Teresio Vittorio Martinoli, MOVM, (26 March 1917 – 25 August 1944) was an Italian World War II fighter pilot in the Regia Aeronautica and in the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force (ICBAF). During the war, he fought over Libya and Tunisia, in North Africa, on Malta, and was involved in the defence of the Italian mainland. Martinoli has been credited with 22 air victories and 14 shared destroyed in 276 sorties. Flying the Fiat C.R.42 biplane and Macchi C.202 and C.205 monoplanes, he shot down: a Gloster Gladiator, Bristol Blenheims, Hawker Hurricanes, Curtiss P-40s, Spitfires, a P-38 Lightning, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and a Junkers Ju 52, the last after the Armistice of Cassibile. He lost his life in a flying accident on 25 August 1944, while converting from the C.205 to the P-39 Airacobra. Before World War II Martinoli gained a glider pilot's licence in 1937. The following year, he was enlisted in the Regia Aeronautica, and after a military flying course at Ghedi, was assigned to 366ª Squadriglia of 151° Gruppo (53°Stormo) with the rank of Sergente Pilota. Subsequently, he was posted to the 384ª Squadriglia, 157° Gruppo, stationed in Trapani, Sicily. Theatres of war North Africa He claimed his first air victory, just three days after Italy entered the war, on 13 June 1940. His apparent first victim was a bomber, most probably a French Potez 630, shot down over Tunis, while flying his Fiat CR.42. This encounter is unverified from any other source however Martinoli's own log book has a precise attesting entry in it. Then he was posted to 78ª Squadriglia, 13° Gruppo of 2° Stormo and on 13 October he claimed a Gloster Gladiator (most probably from No. 112 Squadron RAF), while escorting a Savoia-Marchetti S.79, to Mersa Matruh, Egypt. Having transferred to 4° Stormo, Martinoli claimed a Bristol Blenheim shot down in the Bardia, Libya zone on 5 January 1941. Malta After he had transferred to 4° Stormo (which became his permanent unit), in autumn 1941 Martinoli flew fighter sweeps over Malta, from Comiso in Sicily. Flying the Macchi C.202, in just two months, he claimed three Hurricanes (two on 19 October 1941) and a Blenheim. Still over Malta, he was credited with the destruction of three Spitfires (plus one probable) between 4 and 16 May 1942. Back in North Africa, during the Battle of Bir Hacheim, on 9 June 1942, he shot