Italian participation on the Eastern Front: Difference between revisions
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Italian war in Soviet Union, 1941-1943 |
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| ⚫ | On |
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Prologue |
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| ⚫ | On 14th July, 1941, despite an unenthusiastic Hitler, Mussolini joined the operation Barbarossa ordering to prepare a military contingent, destined to the Russian front. The CSIR, (Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia) with its three divisions (Torino, Pasubio and Celere, the last one being the only motorized one) and around 62,000 men strong (mainly lightly armed infantry, cavalry and bersaglieri elite riflemen, with no tanks) was placed under the command of the 11th German Army. |
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August 1941- July 1942, the CSIR |
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The first fights were upheld in August 1941, against withdrawing Russian troops between the Bug and Dniestr rivers. Subsequently, the CSIR was adjoined to the general Von Kleist’s Armoured Corps and was employed in the assault to the city of Stalino, occupying the neighbouring towns of Gorlowka and Rikovo (20/10-2/11 1941). On Christmasday 1941, the Soviets launched a strong attack against the Division Celere (“the first battle of Christmas”), which was repelled at the cost of heavy losses. CSIR casualties (amid wounded, dead, congealed and missing in fight men) from July 1941 to July 1942 amounted at 15,500 men. |
The first fights were upheld in August 1941, against withdrawing Russian troops between the Bug and Dniestr rivers. Subsequently, the CSIR was adjoined to the general Von Kleist’s Armoured Corps and was employed in the assault to the city of Stalino, occupying the neighbouring towns of Gorlowka and Rikovo (20/10-2/11 1941). On Christmasday 1941, the Soviets launched a strong attack against the Division Celere (“the first battle of Christmas”), which was repelled at the cost of heavy losses. CSIR casualties (amid wounded, dead, congealed and missing in fight men) from July 1941 to July 1942 amounted at 15,500 men. |
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| ⚫ | In July 1942, Mussolini scaled up the Italian engagement in the war against the Soviets sending to Russia new troops (four infantry divisions: Sforzesca, Cosseria, Ravenna and Vicenza; Alpini mountain soldiers belonging to the Tridentina, Cuneense and Julia divisions). They were regrouped within the 8th “Italian Army in Russia” (ARMIR). The ARMIR integrated the 298th and the 62nd German divisions (the latest one was sent to Stalingrad by November 1942) to a total force of 235,000 men and 12 divisions, including a Croatian voluntary Legion and three Legions of Camicie nere (Black Shirts, fascist volunteers). It was equipped with 988 guns, 420 mortars, 25,000 horses, 64 airplanes and 17,000 vehicles, but very few tanks; moreover, it was short of winter equipment. General Gariboldi took the command of the ARMIR, while general Messe, previously in command of the CSIR, who had opposed an enlargement of the Italian contingent, was dismissed. |
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July 1942-November 1942, the ARMIR on the Don river |
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| ⚫ | The Italian Army advanced up toward the Don river right bank that was achieved by July 1942. In August 1942, the Bersaglieri troops of the Celere division removed the Soviet bridgehead of Serafimovic and, in the same month, repelled a concerted Soviet attack with the support of German tanks (the “first defensive battle of the Don”). |
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| ⚫ | In July 1942, Mussolini scaled up the Italian engagement in the war against the Soviets sending to Russia new troops (four infantry divisions: Sforzesca, Cosseria, Ravenna and Vicenza; Alpini mountain soldiers belonging to the Tridentina, Cuneense and Julia divisions). They were regrouped within the 8th “Italian Army in Russia” (ARMIR). The ARMIR integrated the 298th and the 62nd German divisions (the latest one was sent to Stalingrad by November 1942) to a total force of 235,000 men and 12 divisions, including a Croatian voluntary Legion and three Legions of Camicie nere (Black Shirts, fascist volunteers). It was equipped with 988 guns, 420 mortars, 25,000 horses, 64 airplanes and 17,000 vehicles, but very few tanks; moreover, it was seriously short of winter equipment. General Gariboldi took the command of the ARMIR, while general Messe, previously in command of the CSIR, who had opposed an enlargement of the Italian contingent, was dismissed. Gariboldi was charged with the command because he was the eldest available general; his conduct was criticized as too submissive with the German ally. |
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| ⚫ | By late fall 1942, the ARMIR was placed on the left flank of the German |
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| ⚫ | The Italian Army advanced up toward the Don river right bank that was achieved by July 1942. In August 1942, the Bersaglieri troops of the Celere division removed the Soviet bridgehead of Serafimovic and, in the same month, repelled a concerted Soviet attack with the support of German tanks (the “first defensive battle of the Don”). |
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November 1942-Februart 1943, Operation Little Saturn |
