Battles in the Alps

The Italian invasion of France, also called the Battle of the Alps occurred 10–25 June ). Though militarily insignificant, it was the first major Italian.
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On 13 June, Mussolini offered to send one Italian armoured division to serve on the German front in France in exchange for 50 AA batteries. The offer was refused. On 29 May, Mussolini convinced King Victor Emmanuel III , who was constitutionally the supreme commander of the Italian armed forces, to delegate his authority to Mussolini, [] and on 4 June Badoglio was already referring to him as supreme commander. Technically, it also restricted Mussolini's command to forces in combat, but this distinction was unworkable.

However, no attack was planned or ordered for the following day when the declaration of war would be issued. The Italian order of battle for Army Group West was as follows: Marshal Graziani, as army chief of staff, went to the front to take over the general direction of war after 10 June.

He was joined by the under-secretary of war, General Ubaldo Soddu , who had no operational command, but who served as Mussolini's connection to the front and was appointed deputy chief of the Supreme General Staff on 13 June.

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Many of Roatta's orders, like "be on the heels of the enemy; audacius; daring; rushing after", were quickly contradicted by Graziani. The first strike that morning involved 55 bombers, but Malta's anti-aircraft defences reported an attack of between five and twenty aircraft, suggesting that most bombers failed to find their target. The afternoon strike involved 38 aircraft. Immediately after the declaration of war, Haddock Force began to prepare for a bombing run.

The French, in order to prevent retaliatory Italian raids, blocked the runways and prevented the Wellingtons from taking off. The bombers refuelled in the Channel Islands , before proceeding. Most were forced to divert over the Alps because of icing conditions and turbulence. During the early hours of 12 June, ten bombers reached Turin, and a further two bombed Genoa. The Italians failed to detect the raid until it was over. The aerodrome at Caselle misidentified the bombers as their own aircraft from Udine and lit up the landing strip for them.

At Turin the air raid alarm was not raised until the unmolested Whitleys had left. The results of the action were unimpressive: On 15 June, the French finally permitted Haddock Force to operate. During the evening, eight Wellingtons took off to attack industrial targets in Genoa. Due to thunderstorms and problems locating their target, only one aircraft attacked the city during the early hours of the next day while the remainder returned to base. Nine Wellington bombers took off to bomb targets in Italy, although only five managed to find their objectives.

Following which, due to the deteriorating situation in France, the men of Haddock Force were withdrawn by ship from Marseille; their equipment and stores were abandoned. Your sons and husbands and sweethearts have not left you to defend their country. They suffer death to satisfy the pride of one man. The most intense air-to-air combat of the campaign took place over southern France on 15 June, when Italian BR.

On 21 June they bombed the port in a daylight raid and a subsequent night raid. The last Italian aerial operations against France were undertaken on 19 June by aircraft of the 2 a and 3 a Squadre Aeree and Sardinia against targets in Corsica and Tunisia. One bomber ran out of fuel and was forced to ditch on the return leg. During the general offensive of 21—24 June, the Regia Aeronautica bombed the French fortifications of the Alpine Line to little effect.

According to General Giuseppe Santoro , this strategy was incoherent: Only out of Italian bomber sorties during 21—24 June located their targets, dropping only 80 tonnes of bombs. The Regia Aeronautica never ventured beyond Provence in June and only targeted military sites. Eyewitness reports of aircraft bearing red, white and green roundels are false, since the Italian air force had replaced the tricolour roundel with a Fascist one by An Italian outpost was surprised, resulting in the death of an Italian NCO and a further two soldiers being wounded.

The same day he ordered Army Group West to prepare to begin an offensive in three days: In orders to his troops on 18 June, General Paolo Micheletti of the 1st Alpine Division Taurinense advised that "a strong resistance cannot be anticipated, owing to the shaken [French] morale. On 16 June, Marshal Graziani gave the order for offensive operations to begin within ten days. Three actions were planned: In retaliation, the mm guns of the Italian fort on Mont Chaberton —"an imposing structure lost in the clouds at an altitude of 3, meters"—were trained on Fort de l'Olive.

