The Breda Ba.88 Lince was a sleek all metal shoulder wing monoplane. In 4/37, the Lince established two world speed records. The Ba.88 was regarded as a ground-attack and long-range reconnaissance aircraft. Powered by 2 1,000-hp Piaggio radial engines, top speed was 304 mph with a service ceiling of 26,245 feet and a range of 1,019 miles. Armament consisted of 3 fixed forward firing 12.7mm machine guns in the nose and a flexible 7.7mm machine gun in the rear cockpit. A bomb load of 2,204 pounds could be carried.

On 6/16/40, just after Italy declared war on France and her allies, 12 Ba.88's of the 19th Group made bombing and machine gun attacks on Corsica. Three days later, 9 more Ba.88's attacked Corsica again. Analysis of these attacks showed that the Ba.88 had only a limited value. This was driven home when Ba.88s of the 7th Group joined action in Libya against the British. Fitted with sand filters, the engines overheated and could not put out the promised power rating. An attack on Sidi Barani in 9/40 had to be cancelled when the Ba.88s could not make altitude, as the engines could not generate the power necessary to gain sufficient altitude. By mid 11/40, most surviving Ba.88s had been stripped of useable equipment and were left as decoy targets around airfields.

Article by JDG, Specifications and Photo courtesy JDG and Alberto Rosselli

Sources:
Chris Bishop (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, Barnes & Noble, 1998.