The National Republican Army (Italian: Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano; abbreviated ENR), colloquially called the Army of The North (Italian: Esercito del Nord) was the army of the Italian Social Republic (Italian: Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI) from 1943 to 1945 that fought on the side of Nazi Germany during World War II.
The ENR was officially formed 28 October 1943, by merging former Royal Army (Regio Esercito) units still loyal to fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and Italian pro-Fascist units raised by the Germans after the occupation of southern Italy.
On 12 September 1943, the Germans launched "Operation Oak" (Unternehmen Eiche) and rescued Mussolini. The Fascist Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI) was formed as a puppet state in northern Italy with Mussolini as its leader. MarshalRodolfo Graziani was named as the RSI's Minister of Defense.
On 16 October, the Rastenburg Protocol was signed with Nazi Germany. In accordance with this protocol, the RSI was allowed to raise division-sized military formations. This allowed Graziani to raise four RSI divisions totaling 52,000 men. In July 1944, the first of these divisions completed training and was sent to the front.
Recruiting military forces was difficult for the RSI, as most of the Italian army had been interned by German forces in 1943, many Italians had been conscripted into forced labour in Germany and few wanted to fight on Nazi Germany's side after 8 September 1943. The RSI became so desperate for soldiers that it granted convicts freedom if they would join the army and the sentence of death was imposed on anyone who opposed being conscripted.[1] Autonomous military forces in the RSI also fought against the Allies, including the Decima Flottiglia MAS under command of Prince Junio Valerio Borghese (National Republican Navy). Borghese held no allegiance to Mussolini and even suggested that he would take him prisoner if he could.[1]
During the winter of 1944–1945, armed Italians were on both sides of the Gothic Line. On the Allied side were four Italian groups of volunteers from the old Italian army. These troops (of the Italian Co-Belligerent Army) were equipped and trained by the British. On the Axis side were four RSI divisions. Three of the RSI divisions, the 2nd Italian "Littorio" Infantry Division, the 3rd Italian "San Marco" Marine Division, and the 4th Italian "Monterosa" Alpine Division, were allocated to the Army Liguria under Graziani and were placed to guard the western flank of the Gothic Line facing France. The fourth RSI division, the 1st Italian "Italia" Bersaglieri Division, was attached to the German 14th Army in a sector of the Apennine Mountains thought least likely to be attacked.[2]
On 26 December 1944, several sizable RSI military units, including elements of the 4th Italian "Monterosa" Alpine Division and the 3rd Italian "San Marco" Marine Division, participated in Operation Winter Storm. This was a combined German and Italian offensive against the American 92nd Infantry Division. The battle was fought in the Apennines. While limited in scale, this was a successful offensive and the RSI units did their part.
In February 1945, the 92nd Infantry Division again came up against RSI units. This time it was Bersaglieri of the 1st Italian "Italia" Infantry Division. The Italians successfully halted the US division's advance. RSI Minister of Defense Graziani was even able to say that he commanded an entire Army. This was the Italo-German Liguria Army. However, the situation subsequently deteriorated for the Axis forces on the Gothic Line.
In late April, at Collecchio, the last remaining RSI troops were bottled up along with two Wehrmacht Divisions by the 1st Brazilian Division, being forced to surrender after some days of fighting.[3][4]
On 29 April, Graziani surrendered, and was present at Caserta when a representative of German General Heinrich von Vietinghoff-Scheel signed the unconditional instrument of surrender for all Axis forces in Italy. But, possibly as a sign of the low esteem in which the Allies held the RSI, Graziani's signature was not required at Caserta.[5] The surrender was to take effect on 2 May. Graziani ordered the RSI forces under his command to lay down their arms on 1 May.
The military of the RSI suffered some 34,770 dead during the war and, given conventional killed-to-wounded and killed-to-missing ratios, probably in excess of 100,000 casualties total. The majority of deaths (≈21,600) were incurred by anti-partisan formations, such as National Guards, Black Brigades, and Territorial Militia. The rest (≈13,170) were incurred by regular military forces mostly facing the Allies. The dead break down as: 13,500 members of the Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana and Milizia Difesa Territoriale, 6,200 members of the Black Brigades, 2,800 Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana personnel, 1,000 Marina Nazionale Repubblicana personnel, 1,900 X MAS personnel, 800 soldiers of the "Monterosa" Division, 470 soldiers of the "Italia" Division, 1,500 soldiers of the "San Marco" Division, 300 soldiers of the "Littorio" Division, 350 soldiers of the "Tagliamento" Alpini Regiment, 730 soldiers of the 3rd and 8th Bersaglieri regiments, 4,000 troops of miscellaneous units of the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano (excluding the above-mentioned Divisions and Alpini and Bersaglieri Regiments), 300 members of the Legione Autonoma Mobile "Ettore Muti", 200 members of the Raggruppamento Anti Partigiani, 550 members of the Italian SS, and 170 members of the Cacciatori degli Appennini Regiment.[6]
Rodolfo Graziani, 1st Marquis of Neghelli, was an Italian military officer in the Kingdom of Italy's Royal Army, primarily noted for his campaigns in Africa before and during World War II. A dedicated fascist and prominent member of the National Fascist Party, he was a key figure in the Italian military during the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.
The Italian Social Republic, known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy, but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò, was a German puppet state and fascist rump state with limited diplomatic recognition that was created during the latter part of World War II. It existed from the beginning of the German occupation of Italy in September 1943 until the surrender of Axis troops in Italy in May 1945. The German occupation triggered widespread national resistance against it and the Italian Social Republic, leading to the Italian Civil War.
