I have now managed to read Steel Centurions which on the whole I found to be interesting and enjoyable. It was not an easy read which resulted in it taking time and caused wear on the book’s soft covers!
The sub title to the book is Italian Armoured Formations of the Second World War 1940-1943. The first chapter deals with the birth of Italian armoured units and their development (Including training.) The remaining eight deal with their use in all the theatres of war involving the Italian Army. The book ends with conclusions and a number of appendices.
I will start with what I thought were positives. Each theatre of war was well explained well cited and with many extracts of personal experiences from both sides and of all ranks. The involvement of the Italian armoured units was obviously well documented which is what I would expect. I felt that the conclusions at the end of each chapter, and, the overall end conclusion, were well thought out and in my opinion broadly correct. The photograph section was very good, but will come to that again. An appendix gives brief details of 23 gold medal winners, most of which were posthumous, which was a nice touch to keep their memories alive.
The book also highlights poor performance by the Italian Army at the beginning of WW2, especially North Africa, and how it improved as the war went on through improved equipment and training. The book does not only concentrate, but also the semoventi and truck mounted artillery and field artillery which had an impact.
Now, some negatives. There were some spelling and grammar errors in the book. Now, for me, I would like to have seen a little more in the way of the armoured vehicle and tank process of production, specifications of each class of vehicles, number produced and when. There is an Appendix which gives total figures for each type of vehicle but does not include when the vehicles were produced which is important. A further appendix in the book gives the American assessment of some of the vehicles. I feel that all of this should have been encompassed in a dedicated chapter as described above. The quality and numbers of armoured vehicles produced had an effect of the Italian army’s performance.
The book makes mention of the L series of tankettes and their use. There is only one photograph shown of that type of vehicle and that is incorrectly labled as being a Fiat 3000 tank. There were several photos showing various soldiers on parade or in the field which I thought was irrelevant for the title of this book. However, on the whole, I thought the photos were good.
The author has included four maps. I am not sure why he has done this when other theatres of war have none. The quality of the maps are not great.
My conclusion. This book is recommended for all those with limited knowledge of the Italian army during WW2 or with preconceived ideas on their performance. To the serious students I think he or she can take something from this book.
Regards,
Bob
www.helion.co.uk
