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Ca.314
Light Torpedo Bomber
Caproni
 The improved "Caproni", which received the Ca.314 index, like the previous Ca.313, was planned to be used in many variants. There were modifications: Ca.314A - reconnaissance aircraft, Ca.314B - bomber, Ca.314C - attack aircraft and tank destroyer, Ca.314RA - torpedo bomber, Ca.314SC - base aircraft for escorting convoys and sea hunter. But the attempt to maximize the universalization of a combat aircraft, one of the last in history, failed.
At the end of 1941, the Italian Ministry of Aviation ordered three hundred Ca.314s to man two regiments of night fighters, two assault regiments and one regiment of torpedo bombers. In May 1942, the rearmament of the 13th regiment began, which had previously lost many FIAT BR.20 bombers: Squadrons mastered the Ca.313 in anticipation of the "three hundred and fourteenth", which arrived during the summer (about 30 machines). Since August, the planes of the 13th Stormo, consisting of the 11th and 43rd groups, operated from the Manduria base, escorted convoys and hunted for submarines.
Ca.314 did not like the naval pilots. The characteristics of loaded cars with a supply of fuel, bombs or a torpedo were worthless. The technical commission dealing with this problem proposed to lighten the aircraft by dismantling the lower firing points and booking the pilot's cabin. In this way, it was possible to gain only 250 kg.
Almost all of the 407 newest "Capronis" were sent to the front-line aviation units, where they were used with the greatest impact. The 30th assault group in North Africa, the 20th and 21st ground support regiments fought on the Ca.314. Two auxiliary groups of the "three hundred and fourteenth" - 64th and 76th were in the south of occupied France in Ira, Luc and Cure-Pierrefoux. The Italians used the Ca.314 on all fronts except the eastern one.
Several "three hundred and fourteenth" served in the torpedo and bombing units, as well as in the NAI to train the crews of the Dornier Do 217 J-2 heavy night fighters. The interceptor Sa.314 with a powerful searchlight in the nose participated in exercises to find a target at night using ground-based radars and a network of guidance posts, covering the entire north of the Apennine Peninsula by the fall of 43rd.
On September 8, 1943, when Italy, free of the "Duce", withdrew from the war, the country's Air Force numbered 148 Ca.314 and 53 Ca.313. 40 of them are in the assault regiments. A lot of Capronis were destroyed during the truce. But about ten Ca.313 and Ca.314 from the 103rd Support Squadron, along with four of the six surviving Ca.309, became part of the Italian Air Force, which fought on the side of the Allies.
On the other side of the front were the Ca.313, inherited by the RSI Air Force (the so-called Italian Socialist Republic, created by Mussolini) and the Luftwaffe. Germany received 164 "three hundred thirteenths" in various ways, most of the cars - after the occupation of northern Italy and the liquidation of the puppet state (the Germans got the Caproni factories). The agonizing Air Force of the Third Reich drew out all the assorted reserves for the last "lightning-fast" strikes. The Italian "generalists", with rare exceptions, did not make it to the end of the war.
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