Italians on the Eastern Front - CSIR 1941 - 1943 

My uncle fought Germans and Italians during the war. He said the Italians were better soldiers than the Germans and the Americans, and the only reason anyone was able to beat them was because their highest officers were political appointees who didn't know what they were doing. In fact, I think the commander of all the Italian forces in North Africa was about 90 years old and had never commanded anything previously. That guy spent the whole campaign sending his troops into situations that no army could have won.

would appreciate more video content of Italians on the Eastern Front during the Dec1942 period. Great video!

Some books on the topic translated to English : Few Returned by Eugenio Corti , Seargent in the Snow by Mario Stern

Enjoyed this documentary very much. Thanks for posting. Italian contribution to WW2 pre and post 1943 is fascinating.

I always felt sorry for Italians on the eastern front, cause they had to suffer the russian winter like nobody else.

Interesting video. Good footage of Italian troops in action. 👍

my Father was a member of the ; Regia Aeronautica ( Italian Air Force ) , stated in Scuteri Albania on to Giannina Greece , Dniperpetroski Ukraine and Stalino Russia .those are the Cities I remember mentioning .

My late father was a soldier during WW2. He'd tell me that serving in Northern Africa all he and his group mostly did was shoot at empty beer cans and constantly retreating. He came from a poor family. In winter time the family would circle around closely their cow in stable to stay warm. His other brothers were sent off to Greece. When the Italians surrendered and told to lay down their weapons, my uncles were lined up and machime gunned down by the Nazis. After my said all the bodies were bulldozed off the cliff. Sorry to get off track but it's hard to see neo nazis still parading around. My maternal uncle went underground as a partisan. Doing his best to stay alive In my mom's hometown of Crespanno del Grappa the nazis hung the young 18 year olds in the the town square Anyways that's just a small part of my heritage. Im first generation in the U.S. Have stayed with my Italian cousins several times over the years. Memorable times were hiking up Monte Grappa overlooking all the small towns at it's base. At the top, Cima Grappa is the WW1 memorial of all the fallen Italian soldiers that defended Italy from the invading Austrians. So much history.

Well done. Giovanni Messe was Pugliese as well.

Unlike the Germans , the Italians did not kill their captives and refused to hand over any Russian prisoners to the Wehrmacht once they learned what the fate of the poor Russian prisoners would be.

My family moved to the US from Italy decades ago, my father and uncle are US Marine Corps combat veterans but my great grandfather was an Italian soldier in WWII. He served after 1943 so he actually served against the germans and he was captured. Had to walk all the way home after the war ended

Thank you for the amazing content.

My great grandfather was a tenent of the Alpini, "tridentina" brigade, one of a few man returning from the nikolajewka battle, i still remember the painting of him and the russian sword near the chimney...

Amazing content, suprised you dont get more views.

I really want to see a movie about the Italians in the Eastern Front.

Bravisimo!!

Excellent!

A great little video.

The troops fought well but were led badly.

Interessante

very interesting fotage ive never seen bofore, very cool👍..... by the way the picture you show when talking about the romanians are actually bulgarians

The Italian foot soldier in both World Wars fought well, contrary to common myth. Their problems were consistently the result of poor leadership and corruption in every aspect of Italian society, government, and the military. This resulted in generally poor weaponry, unreliable supply, and mediocre to miserable leadership. The higher the ranking the worse the performance. You only have to look at Italian valor and doggedness in the Alps in WWI and their defensive tenacity in North Africa to see the great potential of these troops. Italy then as now, was not a meritocracy. Officers were promoted depending on their connections, not their performance or ability. This continues to be true of every part of Italian society, which goes far to explain the miserable condition of Italy overall today. Similar problems permeated South Vietnam and you know what happened there.

Thank you for the video.

Perhaps the context is well set and you may refer to the CSIR as Italians.

my great uncles fought with the alpini to the don, were led back to concentration camps in germany and siberia

The axis alliance of Italy took part in the invasion of Russia in 1941they fought all the to starlingrad

8:08 Poor dude, having to haul a gun piece like that by himself haha. It's weird our forces nowadays don't have any weapons like that at the platoon and company level. Just mortars and MMG's. Mostly LMG's actually.

Those feathers on the helmets were a really bad idea in combat. The Russian sees the feather coming up ahead of the helmet and he's already got that SVT-40 aimed in the right place as soon as the face is showing.

Italians are not warriors. They are musicians, cookers, poets and architectures!

Mi dispiace ma non parlo l'inglese 😢😢😢😢😢😢

Italy tried to fight a modern war with toy weapons....They were right to hang Mussolini up by his heels.....

These reports are so positive you would think Italy won the war.