Disposable_Heroes_-_Italian_Army_List.pdf

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Mare
Nostrum
The
Rise
and
Fall
of
Mussolini’s
Army:
1922-1945
By Keith Stine, Chalfant Conley, and Jayson Gardner
Supplement for
Disposable Heroes & Coffin for Seven Brothers™
1:1 Scale Infantry & Vehicle Skirmish Wargaming in WWII
Copyright © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
All Rights Reserved Iron Ivan Games
Including Right of Reproduction in Whole of Part in any Form or Language
International Copyright Protected Under Berne, UCC Geneva, UCC Paris, and WTO Agreements
Design, Development, Layout, editing, Research:
Keith Stine, Chalfant Conley, and Jayson Gardner
Mare
Nostrum
The
Rise
and
Fall
of
Mussolini’s
Army:
1922-1945
Disposable Heroes & Coffin for Seven Brothers
is a miniature wargaming rules system designed to
recreate platoon level Infantry and vehicle combat set in WWII. This system is suited for 28mm, 25mm, 20mm, and
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15mm miniatures. Vehicles are also playable with 1/285 scale models.
Mare Nostrum Is a DH/C7B supplement describing in detail the major Italian infantry platoon structures. Also
included is a wide range of Italian small arms, tanks, soft skinned vehicles, planes, artillery, and AT guns. While this
publication is informative, it is not a stand-alone product. A copy of DH/C7B is needed to play.
Table
of
Contents:
1.
Introduction:
Brief Description of the Italian Armed Forces from 1922-1945
2.
General
Italian Infantry Small Arms
Italian Army Ranks and Equivalents
Special Rules
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3
3.
Italian
Infantry
Platoons
and
Support:
The Abbysinian War (1935-1936):
Rifle platoon
Camicie Nere (CCNN) “Blackshirts”
Askaris
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939):
CTV
Camicie Nere (CCNN) “Blackshirts”
Arrow Divisions
WWII (1939-1945):
*Denotes a sub-list
Regio Esercito
*Coastal Divisions
*Corpo Italiano Liberazione (CIL) Units
Camicie Nere (CCNN) “Blackshirts”
Units of the Co-Belligerent Forces
Army of the South (Including Alpini, Bersaglieri, and Folgore)
Units of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI)
Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano (ENR)
*Decima Mas
*Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana (GNR), and Brigate Nere (Black Brigades)
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*29 Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS
Elites and Specialists (all theaters):
Bersaglieri
Alpini
Paracadutisti
Scout Platoon
Engineer Platoon
Cavalry Platoon
8
14
21
26
29
32
32
34
36
38
39
40
42
48
69
76
76
80
85
93
97
101
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4.
Italian
Artillery:
Italian AA, AT, FG, IG Artillery Data Cards
5.
Italian
Vehicles:

Italian
Armored and Soft Skin Vehicle Data Cards
6.
Italian
Aircraft:
Italian Aircraft Data Cards
7.
Italy’s
Enemies
Blood on the Fourth Shore: The Libyans
Haile Salassie’s War: The Abyssinians
Aera! Aera! Aera!: The Greek Army
“Spazio Vitale”: The National Army of Liberation (Tito’s Partisans)
Partisans (Chetnik, Communist, Ustasha, Italian)
8.
End
Notes
"War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon
the peoples who have the courage to make it."
-Il Duce, Benito Mussolini
1.
Introduction:

The Mediterranean Sea has always been a crossroads of Empires. The Romans
called it Mare Nostrum, or “Our Sea”. At its height, the Roman Empire controlled virtually all of the land where the
waves of their sea touched shore. Italian nationalists would later revive this term in the 1860s during the drive for the
unification of Italy. However, the term would be most associated in modern times with the Leader of the Italian
Fascists, Benito Mussolini. It was he who cultivated the idea of a grand new Roman Empire with all of the imagery
associated with that Ancient society. The very word Fascist, derived from the Roman symbol of the Fasces (literally
“bundle of sticks”), represented the “strength through unity” of the Italian people that Mussolini desired to cultivate in
his totalitarian regime.
