German Summer Offensive, 24 July-18 November

The Italian Army in Russia ( it, Armata Italiana in Russia; ARMIR) was an army-sized unit of the Royal Italian Army which fought on the Eastern Front during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

between July 1942 and April 1943. The ARMIR was also known as the 8th Italian Army and initially had 235,000 soldiers.

Formation

In July 1942, the ARMIR was created when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini decided to scale up the Italian effort in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. The existing

Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia During World War II, the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia (''Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia'', or CSIR) was a corps-sized expeditionary unit of the '' Regio Esercito'' (Italian Army) that fought on the Eastern Front. In July 1942 th ...

(''Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia'', or CSIR) was expanded to become the ARMIR. Unlike the "mobile" CSIR which it replaced, the ARMIR was primarily an infantry army. A good portion of the ARMIR was made up of mountain troops ('' Alpini''), which were ill-suited to the vast, flat expanses of southern Russia. Like the CSIR, the ARMIR included an Aviation Command (''Comando Aereo'') with a limited number of fighters, bombers, and transport aircraft. This command was part of the '' Regia Aeronautica'' ( lit. "Royal Air Force") and was also known as the ''Corpo Aereo Spedizione in Russia'' ("Air Expeditionary Corps in Russia"), under the command of General Enrico Pezzi. The ARMIR was subordinated to German

Army Group B Army Group B (German: ') was the title of three German Army Groups that saw action during World War II. Operational history Army Group B first took part in the Battle of France in 1940 in Belgium and the Netherlands. The second formation of Ar ...

(''Heeresgruppe B'') commanded by General Maximilian von Weichs. In February 1943, after its near destruction during the Battle of Stalingrad, Mussolini disbanded what was left of the Italian 8th Army and the surviving Italian troops were unceremoniously brought home from Russia.

Composition

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B27180, Russland, italienische Soldaten mit Mauleseln

Mussolini sent seven new divisions to Russia for a total of ten divisions. Four new infantry divisions were sent: the 2nd Infantry Division "Sforzesca", the 3rd Infantry Division "Ravenna", the 5th Infantry Division "Cosseria", and the

156th Infantry Division "Vicenza" The 156th Infantry Division "Vicenza" ( it, 151ª Divisione di fanteria "Vicenza") was an infantry Division (military), division of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. The Vicenza was formed on 10 March 1942 and named for the city of Vicen ...

. In addition to the infantry divisions, three new alpine divisions made up of Alpini were sent: the 2nd Alpine Division "Tridentina", the 3rd Alpine Division "Julia", and the 4th Alpine Division "Cuneense". These new divisions were added to the 3rd Cavalry Division "Principe Amedeo Duca d'Aosta", 9th Infantry Division "Pasubio", and 52nd Infantry Division "Torino", which were already in Russia as part of the CSIR. The 8th Italian Army was organized into three corps: * II Army Corps ( Giovanni Zanghieri), ** 2nd Infantry Division "Sforzesca" ( Carlo Pellegrini), ** 3rd Infantry Division "Ravenna" ( Francesco Du Pont), ** 5th Infantry Division "Cosseria" ( Enrico Gazzale) * XXXV Army Corps (

Giovanni Messe Giovanni Messe (10 December 1883 – 18 December 1968) was an Italian field marshal and politician. In the Second World War, he was captured in Tunisia, but made chief of staff of the Italian Co-belligerent Army after the armistice of Septemb ...

- replaced 1942.11.01 by

Francesco Zingales Francesco Zingales (1884-1959) was a general in the Royal Italian Army during World War II. Biography Francesco Zingales fought in World War I on the Isonzo Front. In 1939 he had become commander of the 10th Motorised Division Piave, but saw no ...

