Customer Reviews

Mussolini's Soldiers

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This book focuses on an aspect of WWII that is little known in this country beyond crude jokes about the ability of the Italian Army. It focuses mainly on organization training and equipment of Italian Army soldiers, and is similar to the Osprey "Men at Arms" series in content, although it is much more detailed, is in hardback, and uses actual photographs exclusively, with little or no drawn illustrations. It is light on weapons and armaments, and also on the actual historical events that the Italian Armed Forces were involved in, however it does have some excellent eye witnesses accounts of what service in that force was like. All in all, a good place to start your research into this interesting area, but to fully understand it, you will have to go much further.

During world war II in the market of my city a vegetables seller voiced zucchini as "Italian runners", (it may sound redundant but in my country you say italian zucchini). He was making an obvious joke about the capabilities and achievements of the italian army, and as my grand mother was italian and indeed a strong woman that poor vagetables seller had to eat his words... I grew up listening that kind of jokes everytime someone talked about the role of italy in the war. Years later I met two different people, the first was the son of the Chilean consul in Germany during the war (by this time a respectable old man) he told me about the unusual courage of italian soldiers, and then, other time the grand father of a friend of mine who fought in north africa and wasn't in any aspect fascist, said to me "if we had fought only against the british we would have won". So I started my own investigation and discovered this issue that is a global view and a great beginning in my research, it shows uniforms, pictures weapons, accesories and comments by veterans in the royal army and fascist divisions. The only part not included is the R.S.I. combat units.