Gabinetto RS/33
The Gabinetto RS/33 (Ricerche Speciali) is one of the best-known stories of disputed origin in Italian UFO literature: according to the references, it was a secret group from the Mussolini era that investigated crashed flying objects starting in 1933.
The Gabinetto RS/33 ("RS" stands for Ricerche Speciali, meaning special research) is an alleged Italian secret research group. The story circulating about it in UFO literature is that in Fascist Italy, starting in 1933, it investigated the wreckage of flying objects of unknown origin and the phenomena associated with them. No authentic documents confirm the group's existence.
What the story claims
According to the popular version, Mussolini set up a special cabinet that was supposedly headed by Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and one of the pioneers of radio, who at the time was president of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). According to the legend, the group was formed because of an unknown craft that crashed near Magenta, in Lombardy, in June 1933, which is why the case is often referred to as the "Italian Roswell." After the war, the material was allegedly handed over to the United States. The story became known around 1996, when the Italian ufologist Roberto Pinotti received documents sent anonymously. Other authors, including international UFO writers, later picked it up. The claims are not supported by publicly verifiable archival records.
Official and skeptical positions
Italian authorities have not acknowledged the group's existence. According to skeptics, the story is based on a bundle of documents from an anonymous source, not proven to be authentic, that entered circulation after the fact through unverified channels. Some critics consider the legend an Italian counterpart to World War II and later UFO myths, such as the Nazi "wonder weapon" stories. Unless the original documents surface, the Gabinetto RS/33 can be regarded as a legend.
The topic matters in the UFO lexicon because it is a good example of how a story of unverifiable origin spreads through the literature.