Aviazione Legionaria The Legionary Air Force ( , ) was an expeditionary corps from the Italian Royal Air Force . It was set up in 1936 and sent to provide logistical and tactical support to Francisco Franco ' s Nationalist s during the Spanish Civil War , alongside its German equivalent , the Condor Legion , and the Italian ground troops of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie . They served from August 1936 to the end of the conflict in March 1939 . Their main base of operations was the island of Majorca . History . At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 , General Franco had about 30 , 000 troops and Moroccan nationals under his command , along with some artillery units , of whom the majority were on Spanish territory in Africa and in the Balearic Islands . His main problem was to get them to mainland Spain and so , on 24 July 1936 , Franco turned to the Italian consul in Tangiers and then directly to major Luccardi , the military attache in the Italian consulate . Through them Franco tried to convince Benito Mussolini to send twelve transport aircraft , twelve reconnaissance planes , ten fighter aircraft , 3000 aerial bombs , antiaircraft machine guns and at least forty five transport ships . At first Mussolini was reluctant to send them , despite his sympathy for Franco , but his son - in - law Galeazzo Ciano put pressure on him and he changed his mind on July 25 . Ciano had in the meantime spoken with two representatives of the Spanish monarchy about thirty fighter planes and other equipment sent by the French government that would arrive on August 2 . On July 27 Mussolini ordered the under - secretary for the Regia Aeronautica , general Giuseppe Valle , to send 12 three - engined Savoia - Marchetti SM . 81 bombers with crews and the relevant specialists . These would form the first unit , initially known at first as " Aviación del Tercio " and set out at dawn on 30 July from Cagliari - Elmas on Sardinia , where they had picked up three officials from the Scuola di Navigazione di Altura at Orbetello , the ' gerarca ' Ettore Muti and the tenente - colonnello Ruggero Bonomi . The aircraft crews and the specialists were all volunteers from 7th , 10th and 13th Stormo and were provided with civilian clothes and fake documents . All the Italian symbols on the planes had been blotted out to prevent an international incident with pro - Republican European governments . Fake documents stated that the planes were being sold to the Spanish journalist Luis Bolin . The trip to Franco ' s forces was very hard and not all of the planes reached Morocco - the plane commanded by Angelini crashed in the Mediterranean , that under Mattalia crashed near Saïda ( in a French - controlled part of Morocco ) , and that commanded by Lo Forte had to make an emergency landing near Berkane ( also in French Morocco ) and was seized by the local authorities . The nine survivors of the Moroccan crashes were provided with nationalist papers and transferred to the airport at Tetuan , from which they helped over the following days to escort the transport ships " Araujo " , " Ciudad de Alicante " and " Ciudad de Ceuta " , which together carried 4 , 000 men , 4 artillery batteries , 2 million cartridges and 12 tons of other munitions to mainland Spain . Encouraged by this first operation ' s success , Mussolini began to send a more steady stream of munitions , personnel and supplies under the name of " Aviación Legionaria " , " Aviazione Legionaria " . As well as supporting Franco ' s ground forces , the units of the Aviazione Legionaria repeatedly attacked Spanish cities and ports such as Barcelona , Madrid , Alicante , Granollers , Valencia and Almeria , significantly inhibiting the supply - lines for the Spanish Republican forces . On 12 May 1939 the last Italian aircrew embarked for Italy on the ship " Duilio " at Cadiz . By the end of the conflict the Aviazione Legionaria had had a total of 135 , 265 hours ' flying time on 5 , 318 operations , dropping 11 , 524 tons of bombs and destroying 943 enemy air units and 224 ships . 171 Italian personnel had been killed and 192 wounded , with 74 fighters , 8 bombers , 2 ground - attack planes and 2 reconnaissance aircraft shot down or destroyed . The ratio of results to men and machines lost was positive , but also confirmed the Regia Aeronautica ' s commanders in their mistaken belief that biplanes and triplanes were still valid in modern combat . In fact the age of air warfare dominated by these aircraft was waning and it was becoming evident that radio needed to be mounted on all aircraft and that bomb - aiming now had to be done with special instruments rather than by sight These errors of judgement would prove decisive when Italy entered the Second World War in 1940 . Aircraft and units . 12 Fiat CR . 32 biplanes arrived in Melilla in transport ships on 14 August 1936 ( 405 would have been sent to Franco by the end of the operation ) and by the end of August the " Cucaracha " squadron was formed at Caceres with aircraft of that type . Initial dispatches of aircraft were followed by more numerous ones - in March 1939 eleven of the new monoplane Fiat G . 50 fighter were sent , to be based at the base at Ascalona , though in the end they never saw action . Various bombers were sent 55 three - engined S . M . 81 " Pipistrello " , 99 of the three - engined Savoia - Marchetti SM . 79 " Sparviero " and 16 of the Fiat BR . 20 " Cicogna " . The units were made part of the 21st Stormo da Bombardamento Pesante and from the 251st and 252nd Squadriglia Pipistrelli delle Baleari . The " Cicogne " went to 230th Squadriglia da bombardamento veloce in summer 1937 , before being moved to the 231st in 1938 . Altogether a total of 758 airplanes were sent : The 276 of these aircraft which survived at the end of the war were all transferred to the new Spanish Fascist airforce . Markings . The unit ' s recognition symbols were roundel s placed on both sides of the wings and on the tail - rudder . The wing symbol was a completely black circle , later personalised with white symbols ranging from a simple cross to designs referring to the commanders of the Condor Legion and the Aviación Nacional . The tail symbol was a simple black cross on a white field , which remained the fin flash of the later Ejército del Aire . Personnel . In addition to the aircraft , Italy provided a number of well - trained men , sending more than 6 , 000 in total ( 5 , 699 airmen and 312 civilians ) . These men replaced Spaniards who had been killed . Aces . Source : Axishistory . com ( 12 July 2008 ) Commanders . In its two and a half years in Spain the legion had four commanders ( final ranks noted ) :