The Italian bombardment silenced the French fort the following day. The commanders at the front were ordered to explain the situation correctly to their troops: The implication was clear: Italian claims had to be backed up by military feats if they wanted German support in their claims. The Allied fleets held a Cavagnari preferred to utilize his surface force to mine the Sicilian Channel while deploying his submarines en masse to seek out and engage Allied ships. With France in the process of being overrun by Germany, the naval offensive envisioned by the allies was not undertaken.

Rather, four French cruisers supported by three destroyers conducted a patrol of the Aegean Sea during the opening days of the war with Italy while much of the French submarine fleet put to sea. On 12 June, elements of the French fleet sortied in response to a report of German warships entering the Mediterranean. The French 3rd Squadron comprised four heavy cruisers and 11 destroyers [p] left Toulon and sailed for Italy. At hours on 14 June, the French heavy cruisers opened fire on shore targets. The Colbert and Dupleix , firing from 14, yards 13, metres , attacked a gasworks at Sestri Ponente.

In response, Italian shore batteries to the west of Genoa and at Savona and an armoured train [q] opened fire on the attacking French ships. A 6-inch millimetre shell from the Batteria Mameli at Pegli penetrated the boiler room of the French destroyer Albatros , causing serious damage and killing 12 sailors. Due to misty conditions, the ship's commanding officer, Lieutenant Giuseppe Brignole, believed that he would be able to launch a torpedo strike upon the assaulting French. As the Calatafimi moved into position, it was spotted by French destroyers and engaged.

A near miss caused damage to the Italian ship's hull, but it managed to fire four torpedoes at the French force although none struck any targets. A third attempt, aiming for the cruisers Colbert and Dupleix , failed and the ship withdrew towards Genoa. Under pressure from the Italian coastal artillery, the Colbert and Dupleix withdrew. MAS was struck during the squadron's attack, resulting in light damage to the boat and the crew suffering three casualties. The French reported "that they had subjected their targets to a sustained and effective bombardment", although later noted that "the results of the fire against the shore Lieutenant Brignole was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor for his resolved attack against a much larger enemy force.

On 17 June, the Italian submarine Provana attacked a French convoy off Oran but was depth charged by the sloop La Curieuse , forced to surface and then sunk by ramming. La Curieuse also sustained heavy damage. This was the only Italian submarine to be sunk by the French Navy.

On 18 June, the staff of the Regia Marina conducted a study which showed that a landing on Malta was not feasible, despite the island's paucity of defences. This was accepted by Badoglio at the first meeting of the several chiefs of staff during the war, on 25 June. On 19 June, General Roatta wrote to Army Group West that "it might be that there are French troops in the fortifications, but it is probable that the mobile troops, situated in the rear, are already in retreat.

Some Italian officers jokingly lectured their troops on how to behave with the French girls. On 19 June, Mussolini ordered his generals to seek contact with the enemy, and at hours Roatta sent a directive to "undertake small offensive operations immediately [and t]o make contact with the enemy everywhere, to decisively harass enemy forces as harshly as possible.

The Germans have occupied Lyon, it must be categorically avoided that they arrive first at the sea. By three-o'-clock tonight [i. The air force will contribute by mass bombardment of the fortifications and cities. Graziani then modified his directive of 16 June: This final edition of the offensive plan had only two main actions, Operation M through the Little Saint Bernard and Operation R along the Riviera, the action in the Maddalena Pass being reduced to a diversionary advance.

He then revoked his countermand, only shifting the emphasis to the northern sector of the front, as his generals had urged all along. This French position was unable to train its battery of six guns on the Italian position and return fire. On 21 June, the French had been able to maneuver a battery of mm mortars of the th Artillery Regiment into a position at the foot of the Fort de l'Infernet to fire on Fort Chaberton.

