Benina, establishment of an air unit

In Carovigno near Brindisi they established their pilot, reconnaissance and mechanical school. From there a group of 255 pilots flew to Africa. In Africa they gathered at the airport of Benina near Bengasi. The first group arrived from Kassara with more than 300 pilots, who had already resisted on 1 December 1943 and established the first unit of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia in Africa. From these two groups the 1st and 2nd squadrons were formed. From Algeria a group of 118 pilots, mechanics and radio operators joined the squadrons. The 1st squadron was established on 22 April 1944 at the airport of Benina and had 16 aircraft of the Spitfire model. On 1 July 1944 the 2nd squadron was formed, which had 16 aircraft of the Hurricane model. The squadrons operated as part of the British air force, but fought on the Yugoslav territory from Trieste to the Black Sea and from the Sava River to the Adriatic Sea. Together they carried out 2180 combat sorties and 593 combat missions.

In the allied camps in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia there were in the autumn of 1943 about 4000 coastal Slovenes and Istrian Croats, who had already decided in July and August 1943 on the island of Sicily to join the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. They established their partisan units, but the allies instead transported them to northern Africa (mainly to Algeria). From there they finally arrived on the Yugoslav battlefield upon the determined intervention of the High Command of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and comrade Tito in 1944.

Source: Prekomorci, M. Ivančič, Koper, 2023

Keyword: prekomorci123, nedokončano123