El Alamein
El Alamein
Hey has any one ever seen this Italian Movie? If so what do you guys think? Is it accurate to what Italian units went through or not?
You mean "El Alamein la linea del fuoco". The facts relate to the Brescia division and its abandonment into the deep desert without any mean of transportation. There was no real chance, the same happened with Pavia and Folgore divisions (and even others). Few ammunitions, few water and a long presence in Libya without license (even more then one year). Just only desperate battles of rear-guard against motorized enemy under RAF attacks. Very little heroism, struggle for life. No orders, no notices from other detachments. No hate (really!), a high respect for enemy (and viceversa): each other offering cigarettes when captured; great respect to the last struggle of Folgore. All this (very condensed) from a veteran's memory.
Massimo, movies are movies. Something is accurate but, for example, high rank officers in italian army were often far away from the first line; the white horse of Mussolini in Libya is not sure if it is true or a legend, but the men down there thought it was real. Germans really left our soldiers by feet into the deep desert just like the majority of their Ramcke paratroopers, but it should be also true that it was an italian high comamnd order to leave italian infantry without trucks to avoid them to retreat from the first line. The realty of hunger, thirst, dhiarroea, nervous breakdown, fear, are not really transmittable in movies, just a finction. Think of young men of 22-25 years dropped into a desert with continue bombing and attacks by troops used to bayonet ... you can even read the item about "was the north african campaign the cleanest" (WWII in general). ... Think of actual wars where the young men leave their country with the playstation in their pack and die yust like 60 years ago in Libya ... that's true.
Tony
Tony