It was he who would build a new Roman Army, often described as his “Eight Million Bayonets”, and then
send it off on dreams of conquest. In fact, the Italian army’s fortunes are intimately linked with that of Mussolini’s. His
rise would see them triumphant. His fall would be their fall. In the end, his death at the hands of his own people
symbolized the way Italy itself succumbed to internal strife and division as the nation tore itself apart during the Allied
invasion. Mussolini’s rule is a true Roman tragedy complete with greed, pride, and fate. His own soldiers would often
perform heroic deeds and fight valiantly for a man laid low by his own hubris, an act that would cost many their lives.
As an army, history has not been kind to the Italians. Their fighting capabilities are often lumped together
with those of the French and Poles in WWII. Yet these characterizations are often not true or fair. These soldiers
could fight, and indeed did fight hard. The individual Italian soldier was tough and brave and yet he was often
equipped poorly, underfed, poorly led, and was supplied by a logistics system that was so inefficient as to be almost
criminal. In every theater the Italian soldier fought there are examples of skill and bravery.
Facing the Ethiopians, the Italians fought well, but since they were facing a small army with virtually no
modern equipment, this was perhaps a forgone conclusion. This prize in Abyssinia would be the first of Mussolini’s
conquests and was perhaps his most successful. Once facing the modern and professional British army, the Italians
would find their match. Mussolini’s pride would lead him to send Italian soldiers into the Spanish Civil War where they
would also fight well, if ultimately unsuccessful when leading their own offensives. While the Spanish Civil War
offered the Italian Army valuable experience and would allow them to test new weapons and tactics, this dirty
ideological war was not the place in the sun that Mussolini had envisioned and in fact would cost him dearly in men
and material that would be badly needed in the coming war.
With the signing of the Pact of Steel between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Mussolini was able to finally
give his soldiers a place to show their mettle. However, things would not start out well for his army. He would be
disappointed when sending his troops into France where they would be stopped cold by the Maginot Line. His force
sent into Russia could only play second fiddle to the massive German invasion of the Soviet Union. To make things
worse, this was after experiencing the embarrassment of having the Germany army enter Greece to end the deadlock
that had developed between the Italians and the ragtag Greek army. This was not an auspicious start for the would
be Legions that were to conquer the New Rome.
It was only after a stunning defeat In North Africa at the hands of the British, that the Italian army would start
to approach something akin to an effective fighting force. Here they would become the foundation for the victories of
Rommel’s Afrika Korps. The German troops they served next to in that theater certainly respected their comrades in
arms. Rommel himself held them in high regard, even if he despised their high command. Their enemies, the British,
respected them as well, with one of their officers describing them as some of the finest troops he had ever faced.
Despite how well the Italian soldier fought, he faced enormous challenges. His weapons were outdated and
ill suited to modern warfare (with the exception of the Carcano rifle and the Beretta SMG). His equipment was
lackluster at best. His armored vehicles were years behind the design curve and would never even begin to catch up
to his opponents. His navy suffered defeats at the hands of his enemies while his air force flew in adequate planes,
yet were outnumbered and outgunned in the end. All the while, his high command was full of bombastic, corrupt, and
inept commanders who were often unfit to lead such solid fighting men. Even worse than all of those things, the
Italian soldiers were flung across North Africa and Europe and left to their fate. It was to Mussolini’s undoing that his
own soldiers were asked to fight a war that very few of the Italian people had wanted nor asked for. Yet while they
followed him and linked their fates to his, many Italian soldiers fought not for Il Duce and some grand new Roman
Empire, but for their nation and their King, the House of Savoy.