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| ⚫ | By late fall 1942, the ARMIR was placed on the left flank of the German 6rd Army, which was then investing Stalingrad. Italians’ line stretched along more than 250 km from the Hungarian positions in Kalmiskowa towards East to Veshenskaja, a village 270 km northwest of Stalingrad, from where the forefront was kept by the Romanians (figure). The situation remained stable until the 11th of December, when the Red Army started the operation “Little Saturn”, aimed at annihilating the Italian positions on the Don river. Soviet troops backed by tanks invested first the weakest Italian sector, kept by Ravenna and Cosseria infantry divisions, which were soon driven back; on the 17th of December the Romanians were also attacked and defeated; henceforth, the 298th German, Pasubio, Torino, Celere and Sforzesca divisions, placed in the middle, were surrounded and destroyed after 11 days of bloody fighting by overwhelming Soviet forces belonging to the 1st Army of the Guard. After a pause, on the 14th of January, the 6th Soviet Army invested the Alpini divisions, placed on the left side of the Italian array and still relatively unaffected by the battle. Alpini’s position had turned critical after the collapse of their right flank and the contemporary breakdown of the Hungarian troops on their left side. Most of the Julia and Cuneense divisions was destroyed, while the Tridentina and other withdrawing troops managed to escape the encirclement after heavy fights (battle of Nikolaiewka, 26 January 1943) and reached new defensive lines set up westwards by the Wehrmacht. Overall, about 130,000 Italian had been surrounded by the Soviet offensive. According to Italian sources, it may be calculated that about 20,800 soldiers died in fighting, 64,000 were captured and the remaining 45,000 were able to withdraw. |
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Conclusions |
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Since the beginning of the campaign, about 30,000 militaries had died because of the fights; another 54,000 would die in captivity. By the end of the campaign (2nd of March, 1943), the ARMIR rout was complete, and Mussolini retired definitely from the Russian soil what remained of his 8th Army, reduced to less than 150,000 men, 34,000 of whom wounded or congealed. The disaster was a fierce blow to the power and popularity of the dictator, as the gloomy news soon reached the public opinion in Italy. Survivors blamed the fascist political elite and the Army Generals to have sent a poorly prepared, ill-equipped and inadequately armed military force in the Russian hell, and the German Commands to have sacrificed the Italian divisions, whose withdrawal was supposedly delayed after the Soviet breakthrough, in order to rescue their own troops. |
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References |
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• Faldella, Emilio. L'Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale. Cappelli Bologna 1959 (Italian) |
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• Mack Smith Denis. Le guerre del duce. Laterza, Bari 1979 (Italian) |
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• Ministero della Difesa. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. Le operazioni del CSIR e dell’ARMIR dal Giugno 1941 all’ottobre del 1942. Roma, 1977 (Italian) |
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• Messe Giovanni. La guerra al fronte Russo. Il Corpo di Spedizione Italian (CSIR), Milano 1947 (Italian) |
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• Ministero della Difesa. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. L’8° Armata Italiana nella seconda battaglia difensiva del Don. Roma, 1977 (Italian) |
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• Ministero della Difesa. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. L’Italia nella relazione ufficiale sovietica sulla seconda guerra mondiale. Roma, 1978 (Italian) |
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• Valori, A. La campagna di Russia, CSIR, ARMIR 1941-43. Roma, 1941 (Italian) |
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[[Category:World War II European theatre]] |
[[Category:World War II European theatre]] |
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Revision as of 10:59, 21 February 2006
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Italian war in Soviet Union, 1941-1943
Prologue On 14th July, 1941, despite an unenthusiastic Hitler, Mussolini joined the operation Barbarossa ordering to prepare a military contingent, destined to the Russian front. The CSIR, (Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia) with its three divisions (Torino, Pasubio and Celere, the last one being the only motorized one) and around 62,000 men strong (mainly lightly armed infantry, cavalry and bersaglieri elite riflemen, with no tanks) was placed under the command of the 11th German Army.
August 1941- July 1942, the CSIR The first fights were upheld in August 1941, against withdrawing Russian troops between the Bug and Dniestr rivers. Subsequently, the CSIR was adjoined to the general Von Kleist’s Armoured Corps and was employed in the assault to the city of Stalino, occupying the neighbouring towns of Gorlowka and Rikovo (20/10-2/11 1941). On Christmasday 1941, the Soviets launched a strong attack against the Division Celere (“the first battle of Christmas”), which was repelled at the cost of heavy losses. CSIR casualties (amid wounded, dead, congealed and missing in fight men) from July 1941 to July 1942 amounted at 15,500 men.
