Italian Army at Derna 1941

The Italian Supreme Command moved quickly to organize the "Special Armoured Brigade" (Brigata Corazzato Speciale, or BCS) consisting of fifty-five M13/40 tanks, artillery pieces, and supported by infantry formations specializing in the anti-tank role and sappers equipped with anti-tank mines. In hardly more than a month, the Italians dispatched this volunteer force under General Valentino Babini to North Africa. The M13s in the BCS were a vast improvement to the M11s. They had a better turret-mounted 47 mm tank gun which was more than able to pierce the armour of the British light and cruiser tanks. However, other than command vehicles, Italian tanks were not equipped with radios. Communicating for most Italian tankers required the use of signal flags.

Bambini's tank force included the 3rd Battalion and the 5th Battalion from the 131st "Centauro" Armoured Division and should have amounted to at least one-hundred-and-twenty M13s. But eighty-two tanks had just arrived at Benghazi and required ten days of "acclimatization" prior to operation.

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Following the fall of Tobruk, HQ British Troops Egypt was removed from the existing unwieldy line of command so that O'Connor reported directly to Wavell at Middle East Command. O'Connor continued the advance towards Derna with the Australian 6th Division while sending 7th Armoured Division south of the Jebel Akhdar Mountains towards Mechili. On 24 January the 4th Armoured Brigade engaged armoured elements of BCS on the Derna - Mechili track. While the British managed to destroy nine Italian tanks in the battle, they themselves lost one cruiser and six light tanks. The 2/11th Battalion first made contact with infantry of the BCS at the Derna airfield on 25 January and progress was difficult against particularly determined resistance. In the Derna-Giovanni Berta area, held by the 60th "Sabratha" Infantry Division and infantry elements of the BCS, there were fierce exchanges with Italian counterattacks taking place around Wadi Derna. On 27 January, an Australian battalion beat off a strong daylight attack from a force of at least a thousand Italians. That same day, concealed soldiers of the BCS ambushed a column of armoured vehicles of the 6th Cavalry Regiment and took three of the survivors prisoner. The advance of other units further to the south of the Wadi Derna eventually threatened the BCS with encirclement and it disengaged on the night of 28 January. Derna, a town of 10,000 residents itself was captured on 26 January. Precise casualty figures for the fighting for Derna and Giovanni Berta have not been compiled but at least 15 Australians were killed fighting the BCS and "Sabratha" Division. The Italians lost a good part of the 60th "Sabratha" Infantry Division in the fighting.

Italian OOB at Derna January 1941

Italian defenders consisted of the 60th Bersaglieri Motorcycle Battalion and the 21st Light Tank Battalion, both part of the 60th Sabratha Division.

Raggruppamento Maletti

The Maletti Group (Raggruppamento Maletti) was an ad hoc "mechanized" unit formed by the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) in Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI) during the initial stages of the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The group was formed in June 1940 and was destroyed in December of the same year.

The Maletti Group was commanded by General Pietro Maletti and was part of the Libyan Corps, also known as the "Royal Corps of Libyan Colonial Troops" (Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali della Libia). The group itself was composed of six battalions of Libyan infantry and of two battalions of armor. The 2,500 Libyans were "mechanized" in that they were transported in trucks. One armor battalion had thirty-five L3/33 and/or L3/35 tankettes. The other had thirty-five M11/39 medium tanks.[1]

During the very early stages of the North African Campaign, the Maletti Group took part offensively in the Italian invasion of Egypt and defensively during the British counterattack known as Operation Compass. In September 1940, the group acted as a flank guard and led the Italian advance from Libya into Egypt. By December, the group was in defensive positions at the Nibiewa Camp near Sidi Barrani. Many of the armored vehicles were "dug in" and acted as stationary pillboxes.

The Maletti group was considered the 3rd Libyan Division in the initial Italian attack to Egypt, together with the 1st Libyan Division Sibelle and the 2 Libyan Division Pescatori.

