ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 193697
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| Date: | Tuesday 11 February 1941 |
| Time: | 17:45 |
| Type: | Gloster Gladiator |
| Owner/operator: | 21 Mira RHAF |
| Registration: | |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | near Katsikas village -
 Greece
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
At 17:20 hrs on 11 February, 17 CR.42s of the 150o Gruppo led by Capitano Luigi Mariotti (363a Squadriglia) took off to strafe Ioannina’s Katsikas airfield. At 1745 hrs they attacked covered by 15 G50.bis of the 154o Gruppo.
Katsikas airfield, a few kilometers outside the city of Ioannina was nothing more than an area of flat land, which was transformed into a rough airfield a few months before Greece was attacked in October 1940. It was the base of the Gladiators of 21 Mira and had few facilities.
This day the airfield was warmed that enemy aircraft were approaching too late and only two Gladiators could take off, scrambling just as the Italian fighters attacked. They were flown by Anthiposminagos Anastasios Bardivilias and Episminias Nikolaos Kostorizos. They could take off and start to climb but were then attacked by the Italian fighters at an height of 300 m.
Episminias Kostorizos managed to survive the dogfight but took many machine guns hits and was forced to land his damaged fighter safely at Ioannina north airfield.
Anthiposminagos Anastasios Bardivilias was not so lucky. As he was chasing an enemy fighter, another attacked him from behind. The Greek pilot was hit in the head and killed and his fighter crashed and burned on the edge of the village of Katsikas.
The Italian pilots claimed two Gladiators shot down, one of them by Capitano Mariotti, who claimed one Gladiator as it was taking off. 364a Squadriglia pilots claimed three more biplanes slightly damaged on the ground. Three CR.42s of the 363a Squadriglia flown by Capitano Mariotti, Sottotenente Ugo Drago and Sergente Maggiore Bruno Benassi, made further strafing attacks, damaging another Gladiator. The three pilots then set fire to a lorry and damaged four others at Yanina. They also attacked a sailing ship spotted at Corfu. Totally three aircraft were claimed destroyed on the ground and 15 more damaged; real Allied losses were three Gladiators slightly damaged on the ground.
Ground AA fire claimed to have hit one of the CR.42s and it was believed to have crashed some miles to the south, but all in fact returned.
Bardivilias was born in 1915 in Kerastari, a small village in Southern Greece, and joined the Greek Air Arm in 1935, graduating as a pilot in 1938. He had claimed an Italian fighter shot down on 9 February in Kelcyre-Tepelene area. He was buried the day after his death in Ioannina Central Cemetery.
Sources:
http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/greece_bardivilias.htm
http://www.pasoipa.org.gr/lefkoma/pilot_details/?id=162
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsikas
http://www.maplandia.com/greece/ipiros/ioannina/katsikas/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 18-Feb-2017 10:55 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
| 26-May-2017 15:20 | TB | Updated [Time, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 12-Jul-2017 14:16 | Laurent Rizzotti | Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative] |
| 04-Oct-2018 14:08 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Narrative, Operator] |
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