The Italian Army in the Battle of the Alps 1940 - Massimiliano Afiero - diskuze

The Italian Army in the Battle of the Alps 1940 offers the first modern, full-scale operational study in English of Italy’s often-misunderstood campaign against France in June 1940. Overshadowed by Germany’s Blitzkrieg in the north and long dismissed as a symbolic or opportunistic sideshow, the Alpine campaign was in reality a hard-fought, complex, and frequently brutal military operation conducted in some of the most demanding terrain in Europe.Drawing on extensive Italian and French archival sources, official unit histories, contemporary accounts, and post-war analyses, Massimiliano Afiero reconstructs the campaign from strategic decision-making in Rome through to the final armistice negotiations at Villa Incisa. The book places Italian operations firmly within their political and military context, examining Mussolini’s decision to enter the war, the state of Italy’s armed forces in 1940, and the constraints under which commanders were forced to operate.At the operational and tactical level, the study provides a detailed, sector-by-sector account of the fighting along the entire Alpine front, from Mont Blanc to the Mediterranean coast. Particular attention is given to the actions of the Alpini, Bersaglieri, regular infantry divisions, Blackshirt units, Border Guard formations, and supporting artillery, as well as to French Alpine troops and fortress garrisons defending the ‘Maginot Line of the Alps’. The book challenges persistent myths by showing that Italian
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