The 25th Bologna Infantry Division was a unit of the Regio Esercito (Italian Army) during World War II. It was stationed in Tripolitania and was sent to Libya for further operations during the Italian invasion of Egypt. It saw extensive action in North Africa until it was finally destroyed in the Second Battle of El Alamein. It comprised of the 39th and 40th Infantry Regiments and 205th Artillery Regiment.
Tobruk[]
During the Siege of Tobruk, the besieging troops were in the main part Italian belonging to the Ariete Armoured Division and Trieste Motorized Division from the XXnd Motorised Corps) in support of the the Pavia, Bologna, and Brescia Infantry Divisions from the XXIst Infantry Corps. The sector manned by the Bologna consisted of several strongpoints manned by infantry and artillery battalions, all protected by minefields.
The Italians, during the Battle of the Salient, had overrun most of the Australian positions lost outside Tobruk on 1 May. Combat engineers under Lieutenant Francesco Tuci and Second Lieutenant Ernesto Betti, and Italian flamethrower tanks[1], had reportedly helped the 8th Bersaglieri Regiment capture several of the Australian strongpoints, and the Lieutenant Tuci was posthumously awarded the Medaglia D'Argento (the Silver Medal, Italy's second highest award for bravery, in helping his platoon defend them against a determined Australian counterattack.[2]
On 3 May, the Australians launched a strong counter-attack employing the 18th Brigade but were only able to recapture one bunker from the defending Italian troops. During the fierce fighting that week, some 30 Australian soldiers were reportedly evacuated suffering from self-inflicted-injuries. That month, an underground "war neurosis clinic" was built in Tobruk and placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel E.L. Cooper and Captain A.J.M Sinclair, in order to take care of the 207 Allied soldiers needing treatment.
Crusader[]
On 21 November 1941, the Bologna Division brought to a halt a British advance through its positions as part of Operation Crusader.[3]That morning, the division was attacked by strong British forces (2nd/King’s Own, 2nd/Black Watch, 2nd/Queen’s and 4th RTR with Matilda tanks) and the British overran part of the Bologna, but the attacks were eventually stopped by the Italian division. In summing up the experience of the 2nd Battalion The Black Watch in the attack, the Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War wrote that:
The superlative élan of the Black Watch in the attack had been equalled by the remarkable persistence of the defence in the face of formidable tank-and-infantry pressure.
On 23 November, the Bologna Division again withstood another strong British attack from Tobruk aimed at advancing into the area of Sidi Rezegh, and bought sufficient time to allow the Pavia Division to mount an effective counter-attack and contain the British penetration, as a German narrative later recorded:
After a sudden artillery concentration the garrison of Fortress Tobruk, supported by sixty tanks, made an attack on the direction of Bel Hamid at noon, intending at long last unite with the main offence group. The Italian siege front around the fortress tried to offer a defence in the confusion but was forced to relinquish numerous strong points in the encirclement front about Bir Bu Assaten to superior enemy forces. The Italian "Pavia" Division was committed for a counterattack and managed to seal off the enemy breakthrough.[4]
El Alamein[]
In July 1942, the Bologna Division recovering at El Gazala was ordered forward to reinforce the El Alamein front-line. Lacking vehicles, the Italian infantry duly marched some 400 miles, being congratulated in person by Benito Mussolini in their long trek to the new Axis positions. On the night of 25/26 August, the Bologna suffered a defeat when its forward posts were overrun in a night attack from tough Maori troops from the New Zealand 28th Battalion, with the New Zealanders admitting losing 25 killed, wounded or captured in their surprise attack.
During the Battle of Alam el Halfa, the Bologna and the German 433rd Infantry Regiment overran several Indian, South African and New Zealand units defending Ruweisat Ridge, capturing Point 211 with 70 British soldiers reportedly falling into Italian hands.[5]
Cyril Falls, a noted British military historian, later confirmed the action:
In the centre of the British front a good Italian division, the Bologna, delivered a strong attack on the Ruweisat Ridge, and a considerable counter-attack was required to expel it from the footing it gained.[6]
During the Second Battle of El Alamein, the Bologna Division and two supporting battalions from the German Ramcke Parachute Brigade held firm in the initial British attack, taking 40 prisoners in defense of Ruweisat Ridge.
