Early History
The first 100 aircraft were delivered to 7, 9, 13 and 15 Wings, serving initially in Ethiopia where they proved to be well suited. They were quickly adapted to the roles of bombing, strafing, close air support and reconnaissance. This was an aggressive war against Italy's old adversary that in 1896 had defeated the Italian expedition corps at Adwa, and despite international conventions, both the Italians and Abyssinians committed many war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons, with SM.81s deploying Phosgene and Yperite against enemy troops. A total of 170 bombers — Caproni Ca.133s and SM.81s — operated in the Ethiopian war in the two groups of 9 Wing, which was a cloned unit ("bis") of the original 9° that remained in Italy.
After entering Addis Ababa in 1936, the Italians continued to face fierce opposition for many months. The situation only became stable in 1937 by virtue of Italian air supremacy and support, which was decisive against an extremely dangerous enemy in this difficult and wild terrain. 36 SM.81s remained in Ethiopia to provide support to Italian troops occupying the country, including transport and the airlifting of supplies. Small arms fire was the main danger, as the missions were flown at low altitude, but the damage was normally insufficient to bring down the aircraft, even though they had no protective armour apart from having self-sealing fuel tanks.
SM.81s also initially operated with 8 Wing (Bologna), 10 (Bresso), 11 (Ferrara), 12 (Guidonia), 14 and 16 (Vicenza), 30, 32 and 33 Wings (Napoli); they also equipped 15° in Libya, where they were fitted with Gnome-Rhône 14K engines and anti-sand filters.
Read more about this topic: Operational History Of The Savoia-Marchetti SM.81
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