Italian Soldiers Research Articles

‘Thanks to the Great War the blind gets the recognition of his ability to act’: the rehabilitation of blinded servicemen in Florence

This article explores the experience of Italian soldiers blinded in the First World War. In particular, it focuses on the rehabilitation and retraining programmes established in Florence at the Comitato fiorentino per i ciechi di guerra (Florentine Committee for the War Blinded) and its Director Aurelio Nicolodi. The article provides a meaningful interpretation of the experience of the Italian war blinded, and their influence on the treatment of the civilian blind after the war. In doing so, it reveals a hitherto understudied area in the history of war disability in Italy.

The importance of unimportant language

In a recent paper, the Australian historian, Martyn Lyons (2013), reviews his attempts to study ‘history from below’, using what can be called grassroots writing by French and Italian soldiers of the Great War. Lyons remarks that the ‘First World War produced a flood of letter-writing by peasants whose literary capacity has often been underestimated’ (Lyons 2013: 5). In France, no less than 10,000 million postal items were dispatched during the war, huge numbers of those being letters and cards written by soldiers from the frontlines to their loved ones.

The Positioning of the Albanians towards the World Conflict (World War II, WWII)

Albanians started their resistance on 7 April in 1939. Italians were received by guns by the Albanian people. The Albanians of Kosovo and Cameria were willing and determined to come to the protection of “their motherland”. The evidences demonstrate the great sacrifices that Albanians had made while fighting against the fascists troops; they suffered great material and economic damages. The sacrifices of the Albanian people beyond what were the borders of Albania in 1913 are most evidenced as they fought to crush the Nazi troops in the regions of Montenegro, Sanxhak, Bosnia and Slovenia. Understantig and tolerance have been characteristic features of the Albanias during World War II, as has been the case throughout the history of the Albanien people. Althpungh during the 1939-1944 period the Albanianes were involved in a specific, extremely complicacated, and frequently contradictory situation, they managed to manifest, not only the characteristic mutual tolerance, but also in Naturally the Albanian nation joined the great antifascist coalition, likewise rendering a relatively considerable contribution along with the other nations. In this respect, the Albanians were promtend by the mere reason that such a position should be assumed in view of the pan-national and regional interests involved, the target being the establishment of a post-war free and unified Albania, as well as the establishment of the Balkan characterized by peace, understanding, and collaboration. It is from this angle that Anyone should view the multi-from manifestations of tolerance, existing not only among the common people, but also among the top political opponents, tolerance towards the neighbouring nations, the Italian soldiers captured after the fascist Italy capitulation inclusive. In this context, emphasis should be made of the foct that fratricide and blood feud among the Albanians, during the 1939-1944 period were relatively rare phenomena, since the blood shed by the Albanians during the World War II years contributed to conquering fascism, liberating the world peoples and nations, as well as constructing a democratic world. The controversy over Albanian territories and the Albanian people as a nation is wide and great during the time framework of the World War II. This paper aims at elaborating on the Albanians’ positioning towards the world conflict and on realistically determining their standing and attitude as well as elaborating on the political drives which urged that positioning. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p397

Nassirya: una serie italiana entre ficción y realidad histórica

The authors conduct an analysis of Nassirya, television miniseries that fictionalizes and commemorates a tragic event in history: the death of a contingent of Italian soldiers in the Iraq war. The memory of the fact becomes recreation and celebration of Italian identity, the Italianity, through a story of heroism of men whatever. Fiction transforms Italian soldiers into peacekeepers and opposes their sensitive humanity to the corruption and inhumanity of USAmericans, antagonists that take the place of an Iraqi enemy, impossible in a story of peace. The viewer is set to the time in which history is written. And in the construction of memory, reality and fiction overlap and change places.

