Hello bajtársak and fellow forumdwellers,
The Breda Ba.65 was developed in the mid-1930s as a modern single-engine, all-metal monoplane intended to be a multi-role aereo di combattimento (combat aircraft). Its design was innovative for Italy’s Regia Aeronautica, featuring an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear. Initially designed by Antonio Parano and Giuseppe Panzeri, it was ambitiously meant to perform both as a ground-attack aircraft and an interim fighter.
The Ba.65 saw its first combat during the Spanish Civil War, where it was flown by Italian volunteer pilots and initially performed well in its ground-attack role against Republican forces. Its service in the Second World War, primarily in North Africa against British and Commonwealth troops, quickly revealed it was critically outclassed by modern fighters and vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. Due to heavy losses, poor serviceability, a lack of power from its engine resulting in poor top speed of 430 km/h, the aircraft was withdrawn from frontline duties by 1941, with surviving units relegated to secondary roles.
The aircraft’s standard fixed forward-firing armament consisted of two 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns and two 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns mounted in the wings. For defense, it relied on a single flexible 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine gun operated by a rear gunner in the second cockpit. Its primary offensive punch came from a substantial bomb load of up to 500 kg, which could be carried in an internal bomb bay and on underwing racks, including anti-personnel bomblets or larger demolition bombs.
Considering its characteristics as well as its service history, the Breda Ba.65 could be the first Italian tech tree attacker on BR1, carrying 400 kg of bombs, 4x 50kg GP50 bombs in the internal bomb bay and 2x 100 kg GP100 bombs on the underwing racks, giving it the same bomb load as the 400 kg of Potez 633 which should become the standard for BR1 attackers.