), ** 3rd Cavalry Division "Principe Amedeo Duca d'Aosta" ( Ettore de Blasio), ** 9th Infantry Division "Pasubio" ( Guido Boselli), ** 52nd Infantry Division "Torino" ( Roberto Lerici), * Alpine Corps ( Gabriele Nasci). ** 2nd Alpine Division "Tridentina" ( Luigi Reverberi), ** 3rd Alpine Division "Julia" ( Umberto Ricagno - POW), ** 4th Alpine Division "Cuneense" ( Emilio Battisti - POW) * Under direct command of the 8th Army **

( Etelvoldo Pascolini - POW), primarily utilized behind the front on "lines of communications" duties, security and anti- partisan and to act as a reserve. In addition to the ten divisions, the 8th Italian Army included * 298th German Division * 62nd German divisions (later being sent to Stalingrad), * a Croatian volunteer

legion Legion may refer to: Military * Roman legion, the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army * Spanish Legion, an elite military unit within the Spanish Army * Legion of the United States, a reorganization of the United States Army from 179 ...

, * three legions of Italian Blackshirt volunteers ('' Camicie Nere'', or CC.NN.). By November 1942, the 8th Italian Army had a total of 235,000 men in twelve divisions and four legions. It was equipped with 988 guns, 420 mortars, 25,000 horses, and 17,000 vehicles. While the Italians did receive 12 German Mk. IV tanks and had captured several Soviet tanks, there were still very few modern tanks and anti-tank guns available to the ARMIR. The few tanks that were available still tended to be obsolete Italian models. Both the L6/40 light tanks (armed with a turret-mounted 20 mm

Breda Model 35 The Breda 20/65 mod.35 (''"Breda 20 mm L/65 model 1935"''), also simply known as 20 mm Breda or Breda Model 35, among other variations, was an Italian anti-aircraft gun produced by the Società Italiana Ernesto Breda of Brescia company ...

gun) and the 47 mm anti-tank guns ('' Cannone da 47/32 M35'') were out of date when Italy declared war on 10 June 1940. Compared to what the Soviets had available to them in late 1942 and early 1943, Italian tanks and anti-tank guns could be considered more dangerous to the crews than to the enemy. Moreover, as was the complaint of General Messe with the CSIR, the ARMIR was seriously short of adequate winter equipment. Infantry small arms were also often inadequate or even useless. Rifles and machine guns were terribly prone to jamming. The

Carcano Carcano is the frequently used name for a series of Italian bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating military rifles and carbines. Introduced in 1891, this rifle was chambered for the rimless 6.5×52mm Carcano round (''Cartuccia Modello 1895''). ...

rifle and the

Breda 30 The ''Fucile Mitragliatore Breda modello'' 30 was the standard light machine gun of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. Design The Breda 30 was rather unusual for a light machine gun. It was fed from a fixed magazine attached to the ri ...

light machine gun had to be kept for a long time on a source of heat to work properly in extreme climatic conditions, and thus were often not capable of firing in the midst of battle. Incidentally, these last two weapons were considered the deadliest among the Italian arsenal. The heavy Breda M37 proved to be a slightly more reliable machine gun, though having an excessive weight and very slow rate of fire. The old belt-fed Fiat 14 was also seen in small numbers, but was obsolete. The praised high-quality Beretta 38A submachine guns were extremely rare, and given only in small numbers to specialized units, such as the Blackshirt legions, some tank crews or

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...

military police. Italian paratroopers in North Africa were equipped exclusively with this weapon, and gave outstanding combat results. There was total absence of any portable anti-tank weapon, thus making hand grenades, machine guns and mortars the last resort against Soviet armour. Hand grenades rarely detonated or detonated unpredictably. The

Brixia Model 35 The Brixia Model 35 was an Italian small-sized, rapid firing light mortar (weapon), mortar of World War II. The Brixia Modello 35 was used to provide light supporting fire to the infantry companies. It was issued at battalion level, with each batt ...

45mm mortar bombs had an inadequate explosive charge and fragmented poorly, and larger 81mm mortars modello 35 were rare. The Aviation Command of the ARMIR had a total of roughly 64 aircraft. The ARMIR had the following aircraft available to it: Macchi C.200 “Arrow" (''Saetta'') fighter, Macchi C.202 “Lightning" (''Folgore'') fighter, Caproni Ca.311 light reconnaissance-bomber, and Fiat Br.20 “Stork" (''Cicogna'') twin-engined bomber.