Over a three-day period, with firing delayed and interrupted by adverse weather, the French were able to silence six of the eight armoured turrets of the Italian fort in only 57 shots. On 21 June, the main Italian offensive began. Initially, the Italian offensive enjoyed some level of success.

The French defensive lines were weakened due to the French high command shuffling forces north to fight the Germans. After that, they were to advance on to Beaufort and Albertville. On 21 June, the right column of the Alpine Corps took the Seigne Pass and advanced several kilometres across a glacier, but were met with heavy fire from Seloge. They quickly outflanked it and on 24 June charged up the Cormet de Roselend , but they were still in the process of completing their encirclement when the armistice was signed.

They then forded a river under heavy machine gun fire, while Italian engineers repaired the demolished bridge, suffering heavy losses in the process. On 22 June, the Trieste 's tank battalion passed the motorcycles and was stopped at a minefield.


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At the armistice they let the Redoute 's garrison march out with honours of war. The main attack of the I Army Corps was a three-pronged drive by the Division Cagliari , involving the capture of Bessans and Bramans, followed by a concerted advance along the river Arc toward Modane. The central column consisted of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 64th Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the 62nd Regiment. They advanced through the Col des Lacs Giaset and advanced down the valley of the Ambin. The 2nd Battalion of the 63rd Infantry Regiment crossed the Little Mont Cenis towards the village of Le Planay, where it joined the central column, while the 1st Battalion crossed the Pas de Bellecombe and augmented the central column at the village of La Villette.

It was supposed to synchronise its attack on the flank of Modane with the arrival of the central column. The Susa under Major Boccalatte formed the right column and crossed the Pas du Chapeau and the Novalesa pass and followed the river Ribon towards Bessans. The French garrisons these forces faced were 4,strong, backed by two divisions with sixty tanks behind them. The central column began its descent through the Col des Lacs Giaset shortly after noon on 21 June. As it approached the river Ambin it met strong resistance.

The 2nd Battalion coming down the Little Mont Cenis had overcome weak resistance and met the central column. Some small groups were left behind for mopping up operations while the bulk of the column continued its advance towards Bramans. All the Cagliari battalions coalesced around a chapel outside Bramans, and, after eliminating the French field fortifications with artillery fire, they took the city by the end of the first day. The Italians attempted to flank them from the south, and their artillery engaged the forts' guns.

The forts were not reduced by the time the armistice came into effect, although the advance units of the Cagliari were with three kilometres five miles of Modane. While the Susa had occupied Lanslebourg and moved on to Termignon, the 3rd Battalion of the 64th Infantry had been held up. Its route was heavily mined and strewn with anti-infantry and anti-tank obstacles. A battalion of the st Avellino Infantry Regiment and a tank battalion from the Division Brennero were sent up to assist it.

The First Army had been spared responsibility for the main attack—which fell to the Fourth Army in the north—because of the appeals of its commander, General Pietro Pintor , on 20 June. On 21 June, the units advancing through the Val Roia successfully occupied Fontan.

The amphibious assault had to be called off for logistical reasons—engine failures, overloaded boats, rough seas. Lacking sufficient landing craft, the Regia Marina had commandeered fishing boats and pleasure boats. The Italian navy attempted some landings, but after several craft grounded the whole operation was called off.

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Mussolini then gave the order that the Cosseria were to advance at all costs. The bypassed French troops continued to fight, firing the fort's armament at Italian coastal shipping, until the armistice. Italian aircraft then bombed the French barracks there. That day the fort of Pont Saint-Louis engaged in its last artillery duel with the Italians. No vehicles managed to cross the bridge before the armistice. It also had 3, mules on which its artillery was carried and horses, 68 motor vehicles, 71 motorcycles and bicycles.

The Acqui Division did not reach the French fortification until late on the 24th, by which time the armistice had been signed. They lost 32 dead and counted 90 wounded, frostbitten and 15 missing. Because of a lack of artillery in the Ubaye Valley, they had not fired upon the French forts. On 17 June, the day after he transmitted a formal request for an armistice to the German government, French Foreign Minister Paul Baudoin handed to the Papal nuncio Valerio Valeri a note that said: It also requests that he convey to the Italian government its desire to find together the basis of a lasting peace between the two countries.

