Abstract
Mussolini never lost sight of an important home truth: the need of an army to grant his government credibility in the eyes of the German ally. Mussolini engaged Hitler in an ongoing struggle to field four army divisions made up primarily of Italian war prisoners held in German camps. To engender pride in Italian arms, Mussolini wanted his soldiers to fight on the front lines. But the Germans, basically distrusting Italian fighting ability, preferred that they man anti-aircraft defenses and safeguard rear areas against partisan insurgency. For Mussolini, this had an unfortunate result: the four divisions experienced poor morale fighting fellow countrymen instead of the invaders, and suffered from shoddy equipment, Allied strafing, and skyrocketing desertion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
At Anzio fought a small unit of the X Mas Il Barbarigo and a parachute unit of the Nembo .
- 2.
Gasparini and Razeto, 1944, p. 350.
- 3.
Ibid., pp. 350–51.
- 4.
Lamb , War in Italy, p. 112.
- 5.
Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, pp. 215–16.
- 6.
On 4 October Mussolini wrote Kesselring: “From 26 August your tireless and incomparable troops fought to prevent the Anglo-Saxons from taking possession of the Padana Valley. From this day the Italian people have waited in vain the announcement that Italian troops have been engaged in the decisive battle.” Cited in Gasparini and Razeto, 1944, pp. 390–91.
- 7.
Cited in Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, pp. 218–20.
- 8.
Cited in Pavone , A Civil War, p. 133.
- 9.
ACS, SPD, RSI, carteggio riservato, b. 9, found in Pavone , A Civil War, p. 133, n. 76.
- 10.
Battistelli and Molinari, Le forze armate della Rsi, p. 28.
- 11.
ACS, SPD, RSI, Carteggio riservato, b. 69.
- 12.
Giorgio Gimelli, La Resistenza in Liguria. Cronache militari e documenti. Vol. 1: Dall’8 settembre alla stagione dei grandi rastrellamenti (Rome: Carocci, 2005), p. 400.
- 13.
On the Força Expedicionària Brasileira, see Mariano Gabriele, “La Força Expedicionària Brasileira (FEB) sulla Linea Gotica (1944–1945),” in Giorgio Rochat, Enzo Santarelli, Paolo Sorcinelli, eds., Linea Gotica 1944. Eserciti, popolazioni, partigiano (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1986).
- 14.
Battistelli and Molinari, Le forze armate della Rsi, pp. 38–41.
- 15.
Cited in Gentile , I criminali di guerra tedeschi in Italia, p. 116.
- 16.
Alberto Leoni, Il paradiso devastato. Storia militare della Campagna d’Italia 1943–1945 (Milan: Ares, 2012), p. 354.
- 17.
Pansa , Il gladio e l’alloro, pp. 210–11.
- 18.
Lamb , War in Italy, p. 120.
- 19.
AUSSME, H8, b. 9.
- 20.
Lamb , War in Italy, p. 121.
- 21.
According to a German report, sixty percent of the recruits taken in the camp at Münsingen were not Fascist and waited for the first opportune moment to desert. Bundesarchiv, Berlin, NS 19, Band 1881, rapporto da Münsingen of 19 October 1943.
- 22.
In a meeting of the commanders of the various regional military commands held in April 1944, the number of draft dodgers came to 15,000. AUSSME, H8, b. 2, “Riunione della riunione del 18 aprile 1944 a Parma.”
- 23.
Cited in Pavoni, A Civil War, p. 137.
- 24.
Bocca , Storia dell’Italia partigiana, p. 471.
- 25.
Avagliano and Palmieri , L’Italia di Salò, pp. 237–52.
- 26.
Cited in Pietra, Guerriglia e contro guerriglia, p. 57.
- 27.
Cited in Romualdi , Fascismo repubblicano, p. 111.
- 28.
OO, XXXII: 96–98.
- 29.
Lepre, La storia della Repubblica di Mussolini, p. 242.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Burgwyn, H.J. (2018). In the Line of Fire. In: Mussolini and the Salò Republic, 1943–1945. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76189-3_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76189-3_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76188-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76189-3
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)