Iron Hulls Iron Hearts: Mussolini's Elite Armoured Divisions in North Africa [Paperback]

Ian Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2006

The campaign in North Africa during World War Two was one of the most important of the conflict. The allies fought for control of North Africa against the German Afrika Korps led by Rommel. But the part played by Mussolini's Italian troops, and in particular the armored divisions, in support of the Germans is not so well known.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Military Vehicles Magazine, April 2006

"Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts sheds considerable light on a much neglected facet of the history of armored warfare."

About the Author

Ian W. Walker is a Civil Servant in the Scottish Office, but his great passion is history. He is also the author of Mercia and the making of England and Harold: The Last Anglo-Saxon King, which was shortlisted for the History Today Book of the Year prize.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: The Crowood Press (July 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861268394
• ISBN-13: 978-1861268396
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Overdue!, July 2, 2004

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts (Hardcover)

The Italian Army in World War II has been treated almost as a joke. It is rumored that when the Nazi Foreign Minister said to Churchill - "You will be facing not only us but also the Italians." Churchill replied, "That's OK, we had them on our side last time, you're welcome to them."

Rommel, on the other hand, spoke of them quite differently. During the famous "Desert Fox" actions in North Africa, Rommel had more Italian troops and more Italian armor than he had German. Rommel's comments were that Italian troops were properly led they were as capable as any. Italian generals were better as friends of Il Duce than they were as fighting people.

The Italian Littorio division did very good work at Tobruk, Gazala, and El Alamein. The Ariete division performed a dramatic day long stand at El Alamein effectively styming Allied plans to encircle and destroy the Axis forces. The Centauro division was brief but important in the American defeat at Kasserine Pass.

It is nice to see that this book, and a very few others, are beginning to show a side of the Italian Army not normally seen.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good account of Italian tanks in WW2 Africa., August 18, 2005

By 

Michael Y (Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts (Hardcover)

This book fills a void in WW2 histories by explaining almost all of the actions of the Italian Armoured Divisions during the North African campaigns of WW2.
The book gives a good account of units actions with some excerpts from witness's and also tells when new equipment and tanks became available.
Without any doubt this is the most comprehensive account of Italian units actions i have read, tactical maps are there for most important battles and in 2 colours! (which is much nicer than b&w). Some very good high detail b&w photos are in the book, some i've never seen before, and sharp line drawings of the major Italian tanks.
I would deduct 0.5 stars if i could because i would have liked more indepth analysis(data tables) for the Italian guns, ammunition and tanks performances. The very short tanks data appendix in the book has some silly errors that any experienced person will immediately see so it is a bit dissapointing in that respect.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars With a Heart of Iron!, January 16, 2006

By 

N. Trachta (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts (Hardcover)

Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts is Mr. Ian Walker's telling of the Italian Armored Divisions in WWII, mainly their contributions in North Africa but also their performance prior to North Africa. In this book, Mr. Walker is attempting to dispel the accepted fact that Italian armored divisions were 2nd rate in comparison to the German and British ones. To present his case, Mr. Walker opens by telling the development history of Italian armored forces from post-WWI thru the Spanish Civil War. Attention is paid to Italy's ability to wage modern war (lack of critical resources to develop and maintain an armored force), their development of armored forces; specifically their failure to stay up with other European tank designers, and the development and employment of armored tactics in Ethiopia, Spain, and the Balkans. In this section, Mr. Walker shows how at times the Italians were leaders in the art, but usually they were following the British and Germans.

The heart of the book deals with the performance of the Italian Armored Divisions in North Africa. Mr. Walkers does a good job providing a basic description of the different battles, including a generalization of the forces employed and the how they performed. Mr. Walker usually provides us with the forces the British had present at a given battle, however, Mr. Walker usually does not provide us with a description of their tactical situation unless it was challenging for the Italians. Battles covered range from the opening of desert warfare all the way to the collapse in Tunisia.

Throughout the book, Mr. Walker talks about how British and German forces bad mouth the Italian forces performance in North Africa. However, despite Mr. Walkers claim, he fails to provide direct references to German/British forces bad mouthing the Italian Armored Forces. While the complements Mr. Walker does provide us with aren't always glowing (Rommel providing an off-handed complement, the British mistaking Italian armor forces for Germans), Mr. Walker does fail to show us that the Italian armored forces were viewed in a negative way by the British and Germans (yes, Italian infantry units were usually viewed very poorly by both German and British forces, however my readings from other historians tends to support that Italian armored forces were viewed as either average or above average, especially when compared to their infantry forces).

My conclusion on this book: Mr. Walker has put together a very good telling of an area that is often overlooked by historians and readers of history. The campaign in North Africa is often overlooked past the battle for Tobruk (Gazala) and El Alemain (most people are familiar with the British attack, not the Axis initial attacks). Yes, the specifics of the Italian units is also overlooked by most people, mainly because they focus on one of the more famous units. Because of this, I'd rate this book a solid 4 star book (out of 5). I can't give it more than four stars because of the typos and the fact that Mr. Walkers conclusion was weakly stated (Mr. Walker tells us during the battles how great or not the Italians performed. What he failed to do at the end of the book was to bring these mini-conclusions together into one piece that sold how well the Italian Armored Divisions performed). With a stronger conclusion (summarizing their battle successes), this book could have easily been worth 4.5 stars and would have the nod to 5 for Amazon purposes!