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The
ITALIAN SOLDIERS
Of WWII
Here's yet another
historical GI JOE project -- this time focused on the Axis forces fielded by
Italy in WWII. Italian action figures
arrived late on the scene, far beyond the "golden years" of GI JOE
(199_-200_). Twisting Toyz released some incredibly cool sets with awesome detail
and attention to accuracy. The sets
contained a lot of fragile equipment, so they weren't designed to "play
with" like the old CC Joes, but they are affordable enough that you don't
feel like you have to keep them on a shelf, either! The Twisting Toyz
figures leave much to be desired, so I re-stuffed the uniforms with better
figures and added them to our Axis forces.
They're not very common (most folks don't collect Italians), which makes
them even more interesting (to me!)
Italians in WWII
Many folks have little or no understanding of the Italian
role in WWII or their character as warriors in that historic conflict. Those who DO have some impression of the
Italians in WWII, unfortunately have a poor opinion of the Italian soldiers of
that time. It doesn't help that much of
the Axis history of WWII is German (or is based upon German-kept records). The Germans were notorious racists and always
felt themselves better than anybody else, Italians included. If the Axis suffered a setback or defeat, it
was always easier to blame the Italians (or practically anything else) rather
than the vaunted Germans blaming themselves for their shortfalls. Even the vaunted Erwin Rommel provided captured
munitions and materiel to his German units, ignoring the bulk of his Italian
units -- yet he routinely blamed the Italians when his Aryan forces failed
him. During WWII, the Italians didn't
document much (especially during a time of civil war and crisis in Italy in
ADDITION to WWII), whereas the Germans documented everything -- at least their own pro-German biased version -- very
well. Thus, history
(and ignorant historians) tend to the Italians in WWII as wine-drinking
bottom-pinching womanizers, rather than as dedicated, tenacious fighters. After doing quite a bit of research, I
realized how wrong the common perception is!
My research was pretty interesting. When the dust settled, my opinion of Rommel
is incredibly low and my opinion of the Italian soldiers in WWII has
soared! (When Rommel took over in North
Africa, 90% of his troops were Italians... who often held the line while
Rommel's German units bravely fled the battle.
Italian code breakers gave Rommel his "uncanny edge" in the desert. Rommel made sure his German units rode in
motor transport, while the Italians walked.
Rommel would have been decimated in North Africa, had Italian
subordinate commanders not ignored his instructions and covered his butt at Bir El Gobi (and history credits Rommel for being a genius
- sheesh!).
When Rommel decided to retreat (December
1941), he didn't tell the Trieste and Ariete
Divisions, leaving them to battle the British (and delay them) while the
vaunted Germans bravely ran like cowards across the desert; clearly he
sacrificed 
Italian units
to permit his German units to sneak away.
The first real "armored clash" of the war occurred during the
North African conflict near Mechili. The Italian
tanks destroyed 15 British tanks, whereupon the Brits turned tail and ran. The Italians pursued them for 20km and turned
back after losing radio contact with their lines. Taking advantage of the situation, the Brits
counterattacked, and the Italians spanked them yet again with a vengeance,
destroying 6 more British tanks. The
Brits turned back and took a 2-week break to resupply
and figure out what to do next against these tenacious Italians... obviously
the Brit's 50 cruisers and 95 light tanks (145 tanks total) were adequate to
tackle the 57 M31/40's and 25 L3/35's (82 tanks total) of the Italian
Brigade! 145 Brits
versus 82 Italians. Hmm... and the Brits STILL felt
outmatched! Italian troops also fought
the Russians in the Ukraine. During
Operation Barbarossa, it was again evident that the Germans were using Italians
for cannon fodder and to protect the German units; once again the tough
Italians only received supplies after all of the German units, both effective
units and the lame units, were supplied first.
The Italians spearheaded the use of paratroopers and the use of frogmen
in combat roles, too! After the US
landings in Italy, Italian partisans became indispensable to the Allied cause,
particularly in the Sulmona valley (even though the
French partisans get all the press!). Italian planes and aircrews supported
Germany's attack on England during the Battle of Britain; 200 aircraft
completed 883 sorties, dropping 54 tons of ordnance on England during the
battle. The Italians used motorcycles
extensively, with a machine gun mounted on the handlebars (no, they didn't
shoot while driving). Unfortunately,
most of the heroic deeds of the Italians are uncredited;
it proves the point that whoever takes the time to write the history has their
version preserved for posterity. The
Italians were too busy to document extensively, whereas the Germans apparently
made time to take extensive notes.
Perhaps THIS is what the Germans did while the Italians remained in
battle and protected the Germans as they bravely ran away.
