Fiat G.50 in Croatian Air Force Service

A Croatian air force Fiat G.50 in 1944.

 In October 1941, the Croatian Air Force Legion requested military aid from Italy, that country agreed to deliver 10 Fiat G.50s (nine single-seaters and one two-seater), along with ancillary equipment. On 12 June 1942, the Fiat G.50 bis fighters took off from Fiat Aviazione in Turin for Croatia, but before they reached the border, they were stopped on the orders of Ugo Cavallero, Chief of the Italian Supreme Command, who feared that the Croatian pilots would defect. The G.50s had to wait until 25 June before being delivered to the Croatian Air Force, which assigned them to the 16th Jato at Banja Luka and were intensively used until 1945 against Yugoslav Partisans, at first in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then in Serbia, Croatia and Dalmatia. During 1942, a Croatian G.50 bis squadron was transferred from Northern Yugoslavia to the Ukrainian front, flanking the 4th Luftflotte.

On 25 June 1943, the Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Drzave Hrvatske (Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia, or ZNDH), received nine G.50 bis fighters and one G.50B. In October, while based at Zalužani airfield, Banja Luka, they flew many strafing missions against partisans for nearly a year.

After the Italian armistice of 8 September 1943, the Luftwaffe supplied the Croatian Air Force Legion with 20–25 Fiat G.50s captured on Regia Aeronautica airfields in the Balkans. These equipped two Croatian fighter units, but by the end of 1943 only 10 aircraft remained. Three G.50s captured after the Armistice were loaned to Kro JGr 1 at the beginning of 1944. In 1944 some of the G.50s were operated at the Brezice training school. ZNDH entered 1945 with seven G.50s (two operational). On 10 March 1945 six of these Fiats were based in Lucko, operated by 2.LJ (Lovacka Grupa, Fighter Group). Three were damaged by RAF Mustangs of Nos 213 and 249 Squadrons attacking Lucko airfield with napalm bombs, on 25 March, and the following day one of the last operative Freccia was flown to a RAF-held airfield by vodnik (Corporal) Ivan Misulin that defected, together with vodnik Korhut (flying a Bf 109 G-10). The last G.50s were captured by Yugoslav Partisans. After the war, the G.50s were used for some time by the newly formed Yugoslav Air Force – the last G.50s on active service.