Thanks to: Dominic Candeloro
at H-ITAM@H-NET.MSU.EDU
[RAA Note: With the renew interest in Italian
Aviation Between the World
Wars, spearheaded by the impending Celebration
in Chicago in 2002, the
following book and article should be of pertinent
interest, although it
occurred during WWI.]
=============================================
From: "Camilla Viglino Hurwitz" <cthurwitz@hotmail.com>
I am forwarding some information about my father's book. I believe it
would
appeal to Italian readers in that it contains a first hand account
of the
excitement (and hazards) of flying in 1915 narrated by a young Italian
man
full of patriotism, idealism, and religious fervor.
Memoirs of Lt. Camillo Viglino:
Italian Air Force 1915-1916
by Lt. Camillo Viglino (trans. Camilla Hurwitz and Victor Viglino)
121 pages; perfect bound; catalogue #01-0335; ISBN 1-55212-933-0;
US$19.95, C$29.95
A firsthand account, accompanied by photographs, of the experiences
of a
World War I flight trainee during the earliest days of military aviation.
About the Book
In July of 1915, just two months after Italy joined the Allied Forces
during World War I, Lieutenant Camillo Viglino, age 23, volunteered
for
flight training in the Italian Air Force. His account of the training
provides the freshness and intimacy of an on-the-scene, firsthand report.
It reveals an idealistic young man with an unbridled passion for flying
and
a patriotic zeal to fight for his country -- a young man daring to
go up in
the fragile flying machines of those early years of aviation, routinely
placing himself at the mercy of the weather, cantankerous engines,
and
unreliable instruments. The discomforts of flying an open-cockpit 1914
Maurice Farman, the frequent crashes at the flight school, and the
constant
occurrences of pilots getting lost are all related with a nonchalant
bravado befitting a 20-year-old. Viglino follows his diary-like accounts
with a copy of a letter from a cousin at the front describing an air
raid
on Adelsberg, Austria.
This book was written in Italian and originally published in Italy in
1934.
It was translated into English by his two children, Camilla Viglino
Hurwitz
and Victor Viglino.
About the Author
Camillo Viglino came from a very patriarchal, upper-class family that
strongly opposed his decision to volunteer for flight training. Viglino's
strong religious upbringing is evidenced by his allusion to divine
intervention in the daily lives of the young student pilots contained
in
his memoirs. Unfortunately, his career as a military pilot was a very
brief
one, as the reader will discover on reading his memoirs.
Viglino went on to obtain degrees in Law, Literature, and Philosophy,
and
became a professor at the Collegio Melleria Rosmini in Domodossola,
where
he had studied as a youth. He became a prolific writer, authoring numerous
articles on religious subjects, personal experiences, and childrens'
school
texts. Finally he became the Editor of the Rivista Rosminiana, a Catholic
newspaper published in Intra.
In 1930, he married Ida Ferraris. Their first child, Vittorio, was born
in
1931. In 1934, Viglino appended his memoirs with a number of surprisingly
intuitive reflections on the future of aviation, the automobile, space
travel, and other inventions of the 20th century. They are included
in the
book and demonstrate his foresight, his idealism, and the tenor of
the times.
Sadly, after having survived his daredevil exploits in aviation, Viglino
succumbed to pneumonia and died in 1935 at the early age of 43. His
wife
was carrying their second child, Camilla, at the time.
Excerpts
"...I glanced at my uncle's altimeter and saw that it registered about
60 feet. If it
was right, I knew that in just a few seconds I would smash into the
ground."
"...Believe it or not, the cockpit, with the pilot still inside, detached
from the plane and slid inside an open window that was just at the
right
height while the rest of the plane crumbled into the wall. The pilot
and the
cockpit ended up in the middle of a group of bewildered mechanics scared
out
of their wits."
"...The percentage of fatalities was enormous. In their Lombardian
dialect,
the local bourgeois pitifully referred to us as "neck meat", the term
applied
to animals in the slaughter house."
"...was lucky enough to bring the plane down safely suspended on a
clump of
tall trees. And there he remained the entire night cooped up like a
chicken
inside the cockpit - uncomfortable and hungry - without daring to move
for
fear that the plane might fall to the ground."
"...after much yelling and waving, the students flung themselves against
the
plane to try to stop it. Unfortunately, they were hit in the chest
by the
wings and thrown upwards with legs flying. The plane ended up wedged
in
between two others and all three were completely demolished."
"...we had our colleagues hold on to the plane and release it when
we were
ready to take off. The trouble with men holding onto the plane was
that they
didn't always release it at exactly the same time, causing the plane
to yaw
in one direction or the other at full speed."
"...don't think for a minute that we didn't have respect for our classmates
killed in flight. When the field truck passed in front of the cemetery,
we
all saluted. And when we passed over the cemetery in flight, again
we all
saluted. We were saluting the friends that we could be joining at any
moment.
When we attended the funeral of our friends who died flying, the women
would
look at us all with eyes full of pity. But we were no more deserving
of their
pity than the infantrymen who died hungry, in dirty
trenches filled with lice. I guess in contrast to them, we risked a
cold
death, often foreseen, all alone, without the excitement of the hand-to-hand
combat to distract us from its approach."
I would be happy to send you a review copy of the book. I can be reached
at
Camilla Hurwitz at (972) 960-0941 or cthurwitz@hotmail.com
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