Italo Balbo

In 1933, the Italian Air Force, headed by General Italo Balbo – who was a Fascist leader – led a series of flights consisting of twenty-five seaplanes. At the time, the concept of making trans-Atlantic flights was new.

With a fleet of twenty-five seaplanes, they flew from Italy to Amsterdam, then to Derry, England. Next they went to Reykjavík, Iceland. They spent days in each location, between flights. Next they flew to North America, stopping first in Cartwright, located in Newfoundland and Labrador. After that, to Montréal and to Chicago. They then worked their way to New York, landing Jamaica Bay near Manhattan. Coming back, because Balbo’s popularity was rising so much, Mussolini made him skip his plans to go to London, Paris and Berlin. Instead, he was sent to the Azores and then to Lisbon, before returning to Rome.

It was a successful journey with millions of people greeting them at their various stops. They did lose two planes, one person from each plane – one in Amsterdam and another in the Azores. Nevertheless, the trip did wonders for Italy’s image around the world – of course, that would change when they would join with Germany in waging a world war.

The two stamps on the top row of this album page are in commemoration of that expedition.

Note

This page is full. I described only the North Atlantic cruise of Italo Balbo and the Italian armada he led. I’ll describe the other stamps on other pages – in other colony albums. When I’ve done that, I’ll link to them here.

Contains 15 spots: own 15 – 15 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 13, 2025

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

North Atlantic Flight of Italo Balbo

1.1	✓	A18	Crociera Balbo	19.75₤ (jun 1933) air mail, blue & black green
1.2	✓	A19	Crociera Balbo	44.75₤ (jun 1933) air mail, carmine & indigo

Rome - Buenos Aires Flights

2.1	✓	A20	Rome to Buenos Aires Flight	2₤ (jan 1934) air mail, red brown
2.2	✓	A21	Rome to Buenos Aires Flight	3₤ (jan 1934) air mail, green
3.1	✓	A22	Rome to Buenos Aires Flight	5₤ (jan 1934) air mail, light brown
3.2	✓	A23	Rome to Buenos Aires Flight	10₤ (jan 1934) air mail, carmine rose
4.1	✓	A9	Airplane over Roman Ruins	1₤ (aug 1932) air mail, blackish grey
4.2	✓	A10	Airplane over Roman Ruins	2₤ (aug 1932) air mail, green
4.3	✓	A11	Airplane over Roman Ruins	5₤ (aug 1932) air mail, carmine

Money Order Stamps

5.1	✓	SV1	Postal Checks	20c (jul 1924) services, blue
5.2	✓	SV2	Postal Checks	40c (jul 1924) services, blue green
5.3	✓	SV3	Postal Checks	50c (jul 1924) services, violet
6.1	✓	SV4	Postal Checks	1₤ (jul 1924) services, brown red
6.2	✓	SV5	Postal Checks	2₤ (jul 1924) services, brown
6.3	✓	SV6	Postal Checks	3₤ (jul 1924) services, red

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.