Italian troops in the USSR (1941-1943)

Created on July 10, 1941, the Expeditionary Italian Corps in Russia arrived in the USSR in July - August 1941. Initially, CSIR was subordinate to the 11th Army of the German General O.R. von Schobert ( German: Eugen Ritter von Schobert ). On August 14, 1941, the corps was subordinated to the 1st Panzer Group of the German General E von Kleist . On October 25, 1941, the 1st Panzer Group was reorganized into the 1st Panzer Army . CSIR remained under the command of Kleist until June 3, 1942 , after which the corps was transferred to the 17th Army of the German General Richard Ruoff .

In the early stages of the campaign, during the transfer of the corps to the USSR, the first commander of the CSIR, the Italian general F. Zingales ( Italian: Francesco Zingales ), who was in Vienna at that time, fell ill. On July 14, 1941, Zingales was replaced by General D. Messe .

The corps consisted of management and three divisions:

• 52nd Torino Torpedo Infantry Division ;
• 9th Pasubio Motor Transport Infantry Division ;
• 3rd Mobile Division Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta ” (in Russian-language sources, it may be referred to as the 3rd Infantry Division“ Celera ” (fast)).

In practice, the word "transported" meant that instead of special military equipment, a variety of civilian vehicles were used. The 3rd mobile division consisted of cavalry and motorized units. Most of the artillery of the division was horse drawn. In this division, bersaliers (with Italian bersaglieri - elite shooters) often used motorcycles and bicycles.

At the time of the creation of the corps in June-July 1941, its forces were as follows: about 3,000 officers and 59,000 soldiers , 5,500 motor vehicles and over 4,600 horses and mules , 60 wedges, 866 submachine guns, 581 machine guns, 189 81-mm mortars, 292 45-mm mortars , 108 anti-tank guns Mod. 47/32 , 256 different guns, 220 light artillery guns, 36 medium artillery guns, 80 air defense guns, 83 aircraft, 1,550 motorcycles. The combat arms in the corps were mainly represented by lightly armed infantry, cavalry, and bersaliers. The divisions Torino and Pasubio had two infantry regiments and one artillery regiment.

The first clash occurred in August 1941. The actions of the corps as part of the 11th army were directed against the withdrawal of Soviet troops located between the Southern Bug and Dniester rivers .

Before the 11th Army joined the Romanian army, which fought for Odessa , the Italian corps became subordinate to the tank group of the German General Ewald von Kleist. Being part of this group, between October 20 and November 2, 1941, the corps was involved in the assault on the city of Stalin (now Donetsk ) and the occupation of the nearby cities of Gorlovka and Ordzhonikidze (now Enakievo ).

After the Romanian and German troops captured Odessa on October 16, 1941, some Italians took part in the occupation of the territory around the city.

On Catholic Christmas Day 1941, Soviet troops launched a powerful attack on the position of the 3rd mobile division (the so-called "First Christmas Battle"). The Italians repelled the attack, but at the cost of heavy losses.

In total, the loss of the corps (killed, wounded and missing) from July 1941 to July 1942 amounted to 15,000 people. ^[2]

In July 1942, Mussolini, in order to intensify hostilities on the Eastern Front, strengthened Italian troops. CSIR was replenished and changed its name to "8th Italian Army." Another name for the 8th Italian Army is “The Italian Army in Russia”. The army was subordinate to Army Group B of the German General Maximilian von Weichs .

Seven new divisions arrived in the USSR, and thus the number of Italian divisions on the Eastern Front increased to ten. Four arrived divisions:

• 2nd Infantry Division Sforzeska ;
• 3rd Infantry Division "Ravenna" ;
• 5th Infantry Division "Cosseria" ;
• 156th Vicenza Infantry Division .

In addition to the infantry, three alpine divisions were sent ( ital. Alpini - elite mountain rifle units of the Italian army) divisions:

• 2nd Alpine Division "Tridentina" ;
• 3rd Alpine Division "Julia" ;
• 4th Alpine Division "Kuneenze" .

The 8th Italian army consisted of three corps:

• 35th Army Corps :

Divisions "Torino", "Pasubio" and "They. Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta. "

• 2nd Army Corps:

The divisions Sforzeska, Ravenna, Cosseria and Vicenza.

