According to the records of August 5th 1944 of the war diary of the German Admiralty of Aegean, we are aware of the below:

 “A German bomber aircraft, type Ju 88 escorted the Italian torpedo air division in order to attack the previously attacked enemy convoy by Luftwaffe at the north-west side of Benghazi. From the 8 Italian aircrafts type S79 [Savoia-Marchetti SM 79] which took off , three of them managed to detect the convoy, at the north of Benghazi, and strike it with three torpedoes. A cargo-ship of 7000 gross weight, another ship, as well as a third one sank. Three strong explosions were evident. There was a slight resistance from the enemy with few anti-air firing. The attack took place during midnight. The aircraft took off from the airport of Elefsina and landed on Maleme [Crete] at 01.50am on 5.8.1944. One of the aircrafts during its return fell near the cape of Spatha [Crete].”

Today, almost 70 years later, the Italian researcher and writer Ferdinando D´Amico adds to the information that is found in the German war records, stating that the eight Italian aircrafts which participated in the attack, against the mentioned allied convoy, belonged to the Italian air division Gruppo Aerosiluranti «Buscaglia-Faggioni» of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana. This division continued fighting in the war, after the Italian convention of September 8th 1943, with the side of the German army. The allied convoy – which according to the statements of Ferdinando D´Amico was located at the north-west of Tolmeitha, Libya during the Italian attack – consisted of 30 merchant ships, protected by 4 accompanied war ships and it had been already attacked by the German Luftwaffe. The Italian aircrafts of Gruppo “Buscaglia” managed to hit with its torpedoes the British cargo ship Samsylarna (7210 gross weight) at the indicative point 33° 5´ Β και 20° 16´ Α.

As Ferdinando D’Amico mentions, based on the war diary of Gruppo “Buscaglia”, only 6 of the aircrafts which took off managed to return safely to their base. However, one of them was destroyed during its landing due to a mechanical problem with its release mechanism of the left wheel. Among the aircrafts that did not return back, is also an aircraft which fell near the cape of Spatha, Crete, as it is also confirmed by the German war diary, and another one which made an emergency landing near Argos due to lack of fuel. The latter, under the construction number MM. 22293 and the indicative code B2-09 is considered to be the aircraft which was detected few years ago at the south-east side of Poros by the professional diver Noulis Spourlakos.  

According to the war diary of Gruppo “Buscaglia”, Savoia-Marchetti SM79 that participated in the already mentioned operation against the allied convoy was under the commander flight Lieutenant Marcello Perina. The rest of the crew were: the co-lieutenant Gianfranco Neri, mechanic the pilot officer Marcello Manfrino, wireless operator the sergeant Gieseppe Apolloni and machine gunner the assistant sergeant Franco Zanchi. All crew were members of the Gruppo Aerosiluranti “Buscaglia” which had decided to continue the war with the A.N.R. According to the information of Ferdinando D’Amico no crew member perished during the emergency landing.