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Castel Benito (called originally in Italian "Tripoli-Castel Benito aeroporto") was an airport of Tripoli created by the Italians in Italian Libya in the early 1930s. It was called RAF Castel Benito by the Allies after 1943.
Originally, it was a small military airport, but it was enlarged in the late 1930s (and was later used by the British RAF after 1943).
Originally, Tripoli-Castel Benito Airport was a Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) airfield created in 1934 in the southern outskirts of Italian Tripoli. It was the operational base for the "15° Stormo da bombardamento" with Savoia Marchetti SM. 79 and SM.81 as well as the "13° Gruppo da caccia" with Fiat CR.32 and CR.42.
Later, the first units of Italian parachutists were trained and formed shortly before the Second World War. The first Italian Military Parachute School was at the airport. The first troops trained were two Libyan battalions, the Libyan Parachute Battalion and the 1st National Libyan Parachute Battalion,[3] of the Royal Colonial Corps. Successively was created a paratrooper battalion with Italian volunteers, that later was increased and named Folgore.
In 1938, the Italian Libya governor Italo Balbo enlarged the military airfield (located 33 km south of Tripoli) and created an international airport for civilians served mainly by Ala Littoria, the official Italian airline: the Aeroporto di Tripoli-Castel Benito.
The airport was connected to Rome by the "Linee Aeree Transcontinentali Italiane" (LATI), that ran a postal (and civilian service) to Africa, Asia and South America from Italy.
The new airport had direct flights to Tunis and Malta, run with Savoia-Marchetti SM-73 of "Ala Littoria".
Castel Benito airport was connected with internal airports of Libya, such as Benghazi (Benina International Airport), Ghadames (Ghadames Airport), Sabha (Sabha Air Base), and Kufra (Kufra Airport).
Another flight served by "Ala Littoria" was towards the Africa Orientale Italiana, with more than 4000 km: it was used mainly for military transport and mail service and was created in 1935, from Tripoli to Kassala (Sudan) and Asmara in Italian Eritrea. It was served by the Caproni Ca.308 Borea, with capacity for a crew of 2 but with only 6 passengers.[7]
In 1938 Air France started a regular flight from Marseille to Tripoli, later enlarged to Benghazi and Damascus.
In 1938 the Ala Littoria's international flights from the new civilian airport were:
In spring 1939 was started a flight to Eritrea, Ethiopia ad Somalia: Roma -Tripoli (Benghazi)- Cairo - Khartoum - Asmara - Addis Ababa - Mogadishu (nearly 7000 km)
In 1939 was started by Ala Littoria a passenger service with international travels to Rome (Italy) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia and Africa Orientale Italiana): it was one of the first intercontinental flights in world history and was called Linea dell'Impero . The service was done (using mainly the Benghazi airport, but even the Tripoli-Castel Benito airport) with Savoia-Marchetti SM-83 carrying nearly 30 passengers.
In summer 1939 was experimented the possibility of direct flights between Libya and Eritrea, bypassing Egypt and Sudan controlled by the British Empire. The son of Mussoli
In summer 1939 was experimented the possibility of direct flights between Libya and Eritrea, bypassing Egypt and Sudan controlled by the British Empire. The son of Mussolini, Bruno, an experienced aviator, was able to make a direct flight from Castel Benito airport to Kufra airport (near the desert border Libya-Sudan) and to Asmara in Italian Eritrea: this new route was used by military airplanes after WWII started.
In 1939, more and more attracted by the idea of establishing a similar regular service between Italy and Italian East Africa, Bruno Mussolini (in the meantime appointed general manager of LATI) and his staff carried out a long technical cruise with their SM83-ATTE to Tripoli and the Kufra Oasis (Libya), Asmara, Massaua, Gura and Agordat (Eritrea). The voyage proved to be very useful to acknowledge those flight experiences necessary for the future war missions.
The airport was used even as a military base, where some Savoia-Marchetti SM-74 operated successfully even as civilian transport airplanes. The last of these airplanes, nicknamed "Millepiedi", did the last flight to Italy from Tripoli-Castel Benito airport on January 7, 1943 [1] before the arrival of the British Army (that fully destroyed the airport and conquered Tripoli on January 23).
The airport during WWII suffered huge damages and was attacked continuously by Allied bombers. The most destructive raids were on November/December 1941 and in December 1942/January 1943.
The Castel Benito airport was in activity and used by the Italians from early 1930s until 1943.
After the airport was captured by the British in January 1943, the airfield was renamed RAF Castel Benito and was used by a number of Allied operational squadrons involved in the desert war and in the Tunisia battles.
