Whenever I visit my cousin Giovanni in Rome, Italy, we always discuss childhood stories from my home town of Geraci Siculo, Sicily. Such stories are full of nostalgia, laughter and one of the best ways I know of having a great time. One of the most poignant stories that Giovanni recalls is that of a young man ordered to war in 1940, at the start of World War II. This young man, I'll call him Cesarè, has just been called into the Italian military and must leave Geraci, his family, his farm and his goat herd. He approaches Giovanni's father and ask him to take his herd while he leaves for war. Not having the resources to take care of an additional herd of goats, Giovanni's father turns Cesarè down. Unable to find anyone else, he knocks on Giovanni's father's door at 4:00 AM to beg him to take his heard, since he must leave that day. Having pity on the young man Giovanni's father asks his 13 year-old son, Giovanni, if he would be willing to take on Cesarè's herd. Giovanni says he can and the problem is solved.
Recently, a good friend asked me to read a book he had just read, The Red Horse, the tragic story of the Italian Army in Russia during World War II. In 1941 the Italians committed 235,000 soldiers to the Russian campaign to aid the German invasion of Russia. The Italians were joined by 200,000 Romanian and another 200,000 Hungarian troops. This allied force protected the east flank for the Siege of Stalingrad. All three armies were destroyed by vastly superior Russian forces, aided to a large extent, by the brutal Russian winter that killed more troops than did bullets. Again, the Europeans failed to learn from history. Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 with 500,000 troops and was defeated by the Russians, aided by the brutal Russian winter. Only 5,000 of Napoleon's French troops survived. The same exact thing happened to the Germans, Italians, Romanians and Hungarians armies. All of these men were basically condemned to death by incompetent and foolhardy despots at home who wanted personal glory at their expense. There never was any hope of military victory given the circumstances.
The Italian troops, and the Romanian and Hungarians were ill equipped, ill trained and ill led. The Russians had tanks and Katyusha rockets. The Italian and allied forces had nothing close to this. They fought tanks with rifles and ineffective cannons. The coup de grace was the Russian winter. Italian and allied forces suffered from inadequate equipment such as vehicles, arms and fuel, with no hope of reinforcements. The common soldier slept wherever he could in -26 C degree weather where your hands and feet would freeze if you exposed them to the weather. Many battles took place at night where the Russian forces had the decided advantage. If you were not killed by gunfire or by artillery, you were killed by starvation or the brutal winter weather. Wounded soldiers could not be aided and if they did not die from their wounds, they died from the immediate freezing of their bodies. The Red Horse is a compelling story of men at war and men who were thrown into a war without any preparation, plans or the needed resources; in other words they were condemned to die as if you had lined them up against a wall and shot them. Theirs was a hopeless cause.
This is the insanity and total futility of war. Here was a young farmer who just wanted to work his farm and feed his family. All of the sudden, he's in Russia with people hunting him down as he were a rabid dog. Additionally, he goes from a mild weather area, where the temperature never goes below 45 degrees to an area where the winters are the coldest in the world and where you not only have to worry about being killed by a bullet but also by the weather. What were they fighting for? Russia never attacked Italy. They were sent there by the folly and insanity of their political leaders. In the Italian case Benito Mussolini. In the German case, the insanity of Adolf Hitler.
For those who feel like you want to praise soldiers or armies for their accomplishments, that is fine and fair, but to make jokes about an army that lost a war they could never win, no matter what? That is a different matter. Being Italian by birth, I was subjected to many ethnic jokes and especially jokes about the performance of the Italian Army in World War II. People I knew would tell me such sick jokes to my face. If you are one of these naive people, I ask you to read The Red Horse and then see if the joke applies. I expounded on this situation in my last post on this blog.
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