Italian Battle of the Bulge - Operation Winter Storm 1944 

I have also been found to like some Tom Richey videos quite a lot

Hear hear!

Andrea Ghilardi really? That’s so cool!

They did. During the North African campaign, the Ariete Division did well when they were led by Rommel and the German Staff. That was one of the real weaknesses of the Italian Army in the early days. The Command staff was corrupt and constructed more along the lines of a 19th century/early 20 century, Colonial Army than a modern army.

I think it was a RAF ace Stanford Tuck story.. The squadron had downed a rare flight of Italian bombers near the base. After they landed some of the RAF pilots drove out to inspect the downed Italian aircraft. The Italian aircraft were loaded with deli meats cheeses and casks of wine. In true Italian form. It had been a long flight and they didn't intend to make war on an empty stomach.

@@coleparker TIK has some great info on that stuff.

@@h.r.puffnstuff8705 I think your mate telling the story is pulling your leg ....

I read that Italian troops actually were very good, but poor equipment and leadership limited them

Most interesting i think would be the Decima MAS. They had some impressive kills

I'd like to see a video about the Laconia Incident. There aren't any documentaries on the subject I'm aware of.

I would like to know more about the battle at Anzio

A video on Italian partizans in general would be nice. Also, the CIA's intervention in the 1948 election.

Also against Tito Italian fascist army and not communist partisans collaborate. Close Nation Valley.

Germans helped.

Not really. Their losses were not far below those of the Americas. And by that time the Allies could make them up quickly, unlike the Italians. No more then a pyrrhic victory.

Of course the Germans helped. That is what an allied power does for an allied power. No different from the "allied" coalition supporting one another. Italy put up a hell of a fight in many engagements that they got no recognition for. Particularly in the naval theater.

But at day's end they were the weaker link in the Axis chain so naturally they were targeted first. This also deprived Hitler and his SS Germany of a vital reserve resource.

"A generation brought up on the old joke about Italian tanks with five reverse gears and one forward was probably unaware of the fierce resistance put up at El Alamein by the crack paratrooper regiment, the "Folgore", which simply refused to surrender. Of 5,000 Folgore troops who fought, only 304 survived. Or what about the last message sent from the divisional commander of the Italian Ariete artillery regiment at El Alamein? "We have three tanks left. I am counter-attacking". upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/c/ca/TargaRommel.jpg "The German soldier has astonished the world; the Italian Bersagliere has astonished the German soldier." Erwin Rommel en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decima_Flottiglia_MAS www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/7866571/Amedeo-Guillet.html The "Knight from other times" "Aosta gave Guillet command of the locally recruited Amhara Cavalry Bande, as well as 500 Yemeni infantry - approximately 2,500 men. With almost no armour, the Italians used Guillet's horsemen to delay the advance of the British 4th and 5th Indian Divisions when they crossed the Eritrean frontier in January 1941."

There were also in the Allied Side, quite good in quality with English equipment, but italian small arms. corpo di liberazione I think It was named.

Italy after 8 of September 1943 fall under a terrible civil war. With Rsi force on the side of axis and CNL and the regio esercito on allied side.

Mark is Dead ....

It does demonstrate that a blanket rubbishing of the Italian military in WWII is both inaccurate and unfair. Properly motivated and led, Italian troops were easily the equal of Allied forces.

This is the result of Italian mentality where many were really facists and fought to the deth and others were antifascist and /or reallist . If there is nothing to do you just surrender. What you do when you have to fight a tank with a rifle ???? . Germans were just germans and folowed the mad man to the end

No thanks, I'd rather stick to playing football than sit in a small classroom for half an hour watching irrelevant history videos that have nothing to do with our curriculum.

Right. I must do something about the Brazilian Expeditionary Force. Almost unknown today.

@@MarkFeltonProductions I'd love that. Would also love to hear about the Italian co-belligerent army.

Even the official history by Ulysses Lee is rife with racism and outright lies regarding Black troops. According to vets in my family, "medal hogging" was a real thing, Black troops not getting equivalent decorations and many given to people from units that were never there (Nisei in particular ). The Army set these men up to fail, not sending their best Black Infantry trained units, but raising new units instead and putting them under Southern officers, the worst possible choice for morale possible. Note, we are talking about real racism here, not the communist radical version post Vietnam still in use today...

My uncle was in the 92nd. They were denied replacements when they lost troops and they were given officers did not believe in them, primarily southerners. They still served well in spite of setbacks created by their superiors.

Italy in 1944: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bB7j3sUWohE.html