7. Italian Air Force morale is shown by previous experience to be liable to fall rapidly under defensive conditions. Morale was hitherto at its highest among fighter and torpedo bomber pilots. The former have suffered from the strain of operating intensively, in the forward area on the Egyptian Front, against an Allied Air Strength overwhelmingly superior to the combined Axis forces. In the central Mediterranean for the first time the torpedo bomber pilots are having to undertake operations daily over a prolonged period and have incurred heavy losses in aircraft and leading crews.