Ducati WWII History

The company, Società Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati (Ducati's original name), was founded on July 4th, 1926. The company grew quickly, it's first product, a mica condenser, had quality so excellent it immediately dominated the world market. By 1940 Ducati had over 7000 employees.

During World War II (WWII) the Ducati factory was involved in producing products for the Army - bullets, machine-gun parts and military radios. Because of this on Oct. 12, 1944 the state of the art Ducati facility was targeted by the Allies as a weapons factory. "Operation Pancake" bombed and destroyed the factory.

Fortunately, Ducati had secretly moved all of the machinery and had already been working at the outlying facilities on ideas for useful post war products.