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Paraguay 961
Balbo was a Fascist. He
was instrumental in bringing Benito Mussolini to power in Italy, and
later was expected to succeed him. In 1926 he was appointed Minister
of Air by Mussolini. In 1933 he built 25 Svoia-Marchetti SM.55X flying
boats and flew them in formation across Europe to the United States,
to the Chicago World’s Fair. In response he was invited to lunch by
President Roosevelt, and Chicago renamed 7th street Balbo in his
honor.
The stamp, issued by Paraguay to honor Italian
contributions to flight, shows a map of the countries bordering the
Atlantic Ocean with the routes of many of his Formation Flights. The
stamp also commemorates “La Epopeva National de 1864-1870.” The War of
the Triple Alliance, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay against Paraguay,
was fought during those years. At the end only 28.000 male Paraguayans
were still alive, and Argentina and Brazil took 55,000 square miles of
Paraguay. After 1900 there was a surge of immigration from Europe,
including Italy.
Iceland C12-C14
In 1933 the Italian Flying
Armada visited Iceland enroute from Rome to Chicago. The three stamps
on the sheet picture Christian X of
Denmark, who governed Iceland until 1944. The stamps are surcharged
for the postage on items mailed from Iceland to the United States via
the Italian seaplanes. The sheet commemorates the 60th anniversary of
the visit.
The map of Europe in the background of the souvenir
sheet is presented on a mercator projection. There is no indication of
the year of publication of the map, or of anything significant about
it, other than that it shows both Iceland and Italy.
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