Apocalypse On The Steppe: The Struggle And The Bitter End Of The Italian Army In Russia, 1942-1943 (Mussolini's War)

In the previous study ‘Mussolini's Eastern Crusade: The Italian Expeditionary Corps In Operation Barbarossa’ we recounted the story of the Italian Corps (CSIR) on the Eastern Front until the end of winter 1942. This work continues the story of Mussolini's soldiers taking part in the campaign that fascist propaganda presented as an anti-Bolshevik crusade. Since the summer of 1942, an entire army sent from Italy (Armata Italiana in Russia, ARMIR), numbering well over two hundred thousand men, had been fighting in the USSR alongside the Wehrmacht.

The next summer offensive of the Wehrmacht in the USSR targeted the oil-rich areas of the Caucasus and, with its success, the industrial city on the Volga River - Stalingrad. The role of the Third Reich's allies on the Eastern Front was to secure the flanks of this manoeuvre. The ARMIR took part in the initial phases of Operation Blau, and then, acting as a buffer between the incompatible Hungarians and Romanians, took up positions on the River Don. Already by the summer of 1942, the Italians became the target of a Soviet operation aimed at cutting German supply lines and drawing reserves away from the Stalingrad area. The ARMIR passed this first test successfully, taking control of the situation without the help of other Axis forces.

In the winter of 1942/1943, the Red Army carried out a powerful counter-offensive, which in the first stage trapped Paulus's 6th Army in the Stalingrad cauldron. However, the Soviet reserves seemed inexhaustible, while the German-Romanian attempt to unblock the cauldron was still ongoing the Soviets were already undertaking further operations. Operation ‘Little Saturn’ was to break through the positions of the Italian 8th Army (ARMIR) and threaten the airfields from which Stalingrad was supplied. After its end, the elite Italian Alpine Corps found itself in the middle of another Soviet offensive – the Ostrogozhsk-Rossoshan Operation.

This study presents the story of the desperate battles of the Italian troops during the aforementioned events, including the operations of the air contingent. A detailed description of the battles and many accounts on the heroism of ordinary troops will allow the reader to properly assess the exploits of the Italian soldier on the Eastern Front, which has often been presented in an extremely unfair way. It also touches on such topics as the political and economic goals of the Italian presence in the East and the problem of securing the frontline zone, and the relations of the Italians with the local population.

The work is illustrated with 110 photos and 8 maps.