Italy attacks France 1940

Italian Invasion of France, 1940

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~dpohara/alpine.htm

June 10th 1940

4 p.m., M. Reynaud was telephoned by the Ambassador from Rome (M. Francois-Poncet), informing him that Italy had declared war on France and Great Britain.

Mussolini delivered a demagogic speech shortly after this.

June 11th

Little action on Alpine front. RAF sortied over northern Italy and bombed Turin.

June 12th

Still little activity. Italian RA carried out a series of raids on Toulon, Hyeres, Saint-Raphael, Calvi, Bastia & Bizerta, as reprisal for the RAF attack on Turin. The attacking formations were largely dispersed by AA fire, their bomb-aiming was inaccurate, and little damage was sustained by the targets.

Mussolini sent a telegram to Hitler, requesting an "exchange" of 50 German AA batteries (with crew & ammunition) for an Italian armoured division. The AA batteries were for the strengthening of air defences in Piedmont & Liguria. He states that 14 civilian dead and 30 wounded were sustained in the Turin bombing.

June 14th

A French aero-naval bombardment on Genoa by the 3rd Squadron (4 heavy cruisers - Foch, Algerie, Dupleix & Colbert - together with 4 flotillas of light cruisers). These returned to Toulon after the successful completion of the operation. Only the light cruiser Albatross was damaged (by a 152mm coastal gun shell), but managed to reach harbour.

June 15th

The Germans informed Mussolini that Italian help was not required in France. If they wanted to attack on their own, that was their affair.

Mussolini ordered General Badoglio to attack the French frontier on 18th June. Badoglio countered that it would take Italy's forces 25 days to organise an offensive, and that the Germans did not need any help.

Mussolini told him keep out of politics, and not bother moving artillery up to support the attack.

June 17th

Hitler informed Mussolini of the French government's request for armistice negotiations (and suggested talks in Munich).

June 18th

Talks in Munich - Mussolini points out that the Italians had not been asked for an armistice. Hitler contacts the French and makes such a proposal a condition of continuing negotiations.

June 21st

Italian assault launched in the Alps. At dawn, 19 of the 32 Italian divisions massed in the area launched attacks on the French positions.

The Alpine Army had been heavily drawn upon to bolster the crumbling forces in the north. They now consisted of the fortified sectors of Savoy (north), Dauphine (centre) and Alpes-Maritimes (south), manned by fortress units and the 64th, 65th & 65th Reserve "B" Infantry Divisions. Also, as the Italians pushed from the east, the Germans were moving down the Rhone valley and endangering the Alpine Army's rear. General Olry responded by splitting his forces into two groups: one facing north-west against the Germans, the other south-east against the Italians.

The Italians were attacking the French all along the line. In the north, 12 battalions advanced on Bourg-Saint-Maurice, via the Seigne, Petit Saint-Bernard and Mont passes. Despite facing only 4 battalions and 44 guns in this area, they only succeeded in surrounding a small fortified post near the Petit Saint-Bernard pass, but could not take it.

In Maurienne the Italians made a strong advance on Modane, seeking to force the Mont-Cenis, Sollieres, Bellecombe & Clapier passes. At 5:30 a.m. they shelled the La Turra fort with a heavy bombardment, but it continued to resist. Further south, however, French reconnaissance units were outflanked by 2 battalions and driven back from Le Planey to the La Tuille dam.

In Briancon an artillery duel between the Italian fort at Chaberton and a battery of French 280mm howitzers resulted in the silencing of Chaberton within hours.

By the end of the day, the Italians were held everywhere except on the Le Queyras headland where they had managed to encircle the village of Abries.

June 22nd

Italians resumed their attacks along the front. Held everywhere except along the coast, where they made progress in the area east of Menton.

June 23rd

Italians brought up substantial reinforcements, and renewed their assault, but without success.

June 24th

French positions still intact on both northern and eastern flanks in the Alps.

At 9 p.m. order received to cease hostilities on all fronts, effective 12:35 a.m. French Summer Time.

At 10p.m., General Olry stated that:

"Of the thirty-two divisions in the Italian army, nineteen were wholly or partly engaged against the outposts - and in a few cases the main elements - of our six divisions.

"We were outnumbered seven to one in Tarentaise, four to one in Maurienne, three to one in Brianconnais, twelve to one in Queyras, nine to one in Ubaye, six to one in Tinee, seven to one in L'Aution and Sospel, and four to one in Menton.

"Our adversary only made contact with, or approached, our main positions in Tarentaise and near Menton. All our fortified advance posts held out, even when encircled..."

June 25th

At 12:35, bugles sounded the cease-fire all along the front. The Franco-Italian armistice came into effect (only due to pressure from Germany).

June 30th

Mussolini drove to Lanslebourg, in Maurienne, to congratulate the Italian troops who had fought on the Alpine front. On the way down from the Mont-Cenis pass he noticed a fort on his left flying the French tricoleur. This was the La Turra fort, 9000 feet above sea level, defended by Sub-Lieutenants Prudhon and Chandesris with nine NCOs and forty-one Chasseurs and gunners. They had held out, despite being surrounded by several divisions, for ten days. Mussolini ordered them to be freed with honours of war.


http://www.wwiivehicles.com/html/italy/

 

This is neat. I didn't know a whole lot about the Italians invading, but this gave me a little bit of insite. Thanks

 

First of all: welcome Captain inferno! I hope you enjoy yourself in here and post a lot!

Kai, this is excellent information which very clearly points out the incompetence of the Italian Regio Esercito and Regia Aeronautica... It is a pity. Don't you know cyphers of the casualties?

