The son of a nobleman, Italy's
greatest ace entered the Scuola Militare at Modena
in October 1907. Less than a year later, he was
an officer in the Royal Piedmont Cavalry. In
April 1912, Baracca and other cavalry officers
were ordered to Reims, France for flight training.
By the time the Kingdom of Italy declared war
on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 24 May 1915,
Baracca was an experienced pilot and instructor.
Flying Nieuport two-seaters along the Udine Front,
his first attempts to shoot down enemy aircraft
were frustrated by frequent machine gun jams.
With a Nieuport 11, he scored the first Italian
victory of the war on 7 April 1916, forcing down
an Austrian Aviatik with an accurate burst of
machine gun fire. His final victory, an Austrian
Albatros D.III, came just three days prior to
his death. Shot down and killed while strafing
enemy lines, his body was recovered a few days
later near the burnt out wreckage of his SPAD
S.VII. When found, Baracca was holding a pistol
in his hand and had a bullet hole in his forehead.
Whether he was shot down by ground fire, chose
suicide over a fiery death in the cockpit or
was killed attempting to resist capture will
never be known.
On the ground and in the air, Baracca's aircraft
were easily recognized by the prancing black
horse painted on the fuselage. In 1923, Baracca's
mother, Countess Paolina, suggested Enzo
Ferrari use her son's emblem on his now famous
line of
automobiles.
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