‘At Least So Long As We Are Talking About Marching, the Inferior Is Not the Black, It’s the White’: Italian Debate over the Use of Indigenous Troops in the Scramble for Africa

Like other nineteenth-century colonizers, Italy recruited, trained and deployed indigenous troops. These troops represented Italian colonial power, but their use evoked comparisons with Italian soldiers: which were better? A debate over their relative merits occurred in public print between 1885, when metropole troops first seized territory on Africa’s Red Sea coast, and 1891, by which time indigenous troops constituted the majority of Italy’s colonial force and had been incorporated into the royal army. The questions debated were as much cultural and economic as military. This article traces the debate, which revealed not only metropole power but also its limitations and vulnerabilities, thus illustrating colonialism’s ‘long arms and weak fingers’ (Frederick Cooper). The debate centered on four points: first, the considerable difficulties faced by Italian troops in Africa because of the torrid climate and the mass of equipment and supplies – including ice – necessary for their support; second, the cost of such imported troops; third, the greater mobility and lower cost of indigenous troops; and last, questions about the trustworthiness of indigenous troops in combat against other ‘ indigeni’. By the end of 1891, public debate recognized that Italy had little choice but to rely on indigenous units for most colonial military and police functions. Contrary to claims of ‘Italianization’, indigenous soldiers were valuable to Italy precisely for certain of their ‘African’ qualities. After a few years of quiescence, the catastrophic 1896 Italian defeat at Adua (‘Adowa’, ‘Adwa’) reawakened debate over indigenous troops, but they emerged unscathed by attempts to scapegoat them. Italy continued to rely heavily on indigenous troops.

Rieducare i prigionieri. Fascisti e antifascisti italiani sul fronte di Guadalajara

This essay examines a substantially neglected issue in the history and memory of the Italian participation in the Spanish Civil War: the imprisonment of the Italian soldiers of the Corps volunteer troops. Sent by Mussolini in support of General Franco, they surrendered to the Italian anti-fascist of Garibaldi Battalion during the Battle of Guadalajara, in March 1937. The article reconstructs the various stages of this prison experience: from capture on battle-field where the wide-spread demoralisation of the fascist troops was exacerbated by anti-fascist propaganda, to their repatriation to Italy. In particular, the essay focuses on the attempts of the anti-fascists to free the prisoners of their fascist ideology through political re-education. Although this initiative was present in different ways in all forms of imprisonment during the Second World War, it was in the context of the Spanish Civil War that the first, unpublished, efforts were made to achieve it.

Transformations of fascist imperialism: Greece from Le soldatesse (1965) to Mediterraneo (1991)

Abstract The article demonstrates the power of sociopolitical and cultural contexts that dictated the interpretations of fascist imperialism in the two most important films dealing with the wartime occupation of Greece. Analysis of both films is positioned in relation to the history of the wartime occupation, when Italian soldiers were moved by racist assumptions, rejected Greek culture and willingly perpetrated crimes against the Greek people. From war’s end to the early 1960s, official memory of brutal fascist imperialism had been obscured by a powerful myth that the Italian people had been good anti-fascists and sympathetic victims during World War II. But events of the early 1960s created a political crisis that demanded re-evaluation of the power and dangers posed by Italian fascism. The article explores the means by which Valerio Zurlini’s 1965 Le soldatesse/The Camp Followers attempted to awaken national memory of imperial exploitation and inspire in audiences both a powerful collective guilt and consciousness of the urgent necessity to combat neo-fascism. The article also exposes the influence of the sexual revolution on this film’s depiction of consensual heterosexual sex as the primary mechanism for peaceful Italo–Greek relations. It was this sensual approach to empire and not the anti-neo-fascist political mission that tied The Camp Followers to Gabriele Salvatores’ 1991 Mediterraneo. Inspired by the new political apathy and consumer culture of the 1980s and early 1990s, Mediterraneo created an imaginary fascist empire devoid of racism and the ideological commitments that divided Italian from Greek. The new film created the possibility of an Italian imperialism defined by leisure, an alteration of history that could only seem reasonable in a world redefined by sensual consumerism. The stark differences between these two films’ depictions of Italians in the fascist empire reflects a larger transformation of Italian national identity.