Commander

Italian General Italo Gariboldi took command of the newly formed ARMIR, instead of General

. As commander of the CSIR, Messe had opposed an enlargement of the Italian contingent in Russia until it could be properly equipped. As a result, he was overruled by Mussolini and the CSIR was expanded without his further input.
Just prior to commanding the ARMIR, Gariboldi was the Governor-General of

Italian Libya Libya ( it, Libia; ar, ليبيا, Lībyā al-Īṭālīya) was a colony of the Fascist Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Italian Cyrenaica ...

. He was criticized after the war for being too submissive to the Germans in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. Messe remained commander of the 3 initial divisions of the CSIR, which was renamed XXXV Army Corps, but was subordinate to Gariboldi. He was replaced by

in November 1942.

Main operations

In late summer 1942, after participating in the conquest of eastern

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, the highly-mobile riflemen ('' Bersaglieri'') of the ARMIR eliminated the Soviet bridgehead at Serafimovič on the Don river. Then, with the support of German tanks, the Garibaldi troops repelled a Soviet attack during the first defensive battle of the Don. Finally the ARMIR faced ''

Operation Little Saturn Operation Little Saturn was a Red Army offensive on the Eastern Front of World War II that led to battles in Don and Chir rivers region in German-occupied Soviet Union territory in 16–30 December 1942. The success of Operation Uranus, launc ...

'' in December 1942. The aim of this Soviet operation was the complete annihilation of the Italian 8th Army, as a result of the operations related to the Battle of Stalingrad. On 11 December 1942 the Soviet 63rd Army, backed by

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The C ...

tanks and fighter-bombers, first attacked the weakest Italian sector. This sector was held on the right by the Ravenna and Cosseria infantry divisions. Indeed, from the Soviet bridgehead at Mamon, 15 divisions—supported by at least 100 tanks—attacked the Italian Cosseria and Ravenna Divisions, and although outnumbered 9 to 1, the Italians resisted until 19 December, when ARMIR headquarters finally ordered the battered divisions to withdraw. Only before Christmas both divisions were driven back and defeated, after heavy and bloody fighting. Meanwhile, on 17 December 1942, the Soviet 21st Army and the Soviet 5th Tank Army attacked and defeated what remained of the Romanians to the right of the Italians. At about the same time, the Soviet 3rd Tank Army and parts of the Soviet 40th Army hit the Hungarians to the left of the Italians. This resulted in a collapse of the Axis front, north of Stalingrad: the ARMIR was encircled, but for some days the Italian troops were able—with huge casualties—to stop the attacking Soviet troops. The Soviet 1st Guards Army then attacked the Italian center which was held by the 298th German, the Pasubio, the Torino, the Prince Amedeo Duke of Aosta, and the Sforzesca divisions. After eleven days of bloody fighting against overwhelming Soviet forces, these divisions were surrounded and defeated and Russian air support resulted in the death of General Paolo Tarnassi, commander of the Italian armoured force in Russia. Ripiegamentoalpinigennaio43

On 14 January 1943, after a short pause, the 6th Soviet Army attacked the divisions of the Alpine Corps. These units had been placed on the left flank of the Italian army and, to date, were still relatively unaffected by the battle. However, the Alpini’s position had turned critical after the collapse of the Italian center, the collapse of the Italian right flank, and the simultaneous collapse of the Hungarian troops to the left of the Alpini. The Julia Division and Cuneense Division were destroyed. Members of the 1 Alpini Regiment, part of Cuneese Division, burned the regimental flags to keep them from being captured. Part of the Tridentina Division and other withdrawing troops managed to escape the encirclement. On 26 January 1943, the Alpini remnants breached the encirclement and reached new defensive positions set up to the west by the German Army. Many of the troops who managed to escape were frostbitten, critically ill, and deeply demoralized: for practical purposes, the Italian Army in Russia did not exist anymore by February 1943. Officially, ARMIR losses were 114,520 of the original 235,000 soldiers Alfio Caruso. ''Tutti i vivi all'assalto'', Longanesi, 2003,

References

Sources

* * Jowett, Philip S. ''The Italian Army 1940–45 (1): Europe 1940–1943''. Osprey, Oxford – New York, 2000. *