The Maletti Group was earmarked for early destruction by the British. During the initial attack, Matilda infantry tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment exploited a hole in the Italian defensive positions and attacked the Nibiewa camp from the rear. The Maletti Group was destroyed and General Pietro Maletti was killed in action while trying to stop the sudden attack:

The initial British assault would fall on Nibeiwa Camp, where the only available Italian armoured unit was based, and it achieved complete surprise. Raggruppamento Maletti, or Maletti Group, under General Maletti, was an ad hoc formation consisting of 2,500 Libyan soldiers and 2 Armoured Battalion, with thirty-five M11/39 medium tanks and thirty-five L3/35 light tanks. It was earmarked for early destruction in the assault, which commenced at 05:00hr with what appeared to be no more than another raid on the eastern side of the camp. At 07:00, however, forty-eight Matilda tanks suddenly appeared from the opposite side of the camp. They struck twenty-three unmanned M11/39 tanks of the Maletti Group, which had been deployed to guard the unmined entrance to the camp. The Italians were caught completely off guard and many did not even reach their tanks, including General Maletti, who was killed emerging from his dugout. They were slaughtered and their vehicles destroyed by the British in less than ten minutes. The Italian artillery fought on valiantly, firing on the Matildas and recording many hits, some at point-blank range - but none penetrated their 70 mm of armour. The remaining Italian tanks were captured intact, and the Libyan infantry, left practically defenceless, quickly surrendered. The British had captured Nibeiwa and destroyed the only front-line Italian armoured unit in less than five hours.

The Operation Compass attack on Maletti Group was supported by 25 pounder artillery and Blenheim bombers and was centred on the advance of Mk.II Matilda tanks. Within an hour of the onset of combat Italian General Pietro Maletti was dead and 4,000 Italian soldiers (most of them Libyan colonial troops) had surrendered. Within three days, the attacking forces then moved west along the Via della Vittoria, through the Halfaya Pass and captured Fort Capuzzo, Libya.

Brigata Corazzata Speciale

The Special Armored Brigade (Brigata Corazzata Speciale, or BCS, or Babini Group, or Raggruppamento Babini) was an ad hoc armored unit formed by the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito Italia) in Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI) during the initial stages of the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The group was formed in late 1940 and was destroyed in February 1941.

In late 1940, the Italian Supreme Command (Commando Supremo) moved quickly to organize the Brigata Corazzata Speciale (BCS). In hardly more than a month, the Italians dispatched this volunteer force to North Africa under the command of General Valentino Babini. The BCS included Italy's most up-to-date medium tanks, the M13/40.

The M13s were a vast improvement over the M11/39s used as part of the Maletti Group (Raggruppamento Maletti). As opposed to the M11s, the M13s had a superior turret-mounted 47 mm tank gun. This gun was more than able to pierce the armor of the British light and cruiser tanks.

The BCS included M13 tanks supported by three Bersaglieri battalions, one motorcycle battalion, one artillery regiment, two anti-tank gun companies, one engineering company, and several logistics units. Unfortunately, other than command vehicles, the M13s of the BCS were not equipped with radios. Communicating for most Italian tankers required the use of signal flags.

At Derna and Mechili, the BCS included fifty-five M13/40 tanks of the 3rd Battalion and the 5th Battalion from the 131st "Centauro" Armored Division. This should have amounted to at least one-hundred-and-twenty M13s. But eighty-two tanks had just arrived at Benghazi and required ten days of "acclimazation" prior to operation.

At Benghazi and Beda Fomm, the BCS included almost one-hundred M13/40s.

Cannone da 47/32 M35.

In action the Böhler anti-tank gun was often used with the wheels removed and with the forward part of the carriage resting on a firing platform. A periscope sigh t was used, even for anti-tank use, and no shield was usually fitted. The gun could be broken down into loads for pack transport on mules.

The little Bonier 4.7-cm (1.85-in) antitank gun was first produced in 1935, and is thus sometimes known as the Model 35. It was first produced in Austria but its use soon spread outside that nation and licences to produce the gun were taken up by Italy. In fact the Italian production run reached the point where the Böhler gun became regarded almost as an indigenous Italian weapon, the Cannone da 47/32 M35. 

The Böhler gun was a handy weapon that was soon diverted into other roles. It was widely issued as an infantry gun and as it could be rapidly broken down into a number of pack loads it was also employed as a mountain gun. But though as it turned out the Böhler was something of a multipurpose weapon, it was not entirely successful in any of these extra roles. It did prove to be a fairly effective antitank gun, however, and was widely used during the early war years by a number of nations. Italy was the main user, but others were employed by the Netherlands (Kanon van 4.7), and Romania, and the type also turned up in the Soviet Union (in relatively small quantities) as the M35B. Some also found their way into German army service when Austria came under German domination after 1938, receiving the designation 4.7-cm Pak. 

