Flavio Torello Baracchini () was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

fighter ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

credited with 21 confirmed and nine unconfirmed aerial victories. His confirmed victory total ranked him fourth among Italian aces of the war. After the war he worked as an inventor, working in the areas of aviation communications and explosives. He died in 1928 as a result of injuries that he received during an accident in his laboratory.

Military career

Flavio Baracchini was born at Villafranca in Lunigiana on 28 July 1895. He was educated at technical schools in

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. As World War I heated up, he was assigned to the Italian Army's 3rd Engineer Battalion. However, in Autumn 1915, he reported to the SIT School in

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

for pilot training. He was awarded licenses on 15 October and 1 December 1915; he then qualified on Voisins on 27 January 1916. On 28 February 1916, he was posted to ''7a Squadriglia'' (later redesignated ''26a Squadriglia'') and piloted a Voisin for them until 20 November 1916. In December 1916, he was commissioned as a '' Sottotenente''. He also reported to Cascina Costa to train on

Nieuport Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars. History Beginnings Originally formed as Nieuport-Duplex in ...

fighters.Franks et al 1997, pp. 133-134.Franks 2000, pp. 76-77. However, Baracchini had no success as a fighter pilot until May 1917, when he was assigned to the newly formed ''

81a Squadriglia ''81a Squadriglia'' was an Italian fighter squadron raised in March 1917 that served through the end of World War I. One of its aces, Flavio Baracchini, would become the first awardee of the Gold Medal for Military Valor. The squadron would be cre ...

''. His claim of the 15th went unconfirmed, but he got his first victory five days later when he shot down an Albatros south of Marco. He scored again on the 23rd and 25th. He scored once more, on 6 June 1917, while flying a

Nieuport 11 The Nieuport 11 (or Nieuport XI C.1 in contemporary sources), nicknamed the ''Bébé'', was a French World War I single seat sesquiplane fighter aircraft, designed by Gustave Delage. It was the primary aircraft that ended the Fokker Scourge i ...

, before upgrading to a

Nieuport 17 The Nieuport 17 C.1 (or Nieuport XVII C.1 in contemporary sources) was a French sesquiplane fighter designed and manufactured by the Nieuport company during World War I. An improvement over the Nieuport 11, it was a little larger than earlier Ni ...

. He used his new plane to tally four more triumphs that month. By the 22nd, he had scored eight victories by fighting 35 times in 39 days. For this extraordinary display of prowess, Flavio Baracchini became the first Italian fighter pilot to win the Gold Medal for Military Valor. Vigna di Valle 20110812 — Macchi Hanriot HD

Vigna di Valle 20110812 — Macchi Hanriot HD

He transferred to ''

76a Squadriglia ''76a Squadriglia'' of the ''Corpo Aeronautico Militare'' was one of Italy's original fighter squadrons, being founded during World War I on 25 May 1916. On 30 May 1916, the new unit began its combat career. Between 22 April and 3 October 1917, th ...

'' and a

Hanriot HD.1 The Hanriot HD.1 was a French World War I single-seat fighter aircraft. Rejected for service with French squadrons in favour of the SPAD S.VII, the type was supplied to the Belgian Army′s (Belgian Military Aviation) and the (Military Aviatio ...

on 14 July 1917. He also evaluated a loaner

Spad VII The SPAD S.VII was the first of a series of highly successful biplane fighter aircraft produced by ''Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés'' (SPAD) during the World War I, First World War. Like its successors, the S.VII was renowned as a s ...

for possible use by the squadron; it was rejected. Baracchini won twice in July. In August, he was credited with two more victories, on the 3rd and 8th, while his first claim for an observation balloon went unconfirmed. He was so seriously wounded in the left jaw on 8 August 1917 that he was out of action for nine months. Upon his return, he again had an unconfirmed credit on a balloon, on 3 April 1918. Then he was transferred back to ''81a Squadriglia''. He had four confirmed and four unconfirmed wins for May. He began his final month of combat with a double victory on 15 June, with a third claim going unconfirmed. On the 18th, he once again was denied credit for downing a balloon. On the 21st, he finally became a

balloon buster Balloon busters were military pilots known for destroying enemy observation balloons. These pilots were noted for their fearlessness, as balloons were stationary targets able to receive heavy defenses, from the ground and the air. Seventy-seven f ...

, for his nineteenth credit. He scored again on both the 22nd and the 25th, to bring his total to 21 confirmed and nine unconfirmed. However, on the 25th, he was again severely wounded, when he was shot down by machine gun fire.

Post-war life

He survived the war, and quit flying in 1921. He turned to inventing items that would be useful to fliers. His first invention was a signalling device for communicating with aeroplanes, which was adopted by Italian aviators. He then began the development of an explosive mixture in a laboratory. It ignited accidentally and burned him severely on 29 July 1928. He lingered a short while, before succumbing on 18 August 1928.

Notes

References

* Franks, Norman; Guest, Russell; Alegi, Gregory. ''Above the War Fronts: The British Two-seater Bomber Pilot and Observer Aces, the British Two-seater Fighter Observer Aces, and the Belgian, Italian, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Fighter Aces, 1914–1918: Volume 4 of Fighting Airmen of WWI Series: Volume 4 of Air Aces of WWI''. Grub Street, 1997. , . * Franks, Norman. ''Nieuport Aces of World War 1.'' Osprey Publishing, 2000. , . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baracchini, Flavio 1895 births 1928 deaths People from the Province of Massa-Carrara Italian aviators 20th-century Italian inventors Italian military personnel of World War I Italian World War I flying aces Recipients of the Gold Medal of Military Valor