Millions Involved

According to Ciano, "under these [mild] conditions, Mussolini is not prepared to make territorial demands At hours on 23 June, the French delegation, headed by General Charles Huntziger , who had signed the German armistice the previous day, landed in Rome aboard three German aircraft. The French negotiators were the same who had met with the Germans. The first meeting of the two delegations took place at hours at the Villa Incisa all'Olgiata on the Via Cassia. It lasted only twenty-five minutes, during which Roatta read out loud the Italy's proposed terms, Huntziger requested a recess to confer with his government and Ciano adjourned the meeting until the next day.

During the adjournment, Hitler informed Mussolini that he thought the Italian demands too light, and he proposed linking up the German and Italian occupation zones. Roatta ultimately convinced Mussolini that it was too late to change the demands. At hours on 24 June, at the Villa Incisa, after receiving his government's permission, General Huntziger signed the armistice on behalf of the French and Marshal Badoglio for the Italians signed the armistice. Both armistices came into effect at thirty-five minutes past midnight hours [x] on 25 June.

Badoglio consulted Mussolini, who agreed. The actual Italian occupation zone was no more than what had been occupied up to the armistice. Italy was granted the right to use the port of Djibouti in Somaliland with all its equipment, along with the French section of the Addis Ababa—Djibouti railway. More importantly, the naval bases of Toulon, Bizerte, Ajaccio and Oran were also to be demilitarized within fifteen days. Reported French army casualties vary: A further 2, men suffered from frostbite during the campaign. It is probable that most of the Italian missing were dead.

Units operating in more difficult terrain had higher ratios of missing to killed, but probably most of the missing had died. Although treated in accordance with the laws of war by the Italians, they probably fell into German hands after Italy's surrender in September The limited demands of the Italian Government, at the armistice, provoked several theories from contemporary Italian sources. General Roatta believed that Mussolini curbed his intentions because the military had failed to break the French front line and Mussolini was thus "demonstrating his sportsmanship".

Dino Alfieri advanced the popular but controversial argument that Mussolini weakened his armistice demands to "maintain some semblance of a continental balance of power". Furthermore, Knox comments that Ciano's diary and Mussolini's comments to Hitler "quite adequately explain" the Italian position given the "strategic situation": The overwhelming historical consensus is that the Italian military fared poorly during the invasion.

On 21 June , Ciano recorded in his diary that Mussolini felt humiliated by the invasion of France as "our troops have not made a step forward. Even today, they were unable to pass, and stopped in front of the first French strong point that resisted. Knox calls the Italian attacks into the Alps a "fiasco", which had morale implications upon the Italian generals, and notes how the campaign was a humiliation for Mussolini. The Italian military requested aid from the Germans, to outflank the French positions.

The initial German attack was checked, and the "French soldiers of the Alps The snow also hampered the movement of artillery, food and ammunition to the summits. In some cases, the Italians wore their gas masks because of the difficulty of breathing in the driving snow. For example, on 23 June, the front-line commander of the 4th Alpine Division Cuneense complained to his superior of the Second Army that he was unable to keep in touch with the troops at the front because he could not move his headquarters up the mountain due to the weather.

At the front, near the border, the mission of the French forts was to delay the Italian army from reaching the line of defense, made up of steel and concrete fortifications. Our infantry had to advance in the open against well-protected troops through a field under French artillery fire. And all this was to happen in three to four days.

In these conditions, greater Italian manpower has no advantage. It would be a mistake to say that a battle was fought in the western Alps; what took place were only preliminary actions, technically called 'making contact'. It is not possible to speak in terms of victory or defeat.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Italian imperialism under Fascism. Revel was arguing for naval funding to receive priority over army funding. Historian Denis Mack Smith partially supports this view, but argues that although Mussolini wanted to enter the war, he did not wish to participate actively.

