'' Sergente Maggiore'' Guglielmo Fornagiari was an Italian

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

credited with six aerial victories.

Biography

Guglielmo Fornagiari was born in

Lizzano in Belvedere Lizzano in Belvedere ( High Mountain Bolognese: ; City Bolognese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southwest of Bologna. Among the parishes is the church of ...

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

, in 1892.Franks et al 1997, pp. 139-140. His life and military career are unknown before he was posted to a

fighter squadron A squadron in air force, army aviation, or naval aviation is a unit comprising a number of military aircraft and their aircrews, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, dependi ...

, ''

78a Squadriglia ''78a Squadriglia'' was one of the original Italian fighter squadrons of World War I, serving in combat from 29 June 1916 to 3 November 1918. They flew 4,770 combat missions and were credited with 88 aerial victories. History 78a Squadriglia of t ...

'', on 3 September 1916. On 19 June 1917, he staked his first victory claim while flying a Nieuport 11. Eight days later, his takeoff was aborted by engine failure, and he crashlanded in a vineyard. He was unhurt, but two vineyard workers were killed and another pair injured. Despite this, he continued to fly and fight, and scored his first accredited aerial victory on 22 August 1917. He had been equipped with a Hanriot HD.1 by 8 October, when he staked his fourth claim. Fornagiari continued to score; on 26 December, he would share two victories, one with Masiero, for his fifth and sixth claims. He ended 1917 by receiving a second Silver Medal. Fornagiari would post three more victory claims in 1918. He ended the war still with ''78a Squadriglia''. At some point during the war, in addition to the Silver Medals for Military Valor, he won a Bronze award of the Medal, plus a Serbian

Order of the Star of Karađorđe Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

. The postwar aerial victory review would approve six of his nine victory claims. He was appointed as battalion adjutant for the squadron, remaining with them until May 1925. Guglielmo Fornagiari died in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

on 3 February 1956.

External links

Photographs of Fornagiari.

Endnotes

References

* Norman Franks, Franks, Norman; Guest, Russell; Alegi, Gregory. ''Above the War Fronts: The British Two-seater Bomber Pilot and Observer Aces, the British Two-seater Fighter Observer Aces, and the Belgian, Italian, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Fighter Aces, 1914–1918: Volume 4 of Fighting Airmen of WWI Series: Volume 4 of Air Aces of WWI''. Grub Street, 1997. , . 1892 births 1956 deaths Italian World War I flying aces {{Italy-mil-bio-stub