 

One of those little known actions of the war. I'm sure there are tons more.

Thanks for sharing.

Greg

 

Though the actual military confrontation was relatively "little", the Italian declaration of war on France and GB had tremendous political and strategic importance.

By one day, the entire Med. Sea and all surrounding countries became theater of operation.

Cheers,

 

France invades Italy – 1945

In the closing stages of the war in Italy, de Gaulle ordered French forces to invade the Aosta area and in particular seize the hydro electric plants. The SOE sent an administration team in who linked very well with the Partisan forces there who maintained very good discipline. The French started to arrive over the boarder and at first made claims of assisting till there numbers increased out of any proportion to need.

They made an attempt to have a form of election where the main issue was that Aosta should be part of France. They implemented a ration card system to replace the defunct fascist one, but attached voting cards to them and marked the cards, literally, of those who did not sign in support of the French claim. Those who did got more rations, those who did not got the minimum.

The French attempted to make a move in force to the bottom of the Aosta, claiming there were still 5000 Germans there. There were 5000 Germans there but their surrender and terms were already settled and they were no threat. Reports were flooding back to Rome and onto the respective British and American governments. While there was concern, there was also hesitance to enter into confrontation with de Gaulle’s France. Truman made statements in line with American policy about their principal opposition to one country seizing another country’s land. However, there was also a very, very sizeable and powerful Italian 'lobby' in the US, (e.g. La Guardia). In the distribution of aid and final settlement terms for Italy, it was this ‘lobby’ which secured far more, through American insistence, than the Allied consensus was initially planning to give.

The US forces were ordered to move up into the ‘French’ area, making as much noise about it as possible. This included armour. There then came about a heated ‘Mexican stand-off’ with the French and pro-French Italian minority on one side, and the Americans and Partisans with SOE officers on the other. The situation became defused when Truman (who may have been made an offer he couldn’t refuse), made de Gaulle an offer he couldn’t refuse. Namely, when it came to aid and assistance, he'd get nothing. De Gaulle climbed down and all French forces were ordered back to the old boarders. Thereafter, everyone played down the episode and did their best to cover-up and lose it.

No.9

 

Wow!
That was VERY interesting No.9!



Aosta in Italy

Actually not much else in the net at least after a couple of rounds of searching...

 

I don’t suppose there is anything on the internet Kai, at least not in English. I have no problem with copying chunks off the net IF they say what I would otherwise have to spend time typing. Where someone or some organisation, who should know what they’re talking about, publish something like transcripts as with Avalon, I’d say it becomes a fairly reliable source of reference. However, the internet makes everyone a publisher and, just as some books are inaccurate, a lot of the internet can be inaccurate.

References to the Aosta incident can be found in English in Allied Administration of Italy 1943-45 – C. Harris, War in Italy – Richard Lamb, and file FO 371/49803 in the British Public Records Office being the report of Maj. Morton SOE who was the officer referred to.

No.9

 

Hey KP, anouther gem to add to your collection !! The vehicle site is a gold mine of information. I did have one question about the term, "with honours of war", what does that mean if anything ?

 

Actually TA 152 I am not so sure what the "honours of war" in the end mean...I have a feeling that they were given proper honour, maybe soldiers making salute, Italian flags for salute etc etc as the French surrendered.

Then again, I might be totally wrong.

Maybe some one else can give us help here?

 

That was something I didn't know, No. 9! Thanks!

 

Wot, only thanks? So I'm not loved like Martin and redcoat?

No.9

 

Don't get jealous, No. 9! There's enough for everybody!

 

no.9 and kai, very interesting. never did fully understand why mussolini decided to invade france in 1940. suppose he just wanted some of the glory, but failed misserably at it. not a good start for the italians. i think this campaign sums up the italian military in ww2.

 

I think it could be useful adding something from italian viewpoint...

at June 10th, 1940 italian west army group counted at all 23 divisions of which 6 in reserve position. Also adding non indivisionated unit we can estimate a force of about 26 divisions facing french of which less of 20 deployed on frontline.
As told, italian forces were deployed on defensive position and a non motorized army on a mountain position can't pass on an offensive position at will.
However that's what was requested to do in a day June 20th, 1940. As a result, at cease fire, the largest part of italian forces had still to see a french. It's reported that division Acqui (which was formally on frontline) had to climb mountain for two days in bad weather before meeting french, for an italian historian, it was "so exhausted it had to be substiuted" without armistice. We can suppose it would be true for other italian forces too.
As a whole the 1940 alpine campaign costed to italy about 600 KIA and 600 iced personnel (strange for june but it's real). Italian offical history defines campaign "a total failure", I prefer call it "a non-campaign"

bye
Lupo

 

Lupo - A bello a sentirvi da voi. Dovreste scrivere più spesso.

Thank you for the further breakdown of events, invariably missed in quick reviews.


Mahross – There was no military foundation to the action. Mussolini found the Germans had moved a lot quicker and achieved a lot more than expected. By doing something in France before it was all over, Mussolini hoped he would have been considered to have contributed and therefore allowed to partake in any share of France. Of prime interest was Nice and Savoy which were originally Italian and seeded to France at the time of the Risorgemento, 1858+, in return for Napoleon III’s help in kicking the Austrians out of north Italy.

From a military aspect, it would have made much more sense to simply form-up on the French boarder to keep them hemmed in and be available to provided support for the advancing German forces if needed.

No.9

[ 04. March 2003, 03:55 PM: Message edited by: No.9 ]

 

Blast from the past II ...