July 1942-November 1942, the ARMIR on the Don river In July 1942, Mussolini scaled up the Italian engagement in the war against the Soviets sending to Russia new troops (four infantry divisions: Sforzesca, Cosseria, Ravenna and Vicenza; Alpini mountain soldiers belonging to the Tridentina, Cuneense and Julia divisions). They were regrouped within the 8th “Italian Army in Russia” (ARMIR). The ARMIR integrated the 298th and the 62nd German divisions (the latest one was sent to Stalingrad by November 1942) to a total force of 235,000 men and 12 divisions, including a Croatian voluntary Legion and three Legions of Camicie nere (Black Shirts, fascist volunteers). It was equipped with 988 guns, 420 mortars, 25,000 horses, 64 airplanes and 17,000 vehicles, but very few tanks; moreover, it was seriously short of winter equipment. General Gariboldi took the command of the ARMIR, while general Messe, previously in command of the CSIR, who had opposed an enlargement of the Italian contingent, was dismissed. Gariboldi was charged with the command because he was the eldest available general; his conduct was criticized as too submissive with the German ally. The Italian Army advanced up toward the Don river right bank that was achieved by July 1942. In August 1942, the Bersaglieri troops of the Celere division removed the Soviet bridgehead of Serafimovic and, in the same month, repelled a concerted Soviet attack with the support of German tanks (the “first defensive battle of the Don”).
November 1942-Februart 1943, Operation Little Saturn By late fall 1942, the ARMIR was placed on the left flank of the German 6rd Army, which was then investing Stalingrad. Italians’ line stretched along more than 250 km from the Hungarian positions in Kalmiskowa towards East to Veshenskaja, a village 270 km northwest of Stalingrad, from where the forefront was kept by the Romanians (figure). The situation remained stable until the 11th of December, when the Red Army started the operation “Little Saturn”, aimed at annihilating the Italian positions on the Don river. Soviet troops backed by tanks invested first the weakest Italian sector, kept by Ravenna and Cosseria infantry divisions, which were soon driven back; on the 17th of December the Romanians were also attacked and defeated; henceforth, the 298th German, Pasubio, Torino, Celere and Sforzesca divisions, placed in the middle, were surrounded and destroyed after 11 days of bloody fighting by overwhelming Soviet forces belonging to the 1st Army of the Guard. After a pause, on the 14th of January, the 6th Soviet Army invested the Alpini divisions, placed on the left side of the Italian array and still relatively unaffected by the battle. Alpini’s position had turned critical after the collapse of their right flank and the contemporary breakdown of the Hungarian troops on their left side. Most of the Julia and Cuneense divisions was destroyed, while the Tridentina and other withdrawing troops managed to escape the encirclement after heavy fights (battle of Nikolaiewka, 26 January 1943) and reached new defensive lines set up westwards by the Wehrmacht. Overall, about 130,000 Italian had been surrounded by the Soviet offensive. According to Italian sources, it may be calculated that about 20,800 soldiers died in fighting, 64,000 were captured and the remaining 45,000 were able to withdraw.
Conclusions Since the beginning of the campaign, about 30,000 militaries had died because of the fights; another 54,000 would die in captivity. By the end of the campaign (2nd of March, 1943), the ARMIR rout was complete, and Mussolini retired definitely from the Russian soil what remained of his 8th Army, reduced to less than 150,000 men, 34,000 of whom wounded or congealed. The disaster was a fierce blow to the power and popularity of the dictator, as the gloomy news soon reached the public opinion in Italy. Survivors blamed the fascist political elite and the Army Generals to have sent a poorly prepared, ill-equipped and inadequately armed military force in the Russian hell, and the German Commands to have sacrificed the Italian divisions, whose withdrawal was supposedly delayed after the Soviet breakthrough, in order to rescue their own troops.
References
• Faldella, Emilio. L'Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale. Cappelli Bologna 1959 (Italian) • Mack Smith Denis. Le guerre del duce. Laterza, Bari 1979 (Italian) • Ministero della Difesa. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. Le operazioni del CSIR e dell’ARMIR dal Giugno 1941 all’ottobre del 1942. Roma, 1977 (Italian) • Messe Giovanni. La guerra al fronte Russo. Il Corpo di Spedizione Italian (CSIR), Milano 1947 (Italian) • Ministero della Difesa. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. L’8° Armata Italiana nella seconda battaglia difensiva del Don. Roma, 1977 (Italian) • Ministero della Difesa. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. L’Italia nella relazione ufficiale sovietica sulla seconda guerra mondiale. Roma, 1978 (Italian) • Valori, A. La campagna di Russia, CSIR, ARMIR 1941-43. Roma, 1941 (Italian)