Italians at Stalingrad
Italians at Stalingrad
Does anyone know how many Italian soldiers were at Stalingrad? What role did they play in the battle, and what kind of casualties did they take?
Last edited by LZ X-ray on 21 Sep 2002, 09:30, edited 1 time in total.
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Italians at Stalingrad
In Anthony Beevors book on Stalingrad, on page 439 he says several hundred Italians where stationed in the Kessel.
Earlier in the book I read somewhere that an Italian supply convoy found themselves in the encirclement. They simply found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and couldnt escape. I wasnt able to find the exact reference. I can thoroughly recomend the book thou.
regards
The Desert Fox
Earlier in the book I read somewhere that an Italian supply convoy found themselves in the encirclement. They simply found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and couldnt escape. I wasnt able to find the exact reference. I can thoroughly recomend the book thou.
regards
The Desert Fox
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Re: Italians at Stalingrad
According to Frieser (2017), up to 114,000 Italian troops participated in the Battle of Stalingrad. A total of 20,800 Italian troops were killed in the battle, and 64,000 were captured (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_p ... Stalingrad).
Frieser, Karl-Heinz, ed. (2017). "German Conduct of the War after Stalingrad". The Eastern Front, 1943–1944: The War in the East and on the Neighboring Fronts. Germany and the Second World War. VIII. Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Military History Research Office (Germany) ). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822886-8.
Re: Italians at Stalingrad
Island of Fire by Jason Mark mentions Italian drivers of 248 Autoreparto pesante used to transport soldiers of 1./ & 2./Pionier-Btl 162 in to the city and waiting for them to finish their task to take them back to the Don River. Unfortunately for them they were still in the city when the pocket was formed and they were left to fend for themselves with none surviving.
Re: Italians at Stalingrad
The men trapped inside the city were 77, mostly drivers from the 127° and 248° Autoreparto as well as one opthalmologist officer with his assistant (attached to a German medical unit) and "a rich civilian with a taste for adventure". There's a book about these men, Noi moriamo a Stalingrado, but I have never read it.
There were two survivors: Walter Poli (driver from the 127° Autoreparto) and Vincenzo Furini (248° Autoreparto).
An article (in Italian) about the book and the 77 men:
https://gaetanovallini.blogspot.com/201 ... o-nel.html
The troops that participated in the wider battle of Stalingrad (outside the city), the 8th Army or ARMIR, consisted of 229,000 men. The UNIRR website lists 91,735 Italian officers and soldiers who died in Russia, of whom 90,457 belonged to the ARMIR or its predecessor, the CSIR (but some estimates put the total deaths at around 95,000). How many were killed in action, how many died of exhaustion and cold during the retreat, and how many died in captivity remains unclear. According to Soviet records, 54,400 Italian POWs were taken, of whom 44,315 died in captivity. At least 20,000 are known to have been killed during the battle and the retreat, so this leaves over 30,000 men whose circumstances of death remain unclear.
Another 32,000 men of the ARMIR (and 7,858 of the CSIR) were wounded or frostbitten.
There were two survivors: Walter Poli (driver from the 127° Autoreparto) and Vincenzo Furini (248° Autoreparto).
An article (in Italian) about the book and the 77 men:
https://gaetanovallini.blogspot.com/201 ... o-nel.html
The troops that participated in the wider battle of Stalingrad (outside the city), the 8th Army or ARMIR, consisted of 229,000 men. The UNIRR website lists 91,735 Italian officers and soldiers who died in Russia, of whom 90,457 belonged to the ARMIR or its predecessor, the CSIR (but some estimates put the total deaths at around 95,000). How many were killed in action, how many died of exhaustion and cold during the retreat, and how many died in captivity remains unclear. According to Soviet records, 54,400 Italian POWs were taken, of whom 44,315 died in captivity. At least 20,000 are known to have been killed during the battle and the retreat, so this leaves over 30,000 men whose circumstances of death remain unclear.
Another 32,000 men of the ARMIR (and 7,858 of the CSIR) were wounded or frostbitten.