diciassette2000
Member
Certainly the battle in southern Bengal as it is called in contemporary Italian texts, the retreat of the 10th Italian army and the consequent battle of Beda Fomm still presents significant obscure points today ... in the years that have characterized my research one of the most The movements of the Bersaglieri motorcyclist companies 201.a and 202.a have certainly been obscure concerning this campaign on the side of the Royal Army. Therefore, if anyone is aware of any details on the movement of these units during the battle, I would be grateful if you could share them with me. .. my doubts stem from the fact that these two units that appear from the beginning of January on the territory occupied by the 10th Army have an uncertain origin ... in years of research both at the EMS and in other places I have not found traces of their original origin....they were provisional companies born after the loss of the 21st and 22nd Army Corps units in Tobruk and Bardia or units that arrived after 1 June from Italy. Hm?? apart from this they appear for the first time around the beginning of January 1941 and are localized both on 1st and 3rd January in Derna (Diary of the 10th army and also various graphic attachments to the SME volume the 1st counter-offensive. ..) but then .... they disappear .... the only trace remains in the fact that the 202nd company of Bersaglieri motorcyclists had formed two scouting nuclei (attachment 14 SME 1st offensive ...) which had also a 20mm section of the 46th battery and a 20mm section of the 4th battery. The first mystery in my opinion is represented by the fact that we find these two sections, the first aggregated to the 2nd motorized nucleus in the map of 23/1/41 attached to the volume the 1st counter-offensive ....) and the second always in the same table aggregated to the 1st and 3rd motorized grouping .... the problem that both the first unit and the second do not have Bersaglieri units inside them. The only bersaglieri units present in addition to the 10th regiment clearly identifiable in the area of Wadi Maneggia in army reserve are the bersaglieri battalion (composite) of the armored brigade and the part of bersaglieri belonging to the Pancano grouping which, however, we know the first composed of part from the 60th Bersaglieri Motorcyclist Company and from the 17th Bersaglieri Motorcyclist Company while the second from the remainder of the 60th ..... So I found these compositions supported by reports within the Rome SME documentation, therefore they would appear to be true but??? Furthermore, news about the presence of elements belonging to the 201st company of Bersaglieri motorcyclists as well as to the 60th are also present in the Australian diaries even if, as I have repeatedly maintained, these sources are often contradictory and incomplete especially with regard to the "enemy" however it remains also another fact that both the 201st and 202nd motorcyclist companies are among the units that "escaped" from Beda Fomm (you can also find them in the SME diaries of April 1941 and in the attachments to the SME volume on the Italo-German counter-offensive of March-April 41). Moreover, to confuse the waters there is also another fact and that is that within the Allegri nucleus which was none other than the Gialo column which was one of the few units to escape Beda Fomm there is also a motorcycle platoon of the Bersaglieri ... .Now very probably indeed perhaps certainly the two exploration nuclei of the Sabratha were later absorbed by the motorized nuclei but ....what happened to the Bersaglieri ...they were divided "Italian-style" among many different units and scattered on the territory or were simply aggregated to other units which, however, do not appear on the cards or in the official reports??? The fact remains that the units remained alive even after Beda Fomm???
All the best
Maurizio
All the best
Maurizio
