area (most probably his "kill" was the Sunderland L2160/X of 230 Squadron piloted by Wing Commander G. Francis and Flight Lieutenant Garside, that returned to Alexandria heavily damaged by explosive bullets). On 28 July Tenente Lucchini (with Sergente Giovanni Battista Ceoletta of the 90a Squadriglia and Giuseppe Scaglioni of the 84a Squadriglia) took off from El Adem to intercept a formation of Bristol Blenheims. The three CR.42’s pilots shot down a Blenheim (K7178) from 30 Squadron, that crashed, killing the crew, and heavily damaged another from 113 Squadron. A few days later, on 4 August 1940, Lucchini was escorting some Breda Ba.65s, with other C.R.42s. Some miles north-west of Bir Taieb El Essem, he intercepted andafter a long dogfightshot down a Gloster Gladiator, probably flown by the South-African ace-to-be Marmaduke Pattle (that in the following eight months would become one of the most successful Western Allied ace of the war). On 16 December, Lucchini and another 4° Stormo pilot attacked one of the Hawker fighters that had shot down three Savoia Marchetti S.M. 79s between Sidi Omar and Capuzzo, forcing it to force-land: it was Pilot Officer MacFadden’s Hurricane (V6737) from No. 73 Squadron RAF, that was later recovered and repaired. On 27 June 1941 he claimed a Hawker Hurricane, and shared in many more victories. Still in the Bardia area, on 24 July he shot down individually another Gloster Gladiator and damaged three Blenheim bombers. In mid 1941 he operated over Malta, from Sicily, now flying C.200 monoplanes. But on 27 September he was wounded and was out of action for some time. On 30 November 1941, Capitano Lucchini took command of the 84a Squadriglia of 4° Stormo. By the end of 1941, 10° Gruppo was re-equipped with the new, more effective, C.202. On 2 April 1942 Capitano Lucchini was leading the unit in its flight back to Castelvetrano, Sicily, from Rome-Ciampino airfield, with 26 new C.202. In the combats over Malta, he added two more victories to his total. He claimed his first kill on 9 May 1942, a Supermarine Spitfire, while escorting five CANT Z.1007bis from the 210a Squadriglia BT. The secondanother Spitfirewas claimed on 15 May, while escorting three Savoia-Marchetti SM.84 bis bombers of 4° Gruppo BT. Butaccording to some sourcesthe RAF did not suffer any losses in those air combats. On 26 May 1942 4°Stormo moved back to Libya for a second tour of desert