Perhaps the fitting image for the ultimate tragedy of the Italian Army in the 20 century is the brave Italian
soldiers on the frozen steppes of Russia charging across snowy ground with empty rifles and fixed bayonets into the
teeth of a mass of Red Army machine guns. They, like Mussolini’s dreams of glory, met a tragic end.
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2.
General
Italian Infantry Small Arms:
Below is a comprehensive list of Italian small arms used in the platoon lists in this book.
Not all small arms used by the Italians in the war are presented here.
Italian Small Arms
Name
M1934 Beretta
M1918/1938 Beretta
*OVP
M1891 Carcano
M1891/1938 Carbine
Vintage Musket
Vintage Rifle
Scoped M1891
M1930 Breda
MG-34
MG-42
M1935 Fiat Revelli
Flamethrower
45/5 Modello 35 Brixia
81/35 81mm
Stokes Mortar
Type
Pistol
SMG
SMG
Rifle
Rifle
Musket
Rifle
Rifle
LMG
LMG
LMG
HMG
Flamethrower
Mortar
Mortar
Mortar
Range
10”
15”
15”
30”
30”
20”
30”
48”
48”
48”
48”
75”
8”
10”+
18”+
18”+
ROF
2
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
3
4
5
4
1
1
1
1
AP
6
6
6
8
8
6
8
8
8
8
8
8
6
1
3
3
MM
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-2
-2
-2
-2
-3
-3
-1
-2
-2
Special
-
-
-
-
-
-
+2 ACC
-
-
-
-
Blast
Blast
Blast
Blast
Weapon Variety:
With the bewildering array of weaponry available to the world during the conflicts listed in these
army lists, it would be impossible to cover them all, and since most of these weapons fall into broad types (such as
bolt action rifle), listing them all would also be redundant. In any case where a list mentions a specific weapon, feel
free to substitute any other relevant type for that category. For example, in the Partisans list the Mauser M24 rifle is
used. Feel free to change this to a Russian Moisin Nagant or a British Enfield if it suits your model collection.
Regardless of the weapon, the stats for each type remain the same.
Vintage Weapons:
The Vintage selections indicate weapons that are either old black powder muskets used from the
earliest days of colonization or the later breechloaders such as the Martini Henry and the Needle Rifle. These
weapons were used by many poorly equipped forces in most of the Wars Italy fought in Africa.
The Panzerfaust:
This was a rare weapon in the Italian forces allied to Germany, even after 1944. They were
generally only given to Italian units trained in Germany after the Italian Capitulation. Only allow German trained Italian
allied units to be equipped with these weapons, and use them only for scenarios in 1944 and beyond.
Pre-WWII SMGs:
The Italians fielded the M1918 Beretta SMG. In most of the formations used prior to WWII,
especially the Abyssinian War and the Spanish Civil War, these were mostly privately purchased by individual
soldiers. As such, they are relatively rare weapons.
Players may wish to severely restrict their use in the lists, allowing only one per unit, or only for special leaders.
WWII SMG usage:
By WWII, the mass manufactured and reliable 1938 model of the Beretta SMG began to show up
in larger numbers. By the end of the war, so many had been produced and distributed, that it sometimes equipped
whole units. The Decima Mas Division in particular was widely known to have equipped whole platoons with them.
In any RSI force you may replace the Carcano rifle (either type) with a M1938 Beretta SMG. This was mostly done for
the whole unit.
RSI Forces and German Weapons:
Some RSI units were equipped with German weapons (mostly those who were
trained in Germany). The lists presented here for RSI forces use Germans weapons listed. However, many RSI
forces retained their Italian weapons. Players may simply replace the German weapon with the Italian counterpart at
no points change except the following:
MG-34 LMG:
MG-42 LMG:
MG-34 HMG:
MG-42 HMG:
-10 points, convert to M1930 Breda.
-20 points, convert to M1930 Breda.
-20 points, convert to M1935 Fiat Revelli.
-40 points, convert to M1935 Fiat Revelli.
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