Alexander Rabagliati
Alexander Rabagliati DFC & Bar (14 April 1914 – 6 July 1943), known as Sandy, was a Scottish flying ace of the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War.
At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, he was a flight lieutenant at an anti-aircraft training unit.
He destroyed many aircraft during the siege of Malta, rising to lead the fighter wing at Ta Kali.
He was of Italian descent; his great grandfather was from Genoa but immigrated to Scotland and married a pastor's daughter.
His duties were flying Westland Wallace biplanes towing target drogues for training anti-aircraft gunners.
[1] The unit was based at Digby and in a reformation period as it had lost a number of its flying personnel in the Norwegian campaign.
[7] Rabagliati, leading a section of Hurricanes, achieved his first aerial victories on 18 August, now known as The Hardest Day of the Battle of Britain, when he shot down one Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter and probably destroyed a second near Chelmsford.
On 2 September Rabagliati's Hurricane was damaged in an engagement with Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters over Kent, and he had to crash land his aircraft.
The next day he switched to an experimental cannon-equipped Hurricane and flying this aircraft, damaged a pair of Junkers Ju 88 medium bombers to the west of Southend-on-Sea.
He destroyed a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter to the south of Sheppey on 5 September, again flying the cannon-equipped Hurricane.
The island was under aerial siege by the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force), which sent bombers escorted by fighters to Malta on a daily basis.
126 Squadron, with Rabagliati sharing with three other pilots in the destruction of an Italian avoia-Marchetti SM.79 medium bomber to the east of Filfla on 11 June.
[11] On one of these, carried out on 9 July, several flying boats were caught on the water at Syracuse, and were destroyed by Rabagliati and other pilots of the squadron.
He shot down a MC.200 to the southeast of Cap Scaramia on 26 August and another of the same type on 4 September, this time in the vicinity of Grand Harbour.
[12] Leading the Ta Kali Wing on a sortie to Sicily on 12 November, Rabagliati destroyed a CR.42 on the ground at Gela airfield and also shot down a Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber.
[2] By early 1942, the island was under heavy attack, with as many as seven raids a day being mounted with the Luftwaffe now involved in addition to the Italians.
This was his last claim while serving at Malta for a week later he was returned to the United Kingdom via Egypt and South Africa.
[1][2] Rabagliati's command also included Hawker Typhoon fighter-bomber squadrons and on 6 July, he was flying with Nos.