• Alpine building:

The divisions "Tridentina", "Julia" and "Kuneenze".

The Vicenza division was mainly involved in the rear, to service military communications.

In addition to the Italian divisions, the German 298th and 62nd divisions (later sent to Stalingrad ), the Croatian volunteer brigade and three Camicie Nere brigades (Italian “black shirts” - volunteers) were included in ARMIR.

By November 1942, ARMIR consisted of 235,000 people in twelve divisions and four brigades. The army was equipped with 988 guns, 420 mortars, 25,000 horses, 64 aircraft and 17,000 vehicles. There were still a small number of tanks. Also in the army there was a serious lack of good winter uniforms (with the exception of alpine divisions).

The 3rd mobile division consisted of four regiments. In addition, the division was armed with armored vehicles: L3 / 35 wedges , Fiat L6 / 40 light tanks and Semovente 47/32 anti-tank self-propelled artillery mounts. Division regiments: 3rd Dragoon cavalry regiment "Savoy", 5th Lancers cavalry regiment "Navarra", 3rd mobile artillery regiment and 3rd regiment of bersaliers. The divisions of the corps were quite mixed, so the movement was carried out in various ways - using motorized vehicles, horses, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrian crossings. ^[3]

The command over the newly formed army from General Messe was taken by the Italian general Italo Gariboldi . As commander of the CSIR, Messe opposed an increase in the Italian contingent in the USSR until the troops were properly equipped. As a result, the general was dismissed.

Prior to being appointed commander of ARMIR, Gariboldi was Governor General of Libya . After the war, he was criticized for being overly submissive to the Germans.

By July 1942, the army reached the line passing along the right bank of the Don . In August, the Bersallera units of the 3rd Mobile Division liquidated the bridgehead of the Soviet troops near the village of Serafimovich . In the same month, with the support of German tanks, they repelled a well-organized attack by the Soviet troops (the so-called "First Defensive Battle on the Don"). ^[four]

By the end of autumn 1942, ARMIR was stationed on the left flank of the German 6th Army , between the Hungarian and Romanian forces. Subsequently, the German 6th Army entered into battle with the 62nd Army of the Soviet General Vasily Chuikov , in Stalingrad. The length of the Italian section was over 250 km. The border passed along the banks of the Don River, starting from the positions of the 2nd Hungarian Army and up to the positions of the 3rd Romanian Army in Vyoshenskaya . The Italians created a weak defense at their site - trenches were not dug, effective defensive positions were not created. In addition, snowfalls and severe frosts hindered the movement of troops.

The situation for the German troops in Stalingrad remained stable until the Soviet troops launched Operation Uranus on November 19, 1942 . The purpose of this operation was to completely encircle and block the 6th German army . The blow of the Soviet troops was aimed at the weak Romanian armies located north and south of Stalingrad. Operation Uranus was planned as a simultaneous strike in two different directions. The Soviet troops delivered two blows and broke through the defense line of the third and fourth Romanian armies, and four days after the start of the operation, the encirclement was closed at the village of Kalach-on-Don .

The situation for the Italian troops stretched along the Don remained stable until the Soviet troops launched Operation Saturn on December 11, 1942 . The purpose of this operation was to destroy the positions of Italian, Hungarian, Romanian and German troops on the Don River. The first phase of Operation Saturn is also known as Operation Small Saturn . The purpose of this operation was the complete destruction of the 8th Italian army.

The 63rd Soviet Army , backed by T-34 tanks , first attacked the weakest sector of the Italian sector - the right flank, which was defended by the infantry divisions Ravenna and Cosseria. Both divisions were thrown back and destroyed.

On December 17, 1942, the 21st Soviet Army and the 5th Soviet Panzer Army attacked and destroyed the remains of the Romanian troops located to the right of the Italians. Around the same time , the 3rd Soviet Panzer Army and units of the 40th Soviet Army attacked the Hungarian troops located to the left of the Italians.

Then the Soviet 1st Guards Army attacked the center of the Italian sector, which was held by the divisions: 298th German, Pasubio, Torino, Im. Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta ”and“ Sforzesca ”. After eleven days of battles with superior Soviet troops, the divisions were surrounded and destroyed.