Italo Balbo was an Italian fascist politician and Blackshirts' leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Italian Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa. Due to his young age, he was sometimes seen as a possible successor to dictator Benito Mussolini.
SIAI-Marchetti was an Italian aircraft manufacturer primarily active during the interwar period.
Tripoli International Airport is a closed international airport built to serve Tripoli, the capital city of Libya. The airport is located in the area of Qasr bin Ghashir, 24 kilometres (15 mi) from central Tripoli. It used to be the hub for Libyan Airlines, Afriqiyah Airways, and Buraq Air.
Asmara International Airport is the international airport of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. It is the country's largest airport and the only one receiving regularly scheduled services as of 2017.
The Savoia-Marchetti S.73 was an Italian three-engine airliner that flew in the 1930s and early 1940s. The aircraft entered service in March 1935 with a production run of 48 aircraft. Four were exported to Belgium for SABENA, while seven others were produced by SABCA. The main customer was the Italian airline Ala Littoria.
Ala Littoria S.A. was the Italian national airline that operated during the fascist regime in the 1930s and 1940s.
Wadi Halfa Airport is an airport serving Wadi Halfa in Sudan. The airport is approximately 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) east of Wadi Halfa.
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.75 Marsupiale was an Italian passenger and military transport aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. It was a low-wing, trimotor monoplane of mixed metal and wood construction with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage. It was the last of a line of transport aeroplanes that Alessandro Marchetti began designing in the early 1930s. The SM.75 was fast, robust, capable of long-range flight and could carry up to 24 passengers for 1,000 miles.
Libya was a colony of Fascist Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, which had been Italian possessions since 1911.
RAF Castel Benito was an airport of Tripoli created by the Italians in Italian Libya. Originally, it was a small military airport named Castel Benito, but it was enlarged in the late 1930s and was later used by the British RAF after 1943. It was called RAF Castel Benito by the Allies.
The Libyan Coastal Highway, formerly the Litoranea Balbo, is a highway that is the only major road that runs along the entire east-west length of the Libyan Mediterranean coastline. It is a section in the Cairo–Dakar Highway #1 in the Trans-African Highway system of the African Union, Arab Maghreb Union and others.
Italian Eritrea was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy in the territory of present-day Eritrea. The first Italian establishment in the area was the purchase of Assab by the Rubattino Shipping Company in 1869, which came under government control in 1882. Occupation of Massawa in 1885 and the subsequent expansion of territory would gradually engulf the region and in 1889 borders with the Ethiopian Empire were defined in the Treaty of Wuchale. In 1890 the Colony of Eritrea was officially founded.
Italian Libya Railways was a group of railways built in the Italian colony of Libya between the two World Wars.
The Southern Military Territory was a jurisdictional territory within the colony of Italian Libya (1911–1947), administered by the Italian military in the Libyan Sahara.
Lideta Airport also colloquially known as the Old Airport is a decommissioned military airport located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Ascari del Cielo were the first paratroopers of the Italian armed forces. They all were born in Libya and with Arab-Berber ethnicity. They constituted the majority of the troops of the Battalion "Fanti dell'Aria", created in 1938, that fought in the Desert War during World War II.
Italian Benghazi was the name used during the Italian colonization of Libya for the port-city of Benghazi in Italian Cyrenaica.
The Italian colonial railways started with the opening in 1888 of a short section of line in Italian Eritrea, and ended in 1943 with the loss of Italian Libya after the Allied offensive in North Africa and the destruction of the railways around Italian Tripoli. The colonial railways of the Kingdom of Italy reached 1,561 kilometres (970 mi) before WWII.
The Imperial Line was a flight route of the Italian national airline Ala Littoria between 1935 and 1941 during the Fascist era. It was the longest route in the Italian colonial empire in Africa and "the jewel in Ala Littoria's crown". It connected Rome with Benghazi (Libya), Asmara (Eritrea), Addis Abeba (Ethiopia) and Mogadishu (Somalia). It carried passengers and mail. Italy ultimately lost control of the route during World War II.
The Petrella Airport was the first international airport in Italian Somalia. It was opened in 1928 -just 3 miles south of Mogadishu- with the name "Enrico Petrella" in honor of an Italian pilot who died a few years before in the same airport of Italian Mogadiscio. In 1941 the airport was partially destroyed during WW2 and remained inactive for some years as a civilian airport: only military airplanes used it. In 1950 was reopened as a civilian airport by the Italian authorities of the ONU Fiduciary Mandate.
