Italian Co-belligerent Army
The Italian Co-belligerent Army (Esercito Cobelligerante Italiano), or Army of the South (Esercito del Sud) were names applied to various division sets of the now former Royal Italian Army during the period when it fought alongside the Allies during World War II from October 1943 onwards. During the same period, the pro-allied Italian Royal Navy and Italian Royal Air Force were known as the Italian Co-belligerent Navy and Italian Co-belligerent Air Force respectively. From September 1943, pro-Axis Italian forces became the National Republican Army of the newly formed Italian Social Republic.
Italian Co-belligerent Army
Esercito Cobelligerante Italiano
1943–1945
Army
266,000 to 326,000
Army of the South
King
The Italian Co-belligerent Army was the result of the Allied armistice with Italy on 8 September 1943; King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister in July 1943 following the Allied invasion of Southern Italy, and nominated Marshal of Italy (Maresciallo d'Italia) Pietro Badoglio instead, who later aligned Italy with the Allies to fight the Social Republic's forces and its German allies in Northern Italy.
The Italian Co-belligerent Army fielded between 266,000 and 326,000 troops in the Italian Campaign, of whom 20,000 (later augmented to 50,000, though some sources place this number as high as 99,000) were combat troops and between 150,000 and 190,000 were auxiliary and support troops, along with 66,000 personnel involved with traffic control and infrastructure defence.[1] On the whole, the Italian Co-Belligerent Army made up 1/8 of the fighting force and 1/4 of the entire force of 15th Army Group of the Allied Forces.
I Motorized Grouping[edit]
The first formation of the Co-belligerent Army was the I Motorized Grouping (Italian: I Raggruppamento Motorizzato) created on 27 November 1943 in San Pietro Vernotico near Brindisi. The units for the I Motorized Grouping were drawn from the 58th Infantry Division "Legnano" and 18th Infantry Division "Messina".[2] Some of the soldiers who joined the unit had managed to evade capture and internment by German forces.[3] The unit was composed of 295 officers and 5,387 men and was created to participate alongside the Allies against Germany and the Italian Social Republic in the Italian campaign. The unit was commanded by General Vincenzo Dapino, who led it during its first engagement in the Battle of San Pietro Infine in December of the same year. This action did much to remove the Allies' distrust of Italian soldiers fighting on their side.[4] The unit suffered heavy casualties and was judged to have performed satisfactorily.[5]
Following the service with the American Fifth Army and reorganization, command of the I Motorized Grouping was given to General Umberto Utili and the unit was transferred to the Polish II Corps on the extreme left of the British Eighth Army.[4] In early 1944 the unit was reorganised and expanded into the Italian Liberation Corps.[6]
Italian Army[edit]
In 1946, the Kingdom of Italy became the Italian Republic. In a similar manner, what had been the royalist Co-Belligerent Army simply became the Italian Army (Esercito Italiano).
Casualties[edit]
The Italian Liberation Corps suffered 1,868 killed and 5,187 wounded during the Italian campaign;[10] the Italian Auxiliary Divisions lost 744 men killed, 2,202 wounded and 109 missing.[11] Some sources estimate the overall number of members of the Italian regular forces killed on the Allied side as 5,927.[12]