Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano

National Republican Army ; Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano
active	1943-1945
Country	Italian social republic
Armed forces	Forze Armate della Repubblica Sociale Italiana
Type	Armed forces ( land forces )
management
Minister of Defense	Rodolfo Graziani
Chief of Staff	Gastone Gambara

Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano (ENR) ("National Republican Army") was the name of the Italian army that, after Italy's surrender on September 8, 1943, waged war within the framework of the armed forces of the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana - RSI) on Hitler's side - Germany and the Axis powers continued to the end.

Political background

Immediately after the unilateral armistice with the Allies ( Armistice of Cassibile ) was announced on September 8, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III sat down . and in July 1943 by Marshal Pietro Badoglio as the new Prime Minister led government to Brindisi in southern Italy, and placed himself under the protection of the allies . The dictator Benito Mussolini ( Company Eiche ), freed by German soldiers from imprisonment in the Apennines , formed a new fascist state , the Repubblica Sociale Italiana - RSI , in northern Italy , which was occupied by the German Empire . The capital of this fascist republic was in Salò on Lake Garda . Mussolini's new Minister of War, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, was allowed to set up his own armed forces with Hitler's approval . These armed forces consisted of soldiers who, for moral reasons, no longer wanted to obey the orders of Pietro Badoglio's legitimate Italian government and who advocated a continuation of the war on the part of the Germans. As part of this new fascist armed forces, a new army called Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano (ENR) , a new air force called Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (ANR) , the small Marina Nazionale Repubblicana (MNR) and the military police force Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana (GNR) emerged . The GNR emerged in 1943 as an independent armed force , but was in August 1944 in the army as a branch of service incorporated.

history

General Kurt Mälzer salutes Italian soldiers at Nettuno in March 1944

RSI soldiers in Rome in March 1944

The National Republican Army was established in October 1943. The staff initially consisted of a few Italian military internees who declared their readiness to German authorities to continue the war alongside the Wehrmacht, as well as other volunteers in Italy. The drafting of conscripts turned out to be problematic in the RSI because some of the men had joined the Resistance as partisans . By April 1944 the army had a personnel strength of around 200,000 men, the highest level at the end of the war was almost 600,000. The majority of these soldiers served the German Wehrmacht as support personnel, especially in territorial support areas, in air defense or as workers. The National Republican Army only raised four field divisions that were trained in Germany. These divisions were light infantry divisions , each with two infantry regiments, one artillery regiment and some division troops with a total of between 10,000 and 20,000 men each.

1. Bersaglieri division "Italia"

The 1st Bersaglieri Division "Italia" was set up on November 25, 1943 at the Heuberg military training area, some subordinate units also near Münsingen and Ulm . The division consisted of the 1st and 2nd Bersaglieri Regiment (three battalions each , 16 companies), the 1st Artillery Regiment with four divisions , a reconnaissance division , an anti-tank division , an engineer battalion , a transport battalion and smaller units. The permanent staff (around 3,500 men) was trained until April 1944, only then did the conscripts arrive for training. The 14,000 strong division was only transferred to Italy in December 1944, first to Parma , Fidenza and Salsomaggiore , and in January 1945 it replaced parts of the Italian divisions Monterosa and San Marco on the Garfagnana front. In April 1945, during the Allied final offensive in northern Italy, the division offered sustained resistance to Medesano , where it capitulated.

2nd Grenadier Division "Littorio"

The 2nd Grenadier Division "Littorio" was set up on April 7, 1944 at the Senne military training area, but the training of the regular personnel began as early as November 1943. In June 1944 it had around 17,000 soldiers, some of whom were wearing German uniforms (and Italian Badges). It consisted of the 3rd Grenadier Regiment, the 4th Alpini Regiment and the 2nd Artillery Regiment, the division troops essentially corresponded to those of the 1st Division. In the Sennelager the division was inspected by Mussolini and Graziani, among others. The division moved to Italy between October 20 and November 1, 1944, where it was to be used to fight partisans in Oltrepò Pavese behind the Gothic post . The division commander Tito Agosti , however, managed to move it to the Franco-Italian border, which was threatened after the Allied landing in southern France ( Operation Dragoon ) . By April 29, 1945 she fended off several French and American attempts to penetrate into the Po Valley . General Agosti committed suicide in the Forte Boccea prison in Rome in January 1946 because he did not want to be tried by “traitors”.

