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OSPREY WARRIOR No 87 :
ITALIAN ARDITI -Elite Assault Troops 1917-20
by Angelo L Pirocchi,: Illustrated by Velimir Vuksic
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The early days when Ospreys could be hastily cobbled-together from secondary sources and illustrated with tired photographs from picture libraries are, happily, long gone. This is a good example of the high standards we have come to expect - a well researched book with original text and illustrations, covering a subject previously unfamiliar to an English-speaking readership.
In fact, much of this particular story will be unfamiliar even to Italian readers because the Arditi have been rather out of favour in recent decades, due to their association with the birth of the fascist movement - a story Pirocchi does not flinch from telling in the latter part of the book (the period covered in the title - 1917 to 1920 - is significant).
There is some genuinely original material here, including what is claimed to be first definitive reconstruction of the orbat of the Reparti d'Assalto (Assault Units) through their successive re-organisations. All aspects of the development, equipment, tactics and operations of the Arditi are covered, and while their achievements are recorded and celebrated, their shortcomings are not glossed over.
The coverage of training, tactics and equipment is particularly interesting, and the section on the Villar-Perosa sub machine gun is very revealing about the strengths (only 54cm long, weighing only 6.5 kilos yet firing c25 rounds per second) and weaknesses (magazines exhausted after only 4-6 short bursts, each gun requiring no less than three ammunition carriers to keep it effective) of this remarkable, double-barreled weapon.
The Arditi had a relatively short existence. The First Reparto (part of Second Army) saw action only weeks before the disaster of Caporetto (October 1917) and most of the remaing units suffered heavily fighting rearguard actions during the Italian army's retreat to the Piave. Some were so disordered by these events that they were only restored to a satisfactory state of discipline by the following Spring. Nevertheless, the image of the Ardito ("Audacious Man") was just what was needed to bolster the morale of the nation and restore faith in the fighting spirit of the Italian soldier.
The Arditi and their officers enjoyed playing to the gallery - brandishing daggers for the camera seems to have been a favourite pose. What they actually achieved militarily was probably less important than what they represented - a new kind of Italian soldier, bold, independent and aggressive, confident of solving any problem with swift, violent action. No wonder that they appealed to post war politicians impatient of democracy and diplomacy. Many Arditi (remaining under arms in the 1st Assault Division) mutinied and joined d'Annuzio's march on Fiume in September 1919 and after the corps was definitively disbanded in December 1920 they formed ready recruits in the ranks of Mussolini's fascists (although there was also a short-lived leftist "Arditi del Popolo", uniting republican and anarchist veterans!).
The Ardito, like the German Stormtrooper, has come to be remembered more as a political symbol than as a fighting man, so Pirocchi's work serves a useful purpose in separating military fact from political myth.
The book is well illustrated with a superb collection of photographs and some useful colour plates by Velimir Vuksic. Recommended.
Andy Callan
I
talian Arditi, by Angelo PirocchiOsprey Warrior No 87. ISBN 1-84176-686-0 £8.99
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