8th Bersaglieri Regiment
The 8th Bersaglieri Regiment form part of the Bersaglieri Corps of the Italian Army, originally created by General Alessandro La Marmora on 18 June 1836.
They compiled an excellent combat record, and can still be recognized by the distinctive helmets, decorated with black plumes.
Second World War
During the Second World War the Regiment formed part of the Ariete Armoured Division. When the armoured division arrived in North Africa, the Regiment comprised the 3rd, 5th and 12th Battalion plus the 132nd Anti-Tank Company.
During General Erwin Rommel's first desert offensive in March/April 1941, British Commonwealth forces fell back to Tobruk, continuously pursued by the Italian and German motorcycle formations acting as spearheads. On 8 April, the 8th Bersaglieri Regiment, cut the escape route of the Mechili garrison and some 3,000 British Commonwealth prisoners were taken in the action.
At the beginning of May 1941, the 8th Bersaglieri Regiment fighting alongside tanks from the Ariete and supporting infantry from the Brescia Division and Guastotori (Italian combat sapper) flamethrower teams, capture and successfully defend 7 Australian strongpoints ( R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 and R8) outside Tobruk.[1]
During the Second Battle of El Alamein, the Ariete (under General Francesco Arena) fought a stubborn rearguard action on 4 November,[2] effectively derailing General Bernard Montgomery's plans to encircle and completely destroy the retreating Afrika Korps. The German Army High Command recognized the effort of the tankers and Bersaglieri from the Ariete and claimed that the "British were made to pay for their penetration with enormous losses in men and material. The Italians fought to the last man."[3]
Notes
- ↑ "La sera del 29 il 1° plotone della 3a, agli ordini del Sototenente Ernesto Betti, andò in azione con un gruppo comandato dal Tenente dei Bersaglieri Melis. Questo reparto era costituito di un plotone Arditi dell'8° Bersaglieri e di 2 carri M13. Guastatori aprirono un varco nel campo minato protetto da filo spinato, antistante la Ridotto R3, I'assaltarono e la conquistarono utilizzando lanciafiamme e cariche cubiche ... Un commento al Bollettino di Guerra, trasmesso alle 13:00 del 10 maggio, informava che reparti del Genio Guastatori avevano espugnato 5 fortini della cerchia di Tobruk." Genio Guastatori, Silvestri Angioni Lombardi , p. 47, Edizioni R.E.I., 2015
- ↑ "Soon after midday, ten miles south-west of the Aqqaqir ridge, 22 Armoured Brigade came up against the tanks and anti-tank screen of the Italian rearguard, Ariete Division ... For most of the rest of the day, they slugged it out until finally, under the constant pounding, Ariete broke and ran, abandoning equipment everywhere ... The men they had fought were the Bersaglieri ... The cock-feather plumes in their helmets did not look so jaunty now as they lay twisted on the ground. The riflemen dug graves. They found piles of propaganda postcards, men in feathered hats marching towards Cairo. There was a songbook too ... trying to make out the meaning of the lyrics. L Addio del Bersaglieri." End of the Beginning, Phil Craig, Tim Clayton, Hachette, 2012
- ↑ Rolling Thunder: A Century of Tank Warfare, Philip Kaplan, p. 139, Pen and Sword, 2013
