This year has been very Italian focused for me. A trip into the Toscana in September, as well as the Hearts of Iron 4 DLC by blood alone and The new Company of Heroes 3 in November having Italy as their biggest Focus. Now here i wonder, especially as a German, how much Italian Forces fought in Italy themselves or were under german command.
This interest stems mainly from the fact, that i have never heard that much about Italian forces fighting there, but rather the German forces holding off the allied advance and fighting major battles. Adding to that Company of Heroes 3 (playing in North Africa and Italy in 1943) has 2 seperate german Factions (The Wehrmacht and the Afrikakorps), but no independent Italian faction to play as. Italian units are available in the Afrikakorps, which makes sense, but it just supports the Idea that the Italians had a very small role in a lot of the combat, even on their own Mainland, which seems absurd.
I would like to finally know, wether the Italians really had a small role in this theatre specifically, or if they are just generally overlooked and fall off into irrelevancy as they become a german puppet.
Yes, the Kingdom of Italy did play a role in the Italian Campaign after the armistice with division sized units participating in many battles on the peninsula. Some battles include Anzio, Monte Casino, Spring Offensive 1945, and Ancona. Although most Italian units were attached to British Corps and some Polish units, Italy did have there own Italian Liberation Corps in 1944. The Italian Resistance movement also continued against the Germans and Italian Social Republic until the end of the war.
Ok that is very interesting. That will be some stuff coming up in the regular episodes then probably. But what i was wondering more was the pro Mussolini side. How many Troops did Mussolini before and after the armistice send in to fend off the allied troops. That is something i still havenât quite figured out.
I also donât know how many Troops fascist Italy still had on the eastern Front and as garisons after the allied landings.
That would be nice to know also. Still thanks for the fast reply
Ok, the Italian Social Republic fought in the Italian Civil War against the Allies, they were pretty much a puppet but had there own system and military. They made use of paramilitaries as well, but overall their Navy and Air Force were either non-existent or poor. The Allies had air supremacy in Northern Italy, especially after Germany pulled out their Air Force. I donât know too much, but hereâs some Wikipedia articles:
To discuss other views, TIK says that he doesnât think that it was a civil war because the Mussolini government was a puppet of Hitler and the Kingâs government was a puppet of the allies and resistance movement was against the Germans an not the Italians and political infighting⌠all of this canât be called a civil war.
Yeah it was rare to see soldiers of the Italian Social Republic fighting on the battlefield against the Kingdom of Italy. But the Italian Resistance fought against the Italian Social Republic. The Italian Civil War mostly was Axis vs Allies.