Mussolini's death march: eyewitness accounts of Italian soldiers on the Eastern Front

Mussolini's death march: eyewitness accounts of Italian soldiers on the Eastern Front

Maternity, Mortality and Mourning in the Trench Poetry of World War I

This investigation of the ways in which Italian poet soldiers represented mothers and motherhood seeks to shed light on the relationship between gender and war in early-twentieth-century Italy by exploring the intersections and divergences between the official discourses on motherhood and the Madre-patria, represented here by D'Annuzio's “Il rinato,” and the counter-discourses offered in the poetry of Ugo Betti and Corrado Alvaro. In order to illustrate a fundamental difference in the way D'Annunzio, on the one hand, and Betti and Alvaro, on the other, portray mothers, I will focus on their various depictions of maternal grief. I argue that Betti's and Alvaro's representations of melancholic mothers constitute an ethical choice that runs counter to the nationalist narrative of sacrifice and regeneration, but in the end I also question whether their melancholic mothers can be viewed as a new kind of model of womanhood or if she is just another iteration of the mater dolorosa projected onto women by both Catholicism and pseudo-science.

‘Weeping tears of blood’: exploring Italian soldiers' emotions in the First World War

Emotion plays a vital role in any rounded history of warfare, both as an element in morale and as component in understanding the soldier's experience. Theories on the functioning of emotions vary, but an exploration of Italian soldiers' emotions during the First World War highlights both cognitive and cultural elements in the ways emotions were experienced and expressed. Although Italian stereotypes of passivity and resignation dominated contemporary discourse concerning the feelings and reactions of peasant conscripts, letters reveal that Italian soldiers vividly expressed a wide range of intense emotions. Focusing on fear, horror and grief as recurrent themes, this article finds that these emotions were processed and expressed in ways which show similarities to the combatants of other nations but which also display distinctly Italian features. The language and imagery commonly deployed offer insights into the ways in which Italian socio-cultural norms shaped expressions of personal war experience. In letters that drew on both religious imagery and the traditional peasant concerns of land, terrain and basic survival, soldiers expressed their fears of death, isolation, suffering and killing in surprisingly vigorous terms.

Tra testo e corpo l'esperienza fisica della Prima guerra mondiale negli scritti dei soldati

In discussions of combat experience too narrow a focus on soldiers’ psychological experiences and the cultural and social issues surrounding them risks obscuring the vital role of the body and of physical experience. In letters and diaries, Italian soldiers frequently describe their bodily experiences and transformations, enabling them to express their emotions obliquely through the use of the body as a metaphorical representation of the spirit. Building on international comparisons, this paper emphasises the centrality of the physical in our understanding of combatants’ experience. Soldiers’ bodies, which were transformed by changes in diet, fitness and health, acted as the primary vector through which military life was experienced. The paper analyses both the emotional impact of bodily transformations and the ways in which Italian soldiers represented these experiences in their writings.

The Legacy of Italy's Participation in the German War Against the Soviet Union: 1941-1943

The reasons behind Mussolini's decision to join Hitler in the invasion of the Soviet Union and the subsequent behavior of the Italian troops have sparked lively controversy in the historical literature. In this historiographical essay, the author initially poses the question: was the Duce driven to intervene by sound, or warped, Realpolitik, or by ideological conviction? The author then turns to the nature of the Italian occupation and examines the extent to which Fascist ideology permeated the minds and influenced the conduct of the Italian soldiers fighting along side the Wehrmacht. Did they believe in the Fascist definition of anti-Communist crusade, or were they fighting more out of duty, honor, and country? Next, the author tackles the thorny question of racism and anti-Semitism in the Italian ranks. In his treatment of these questions, the author discusses the important writings of recent historians on the subject. The author then addresses the nature of the relationship between the Italian and German soldiers. Did they, as «good Italians» forge closer ties with Soviet citizens, thanks to a common outlook and experience, than the socalled killer Wehrmacht warriors? Again, the writings of eminent historians who have recently written on these questions are analyzed. In conclusion, the author evaluates Mussolini's decision to send a large contingent of his military to fight on the Eastern Front.