I'm left with a distinct impression that the Italians
weren't credited as being great warriors in WWII because of our American
perception... we arrived so late in the war that the Italians had pretty much
run their race; Allied war materiel from the USA was overwhelming the Axis
forces and in December of 1941. Even in
the days before the US entry into the war, the Italians were at the tail end of
a long and ineffective supply chain.
When the US entered the war the Italians' fate was sealed. Had we been involved earlier in the war, before
Italy had expended her materiel and manpower by supporting the war since 1939,
maybe our perceptions would have been different. Italy was unprepared for war, didn't want
war, and was dragged in by an ill-fated alliance with Germany; this would prove
to be Italy's undoing.
"Why didn't Italy do a great job from the very
beginning" you ask? Mussolini
didn't really want to ally with Hitler, but Germany one of the few countries
that would do business with Italy after WWI.
All of the "allied" nations (with whom Italy fought in WWI)
divided up the territory and left Italy with nothing -- the spoils of war went
to the OTHER allies. Italy was bitter
from the unfair treatment after WWI and was ostracized by its former friends
(US, Britain, and France), and was inexorably tied to Germany economically, as
Germany was eager to do business with her.
Italy had to sell her best weaponry to Turkey and other nations in the
interwar years, as her economy was in ruins after WWI and she didn't enjoy the
reparations claimed by her allied "friends". At this point, Italy could not fight a war
for at least 4 years, and Mussolini told Hitler so. Hitler assured Mussolini that Germany would
remain peaceful for the next 3-4 years to provide Italy time to recover and
re-arm. Persistent German
representatives finally persuaded Italy to reluctantly sign the "Pact of
Steel" with Germany. This Pact of
Steel outlined the line from Rome to Berlin as their Axis of solidarity. Now that Hitler's underbelly was secure with
an ally, he quickly disregarded his promises to Mussolini and swiftly invaded
Poland less than 4 months later! World
War Two had begun. Mussolini didn't want
war. Italy wasn't ready for war. Italy was dragged into the conflict
reluctantly and was utterly unprepared for war when World War II began after a
broken promise by the Germans. The fact
that Italy did as well as she DID in North Africa and the Horn of Africa is the
really amazing historical event!
Although the military bureaucracy, training, leadership and equipment
available to the rank-and-file Italian soldier was woefully inadequate, the
fighting spirit of the soldier was exemplified by the tenacious soldiers who aquitted themselves so remarkably in the North African
desert. This fact
alone makes these poor soldiers "GI Joes" and exemplify the fightin' "GI Joe" spirit! Thus it is only appropriate to add the
Italian soldier to the GIJoe collection!
Sources:
If you'd like to do some research on Italians in WWII, I highly recommend you
begin with www.CommandoSupremo.com. This site is PACKED with great info and good
jumping-off points for additional research.
Twisting Joes
Italian Soldiers
"Twisting Joes"? Since Hasbro hasn't ever made an Italian Joe
and is unlikely to EVER do so, you'll have to look elsewhere for Italians. I like the Twisting Toyz
Italian sets, but not the figures. The
SA Hasbro figures top the charts for me, so whenever possible, I stuff uniforms
(Dragon, Twisting Toyz, whatever) with SA Hasbro
figures. They're much nicer looking and
are better for me and the kids to play with, too! Since the Italian soldiers were led by
last-century ladership, ill equipped, and abused by
their German allies, the man beneath the uniform was a tough, tenacious,
impressive fighter; it seems appropriate to stuff these Italian uniforms with
GI Joe figures. The whole idea of GI Joe
representing the nameless fighting man upon which the military relies is appropriate
-- especially when dealing with the Italian soldier in WWII! Thus was created the Twisting Joe Italian
Soldier!
I’ve picked up three of the Italian soldiers
so far… and I’ve mixed and matched accessories, so I’m not really sure what
came with what… so don’t hold me to it if some set doesn’t come with something
the guy’s wearing in the pic -- it probably came with
one of the other two!
Bersaglieri:
Here's the Bersaglieri
soldier with cock feathers on his desert helmet. This is a pretty impressive uniform and helmet
combination, to be sure. The Bersaglieri were The Bersaglieri
("sharpshooters") fought with distinction in World War I and
illustrated the value of highly 
mobile, highly trained riflemen. Bersaglieri were
converted into bicycle troops to fight alongside cavalry in the Celeri (fast) divisions.
The Bersaglieri were well-suited to serve with
both cavalry and tanks. When the armoured divisions
were formed in 1939 the link between the Bersaglieri
and mobile warfare continued. Each new armoured and motorized division was allocated one Bersaglieri regiment.
