10ª Armata

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The 10ª Armata ( German  10th Army ) was an army of the Italian Army in the First and Second World War .

First World War

Battle of Vittorio Veneto

During World War I, the 10th was a de jure Italian, de facto British-Italian army under the command of British General Frederick Lambart, Earl of Cavan . The 10th Army was formed in the final phase of the war from October 12 to 14, 1918 and disbanded on November 18, 1918. It consisted of the Italian XI. Corps with the 23rd Bersaglieri and 37th Infantry Divisions and from the British XIV Corps with the 7th and 23rd British Infantry Divisions. In this line-up, the 10th Army took part in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto from October 24, 1918 , which decided the war in Italy. The army standing on the Piave between Papadopoli Island ( Maserada sul Piave ) and Ponte di Piave in the lowlands had the task of covering the right flank of the central 8th Army on its left side as it advanced on Vittorio . In the first few days, the armies on the Piave had to struggle with considerable problems when crossing the river, because floods and artillery fire destroyed the bridges of the engineers . The front of the 10th Army was favored by the island of Grave di Papadopoli , which was conquered by British troops with the support of Italian pioneers. The bridges built there were subsequently used by parts of the 8th Army. In the further course, Italian units of the 10th Army also supported the transition of the 3rd Army to the south . The 10th Army advanced as planned from the Piave via the Monticano (near Cimetta ) to Francenigo on the Livenza and captured Sacile on October 31, 1918 after fierce fighting . From there she marched east to the Tagliamento , which she reached on November 3, 1918.

Second World War

The three historical provinces of Libya, with Tripolitania in the northwest
Map of the operating area

The command of the 10th Army was re-established in Benghazi on October 15, 1939 . In the east of Libya ( Cyrenaica ) it was taken over by the XXI, which had been stationed in Benghazi since 1937. Corps with two infantry divisions and the new XXII. Corps in Tobruk with two other divisions. A Libyan division formed the army reserve.

After the end of the German campaign in the west and the defeat of France , there was no longer any need to concentrate troops along the border with the French colony of Tunisia . From the 5th Army in the west of Libya ( Tripolitania ) , the 10th Army received the XX. and the XXIII. Corps with a total of five additional divisions. The army now consisted of ten predominantly inferior divisions, which were unsuitable for a desert war due to insufficient motorization and poor training. Despite the new situation in Europe, the Italian Panzer Corps with its armored and motorized divisions remained in northern Italy until early 1941.

Although the military leadership had clearly advised against him several times, Benito Mussolini ordered the Italian invasion of Egypt in September 1940 . The advance of five divisions ended because of logistical problems after four days and around 100 km in Sidi Barrani , where they dug themselves in. Another advance to Marsa Matruh , where the opposing Western Desert Force (WDF) had withdrawn, was made dependent on the construction of a water pipe.

On December 9, 1940, the WDF began a counterattack ( Operation Compass ) with a tank and an infantry division , which had the aim of retaking Sidi Barrani and driving the Italians out of Egypt . Given its full success, the attack continued. Since the 10th Army was never closed or used coherently due to insufficient motorization, but instead entrenched its parts isolated from one another in the coastal towns, the WDF , now XIII. Corps, encircling them one by one. In the initial phase of the sieges there was mostly stubborn resistance, but the Italian units quickly surrendered in view of the concentrated fire of the field and naval artillery and simultaneous air attacks.

After Bardia and Tobruk fell in January 1941, the remnants of the 10th Army were concentrated in Derna , from where a line of defense was built to the Mechili, about 100 km south-west. There the tank brigade of General Valentino Babini, which had just been reinforced from Italy with more modern equipment, should attempt to encircle the XIII again. Stop corps. On January 24, 1941, the brigade prevented another advance by the British 7th Panzer Division . After four more days of heavy fighting, the line could no longer be held, which is why Derna was abandoned before being surrounded and the Kyrenaica evacuated. The attempt to cut off the route from Benghazi to Ajdabiya for the remnants of the 10th Army with an advance through the interior led to the battle of Beda Fomm in early February 1941, in which the Italian tank brigade and the commander of the 10th Army, General Giuseppe, were wiped out Tellera, fell.