3rd Marine Infantry Division "San Marco"

Despite the name, this division was part of the army and not the navy. Only a small part consisted of marines from the San Marco Regiment and other soldiers of the Royal Navy ( Regia Marina ) who wanted to continue the war on the German side, the vast majority were army soldiers. This division is not to be confused with the largely independently operating division ( Decima Flottiglia MAS ) of the naval officer Junio Valerio Borgheses . The "San Marco" division was set up at the Grafenwöhr military training area and partly also in Heuberg from December 1943 , initially under the name "3. Infantry Division ", from January 1944 as 3rd Grenadier Division, from March 1944 then as 3rd Marine Infantry Division" San Marco ". It consisted of the 5th and 6th Marine Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Artillery Regiment and other division troops that corresponded to those of the other divisions. The 15,000 strong division moved to Liguria in July 1944 . Parts of the "San Marco" and "Monterosa" divisions were used against American and Brazilian units in the Apuan Alps from October 1944 . The division surrendered like all the others at the end of April 1945. In the summer of 1945, some prisoners of war were deployed in Savona under Allied supervision by the Savona Police Headquarters for police tasks because there was a lack of carabinieri .

4th Alpini Division "Monterosa"

This mountain division was set up in Münsingen and Feldstetten in January 1944 . With almost 20,000 soldiers, it was the strongest of the four RSI divisions. It consisted of the 1st and 2nd (RSI) Alpini Regiments, the 1st Mountain Artillery Regiment and other division troops . After Mussolini had inspected it on July 16, 1944 in Münsingen, it was relocated to Liguria, where it was supposed to repel possible Allied landings as part of the German-Italian Army of Liguria . Parts of the division fought together with the "San Marco" division in the Apuan Alps against Brazilian and American units, in particular against the 92nd US division, which could be repulsed together with German units. Around 10,000 men of the division were deployed from January to April 1945 in the Western Alps against French and American units. The division capitulated on April 28, 1945, an artillery unit in the Aosta Valley only surrendered on May 8, 1945. The Italian Associazione Nazionale Alpini did not recognize the mountain troops of this division until 2001 as Alpini.

The mentioned personnel strengths of the four divisions decreased by an average of ten to twenty percent by the end of the war. The Wehrmacht initially mistrusted the RSI divisions and wanted to use them primarily to fight partisans, while RSI soldiers often tried to avoid using armed force against their compatriots. The Italian civilian population was largely hostile to the RSI troops. In addition to the four divisions, there were a number of smaller units that fought against the Allies at Anzio and Nettuno ( Operation Shingle ) , but also against the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army in Venezia Giulia , most recently with Italian partisans, because they did not take into account ideological differences wanted to prevent the definitive loss of Italian territory to Yugoslavia . A number of war crimes occurred during these fighting in the hinterland of Trieste and Gorizia .

The National Republican Guard introduced in August 1944 as part of the army a few units for military operations that mostly in Division Etna were summarized. Two combat groups of this division were briefly deployed against Allied formations in the Po Valley in April 1945. A second division called Vesuvio was planned but was never set up.

As in the Wehrmacht, the paratroopers were not subordinated to the army, but to the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana . The paratrooper association Nembo , later Folgore , was used at Anzio and Nettuno.

literature

Pier Paolo Battistelli, Andrea Molinari: Le Forze Armate della RSI. Hobby & Work Publishing, Bresso 2007.
Carlo Cornia: Monterosa - Storia della Divisione Alpina Monterosa della RSI Del Bianco, Udine 1971.
Giuseppe Rocco: L'organizzazione militare della RSI sul finire della Seconda guerra mondiale. Greco & Greco, Milan 1998.