BERGAMO, ITALY |
|
|
A monumental fountain erected in his honor in Bergamo. Collection of Gio. Columbus, 12-23-05 |
via email from Gio. Columbus, 12-23-05 I have read your site about Antonio Locatelli. I live and work in his town, Bergamo. He was a hero in WW I. He shot down many Austrian and German airplanes. He was the first Italian pilot to shoot down an Austrian airplane behind the Austrian lines. When he was only 23, he flew over the enemy lines and dropped Italian propaganda leaflets over some of the Austrian towns. After a similar flight over Fiume in September 1918, he was shot down and injured, but later he escaped from the Austrian prison and returned to Italy. He had a lot of other interests. He was a great mountaineer, (The Italian mountaneering club in Bergamo honors his name), and also was a writer. He was mayor of Bergamo in 1934. The picture above shows the monumental fountain erected in his honor in Bergamo. His only sin was that he had been a fascist. But, he was a very honest man, as for example was Italo Balbo. But in Italy, the communists have a prejudice against fascists, so they want to forget this great man and ignore his history. In Bergamo, there was his original SVA which he had donated to Bergamo. It has been recently restored and was displayed in a hall, but the current mayor, voted in by the communists, wants to move it out of Bergamo!!!!!!!! I hope to have given you some new information about Locatelli. If you want to ask anything else about him, feel free to do so. Gio. Columbus Editor's Note: We are so very grateful to Gio for the important information on the career of Locatelli which he has shared with us and will loook forward to adding such additional facts which he is willing to provide. |
|
|
|
Anteprima dell'Ansaldo A.1 Balilla restaurato dal GAVS Torino "Ralph. There is very interesting site (in Italian) with beautiful pictures of the original restored SVA of Antonio Locatelli. Once on the page, double click each of the blue words. Under the he words "motore Austro Daimler" you could find the picture of an Austro Daimler Engine a Locatelli's war prey from a shot down Austrian airplane. Next days I'll try to go to the hall where the plane is showed, to get some pictures of it, but I fear that they just removed it. I forgot to say that Locatelli had a lot of other interests. He was also a great photographer and explorer.His sister Rosetta, (she's 98 old and still alive!!!!), donated the collection of his articles and letters to the Angelo Maj library in Bergamo. In the Angelo Maj library there is also the collection of the pictures of his journeys. Now I'm a little bit busy, but I promise to write you soon, hopefully with good news, and maybe I'll try to call you." You can obtain a machine-translated version into English by clicking on Systran and following the directions after copying this URL and then pasting it into the proper box. The translated version is pretty easy to read and understand. |
|