Scientific, Educational and Pleasure Reading for Young Italian Soldiers : 1900-1920

Scientific, Educational and Pleasure Reading for Young Italian Soldiers : 1900-1920

Effect of DMT1 gene polymorphism on placental metal levels

Leukemia/lymphoma cases reported in 2001 among United Nation soldiers or peacekeepers deployed to the Balkans aroused alert on the exposure to depleted uranium. Recent epidemiological studies carried out in different European countries among peacekeepers who served in the Balkans failed to demonstrate a higher than expected risk of all cancers but, mostly due to their limitations in size and follow up time, leave open the debate on health risk of depleted uranium. The aim of SIGNUM (Study of the Genotoxic Impact in Military Units) was to identify potential genotoxic risk associated with the exposure to depleted uranium or other pollutants in the Italian Army military personnel deployed in Iraq.Blood and urine samples were collected before and after the deployment from 981 Italian soldiers operating in Iraq in 2004–2005. As, Cd, Mo, Ni, Pb, U, V, W, and Zr were determined in urine and serum. DNA-adducts, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanine and micronuclei frequency were evaluated in blood lymphocytes. Three different genetic polymorphisms, GSTM1, XRCC1, OGG1 were analyzed.Significant T0–T1 reduction in the total concentration of uranium, increases for Cd, Mo, Ni, Zr, and decreases for As, Pb, W, and V in urine and plasma were observed. Increases in oxidative alterations and in micronuclei frequency, included in the range of values of non-occupationally exposed populations, were observed at the end of the period of employment.Our results did not detect any toxicologically relevant variation of DNA-damage biomarkers related to the deployment in the operational theater.

“An Apostle for His Work” : The Death of Lieutenant Edward Michael Mckey

Lieutenant Edward Michael McKey delivered food and drink to Italian soldiers in the trenches during World War I. At Fossalta di Piave, on 16 June 1918, McKey became the first Red Cross man killed in Italy. Three weeks later, Lieutenant Ernest Hemingway was wounded in Fossalta while performing the same duties. First in a poem and then in A Farewell to Arms , Hemingway described battlefield deaths that resembled McKey’s. Using the papers of Captain Robert W. Bates, head of the Red Cross ambulance service in Italy, this article depicts McKey and his work in the canteen service.

Cancer surveillance in Italian army peacekeeping troops deployed in Bosnia and Kosovo, 1996–2007: Preliminary results

Objective: An excess of cancer cases was reported in 2000 among Italian troops involved in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. A preliminary assessment of cancer risk in this cohort was done for the period 1996–2007, based on cancer surveillance activity, which was started in 2001. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was done among 27361 Italian Army soldiers deployed in Bosnia, 31052 deployed in Kosovo, and a control group of non-deployed soldiers, whose number varies from 130275 in 1996 to 40967 in 2007. Standardized incidence ratio and 95% confidence intervals (SIR [95% CI]) of the main types of tumours were computed as the ratio of the observed and expected cases. Results: 98 incident cancers were reported among soldiers deployed in Bosnia, 66 in those stationed in Kosovo and 388 in non-deployed personnel. Overall, cancer incidence was lower than expected in all groups. Annual SIR was significantly higher than expected in 2000 for Hodgkin's lymphoma only among troops deployed in Bosnia (4.34 [1.18–11.12]) and non-deployed personnel (3.48 [1.67–6.39]); and in 2001 for thyroid cancer only among troops deployed in Bosnia (5.28 [1.44–13.51]). Conclusion: Although further investigation is needed, these preliminary results give no indication of an increased risk of cancer for Italian soldiers who were stationed in Bosnia and Kosovo. The cluster of Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2000 and of thyroid cancer in 2001 were sporadic events, they did not specifically affect deployed personnel and are unlikely to be related to environmental exposures in the Balkans.