On 4 November, the final Allied attacks were made. The British 1st, 7th and 10th Armoured Divisions (under Major-General Gatehouse) penetrated through the Axis lines while heading towards Fuka. These attacks saw the destruction of the Ariete and Littorio Armoured Divisions, and the Bologna and Trieste Motorised Division.[7]
Private Sid Martindale from the 1st Battalion, The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, recalled the carnage inflicted in the Bologna Infantry Division:
The more we advanced the more we realized that the Italians did not have much fight on them after putting up a strong resistance to our overwhelming advance and they started surrendering to our lead troops in droves. There was not much action to see but we came across lots of burnt out Italian tanks that had been destroyed by our tanks. I had never seen a battlefield before and the site of so many dead was sickening.
The remnants of the Bologna and Trento Divisions tried to fight their way out of the British encirclement, marching in the desert without water, food or transport before surrendering exhausted and suffering from severe dehydration. It was reported that Colonel Alfredo Dall'Olio, acting commander of the Bologna, surrendered saying: "We have ceased firing not because we haven't the desire but because we have spent every round." In a final act of defiance, no one in what remained of the Bologna Division raised their hands. [8]
US War correspondent Harry Zinder from Time Magazine noted that the Italians fought better than had been expected and had covered the German retreat:
It was a terrific letdown by their German allies. They had fought a good fight. In the south, the famed Folgore parachute division fought to the last round of ammunition. Two armoured divisions and a motorised division, which had been interspersed among the German formations, thought they would be allowed to retire gracefully with Rommel's 21st, 15th and 90 Light. But even that was denied them. When it became obvious to Rommel that there would be little chance to hold anything between El Daba and the frontier, his Panzers dissolved, disintegrated and turned tail, leaving the Italians to fight a rear-guard action.[9]
References[]
- ↑ THE EARLY ATTEMPTS and SEIGE
- ↑ "La sera del 29 il 1° plotone della 3a, agli ordini del Sototenente Ernesto Betti, andò in azione con un gruppo comandato dal Tenente dei Bersaglieri Melis. Questo reparto era costituito di un plotone Arditi dell'8° Bersaglieri e di 2 carri M13. Guastatori aprirono un varco nel campo minato protetto da filo spinato, antistante la Ridotto R3, I'assaltarono e la conquistarono utilizzando lanciafiamme e cariche cubiche ... Un commento al Bollettino di Guerra, trasmesso alle 13:00 del 10 maggio, informava che reparti del Genio Guastatori avevano espugnato 5 fortini della cerchia di Tobruk." Genio Guastatori, Silvestri Angioni Lombardi , p. 47, Edizioni R.E.I., 2015
- ↑ "The front was a series of strongpoints and not continuous trench lines. One was the Tugun position held by the Bologna infantry division, anything but an elite formation. The New Zealand Official History states, "The more elaborate attack on Tugun went in at 3 p.m. and gained perhaps half the position, together with 250 Italians and many light field guns; but the Italians in the western half could not be dislodged and the base of the break-out area remained on this account uncomfortably narrow." The Official History goes on to comment on the "...strong Italian opposition at Tugun as part of the reason for the decision to halt the sortie at this time." Rommel's North Africa Campaign: September 1940-November 1942, Page 110, Jack Greene & Alessandro Massignani, Combined Books, 1994
- ↑ German Experiences in Desert Warfare During World War II, Generalmajor Major Alfred Toppe (et al), Combat Studies Institute/Combined Arms Research Library, 1952
- ↑ ROMMEL OPENS DRIVE IN EGYPT
- ↑ AFTERMATH OF WAR: THE EIGHT ARMY FROM ALAMEIN TO THE SANGRO. The Illustrated London news, Volume 212, Issues 5672-5684, p. 262, The Illustrated London News & Sketch Ltd., 1948
- ↑ On the morning of 4 November, however, 'a strong armoured force' of the British 7th Armoured Division penetrated the XXIst Corps' position and the Trento and Bologna Divisons gave ground. Germany and the Second World War: Volume 6: The Global War, Horst Boog, Werner Rahn, Reinhard Stumpf, Bernd Wegner, OUP Oxford, 13 Sep. 2001
- ↑ Rolling Thunder: A Century of Tank Warfare, Philip Kaplan, p. 139, Pen and Sword, 2013
- ↑ Battlefronts: A PINT OF WATER PER MAN, Time Magazine, 16 November 1942