In the oasis of Giarabub , located almost 300 km south of Tobruk on the Libyan-Egyptian border, Italian troops withstood a siege until March 1941. In the far south, the Italian bases were conquered by British and Free French troops from Sudan and French Equatorial Africa .

Of the 10th Army, which had around 160,000 men in December 1940, around 30,000 remained in western Libya and were taken over by the 5th Army. After the dissolution of the command of the 10th Army on February 7, 1941, in view of the losses on February 16, 1941, the command of the 5th Army was also dissolved and all remaining units and the incoming German and Italian reinforcements were directly subordinate to the high command of the Italian armed forces in Libya .

From September 1940 the 10th Army were the XX., XXI., XXII. and the XXIII. Corps in Al Qubah , Bir Sofafi , Tobruk and Bardia as well as the equal group of Libyan divisions in Sidi Barrani, while the Xth Corps with four divisions remained with the 5th Army. After the dissolution of the two armies remained to continue the African campaign , the rods of the X, XX. (temporarily called Corpo d'armata di manovra ) and XXI. Corps. All divisions that were under the 10th Army from September 1940 onwards were dissolved (location December 1940, corps affiliation):

  • 60th Sabratha Infantry Division (Derna, XX.)
  • 61st Sirte Infantry Division (Tobruk, XXII.)
  • 62nd Marmarica Infantry Division (Sofafi – Halfaya, XXIII.)
  • 63rd Infantry Division Cirene (Rabia – Sofafi, XXI.)
  • 64th Infantry Division Catanzaro (formerly 3rd Black Shirt Division, Buq Buq, XXI.)
  • 1st Black Shirt Division 23 marzo (Buq Buq – Sidi Barrani, XXIII.)
  • 2nd Black Shirt Division 28 ottobre (Sollum, XXIII.)
  • 4th Black Shirt Division 3 gennaio (Sidi Barrani, Libyan group)
  • 1st Libyan Division (Al Maktilah near Sidi Barrani, Libyan group)
  • 2nd Libyan Division (Tummar near Sidi Barrani, Libyan group)
  • (Combat group Maletti, also known as "3rd Libyan Division", Nibeiwa near Sidi Barani, Libyan group)

Without exception, they were binary divisions with only two infantry regiments. Structurally and quantitatively, the regular infantry divisions largely corresponded to the Italian standard. The three and four divisions of the fascist militia were smaller and more lightly armed. Most of the staff came from southern Italy, supplemented by army soldiers whom the army had deported to militia units for various reasons. The two Libyan divisions each had around 7,500 men, officers and non-commissioned officers were Italians. Some Libyan units were armed with cousin rifles. The battalions of Kampfgruppe Maletti were partly motorized and had armored vehicles of the types L3 / 33 and M11 / 39 . Army and corps troops as well as garrison and border troops are not included in this list . The former included the Babini tank brigade, which with its M13 and its Bersaglieri at Mechili had made it clear which troops were and which were not to be used in the desert war.

Commander in chief

Italo Balbo was Governor General and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces in Libya from 1934 until his death at the end of June 1940 , followed by Rodolfo Graziani until February (officially: March) 1941 . Graziani's duties as Commander-in-Chief were temporarily taken over by the Commander of the 5th Army, Italo Gariboldi , who then briefly became Governor General.

The commanders of the 10th Army in World War II were:

headquarters

literature

  • Vittorio Cogno: 400 anni di vita degli eserciti sabaudo e italiano - repertorio generale 1593 - 1993 . Edizioni Fachin, Trieste 1995.
  • Emilio Faldella: L'Italia e la seconda guerra mondiale. Revisions di giudizi. Capelli, Forlì 1960.
  • Giorgio Rochat: Le guerre italiane 1935-1943. Dall'Impero d'Etiopia alla disfatta. Einaudi, Turin 2005.
  • Filippo Stefani: La storia della dottrina e degli ordinamenti dell'esercito italiano. (Ed. Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Esercito-USSME, 3 vols.) USSME, Rome 1986.

Web links