Italian ausiliarie troop in Francia

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The troop ausiliarie italiane in Francia , TAIF for short (German: Italian auxiliary troops in France) were a 60,000-man contingent of Italian military personnel who were entrusted with military tasks in France in 1918 .

Emergence

During the First World War, a total of around 120,000 Italian military personnel in France contributed to the victory of the Allied powers: The Garibaldi Legion (1914), the Italian auxiliaries in France (TAIF) (from February 1918) and the II. Italian Army Corps (April - November 1918). As early as 1915, immediately after Italy entered the war, France announced a need for additional military personnel. In 1916, France agreed to deliver war material to Italy in return. However, Italian troops were deployed on the Isonzo Front in 1915 and 1916 . An official request to the Italian government and to the Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Army was not made until 1917. On the north-eastern Italian front , six divisions were on the side of Italy against Austria-Hungary ; these troops, which were missing in France, had to be replaced.

Between August and December 1917, engineering troops (1000 men), several thousand troop craftsmen and smaller contingents were sent to France. The oral agreement of January 13, 1918 on the provision of an Italian auxiliary troop contingent was signed six days later, on January 19, in Rome . Italy agreed to send 60,000 Italian military personnel to France. Two thirds of this military personnel, the troops ausiliarie italiane in Francia , were to consist of (e.g. medically) retired infantrymen, the remaining third of artillerymen who were still fit for military use and who had no more work after the defeat of Caporetto . In addition, the agreement regulated all questions of maintenance, housing and pay; in this respect the Italians were on the same level as the French.

The TAIF units were under the direction of an inspector general of the auxiliary forces in France . As with the French military, the correspondence of the Italian auxiliary troops was also subject to censorship . The principle of reciprocity was not the only reason the Italian government approved the sending of auxiliary troops; it was also about erasing the memory of the defeat of Caporetto. After all, the aim was to enable the troops, who were unemployed after the dissolution of numerous units, to re-deploy on the Franco-British front.

Use on the western front

The members of the TAIF left Italy in stages between January 21st and March 1st, 1918. They were called in for fortification work throughout the French war zone, often in the immediate vicinity of the troops fighting on the front. In the summer of 1918 a small part of the troops (4,000 men) was incorporated into the II Army Corps.

The TAIF members were very young. One in five was 19 years old, 70% were between 19 and 29 years old. Many of them were farmers.

A list of 7 July 1918 gives the activities of the TAIF in Normandy (e.g. in Eu), in Picardy (e.g. in Chantilly , Nanteuil-le-Haudouin , Briot , Acy-en-Multien, Béthisy -St. Martin, Roberval and Erquery), in the Paris region (e.g. in Marolles-en-Brie), in the French Ardennes (e.g. in Châlons-sur-Marne , Condé-sur-Marne , Montmirail , Vertus , Sompuis, Juvigny and Les Grandes-Loges), in Lorraine (e.g. in Neufchâteau , Lavoye , Glonville and Dombasle) and in Belfort as follows: digging trenches , building shelters and hospitals , building telephone and Telegraph lines ; Erecting artillery positions , removing sand , transporting materials , building roads, bridges and walls ; the laying of railway tracks , the production of posts , the construction of barbed wire barriers and landing areas .

According to the course of the war, the Italian auxiliary troops were constantly changing locations. The German offensives of 1918 forced the French authorities to relocate the auxiliaries from the Seine-Maritime department to the Maas , from Nancy to Belfort and to the Paris region. The accommodations were makeshift, holidays were seldom granted, and the inadequate protection from the cold and wet weather was a problem for the Italian troops. However, the location of the respective unit had a decisive influence on the mood of the auxiliary troops. The advances by the opposing side affected the stamina of the nearby units. In contrast, more distant units, e.g. B. between Nancy and Belfort, less directly exposed to the war.

Return to Italy

The activities carried out by the Italian auxiliaries were able to slow down the enemy advance and thereby gave the Allied reserves the time advantage they needed. The last Italian auxiliaries left France in January and February 1919.

literature

  • Ministero della Difesa, Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio Storico: L'esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), Volume VII, Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale, Volume 2, Soldati d'Italia in terra di Francia (Narrazione) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato), pp. 323-410
  • Ders., Volume 2 bis, Soldati italiani in terra di Francia (Documenti) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato)
  • Ders., Volume 2 ter, Soldati italiani in terra di Francia (table, carte topografiche e schizzi) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato)
  • Hubert Heyriès, Le Truppe ausiliarie italiane in Francia (1918). Lettere dei soldati. In: Italia contemporanea , June 2004, No. 235 (pp. 205–220).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ministero della Difesa, Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio Storico: L'esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), Volume VII, Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale, tomo 2. bis, Soldati italiani in terra di Francia (Documenti ) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato), Appendix 234, pp. 405–406
  2. ^ Ministero della Difesa, Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio Storico: L'esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), Volume VII, Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale, tomo 2., Soldati d'Italia in terra di Francia ( Narrazione) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato), p. 289
  3. ↑ Ibid.
  4. ↑ Hubert Heyriès, Le troop ausiliarie Italiane in Francia (1918). Lettere dei soldati . In: Italia contemporanea , June 2004, No. 235, p. 206
  5. ^ Ministero della Difesa, Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio Storico: L'esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), Volume VII, Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale, tomo 2., Soldati d'Italia in terra di Francia ( Narrazione) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato), p. 292
  6. ^ Ministero della Difesa, Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio Storico: L'esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), Volume VII, Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale, tomo 2. bis, Soldati italiani in terra di Francia (Documenti ), Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato) , Appendix 232, p. 401
  7. ↑ Hubert Heyriès, Le troop ausiliarie Italiane in Francia (1918). Lettere dei soldati. In: Italia contemporanea , June 2004, no. 235 (pp. 205–220), p. 206
  8. ^ Ministero della Difesa, Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio Storico: L'esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), Volume VII, Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale, tomo 2. bis, Soldati italiani in terra di Francia (Documenti ) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato), pp. 402–404
  9. ↑ Hubert Heyriès, Le troop ausiliarie Italiane in Francia (1918). Lettere dei soldati. In: Italia contemporanea , June 2004, no. 235 (pp. 205–220), p. 207
  10. ↑ Ibid., P. 206
  11. ↑ Ibid., P. 205
  12. ^ Ministero della Difesa, Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio Storico: L'esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), Volume VII, Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale, tomo 2., Soldati d'Italia in terra di Francia ( Narrazione) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato), pp. 291-293
  13. ↑ Hubert Heyriès, Le troop ausiliarie Italiane in Francia (1918). Lettere dei soldati. In: Italia contemporanea , June 2004, no. 235 (pp. 205–220), p. 214
  14. ↑ Ibid., P. 206
  15. ^ Ministero della Difesa, Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio Storico: L'esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), Volume VII, Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale, tomo 2. bis, Soldati italiani in terra di Francia (Documenti ) , Roma 1951 (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato), pp. 407-413 (Appendix 235: General Inspectorate of the TAIF, July 7, 1918, Indicazione sommaria dei lavori cui le compagnie delle TAIF furono adibite nel periodo primi giugno-primi luglio 1918 )
  16. ↑ Hubert Heyriès, Le troop ausiliarie Italiane in Francia (1918). Lettere dei soldati. In: Italia contemporanea , June 2004, no. 235 (pp. 205–220), p. 208
  17. ↑ Ibid., P. 214
  18. ↑ Ibid., P. 219
  19. ↑ Ibid., SS 205