Recognition: Field Manual, FM 30-39 - Identification of Italian Aircraft (1941) - Table of Contents
War Department Basic Field Manual, FM 30-39, Military Intelligence. Identification of Italian Aircraft, October 24, 1941. Prepared under direction of the Chief of Staff, Washington, October 24, 1941
As most 30 series recognition manuals, this is a general purpose pamphlet as well. Since this is a fairly early edition, all technical data - and in some cases even the designations - must be treated with great caution. Close inspection will reveal a number of errors.
Military recognition is based on the typical aspects of an object, not on the many small details, which may be present in "spotters guides" or similar. (see FM 21-80). Since this is a manual for all services, technical information on the types is kept to a minimum. The publication of technical information, including detailed performance data, used a different kind of pamphlet in the 40 series. (example: Intelligence Summary 43-33 German Aircraft and Armament., Office Of Chief of Air Staff, Intelligence, Washington (1943) ).
A chracteristic page of this manual looks like this:
Since most of the information in this manual is based on graphical representations of aircraft, it is published as a downloadable PDF file.
( A small comment on PDFs: The Manual is presented as is. Any errors are by the original print. The quality of text and pictures are below the general standard of this web site by purpose and design. The reason is simple. This site offers numerous documents free of charge. Some of the original documents are cheap - some incure several hundred $$. Of course there are other sites. And some sites will ask you, as the reader, for money to obtain a CD or the likes. To discourage copying of site content from airfronts, reproduction quality in PDFs is kept low. Each page has a "watermark" as unobtrusive as possible. These marks are put in place to discourage any "leeching" of your wallet. Apologies for any distractions caused by this. If you, as a reader need higher quality reproductions, feel free to e-mail the web-master)
Aircraft Presented:
LAND PLANES: Fighters:
A. U. T. 18 (Umbra)
Breda 64
Caproni CA. 165
Caproni Vizzola S. A. F. 5
Fiat CR 32
Fiat CR 41
Fiat CR 42
Fiat G. 50
Macchi C 200
Meridionali RO 41
Meridionali RO 51
Reggiane RE 2000 "Falcho I"
Fighter-bombers:
Breda 65
Savoia Marchetti SM 85 (dive)
Bombers:
Breda 88
Caproni CA 311 (reconnaissance)
Cant Z 1007 bis
Cant Z 1011
Caproni CA 135 bis
Fiat BR 20
Fiat CR 25
Piaggio P 32 MK II
Savoia Marchetti SM 79 (reconnaissance
Savoia Marchetti SM 81 (reconnaissance) Reconnaissance:
Caproni CA 111
Caproni CA 310 Libeccio (bomber)
Army cooperation:
Caproni CA 134
Caproni CA 164
Meridionali RO 37 bis Transports:
Caproni CA 133
Fiat G 18
Savoia Marchetti SM 73 Savoia Marchetti SM 75
Savoia Marchetti SM 82 "Marsupiale"
Savoia Marchetti SM 79 (reconnaissance)
General purpose:
Caproni Ghibli
Nardi F. N. 315
SEAPLANES: Fighters:
Meridionali 0 44
Meridionali RO 43 (reconnaissance)
Reconnaissance-bombers:
Cant Z 501
Cant Z 506B
Caproni CA 312 bis
Fiat R. S. 14