In World War II, Italy’s Bersaglieri regiments
were expanded to three battalions each.
Recruits for the Bersaglieri continued to be
of above-average size and stamina and made impressive soldiers. The Bersaglieri
fought in southern France and Greece in 1940, and arrived in Libya in early
1941. The Bersaglieri
fought once again with distinction and compiled an excellent combat record.
Unfortunately, I don't care much for the
Twisting Toyz figures. By FAR the best Italian soldier that's ever
been on the market IMHO is the Hasbro SA "Hispanic" soldier. This guy's as Italian-lookin'
as it can get! A close runner-up might
be the Israeli soldier that came out a while back, but the Israeli looks like a
young kid rather than a soldier. I've
had my eye out for Hasbro Hispanic SA figures, but they're pretty hard to come
by, it seems. :-( At right is the Hasbro "Hispanic"
SA Joe in the Twisting Toyz Bersaglieri
uniform inspecting a pair of hastily discarded German sand goggles that got
left behind when the Germans grabbed all the vehicles and abandoned the
Italians outside of Tobruk in early May ’41, leaving
the Italians to battle the British counter-attacks while the German soldiers enjoyed
rest and relaxation (that the Italians never enjoyed). He might be able to use these goggles in the
combat to come!
The Carcano rifle was
produced in many variations throughout the war and you almost need a PhD to
figure out the differences. Basically,
the WWII Carcano came about as progeny 
of the long WWI-era M91 rifle. It was chambered in 6.5mm and several
variations were used in WWII. The Moschetto de Cavalleria (cavalry
carbine) was the rifle included in the Bersaglieri
set. This had a shortened barrel,
shortened wood, and fragile-looking folding bayonet. The folding bayonet was apparently a popular
idea, as the Russians used it in 1944 on their M44 carbine and later on their
SKS rifle, among others. In addition to
the long rifle and the cavalry carbine, 
The Bersagleri helmet
looked pretty cool and pretty highly detailed.
Unfortunately, the interior was a disaster. They used double-sided tape to stick the
sweatband into the rubbery helmet.
Obviously this didn't last long before it got all gooey and slimy! I used Super Glue to hold the chinstrap in
place and removed the little tabs of white double-sided tape and wiped it
out. Ick.
The backpack was a very cool piece. The canvas pack had some great leather
accents - I don't know how accurate the backpack is, but it sure looked
cool! I stuffed it with some kleenexes to make it look loaded.
Here’s another couple of pics of
the Bersaglieri.
The Bersaglieri were chosen for their strength
and stamina, and the Bersaglieri were generally
physically larger soldiers than the norm.
The Hasbro SA bodies are smaller than the
Dragon, SOW, 21C, and about all the others, so it may not be the best depiction
of the Bersaglieri, but the facial structure and skin
tone on this “Hispanic” Joe are perfect to be an Italian soldier!
At the left you can see what is probably the
BIGGEST drawback of the Twisting Toyz uniform… those crummy leg wraps.
It’s impossible to keep the doggone things tied right unless you use
tape or glue! I’m not keen on using
either on any of my Joes, so I think I’ll just dig up a pair of long pants and
substitute. I bet the Italian soldiers
didn’t like those silly Jap-lookin’ leg wraps,
either!!!
The body type used was terrible, the head
sculpt was awful, the leg wraps are a MAJOR pain in the neck, and the helmet
needed work. In view of its
shortcomings, it seemed very overpriced. I don't mind doing work on Joe sets to make
them acceptable, but paying over $40 for a figure that needed this much work
was pretty excessive. Still, when you’re
the only show in town (the only ones making Italian figures), I guess you can
charge whatever you want and folks will pay it.
Had this been more affordable, however, I probably would’ve bought a
squad rather than just a representative sample.
Paratrooper:
Here's the Folgore
paratrooper guy from Twisting Toys. It's
actually a SA Hasbro "Hispanic" figure stuffed into a Twisting Toyz uniform. It
seems odd that the Folgore guys used helmets that
were covered in the same camo as the Decima Mas uniforms, but I've got
not explanation. The Folgore division was trained for the assault on Malta in
Operation Hercules, but it really came into its own in the ground battles of
North Africa. The Second Battle of El
Alamein placed the Folgore Division at odds with six
British divisions (two of them armored).
The Italians spanked the Brits in good shape and earned the respect of
the British leadership. The proved to be
tenacious, well-trained fighters.
One important difference between the Folgore uniform and the Bersaglieri
uniform is the trousers. These
paratroopers actually had pants instead of those silly knickers to wear into
battle! The coolest uniform would
probably be the Folgore trousers and the rest of the Bersaglieri uniform.
