on Ain Zara,[/glow] pulling the pins with his teeth"

[ozzy72]

As a keen student of history I'm well aware of the possibilities of bias, I found the article fascinating as an insight into a little known piece of history.
As for the state of the Italian army at the beginning of WWII, anyone who has read Popski's Private Army will be well aware of its poor state, soldiers without boots and the like.
I don't put up articles to be negative, I share because of my passion for military history.
Britain isn't exactly covered in glory, we've invented things from barbed wire to concentration camps...

[Steve M]

I don't see anything offensive in the article other than the last paragraph is poorly worded. That would be the fault of the author and not any particular nationality. This reminded me of my grandfathers tale of being in the Army balloon core
in WW1. Tethered to a rope and observing the enemy while just out of range for the weapons of the day.

[Strategic Retreat]

It is probably nothing and I agree with you that it was a poor choice of wording... yet...

Forgive me. I can maybe build a phrase with a poor choice of words, as I'm not a pro at writing and English being a second, mostly self-taught language for me (school English was useless... had I remained with its highly appreciated skills I'd be barely able to write and read "the book in on the table" and understand NOTHING of a speech), it can be almost expected of me, and maybe excused with the routine procedure of saying "he doesn't know what he's talking about"... but coming a pro of writing, like a journalist SHOULD be, it's just another animal.

And that's EXACTLY that roused my ire. If you're a professional of written words (because I dare hope the BBC uses such people, and not improvised two cents paparazzi) that kind of "wording mismatch" could be read as a purposefully placed slur. That's why I wrote I expected better from BBC.

Things being as they are, it's fault of no one hereabout. Let's close this matter here.

[Flying Trucker]

Here is an interesting read...

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1171 ... mpo-mexico