At about noon on a fine July day in 1933, an armada of 24 impressive seaplanes splashed down on the waters of Lough Foyle. They were under the command of aviator of world renown, Gen Italo Balbo, one of the right-hand men of the Italian fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.
This fleet was on its way in a series of stages from Italy to Chicago. There it was to become a visible presence in a remarkable international exposition called the Century of Progress. Balbo's aerial transatlantic feat was intended as a demonstration of Italian achievement and leadership in the development of air travel.
News of the approach of this aeronautical spectacle to Lough Foyle created intense anticipation.
The Lough Swilly railway ran a special train to Derry while 40 buses carried spectators to the shores of Lough Foyle. People stood on vantage points along both sides of the lough. Because the Italians were going to alight in the Northern Ireland part of the lough, the Royal Air Force performed welcoming acrobatics.The British minister for aviation, Lord Londonderry, arrived from London in a flying boat; King George V sent a message.
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Balbo and his men were taken ashore to a civic reception, through streets lined with cheering people. Messages of goodwill arrived from Dublin including one from the minister for external affairs, Éamon de Valera.
A significant ceremonial event was when Balbo laid a wreath on the Great War Memorial. It was not forgotten that Italy had been on the side of France and Britain in that conflict.
What may have been forgotten or overlooked was the fact that Balbo had led fascist zealots in bullying and intimidation as they sought to grab power in Italy 11 years before.
Nonetheless, he proved to be a likeable guest during his three-day stop in Derry. He had a flamboyant and outgoing personality, saying all the right things to his hosts. His square face, black goatee beard and sharp dark eyes made a striking impression.
After being wined and dined in the city and with their Marchetti seaplanes refuelled, the Italian pilots, engineers and navigators boarded their planes. With a great fanfare of sound and surf, the armada roared up Lough Foyle and climbed out over the sea on their way to the next stop, Reykjavik.
Chicago
When Balbo and his armada eventually set down on Lake Michigan, they were received by cheering crowds and the civic authorities. They added to the excitement that surrounded the Chicago exhibition.
Later they flew to New York, escorted by 36 US aircraft. Hundreds of thousands lined the streets to watch a motorcade of the Italian aviators with an escort of mounted police.
President Franklin D Roosevelt invited Balbo to lunch and heaped praise on him and his men for their achievement. Honours of many kinds were bestowed on him. He was pictured wearing a very large head-dress of feathers when the Sioux adopted him as “Chief Flying Eagle”.
It was a great boost to the pride of Italian-Americans, striving to be fully accepted as worthy citizens.
Eventually the armada departed and took a more southerly route across the Atlantic by the Azores, on its way home to Italy. Its feat was exuberantly acclaimed and Balbo was a national hero.
This public adulation aroused the jealousy of Mussolini. He consigned Balbo to the governorship of the Italian colony of Libya on the other side of the Mediterranean. However it was a relatively short air journey away and Balbo regularly returned to his homeland,
He was a strong-minded individual, in no way in awe of Mussolini. When the granite-jawed dictator followed the example of the Nazi regime in Germany and introduced an anti-Semitic law in Italy, Balbo publicly opposed it.
As the threat of Hitler's war-mania increased, Balbo advocated that Italy take the side of the British. Mussolini decided otherwise and in 1940 Italian forces in Libya were in conflict with the British in Egypt. On June 28th, British aircraft attacked the airfield at Tobruk. Just as these flew away an Italian aircraft with Balbo on board approached. It was mistaken for British and the anti-aircraft batteries defending the airfield brought it down. Balbo and all on board perished.
Military funeral
He was given an impressive military funeral. In a gesture of gallantry a British aircraft dropped a wreath from above with the following message of condolence: "The British Royal Airforce expresses its sympathy in the death of General Balbo, a great leader and a gallant aviator, personally known to me, whom fate has placed on the other side." It was signed by Arthur Longmore, head of the RAF Middle East command.
Balbo’s remains were placed in an impressive tomb in Tripoli. Thirty years later, the Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gadafy, in a retrospective anti-colonial mood, threatened to have the body exhumed. The Italian government removed it and had it reburied in Orbetello on the west coast of Italy.
His grave is near the lagoon where his armada had taken off for Derry, Chicago and other water stops many years before.