That's the way it WOULD have been if I'd been in charge of uniforms for
the Bersaglieris!
Both the Folgore
paratrooper and the Decima Mas
figures came with the really cool Beretta SMG.
The Mosccetto Automatic Beretta Modelo 938 was reportedly one of the
better firearm designs to come out of World War II. The Twisting Toyz
Beretta is the standard M1938 design with the ventilated barrel shroud. You can compare the Twisting Toyz version to the real McCoy (image below at right). Twisting Toyz did
well with this one -- It's a very well-done piece, right down to its dual triggers. "Dual triggers" you ask? The front trigger was for semi-auto fire and
the rear trigger was for full-auto fire -- no selector switch was necessary. The cocking handle on this gun remained
stationary while firing and included a spring-loaded dust cover for the action
(good thinking!). Originally it was
designed to accommodate a 
folding knife-bayonet (like the M38 Carcano), but this was soon abandoned and later versions of
the rifle used various barrel length and compensator arrangements. Folding-stock versions were manufactured for
parachute units and different firing pin and safety arrangements evolved over
time. Although manufacture began during
peacetime, war soon came to Europe. The
M938A was slightly modified in 1942 and again in 1944. Standards were lower on wartime guns, but the
unfailing Beretta reliability didn't diminish.
After the war, descendents of the M1938 (most likely the M38/49) were
bought by various countries in the Middle East and even in German (where the
Germans renamed it the MP1 for its Border Guard units). It was manufactured until 1962 and soldiered
on in the Italian army well into the 1970s (perhaps into the 1980s). For further reading, try this site: http://world.guns.ru/smg/smg89-e.htm
which is also where I found the pic of the 1:1 scale
M938 (above to the right).
The grenades by Twisting Toyz
are the SCRM type. Several types were manufactured that all bore the same
designation "Mod.35" which makes telling them apart difficult. The real grenades after which Twisting Toyz modeled theirs are embossed with "SOCIETA
ROMANA" around the unpainted circular top piece of the 
grenade, hence the designation "SCRM". They're constructed of aluminum and the fuses
detonate on impact, no matter how the grenade lands. the Brits called
these red grenades "Red Devils" during the North African campaign as
they were notoriously dangerous when discovered. The effective radius of these grenades is
reported as 10 to 15 meters. The SCRM
included by Twisting Toyz represents the most refined
of the WWII Italian grenades. It had an
internal failsafe that would prevent detonation in case of misfire. Only a sharp impact will detonate the grenade. A moderate impact, such as dropping it, would
not detonate it and the internal shutter safety would block the firing pin from
engaging the primer. Unfortunately,
there is no way to tell whether the grenade's failsafe is engaged externally. If the greande were
to land on a soft surface, would it be live or would it be in failsafe
position? Nobody could tell just by
looking at it. This was a very
successful grenade design that continued to be produced after the war; it was
reportedly still being encountered in Europe as late as 1992! For more info on the Italian grenade included
in this set, try http://www.inert-ord.net/italrd/srcm.html
(that's where I found the image at right - it's a very informative site!).
Here are a couple more pics
of the Folgore paratrooper. Not sure why they're relevant, other than I
think it's a cool figure and I had the digital pics
on hand.
I have no idea what accessories came with
these figures. I swapped stuff like ammo
pouches, bags, knives, etc, around to equip all three of these Italian figures,
so if you see something on the Decima Mas guy, it might've come from the paratrooper, etc.. Since I bought
some boxed figures and pieced together uniforms from "parting out"
houses, it's hard telling what came with what.
A word of advice here...
don't try to piece together one
of these figures. By the time you're
done paying the "per piece" cost, you'll be close to the boxed figure
price, only you wouldn't get some of the little odds and ends -- and no figure,
either. It's probably best to just buy
the boxed figure and toss the body (or use it for generic cannon fodder).
Here's the fighting knife included in one of these
sets. It was pretty flimsy and the belt
loop snapped... I think when I looked at it.
I tried to find a real counterpart for this online, but the variety of
fighting knives and trench knives used by the various military forces is
incredibly diverse. I'm not sure if this
was a model of something actual or just a generic knife. Regardless, the knife was fine, but the
sheath was pretty chintzy.
Here's the paratrooper helmet. Notice the cool camo
covering? It matches the fabric used for
the Decima Mas guy (below)
rather than the desert tan color of the paratrooper's uniform. Go figure.
Anyway, the helmet didn't fit worth a hoot, so I yanked out the liner --
fortunately, it wasn't glued in very well.
The helmet fits much better without the liner, although it's missing the
forehead pad and the chin straps now.
