Lioré-et-olivier LeO 451

Il_Signor_Regio · January 5, 2024, 3:49am

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Description: The Lioré-et-Olivier LeO 451 was a French bomber of the Second World War. It made its first flight on August 16, 1939, and it was mainly used as a medium bomber by the French Air Force. But France was not the only user; indeed, it was used by other countries that participated in the Second World War. The non-French operators were Germany, Italy, and the US. Today we will talk about its service in the Regia Aereonautica. After the Vichy republic’s capitulation, the Luftwaffe captured over 100 units and kept 40 for its own squadrons. But the German pilots didn’t like the aircraft much, and so the Luftwaffe passed the other 66 units to the Regia Aereonautica. The Regia Aereonautica at that time was lacking bombers due to the loss inflicted by the allies continued bombing and gladly accepted the new units. Those new units were mainly used for training, and they never saw real action. At the end of 1943, when Italy signed the armistice, there were around 20 units in service. One of their main problems was the lack of spare parts, and they had many structural problems with the gear, but the aircraft itself was capable. After the armistice, the fate of the remaining units is unknown. It’s not clear if those units were used by the ANR or by the air force of the cobelligerants, and it is not even clear how many survived the war.