In 1933, as a result of the Italian flight experimentation which started in 1917, one of the most epic feats of Italian aviation was organised, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of its foundation: the North-Atlantic crossing. Captain Italo Balbo conceived, organised and conducted the cruise. Its proportions and spectacularity were greater than the former one, which took place in 1930: twelve airplanes had flown in wing formation over the Atlantic Ocean, from Orbetello to Rio de Janeiro.

On this occasion, instead, twenty-five Savoia Marchetti S.55X seaplanes left on 1st July 1933 from Orbetello to the United States. A series of intermediate stops were set up, before the planes reached Chicago, where the “Century of Progress” Universal Exposition was being held, and, finally, New York, where the planes were welcomed by both the city and the White House.

As he did in 1930, Italo Balbo dealt also with the philatelic aspects of this event and tried to make good use of his passion for stamps to contribute to the funding of this undertaking. For the first crossing, 7.70 lira stamps had been issued, but they were not put up for free sale. Mindful of the failure experienced three years before, in 1933, Italo Balbo decided to issue free sale stamps. The stamps created for this occasion were really distinctive: two triptychs made of two stamps and a registered express mail label. The left label was the same for both and showed the Italian flag waving in the wind. The value of the central stamp, carrying the portrait of the King, was 5.25 liras, corresponding to the express and registered ordinary postage. The stamp on the right was different and represented the air mail surcharge: for European destinations, its value was 19.75 liras and it showed the Aurora by Guido Reni; for North-American destinations, the surcharge was 44.75 liras and the stamp showed the seaplanes flying over the Atlantic Ocean, from Rome to New York. An acronym was printed on the left label to identify the twenty seaplanes: I for Italy and the four following letters identified the aircraft’s captains. The triptychs were printed on sheets in twenty copies, with a total issue of 200 thousand triptychs. However, five captains had no commemorative stamp: Renato Abbriata, Letterio Cannistracci, Luigi Gallo, Antonio Lippi and Stefano Trimboli. On 2,500 copies of the 25 lira triptych, on the second stamp of the sheet, which were overprinted I-BORG, a splash of colour appeared on the King’s forefront. This variety is called “ciuffo”.

Another precious variety of the 25 lira stamp is a triptych without overprinting. Apparently, there are only 40 copies. The first sheet was discovered in 1933 by an American merchant, who had received it through the novelty service. It is said that the second was sold to the Post Filatelic Office just after the Second World War, without anyone noticing its peculiarity. Besides private mail, the aircraft transported the official mail sent by the Italian Authorities to American institutional figures. For this kind of mail, a specific 50 lira triptych was prepared (5.25 liras + 44.75 liras), which had a different colour: green and red were inverted and, instead of blue, purple was used for the overprinting Government Service on both the left and the right side. 5,000 copies were issued. In 1938, in the issuance residual stock, which the Ministry of the Aviation had put up for sale, 25 sheets were found. They were overprinted on the right side Return flight New York-Rome. The stamps were never used, because of the ban by the American postmaster. The twenty-five seaplanes transported 2,668 letters from Italy, 260 of which were stamped with the “Government Service” stamp and were mostly addressed to Mayors of American cities, 206 were sent from Tripolitania, 160 from Cyrenaica, 180 from the Aegean region, 22 from the Vatican, 20 from Germany and 127 from Holland. On 1st July, the formation took off from Orbetello bound for Amsterdam, its first stop. Here, during the water-landing, Captain Baldini’s seaplane capsized and a flight engineer died. The following day, the aircraft loaded more correspondence in Holland and left for Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where they remained for three days, waiting for the weather to improve.

After a difficult flight, the seaplanes reached Reykjavík, the Icelandic capital city. Here, they loaded 2,398 aerogrammes, which were stamped with special stamps: 4,000 ordinary mail 1, 5 and 10 Krona stamps were overprinted with Hopflug Italia/1933. On 12th July, the most challenging part of the flight started. The destination was Cartwright, on the Northern coast of Canada: 2,400 kilometres and 12 hours of flight. The following stop was Shediac, in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. After having loaded 289 letters, the seaplanes left for Montreal, Quebec, where other 210 letters were added to the load. When they reached Chicago, the aviators received a triumphal reception and Italo Balbo was given the “Keys of the City”, which are currently conserved in the museum in Orbetello. These keys and the stamps are the only still-existing objects. On 18th July, the Atlantics – as they were called – left for New York, where they stayed for a few days. They were received at the White House, guests of President Roosevelt. Here, on 21st July, they attended the world-famous Broadway parade. In their return flight, the seaplanes transported letters which were stamped with US stamps. A commemorative large postmark was created, Italian air cruise New York Roma, which was affixed on the front of the letters. Different types of aerogrammes were sent from Chicago or New York. More specifically: from Chicago to New York (307 letters) ; to Shediac (37); to Newfoundland (43); to Rome (220). From New York to Shediac( 44); to Newfoundland (99); to Rome (492). In the afternoon of 12th August the formation water-landed at the Lido di Roma.

By Matteo Armandi