Italians at war

[Walsingham]

I've agreed to help a colleague with some research, and am looking for stories of Italians fighting as good as the 82nd or Ghurkas. They can be any time in the 20th Century. I just figured with all the buffs here we might be able to rustle up some unusual ones.

[Enoch]

Link.

 

:D

 

 

But, seriously... I got nuttin'.

[Walsingham]

Link.

 

:D

 

 

But, seriously... I got nuttin'.

 

Aw nuts. Well, as I find things I'll let you know. I know erwin Rommel thought the Italians were good soldiers, appallingly lead and equipped.

[Gorgon]

The only Italians who won anything in WW2 were Italian Americans.

[Hildegard]

**** all you want about Italians, especially in WW2....most of the battles and campaigns they lead were unsuccessful...but one of the main reasons why that happened wasn't lack of courage, but lack of experienced and capable officers....few people know that many soldiers under Rommel's command in North Africa were Italians, does 2 battle groups he lead there weren't just composed out of German soldiers, but form many Italians who's units were broken....under Rommel's leadership they proved quite capable although in the end they were defeated as we know. :D

[Guard Dog]

In 1922 the US Congress awarders the Congressional Medal of Honor to the Italian Unknown Soldier butit was really to honor ALL Italians who fought in WW1. Here is the article and the link. Not what you were looking for I know, but hope it helps.

 

* * * By virtue of a joint resolution of Congress, approved 12 October 1921, the Medal of Honor, emblem of highest ideals and virtues, is bestowed in the name of the Congress of the United States upon the unknown, unidentified Italian soldier to be buried in the National Monument to Victor Emanuel 11, in Rome.

 

Whereas the Congress has authorized the bestowal of the Congressional Medal of Honor upon unknown, unidentified British and French soldiers buried in Westminster Abbey, London, England, and the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France, respectively, who fought beside our soldiers in the recent war, and

 

Whereas, animated by the same spirit of friendship toward the soldiers of Italy who also fought as comrades of the American soldiers during the World War, we desire to add whatever we can to the imperishable glory won by their deeds and to participate in paying tribute to their unknown dead: Now, therefore. be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to bestow, with appropriate ceremonies, military and civil, the Congressional Medal of Honor upon the unknown, unidentified Italian soldier to be buried in the National Monument to Victor Emanuel 11, in Rome, Italy (A.G. 220.523) (War Department General Orders, No. 52, I Dec. 1922, Sec. II)

Non US Citizen Medal Recipients

[Walsingham]

The Italian American link is an interesting angle. Given that some of those Italian Americans would have come from very much Italian cultural backgrounds.

 

I should make clear that I don't take the view that any man, properly lead, is a coward. And that as Hilde says, my view is emphatically that the biggest cultural distinction is in the way the officer corps took nil responsibility and took no interest in training or preparedness.