Italian Front (World War I)

Alfieri and the Italian journalist Virginio Gayda argue that the decision to go to war was based in part on the fear of German aggression against Italy. Paoletti notes that Mussolini feared an Italo-German war following the conclusion of the fighting with the Western Powers. Thus, in order to seize his imperial ambitions Mussolini envisioned a limited war with few casualties in order preserve his military strength for the post-war era. These SIM estimates have been taken at face value by some Italian historians.

Gros ouvrages were artillery forts and petits ouvrages were infantry forts. Each squadra aerea was composed of stormi singular stormo , "flock" , composed of gruppi singular gruppo , "group" of two squadriglie singular squadriglia. Each stormo typically operated one type of aircraft. It was first drawn up in January , updated in April and again in March This was abandoned after Ciano succeeded in convincing the Yugoslav ambassador of Italy's peaceful intentions towards his country on 29 May.

This meant that any detected submerged submarine was presumed to be hostile. Auphan, Gabriel Paul ; Mordal, Jacques United States Naval Institute. L'Italia nella seconda Guerra mondiale in Italian. Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian A History of Eastern Europe: A Reference Guide to the Regia Marina, Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, — Failed Dreams of Empire, — Collier, Paul Henry O'Neill, Robert , ed.

Essential Histories 1st ed. Translation of Mussolini nella tana del lupo Milan: Dall'Oglio, by Robert L. The War in France and Flanders. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. The Third Reich at War. Le Truppe alpine nella seconda guerra mondiale. Les rebelles de La Combattante.

Gioannini, Marco; Massobrio, Giulio Storia della guerra di distruzione aerea, — Mussolini and His Generals: Poland in World War II: An Illustrated Military History. Campagne de France, — The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of The Italian Army —45 1: Jordan, John; Moulin, Jean The Invasion and Defense of Western Europe, — 2nd ed. Stackpole Military History Series. Knox, MacGregor []. The offensive began on 11 March with 15 divisions, and resulted in no gain.

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Later in , four more battles along the Isonzo river erupted. The Sixth Battle of the Isonzo , launched by the Italians in August, resulted in a success greater than the previous attacks. The offensive gained nothing of strategic value but did take Gorizia , which boosted Italian spirits. The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth battles of the Isonzo 14 September — 4 November managed to accomplish little except to wear down the already exhausted armies of both nations.

The frequency of offensives for which the Italian soldiers partook between May and August , one every three months, was higher than demanded by the armies on the Western Front. Italian discipline was also harsher, with punishments for infractions of duty of a severity not known in the German, French, and British armies. By the autumn of the Italian army had suffered most of the deaths it was to incur during the war, yet the end of the war seemed to still be an eternity away. On 25 August, the Emperor Charles wrote to the Kaiser the following: My commanders and brave troops have decided that such an unfortunate situation might be anticipated by an offensive.

We have not the necessary means as regards troops. From , the high peaks of the Dolomites range were an area of fierce mountain warfare. In order to protect their soldiers from enemy fire and the hostile alpine environment, both Austro-Hungarian and Italian military engineers constructed fighting tunnels which offered a degree of cover and allowed better logistics support. Working at high altitudes in the hard carbonate rock of the Dolomites, often in exposed areas near mountain peaks and even in glacial ice , required extreme skill of both Austro-Hungarian and Italian miners.

Beginning on the 13th, later referred to as White Friday , December would see 10, soldiers on both sides killed by avalanches in the Dolomites. In addition to building underground shelters and covered supply routes for their soldiers like the Italian Strada delle 52 Gallerie , both sides also attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunneling under no man's land and placing explosive charges beneath the enemy's positions.

Between 1 January and 13 March , Austro-Hungarian and Italian units fired a total of 34 mines in this theatre of the war. Following the minuscule gains of the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo , the Italians directed a two-pronged attack against the Austrian lines north and east of Gorizia. Characteristic of nearly every other theater of the war, the Italians found themselves on the verge of victory but could not secure it because their supply lines could not keep up with the front-line troops and they were forced to withdraw.

