Italian Bersaglieri in Libya, WWII (XX0018)

Bersaglieri in the Western Desert

Italian bersaglieri in Libya during the Second World War. The corps had been created as fast infantry — men selected and trained to move quicker than the line regiments — and North Africa was a theatre where movement decided almost everything. The two facts fitted together less neatly than they should have.

Fast infantry in a motorised war

Speed in the desert came from engines, not from legs. A force that could not lift its infantry onto trucks moved at the pace of marching men while its opponent moved at the pace of vehicles, and in open ground that difference decides who gets to choose where the battle happens. Only a minority of Italian units in North Africa were fully motorised; the bersaglieri battalions attached to the armoured and motorised divisions were among those that were.

Distance, water and fuel

The coastal strip between Tripoli and the Egyptian frontier runs more than 1,500 kilometres, with few roads and almost no water inland. Every advance lengthened the supply line feeding it, which is why the front in this theatre swung back and forth across the same ground four times: each side in turn outran its own logistics.

What the uniform shows

Colonial khaki, the sun helmet and the sahariana jacket replaced the grey-green of Europe, but the plume of black capercaillie feathers was kept, worn on the helmet instead of the hat. It is the one element of the bersagliere’s appearance that survived every change of uniform since 1836.

Reading the campaign

The Italian army in Libya is usually remembered through its defeats, which were real and heavy. What the record also shows is an army asked to fight a mechanised war with an establishment built for a different one — a mismatch of doctrine and equipment rather than of the men carrying the rifles.