This morning I was asked a short piece on the Italian Concession in Tientsin, to serve as a bridge between two history articles of mine that are being reprinted. It was a fun job, 700 words in one hour. Thanks to all the research I did for my books,The Ministry of Thunder and Cynical Little Angels, I have tons of material on the Italian presence in China between the wars.
But I did a little web search anyway, and unearthed some stuff I had never seen before, including a photograph.
These are Italian airmen, photographed in China in the early ’30s, at the time of the Breda Ba.27 debacle that is at the start of Felice Sabatini’s adventures in China. The photo is badly colorized, but you get the idea.
“And who’s Sabatini?” my brother asked me upon seeing the picture.
Nice question.
I have of course my own candidate for the role.
But what do you guys say?
Karavansara 
17 April 2019 at 19:04
First person from right?
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17 April 2019 at 20:46
🙂
That’s my guess too.
On the other hand, the first guy on the left, with the slicked-back hair, could be Jacques LaFleur (he is after all out of uniform) in a rare moment of sobriety.
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18 April 2019 at 13:42
Just want rememer you that in the monumental cemetery of Turin there is the
LaFleur familt grave, so, probabily is Giacomo LaFleur
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18 April 2019 at 18:09
A sobering thought.
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18 April 2019 at 02:36
I know i’m late to this but yeah, I’m going with the guy on the right, by the tip of the wing with his legs crossed.
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18 April 2019 at 12:25
Looks like we are all on the same wavelength.
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18 April 2019 at 13:48
Against the wind, the first from left. 🙂
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18 April 2019 at 18:10
He’s a bit too slick, for my tastes.
As I said, he reminds me more of captain LaFleur…
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