British Army Street Fighting Methods - Italy 1943 & 1944

[Richard Stone]

The attached article discusses the methods a British Army unit adopted for street fighting during the 1943 - 1944 period of the Italian campaign.

The article was printed in the November 1944 edition of the USA professional military reference magazine ‘Military Review’.

Combat Notes - Mil Review Nov 1944 - Italy Strt Fighting-1.png

Combat Notes - Mil Review Nov 1944 - Italy Strt Fighting-2.png

Combat Notes - Mil Review Nov 1944 - Italy Strt Fighting-3.png

[Tom from Cornwall]

Richard,

Thanks for posting this up. I’m wondering if “T” might be Termoli. I’ll see if I can find the same report in a British source.

Did the report come with an American commentary as well?

Regards

Tom

[Richard Stone]

Tom,

The article did not have any commentary from any American military sources in Military Review.

The article did meet the requirements of the Military Review staff, all of which were active duty American military officers, for accuracy and useful methods to use for training and combat.

I'm glad you found the article useful.

Thanks.

Richard

[Sheldrake]

This looks like one the series of articles published in British Army Training Memoranda published roughly monthly during the war years. Although apparently written by a platoon commander, they were the distilled lessons emerging from the Mediteranean theatre, probably by the training staff at HQ Middle East at 15th Army Group.

I liked the advice to drink Guinness for strength!

[MikeMeech]

Hi
There were various training manuals during WW2, including 'Fighting in Built-Up Areas, Military Training Pamphlet No. 55' of 1943, or the semi-official but commercially available 'House to House Fighting' by Col. G A Wade, in The Gale & Polden Training Series' of 1940.
My father engaged in 'House to House' fighting training when based at Westcliff, near Southend on Sea, at the end of1942 (he was an anti-tank gunner). During the training they would take turns at being defenders or attackers, these exercises were mainly undertake at night. They found it to be "good fun" at the time. They used the houses that had been previously evacuated. They were then posted to the Far East.

Mike