Italian Cobelligerent Air Force[edit]

On 17 August 1944, after training at Canne airfield, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of Termoli, an RAF
Squadron with Yugoslavian pilots provided 53 Spitfire Vs to the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force. Only
33 would be used in front service with 20 Gruppo of 51 Stormo becoming the first Italian unit to
receive the Spitfire, with its first offensive mission on 23 October, over Albania. From then on, Italian
Spitfire missions included escorting transport aircraft, reconnaissance flights and ground attacks. By
31 December 1944 there were 17 Spitfires Vs on charge (a total of 40 Mk Vs were eventually
acquired). Two Spitfire Vs of 20 Gruppo flew the Regia Aeronautica's last wartime mission on 5 May
1945, a visual reconnaissance of Zagabria.[167]
By 8 May, 13 Spitfires (eight of them operational) were at Canne airport with 356a and
360a Squadriglia of 20 Gruppo. Two more Spitfires were located at Frosinone airport, at Scuola
Addestramento Bombardamento e Caccia.[168]

Spitfires of the USSR[edit]

Ex-RAF Spitfire Vbs being prepared for delivery to the USSR at Abadan, Iranin early 1943. The two Spitfires in
the foreground had already seen extensive RAF service.

In early October 1942, Iosif V. Stalin wrote to Sir Winston Churchill, requesting the urgent delivery of
Spitfires. Churchill agreed to send a batch of 150 Supermarine fighters, along with spares,
equivalent to an additional 50 aircraft. Deliveries of Spitfire VBs to USSR started in the spring of
1943. These were the first official Spitfire export.[169] Most of these Mk Vbs had already seen
extensive service with the RAF. One of the first units to receive the Spitfire was the 36th Fighter
Aviation Regiment, which was part of theVoyenno-Vozdushnyye Sily or VVS. Soviet pilots were ver