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Sentry with his Carcano 91 rifle with bayonet. 1941, Russian front.
Italians? On the Eastern Front? The bears some research. Learn something new every day.Sentry with his Carcano 91 rifle with bayonet. 1941, Russian front.
This an excerpt from the website
nationalinterest.org
"But Il Duce eventually got his way. First to be dispatched in July 1941 was the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia (Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia), or CSIR, consisting of sixty thousand men in three divisions, plus a small contingent of about a hundred aircraft. In July 1942, the CSIR was expanded into the Armata Italiana in Russia (Italian Army in Russia), or ARMIR. At peak strength, ARMIR, now the Italian Eighth Army, comprised 235,000 men in twelve divisions.
This was not a token contingent dispatched in the name of coalition solidarity. A quarter-million men was more than Mussolini committed to North Africa, a battleground on Italy's doorstep.
.....The problem was that the Italian military was not well prepared for the Eastern Front, or any front for that matter. The soldiers were peasants, barely literate, with poor training, poor tactics and an officer corps more concerned with its own creature comforts than the welfare of its men. A large chunk of the Italian contingent was elite Alpini mountain troops, a formidable force in the mountains, but ill-suited for facing tanks on the open steppe.
......At first, Russia was a walk in the sun for the Italian soldiers. They performed well in southern Russia in the summer of 1941, though they were only advancing against disorganized and retreating Soviet armies. Even when the Red Army counterattacked in the winter of 1941–42, the Italians held—but only with German support.....
The need to feed division after division into the meat-grinder of Stalingrad, while supporting a separate offensive south into the Caucasus, resulted in the Axis forces guarding the flanks and rear being thinly spread. Among them were the Italian Eighth Army to the northeast of Stalingrad, defending a long front almost two hundred miles long, with almost no German reserves to support it.
........Then in December 1942 came Operation Little Saturn, which targeted the Italians, Romanians and Hungarians. Two Italians divisions were slammed by fifteen Soviet divisions and a hundred tanks, while the few German reserves were too busy to support the Italians. Meanwhile, other Soviet forces attacked the Romanian and Hungarian troops on the Italian flanks, and soon the Eighth Army was encircled.
. In fact, the Italians fought on for almost two weeks, despite inferior numbers and inferior weapons. Some troops, led by the redoubtable Alpini, managed to break out of the encirclement in the desperate battle of Nikolayevka.
But a few survivors couldn't change the fact that the Italian army in Russia was destroyed. And with the western Allies capturing North Africa, and soon to invade Sicily and Italy, Mussolini’s tottering regime was in no position to send another army eastwards.
The Eighth Army returned home to Italy in March 1943, six months before Italy surrendered to the Allies. By September, Italy would be at war with Germany."
Revealed: The Tragic Story of the Italian Army that Froze to Death in Russia During World War II
One question: Why?
nationalinterest.org
"But Il Duce eventually got his way. First to be dispatched in July 1941 was the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia (Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia), or CSIR, consisting of sixty thousand men in three divisions, plus a small contingent of about a hundred aircraft. In July 1942, the CSIR was expanded into the Armata Italiana in Russia (Italian Army in Russia), or ARMIR. At peak strength, ARMIR, now the Italian Eighth Army, comprised 235,000 men in twelve divisions.
This was not a token contingent dispatched in the name of coalition solidarity. A quarter-million men was more than Mussolini committed to North Africa, a battleground on Italy's doorstep.
.....The problem was that the Italian military was not well prepared for the Eastern Front, or any front for that matter. The soldiers were peasants, barely literate, with poor training, poor tactics and an officer corps more concerned with its own creature comforts than the welfare of its men. A large chunk of the Italian contingent was elite Alpini mountain troops, a formidable force in the mountains, but ill-suited for facing tanks on the open steppe.
......At first, Russia was a walk in the sun for the Italian soldiers. They performed well in southern Russia in the summer of 1941, though they were only advancing against disorganized and retreating Soviet armies. Even when the Red Army counterattacked in the winter of 1941–42, the Italians held—but only with German support.....
The need to feed division after division into the meat-grinder of Stalingrad, while supporting a separate offensive south into the Caucasus, resulted in the Axis forces guarding the flanks and rear being thinly spread. Among them were the Italian Eighth Army to the northeast of Stalingrad, defending a long front almost two hundred miles long, with almost no German reserves to support it.
........Then in December 1942 came Operation Little Saturn, which targeted the Italians, Romanians and Hungarians. Two Italians divisions were slammed by fifteen Soviet divisions and a hundred tanks, while the few German reserves were too busy to support the Italians. Meanwhile, other Soviet forces attacked the Romanian and Hungarian troops on the Italian flanks, and soon the Eighth Army was encircled.
. In fact, the Italians fought on for almost two weeks, despite inferior numbers and inferior weapons. Some troops, led by the redoubtable Alpini, managed to break out of the encirclement in the desperate battle of Nikolayevka.
But a few survivors couldn't change the fact that the Italian army in Russia was destroyed. And with the western Allies capturing North Africa, and soon to invade Sicily and Italy, Mussolini’s tottering regime was in no position to send another army eastwards.
The Eighth Army returned home to Italy in March 1943, six months before Italy surrendered to the Allies. By September, Italy would be at war with Germany."
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Hard to miss with that size. The large portrait of Benito Mussolini from the former Fascist political headquarters at Anzio is used as target practice by passing Allied soldiers. Feb 1944.
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Italian destroyer Ugolino Vivaldi fully loaded with mines. Late 1940. The destroyer was scuttled on Sep 1943.
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The crew of an M13 Italian tank in North Africa.
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Italian soldiers manning a Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935 (Medium machine gun).
Curious about the M35
The Fiat-Revelli M35 was an interwar update to the M14 designed during a fad for middle-weight "heavy" machine guns using an enlarged high-velocity rifle-like round, in this case the 8x59mm Breda which threw out a 208-grain bullet at 2,525 feet per second.
Cartridge 8x59mm RB Breda
Feed System Belt 50-Rounds
Weight 39.9 lbs (18.1 kg)
Length 4.16 ft (1270 mm)
Barrel Length 2.14 ft (653 mm)
Effective Range 3,280 ft (1000 m)
Action Blowback
Muzzle Velocity 2,460 ft/s (750 m/s)
Rate of Fire 500 RPM
The above pictures do not give the feel of how long the gun actually was.
comandosupremo.com
The Fiat-Revelli M35 was an interwar update to the M14 designed during a fad for middle-weight "heavy" machine guns using an enlarged high-velocity rifle-like round, in this case the 8x59mm Breda which threw out a 208-grain bullet at 2,525 feet per second.
Cartridge 8x59mm RB Breda
Feed System Belt 50-Rounds
Weight 39.9 lbs (18.1 kg)
Length 4.16 ft (1270 mm)
Barrel Length 2.14 ft (653 mm)
Effective Range 3,280 ft (1000 m)
Action Blowback
Muzzle Velocity 2,460 ft/s (750 m/s)
Rate of Fire 500 RPM
The above pictures do not give the feel of how long the gun actually was.
Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935 History and Specifications
In the 1930s, the Italian army began modernizing its supply of Fiat–Revelli Modello 1914 WW1 machineguns. The result was the Fiat-Revelli Modello 1935.
comandosupremo.com
Officers observing Italian army maneuvers, 1938.
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"Il Duce" reviews during his visit to the Forest Militia school in Cittaducale, in the Lazio region, 1943.
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Italian paratrooper armed with a Beretta MAB 38 chatting with German paratroopers.
Suure. It's all sunshine and rainbows until the shooting starts. 