The Italian campaign of World War II, also called the Liberation of Italy following the German occupation in September 1943, consisted of Allied and Axis operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to 1945. The joint Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre and it planned and led the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, followed in September by the invasion of the Italian mainland and the campaign in Italy until the surrender of the Axis forces in Italy in May 1945.
The Auxiliary Corps of the Black Shirts' Action Squads, most widely known as the Black Brigades, was one of the Fascist paramilitary groups, organized and run by the Republican Fascist Party operating in the Italian Social Republic, during the final years of World War II, and after the signing of the Italian Armistice in 1943. They were officially led by Alessandro Pavolini, former Minister of Culture of the fascist era during the last years of Fascist Italy.
The Italian participation on the Eastern Front represented the military intervention of the Kingdom of Italy in the Operation Barbarossa, launched by Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union in 1941. The commitment to actively take part in the German offensive was decided by Benito Mussolini a few months before the beginning of the operation, when he became aware of Adolf Hitler's intention to invade, but it was confirmed only in the morning of 22 June 1941, as soon as the Italian dictator was informed that same day the German armies had invaded the Soviet Union.
The Royal Italian Army (RE) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfredo Fanti signed a decree creating the Army of the Two Sicilies. This newly created army's first task was to defend its territorial gains against Legitimists in southern Italy, who remained loyal to Francis II of the Two Sicilies. The Army of the Two Sicilies also waged what many modern historians now consider a civil war against outlaws and Bourbonist guerrillas, such as the famous Michelina Di Cesare, and against other Italian states' armies during the continuing wars of unification. After the monarchy ended in 1946, the army changed its name to become the modern Italian Army.
The Italian Civil War was a civil war in the Kingdom of Italy fought during the Italian campaign of World War II between Italian fascists and Italian partisans and, to a lesser extent, the Italian Co-belligerent Army.
The Italian Co-belligerent Army, or Army of the South, 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.
Army Liguria was an army formed for the National Republican Army. The ENR was the national army of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. Formation of this RSI army started in 1943 and the army was disbanded in 1945. Army Liguria included several German units and its Italian units were sometimes transferred to German formations.
The Royal Italian Army, participated in World War II on the side of the Axis Powers on 1940. The Royal Italian Army notably fought at the Balkans, Western Alps, North and East Africa and Russia until its defeat on 1943 by the Allies. The Royal Italian Army was then turned into the Italian Co-Belligerent Army fighting alongside the Allies while some Italian forces joined the Germans as the National Republican Army on the Italian Social Republic in Northern Italy.
133rd Armored Division "Littorio" was an armored division of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. The division's name derives from the fasces carried by the lictors of ancient Rome, which Benito Mussolini had adopted as symbol of state-power of the fascist regime. Sent to North Africa in January 1942 for the Western Desert Campaign the division was destroyed in the Second battle of El Alamein in November 1942.
The Spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the final Allied attack during the Italian Campaign in the final stages of the Second World War. The attack into the Lombard Plain by the Allied 15th Army Group started on 6 April 1945 and ended on 2 May with the surrender of Axis forces in Italy.
The 2nd Grenadier Division "Littorio" was one of four divisions raised by Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. Although an infantry formation, it was referred to as a "Grenadier" formation to connect it with preceding Granatieri di Sardegna units.
The Battle of Garfagnana, known to the Germans as Operation Winter Storm and nicknamed the "Christmas Offensive", was a successful Axis offensive against American forces on the western sector of the Gothic Line during World War II. It took place in December 1944 in the north Tuscan Apennines, near Massa and Lucca.
The Second Battle of the Alps was a military campaign fought between combined German and Italian Social Republic forces, and the re-established French Republic led by Charles de Gaulle and other Allied forces.
The 4th Alpine Division "Monterosa" was one of four divisions raised by Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. It existed from 1 January 1944 until 28 April 1945.
The 3rd Marine Infantry Division "San Marco" was one of four divisions raised by Mussolini's Army of the Italian Social Republic. It existed from 26 November 1943 until 29 April 1945.
The 1st Bersaglieri Division "Italia" was one of four divisions raised by Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. It existed from 25 November 1943 until 29 April 1945.
Arrigo Tessari was an Italian Air Force general during World War II. He commanded Italian air forces in Albania and later Greece from 1940 to 1942, and was Deputy Chief of Staff of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana from March to July 1944 and its Chief of Staff from July to August 1944, as well as State Undersecretary for the Air Force of the Italian Social Republic.
Archimede Mischi was an Italian Blackshirt general during World War II.
↑ In 2010, the Ufficio dell'Albo d'Oro recorded 13,021 RSI soldiers killed; however, the Ufficio dell'Albo d'Oro excludes from its lists of the fallen the individuals who committed war crimes. In the context of the RSI, where numerous war crimes were committed in anti-partisan warfare, and many individuals were therefore involved in such crimes (especially GNR and Black Brigades personnel), this reduces the casualty count, from a statistical point of view. The "RSI Historical Foundation" (Fondazione RSI Istituto Storico) has drafted a list that lists the names of some 35,000 RSI military personnel killed in action or executed during and immediately after World War II (including the "revenge killings" that occurred at the end of the hostilities and in their immediate aftermath).
Sources
Blaxland, Gregory (1979). Alexander's generals: The Italian campaign 1944-45. W. Kimber. ISBN0-7183-0386-5.
Giannasi, Andrea (2004). Il Brasile in guerra: la partecipazione della Força Expedicionaria Brasileira alla campagna d'Italia (1944-1945)[Brazil at War: the Brazilian Expeditionary Force's participation in the Italian campaign (1944-1945)] (in Italian). Prospettiva Editrice. ISBN8874182848.
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