Recent content by Sid Guttridge

I just found online an apparently wartime Italian version of Lili Marlene (). It set me to wondering what were the home grown popular songs in the Italian Army and who was their Vera Lynn? Cheers, Sid

Hi Maurizio, Thanks very much. In appreciation, Sid

Hi Maurizio, Many thanks. That indicates that Monaco was treated as a distinct entity by the Italian Army, rather than as just another part of their coastal defences in southern France. Could you clarify what each symbol in the jpg for the Settore Costiere Reggimentale di Monaco means? Many...

Is Italian Civil and Military Aircraft 1930-1945 by Jonathan Thompson still the most comprehensive in English on Italian aircraft in the Fascist era and WWII? It is noticeable that the otherwise pretty comprehensive Putnam series on the aircraft of WWII never published one on the Italians. This...

Hi Jeff, Thanks. I have just found "La Guardia alla Frontiera" by Massimo Ascoli on line and this seems to answer my queries. As one of Maurizio's maps shows above, Monaco did not fall under 4th Army but fell within an area taken over by Italian frontier troops, as you suspected from the...

Regarding the Italian preoccupation with the American consulate in Monaco: On 5 November, just three days before US forces invaded French North Africa, the USA prudently moved its Nice consulate to Monaco. The Consul, Walter Orebaugh, was a contact through whom the French Resistance in the...

Returning to the Alpini theme: Les Alpes-Maritimes 1939-1945 by Jean-Louis Panicacci (p.171) gives an Italian OB drawn from "USSME, Situazione descrittiva delle unita" that includes the following on "223e division costiere": 166e regiment d' "Alpini costieri" Villefranche - St, Laurent du Var...

According to a French Resistance (FTP) report of 28 June 1943: "MONACO : 4 regiment du Genie. Environs de St Antoine effectif d'une batterie, piece non identifie." Was there a 4th Engineer Regiment in the local Italian order of battle? The "batterie" may be the two ceremonial signal guns...

Monaco was surrounded by several forts of the French Alpine Line (Ouvrage Mont Agel, Ouvrage Roquebrunne, Ouvrage Croupe du Reservoir, Ouvrage Cap Martin), which were presumably manned by the Italians after November 1942. Their artillery covered the Principality. Until the Italian Armistice...

Hi Jeff, That would make sense. Any frontier guards previously deployed on the Italian/Vichy border would have been redundant there after November 1942. Cheers, Sid.

Hi Maurizio and Jeff, Thanks. These linked photos seems to show Alpini were in Monaco at some stage: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-geography-travel-monaco-politics-italian-and-german-occupation-1942-28087672.html A book on Monaco indicates that the Italians set up an HQ in a villa in the...

As I understand it, the occupation of Monaco from November 1942 to September 1943 was carried out by part of the 58ª Divisione di fanteria "Legnano". Does anyone know what sub-units of this division were deployed in Monaco and what headquarters was stationed there? Were any other units not of...

Hi DrG, I think I know who might have provoked bad temper in you on AHF. Sorry. I will try to be less of a pain here. I have now had a chance to look at the "Rivista Militare" link you gave and it has everything I could have wished for. Many thanks, indeed. The film is very well made compared...

Hi DrG and jwleser, Thank you very much indeed. I posted more in hope than expectation. It is good to see that Comando Supremo still has such depth of expertise. I was a member a good decade or more ago and was a bit surpised to be a "New Member". I am following this subject after seeing a...

Hi, I am trying to compile a list of Italian hospital trains in WWII. Does anyone know of such a list? It appears that the Italian Army medical services, the Red Cross and the Knights of St. John numbered their hospital trains in a single sequence. So far I have the following for 8th Army on...