On January 14, 1943 , after a short break, the 6th Soviet Army attacked divisions of the Alpine Corps. These divisions were located on the left flank of the Italian army and still have not yet been practically involved in the battle. But, despite this circumstance, after the defeat of the Italian center, the right flank and the destruction of the Hungarian forces on the left, the position of the Alpine divisions became critical, and soon two divisions — Julia and Kuneenze — were destroyed. The soldiers of the 1st alpine regiment, part of the Kuneenze division, burned regimental flags in order to prevent their capture. Part of the Tridentina division and other retreating troops escaped encirclement.

On January 26, 1943 , after a difficult battle, the culmination of which was the battle near Nikolaevka , the remains of the Alpine divisions broke through the encirclement and moved to new defensive positions. By this time, the only unit that retained some fighting strength and was still taking part in the fighting was the Tridentine division. The remaining stock of Italian troops were frostbite, sick and demoralized.

During the evacuation of the surviving troops to Italy, the fascist regime took efforts to conceal the truthful information about them, thereby trying to avoid a decline in the morale of the population.

A total of about 130,000 Italians were surrounded during the Soviet offensive. According to Italian sources, about 20,800 soldiers died in battle, 64,000 were captured and 45,000 were able to retreat. ^[five]

Since the start of the campaign, about 30,000 Italians have died in battle, another 54,000 have died in Soviet captivity. By the end of February 1943, the rapid retreat ended and Mussolini withdrew the remnants of the 8th Army from the Eastern Front. When news of the Italian army reached Italy , Mussolini was hit hard by popularity. Survivors on the Eastern Front accused the Italian political elite and generals of frivolity, which resulted in the sending to the front of a poorly trained and weakly armed army. The German commanders, who were accused of saving their troops, while sacrificing the Italian, were not ignored. By all accounts, the withdrawal of the Italians after the breakthrough of Soviet troops was unjustifiably delayed. ^[6]

In the first half of 1943 the situation in Italy began to deteriorate. After the defeat on the Eastern Front, in May the Italo-German forces were defeated in Tunisia . Italy finally lost North Africa. And on July 10, allied forces landed in Sicily . On July 25, 1943, Benito Mussolini and his fascist regime were overthrown, and on September 8 the new Italian government, led by Marshal Pietro Badoglio and King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III , signed a truce with the Allied forces.

At the end of September 1943, after the overthrow of Mussolini, the new Italian government declared war on Germany . In Western Ukraine, some Italian military units were still deployed that carried auxiliary anti-partisan and police functions. The German units located in Lviv were raised by alarm, surrounded the barracks of their former allies, disarmed them, and then shot for several days. The executions were carried out in the Citadel and in the Yanovsky camp. ^{[7] [8]}

In 1944 , immediately after the liberation of Lviv by Soviet troops, a prosecutor group was created, which was entrusted with the investigation of the crimes of Nazism in Western Ukraine. This group uncovered the facts of the extermination by the Nazis of their former allies. These facts were voiced at the Nuremberg trials .

cinema

• They went to the East (1964)
• Sunflowers (1970)

poetry

• The poem of the Soviet poet Mikhail Svetlov "The Italian" (1943)

• Blue division
• Battle of Stalingrad
• The murders of Italian prisoners of war by German troops in 1943

• G.S. Filatov. Mussolini's Eastern Campaign / Crusade to Russia: A Collection of Articles. - M .: Yauza, 2005 .-- 480 p. - (The war and them) / Editor-compiler M. Chernov.
• Faldella, Emilio. L'Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale. Cappelli Bologna 1959 (Italian)
• Mack Smith, Denis. Le guerre del duce. Laterza, Bari 1979 (Italian)
• Messe, Giovanni. La guerra al fronte Russo. Il Corpo di Spedizione Italian (CSIR). Milano 1947 (Italian)
• Italian Ministry of Defense. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. Le operazioni del CSIR e dell'ARMIR dal Giugno 1941 all'ottobre del 1942. Roma, 1977 (Italian)
• Italian Ministry of Defense. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. L'8 ° Armata Italiana nella seconda battaglia difensiva del Don. Roma, 1977 (Italian)
• Italian Ministry of Defense. 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, 1951 (Italian)

• The composition of the 8th Italian army (Russian)
• Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia (CSIR )
• Armata Italiana in Russia (ARMIR )