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Given the awful conditions under which the Axis units were operating in the Italian theater, and the disproportionate numbers and firepower, it was unthinkable to manage to do more than what was historically achieved altogether. An all-out, Ardennes-style offensive, if successful, would probably have led to the capture of Leghorn and further repulse the 5th Army, but it would never have “driven the Allies into the sea”. And an extra German effort in Italy would just have quickened the collapse of the Western
and Eastern fronts.
The Monterosa Division
The Monterosa Alpine Division was the first divisional unit of the new Italian Republican Army which was born on October 16th, 1943, when the Rastenburg Protocol was signed, allowing Marshal Graziani to raise four Italian divisions with 52,000 men.19% of the Monterosa troops were former Italian Royal Army soldiers captured by the Germans after the September 8th 1943 armistice, and eventually released as they showed Fascist or anti-Allies feelings; the others were new draftees.
A view of an Alpine squad garrisoning a mountain top
The training activity in the German training grounds of Munzingen and Heuberg began in December 1943 and ended in July 1944 when the Division was sent to the Italian theater. Although the Monterosa officially was an Alpine-type unit, the troops never received mountain warfare training. Nonetheless, the training courses were intensive and demanding, after the best German tradition.
When Mussolini reviewed the four Divisions in Germany before their departure, the Monterosa (Gen. M. Carloni, commander) was at full strength, well trained, reasonably well equipped and eager for fighting. It had two infantry regiments (1st Alpine, Col. A. Farinacci commander; 2nd Alpine, Col. Manfredini commander) and an artillery regiment (1st, Lt. Col. Binda commander), plus support and service units, with 20,000 troops (including 30 women auxiliaries), 1500 automatic rifles, 1000 machineguns (mostly German MG 42s), 50 80 mm mortars, 36 75/13 mm howitzers, 12 105/17 mm howitzers, 3 75/27 mm field guns, 21 75 mm infantry guns, 12 75/40 PAK antitank guns, 36 Panzerschreck antitank rocket launchers, 144 Panzerfaust antitank weapons, 12 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, 24 flamethrowers, 6 armored cars. All in all, on paper it was probably the most powerful Italian infantry Division ever. The artillery pieces (with the exception of the German 75/40 PAKs) were obsolete, but they could still be effective in a mountain environment.
From July to October of 1944, the Monterosa was part of the so-called “Liguria Army” (North-western Italy) under Marshal Graziani. It was employed in static and anti-partisan duties and morale rapidly went to the bottom. Desertions became commonplace and became a painful sore for the Republicans. One entire replacements battalion, the Vestone, simply melted away. There was a civil war in 1944 Italy; the Germans mistrusted the Republican troops, and often refused to give them much needed weapons and equipment; most Italian civilians ignored or despised them; the partisans ambushed them from all sides and murders in cold blood were not unknown. All these reasons led not a few Republican soldiers to desert. Among the Monterosa units sent to the Gothic Line in October, however, the desertion rate decidedly dropped and desertions were no longer the main problem.
Italian and foreign writers alike have always stressed the high Republican desertion rate, but it’s worth remembering that also among the pro-Allied Italian troops, until late 1944 the deserters were very numerous; that the powerful, well equipped and trained and victorious British 56th Infantry Division had 350 deserters in two weeks after the battle of Sangro River; and that the British 46th Infantry Division had 1059 deserters during the Italian campaign, that is to say, 1 out of 14 men.
Nearly a half of the Monterosa Division was sent to the Garfagnana front, and formed the so-called “Fretter-Pico Group” together with the German 148th Infantry Division; it successfully took part in Operation Wintergewitter, while the other half of the Division kept on carrying out its garrison duties.
February 1945 the Italia Division replaced the Monterosa on the Apennines front, and the latter unit was transferred to Piedmont, except for the engineers, the Intra battalion and some artillery which kept their Gothic Line positions to the very last days of the war. In Piedmont, the Division vegetated in obscure, exhausting anti-partisan and garrison duties, until the end of the war. In the frightful days and weeks following April 25th, 1945 many surrendered Monterosa soldiers and officers were murdered by partisans.
Monterosa Order of Battle, Autumn 1944
Division HQ:
- DVK (Deutsche Verbindungs Kommando, German Liaison Unit) 183
- “Cadelo” Divisional Recon Group (HQ, 3 Troops)
- 1st Antitank Company
- 1st Engineer Battalion
- 1st Signal Battalion
- 1st Transport Battalion
- 101st “Ivrea” Replacement Battalion
- 2nd “Vestone” Replacement Battalion
- “Saluzzo” Operative Battalion
- 1st (7th) Alpine Regiment:
- HQ Company; Light Column; 101st Cacciatori Carri (Tank Hunters) Company; 17th Company; “Aosta”, “Bassano”, “Intra” Battalions
- 2nd (8th) Alpine Regiment:
- HQ Company; Light Column; 102nd Tank Hunters Company; “Brescia”, “Morbegno”, “Tirano” Battalions
| Map |
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Map of Operation Winter Storm
Article and Photos provided courtesy Alessandro Gazzi
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