The Austrians received desperately needed reinforcements after the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo from German Army soldiers rushed in after the Russian offensive ordered by Kerensky of July failed. The Germans introduced infiltration tactics to the Austrian front and helped work on a new offensive. Meanwhile, mutinies and plummeting morale crippled the Italian Army from within.

The soldiers lived in poor conditions and engaged in attack after attack that often yielded minimal or no military gain. Chlorine - arsenic agent and diphosgene gas shells were fired as part of a huge artillery barrage, followed by infantry using infiltration tactics, bypassing enemy strong points and attacking on the Italian rear. At the end of the first day, the Italians had retreated 19 kilometres 12 miles to the Tagliamento River. Advancing deep and fast, the Austrians outran their supply lines, which forced them to stop and regroup. The Italians, pushed back to defensive lines near Venice on the Piave River , had suffered , casualties to this point in the war.

Because of these losses, the Italian Government called to arms the so-called 99 Boys Ragazzi del '99 ; the new class of conscripts born in who were turning 18 in In November , British and French started to bolster the front line. Far more decisive than Allied help in troops was Franco-British and US help providing strategic materials coal, steel, etc. In the spring of , Germany pulled out its troops for use in its upcoming Spring Offensive on the Western Front. The Austrians now began debating how to finish the war in Italy. The Austro-Hungarian generals disagreed on how to administer the final offensive.

Archduke Joseph August of Austria decided for a two-pronged offensive, where it would prove impossible for the two forces to communicate in the mountains. The Second Battle of the Piave River began with a diversionary attack near the Tonale Pass named Lawine, which the Italians repulsed after two days of fighting. To the disappointment of Italy's allies, no counter-offensive followed the Battle of Piave. The Italian Army had suffered huge losses in the battle, and considered an offensive dangerous.

General Armando Diaz waited for more reinforcements to arrive from the Western Front. By the end of October , Austro-Hungary was falling apart. Czechoslovakia, Croatia, and Slovenia proclaimed their independence and troops started deserting, disobeying orders and retreating.

By October , Italy finally had enough soldiers to mount an offensive. The attack targeted Vittorio Veneto , across the Piave. The Italian Army broke through a gap near Sacile and poured in reinforcements that crushed the Austrian defensive line. On 3 November, , Austrian soldiers surrendered. On 3 November, the military leaders of the already disintegrated Austria-Hungary sent a flag of truce to the Italian commander to ask again for an armistice and terms of peace.

The terms were arranged by telegraph with the Allied authorities in Paris, communicated to the Austrian commander, and were accepted. The Armistice with Austria was signed in the Villa Giusti, near Padua, on 3 November, and took effect at three o'clock in the afternoon of 4 November. Austria and Hungary signed separate armistices following the overthrow of the Habsburg Monarchy and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Cumulative casualties of the numerous battles of the Isonzo were enormous. Austro-Hungarian losses, while by no means as numerous were nevertheless high at around , of an overall total of around 1. Despite Italian casualties outnumbering Austro-Hungarian ones by roughly 1. Italy also had a considerably faster population growth rate than Austria-Hungary did at the beginning of the war, giving it an additional demographic advantage.

By the end of hostilities in November , the Italian military had seized control of the entire portion of Dalmatia that had been guaranteed to Italy by the London Pact. Lieutenant General Roberto Brusati. Lieutenant General Vittorio Camerana. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other Italian campaigns, see Italian Campaign. Theatres of World War I.


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    6. The Italian Front in — In blue, initial Italian conquests. Italian Alpini troops; Second Battle of the Piave River. Battle of Vittorio Veneto. While the casualty records are incomplete Bodart on the same page estimates the missing war losses and gets a total figure of 1,, deaths rather than , , the proportions are accurate.

    La Prigionia di Guerra in Italia, , Milan , pp. Does not include 18, who died.