On 11 November 1940, the day before the battle fleet of the "Regia Marina" (the Italian navy) was attacked at Taranto by the Royal Navy's aircraft and as a result lost half of its capital ships, the CAI saw its first major combat against the RAF. Ten bombers were escorted by forty-two CR.42s, G.50s, and some German Messerschmitt Bf 109s assigned to them. The G.50 mission was aborted due to bad weather that caused too much fuel consumption and the Fiat monoplanes had to go, leaving only the CR.42 as escort. However, Hurricanes from several units, belonging to 257, 46, and 42 Squadrons intercepted the aircraft and destroyed three bombers and two fighters, while another was lost to mechanical fault or navigation error, the pilot (Salvatori) was captured. In addition, four bombers eventually force landed, two fighters were destroyed on landing, and another eight fighters landed with damage, with over 20 aviators missing, dead or wounded. British had two fighters slightly damaged. One of the Fiats (MM.5701) was repaired by the British and subsequently evaluated by Eric Brown; this is one of the best conserved CR.42s, and it is owned by a UK museum (Hendon).