Such is life. It's cooler without
the liner and I like it. I bought an
extra helmet from Battle Rhino or Monkey Depot for the Decima
Mas guy (below) just because I thought it would be
cool to get a helmet cover that matched his uniform pattern. So what if the Decima
Mas didn't wear paratrooper helmets... ;-)
Decima Mas:
The Decima Flottiglia MAS (Decima Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto, also known as La Decima
or Xª MAS) (Italian for "10th Assault Vehicle Flotilla") was an
Italian commando frogman unit of the Regia Marina
(Italian Royal Navy) created during the Fascist regime. They saw action starting on June 10, 1940,
when Fascist Italy entered World War II. In more than three 
years of war, the unit destroyed some 72,190 tons of
Allied warships and 130,572 tons of Allied merchant ships. Personnel from the
unit sank the World War I-era Royal Navy battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen
Elizabeth (both of which were refloated and returned
to action), the heavy cruiser HMS York, the destroyers HMS Jervis and HMS Eridge, and 20 merchant ships including supply ships and
tankers.
In 1941, the First Flotilla became the Decima Flottiglia MAS, and
divided the unit into two parts - a surface group operating fast explosive
motor boats, and a sub-surface weapons group using manned torpedoes called SLC
(siluri a lenta corsa or "slow-running torpedoes", but nicknamed Maiale or "Pig" by their crews), as well as
"Gamma" assault swimmers (nuotatori) using
limpet mines.
In 1943, after the ouster of Italian
dictator Benito Mussolini, Italy left the Tripartite Pact and joined the
Allies. Many of the Xª MAS men who were stationed in German-occupied northern
Italy enlisted to fight for Mussolini's newly-formed Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana or RSI) and fought alongside the Germans. Unlike other Italian forces that remained on
Germany's side after Italy's capitulation, the Decima
Mas remained a coherent, autonomous unit. Unfortunately, their seaborne missions (upon
which they had built their successes and reputation) were now over.
The Germans used the Decima
mostly in anti-partisan actions on land, rather than against the Allies at sea.
The Xª MAS's soon became infamous -- instead of being
respected for their combat effectiveness, they became known for the numerous
war crimes they committed (or helped the Germans commit) on both on partisans
and civilians. They are generally considered to have been similar in ferocity
to Germany's SS. Despite this notoriety,
they retained their good combat reputation to some degree while fighting the
Allies at Anzio and on the Gothic Line, and later against Tito's partisans on
the eastern Italian border. On April 26,
1945, the Xª MAS was disbanded.
The Twisting Toyz canteen
is a pretty cool item. It's got a fuzzy
coating that seems like a felt covering.
Presumably this was to cool the water in the metal canteen. Wetting the felt covering and letting it
evaporate would cool the canteen and its contents. In the desert, it doesn't seem likely that
they'd have much water to spare wetting down the outside of their 
canteens, though!
At right is the Twisting Toyz
X-Mas helmet (under the Beretta). Yeah, I know, I already used this pic on this page when talking about the Beretta, but I
didn't feel like taking another pic before updating
my website. The Italian helmet is
weathered and carries the appropriate markings for the fierce Decima Mas trooper.
DAK:
Here's a German recon guy who I put on this page
because... well, he's lost.
"Umm... could you Italian fellers tell
me which way the rest of us Germans retreated?
They sort of left me behind and I need to catch up... thanks for holding
off the Brits while we bravely retreat across the desert again, by the
way."
"Oh, and thanks to your code-breakers,
too, who provided Rommel all the info he needed to look like a "desert
fox" -- his ego is lovin' every minute of it and
the German press is going crazy fawning over him like he actually outwitted the
enemy rather than just reading your Italian codebreaker
reports. Good work!"
"Now which way did Rommel run with all
of our tanks, artillery, and trucks?"
Hopes
for the future:
Wouldn't a Bersaglieri on a
Moto-Guzzi (left) be a pretty cool figure for some
enterprising company to release next? This
would be a lot cooler than the Hasbro Harley-Davidson release and would be
right up there with the (often-talked-about-but-still-perhaps-mythical) 21C
motorcycle and sidecar!
How about this cool Autoblinda
AB41 in Tunesia (at right)? THIS would make a cool Joe vehicle! It might be a good opponent to battle the 21C
M5 Stuart in the back yard, too!
Italian
collection is (slowly) growing. We look
forward to new releases (particularly North Africa campaign figures), so
perhaps we'll update this site periodically.
These Italian Joes are ready to go on Backyard Patrol or defend their
motherland. And you... what are you
doing (to build up YOUR Italian Joe collection)?
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