There were several developments on the basic Böhler theme that issued from the company's Kapfenberg works. Although the basic gun remained unchanged, there were numerous variations on such things as types of carriage wheel, the width of the carriage axle and so on. Some models had muzzle brakes while others did not. All models had a feature whereby the wheels could be removed and the gun then rested on the trail legs and a small platform under the axle for firing. This gave the gun a lower silhouette for firing and concealment. The gun could fire both armour piercing and high explosive projectiles, the latter having a range of 7000 m (7,655 yards) to provide the gun with a useful infantry support role. As the armour thicknesses of tanks increased the Böhler increasingly assumed this infantry support role. 

There was one odd side-line to the story of the Böhler that is still little known. In 1942 the Allied armies in North Africa were still relatively short of many weapons and the large numbers of captured Italian Böhler guns were a useful windfall. About 100 were refurbished at a Captured Weapons Depot in Alexandria and issued to various units for second-line service. But perhaps the oddest item in this story was that 96 were actually converted by the British for use by airborne forces: the fire-control system of the original gun was altered so that one man (instead of the original two) could lay the gun, and the carriage was modified to allow dropping by parachute; a rifle telescope for aiming and a shoulder pad from a 6-pdr gun were also added. These were, according to the records, issued for service where they proved Very popular'. Unfortunately it has not yet been possible to trace the units involved, but these Böhler guns must have been the very first guns adopted for the airborne role.

Specification

Cannone da 47/32 M35

Calibre: 47 mm (1.85 in)

Length of barrel: 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)

Length of bore: 1.525 m (5 ft)

Length of rifling: 1.33 m (4 ft 4.3 in)

Weight: travelling 315 kg (694.5 lb) and in action 277 kg (610.6 lb)

Traverse: 62°

Elevation:-15° to+56°

Muzzle velocity: AP 630 m (2,067 ft) per second and HE 250 m (820 ft) per second

Maximum range: HE 7000 m (7,655 yards)

Projectile weight: AP 1.44 kg (3.175 lb) and HE 2.37 kg (5.225 lb)

Armour penetration: 43 mm (1.7 in) at 500 m (550 yards)

Reconnaissance Battalion Nizza

AB41 appatenant à la Nizza Cavalaria et à la Monferrato.

While reading Panzer Commander, the memories of Colonel Hans Von Luck I can across an interesting few paragraphs.

"Some days later Rommel's HQ informed me that I was to be sent an Italian armored reconnaissance battalion, the Nizza. At first, I was not very pleased, as I had no great opinion of Italian weapons or morale. They duly arrived, well spread out and apparently still at normal fighting strength. Their commander, a tall, fair haired Major, presented himself. As he told me later, he had been given the posting "for disciplinary reasons," because of an affair with a member of the Royal House. The officers and men came exclusively from the north. They were proud Piedmontese and Venetians. They wanted to show that they knew how to fight.

"May our patrols go on reconnaissance with your?" I was asked by the commander and his officers. "That would be the best way to learn." I inspected their armored cars and weapons. "More sardine tins," said our men, who were standing around inquisitively. Indeed, the equipment didn't approach the standard of that which we had at the start of the Polish campaign. It was hopelessly inferior to the British Humbers and anti-tank guns. And yet, the Italians wanted to be sent into action at the front. IN the difficult weeks that followed, my feeling waved between admiration and pity for these brave men, who despite heavy losses, didn't give up and so remained to the end, our good friends.

He (The Italian) doesn't take war with deadly seriousness and ends it for his part when he considers it to be hopeless. Hitler's pathetic, cynical maxim, "the German soldier stands or dies," is, to the Italian profoundly alien.

It is against this background that the active service and performance of our allies is to be seen. So much more highly did we value the service of the Nizza Battalion, whose officers and men fought bravely beside and with us to the bitter end"

Then near the end in Africa he received the Medaglia d'Argento, by request of the Nizza Battalion commander.

3rd Battalion Nizza Cavalleria (AB41 Armoured cars) part of Italian 132 Armoured Division Ariete.