Il ritorno dei militari italiani internati in Germania (1945-1946)

- Sabrina Frontera The main theme of the article is the return or rather the experience of return, felt by Italian soldiers interned in Germany (Imi), as individuals or as members of the nascent patriotic associations. At the same time it is analyzed how the institutions, officials and assistance operators, political and military authorities, and the different and major parties were able to understand the needs of the former internees, considering or not the complexity of their history, responding effectively or remaining deaf to their demands. Several documents are used: parliamentary acts, ministerial correspondence, reports of censorship but also letters, diaries, testimonies written on the eve of the return or many years later, independent newspapers, party newspapers, periodicals of veterans' associations or of political influence.

Smoking Habits in a Sample of Young Italian Soldiers

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine the attitudes and characteristics of smoking patterns in a sample of 450 young, Italian, military men. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The prevalence of military smokers was 54.4%; 45.7% of military men were smokers before enrollment, whereas 8.7% initiated smoking after enrollment. In multiple logistic regression analysis, the risk of becoming a smoker was associated with "high" cultural class of the family of origin (odds ratio [OR], 1.99; 95% confidence interval [CII, 1.05-4.23), non-nuclear family types (OR, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.25-5.25), parent (OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.04-2.90) and sibling/partner (OR, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.45-3.50) smokers, and >12 months of service (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.07-5.43). None of the other variables relative to military status was significantly associated with smoking. Because the prevalence of military smokers was very high, we think that special programs aimed at decreasing the prevalence, with the long-term goal of smoking cessation, are needed.

Socio-economic influence on caries experience and CPITN values among a group of Italian call-up soldiers and cadets.

Dental care in Italy is carried out mainly by private professionals and therefore the collection of epidemiological data on dental health is not often possible. Thus, the aim of this study was to collect the DMFT and CPITN values in a population of young Italian male subjects, namely call-up soldiers and cadets, and relate them to the socio-economic status of the subjects. The sample was made up of two groups from different Italian academies: call-up soldiers: 1184 male call-up soldiers aged from 19 to 25; cadets: 2477 cadets aged from 19 to 25. The level of education was evaluated by means of a questionnaire which the soldiers had to fill in before being examined. Two trained dentists carried out the epidemiological survey following WHO guidelines. Data elaboration was carried out at the 'WHO Collaboration Centre of Milan for Epidemiologist and Community Dentistry'. Data on DMFT were compared by ANOVA. A p value < 0.01 was considered as statistically significant. The mean DMFT value observed was 3.69 +/- 3.31. The differences between the two groups were statistically significant for D e F components (p < 0.05). The caries-free rate is lower in the call-up soldiers group (12.57%) than that reported for the cadets group (25.26%) and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.01). Statistically significant differences were observed in DMFT values between the two groups stratified by educational level. A healthy periodontium was observed in more than 50% of the sample. In the call-up soldiers group, 40.95% had healthy periodontal conditions; 40.25% of the subjects showed bleeding on probing; 19.03% presented with calculus; and 2.77% presented periodontal pockets 4-5 mm deep. In the cadets group, 57.95% had healthy periodontal conditions; 38.18% of the subjects showed bleeding on probing; 3.52% presented with calculus; and 0.35% presented periodontal pockets 4-5 mm deep. The differences in proportion between the two groups were always statistically significant except for the bleeding score where an almost similar percentage for both groups was recorded. The results showed that call-up soldiers have a higher DMFT index and the D value is higher in less educated subjects. Bleeding on probing did not vary either between call-up soldiers and cadets or among socio-economic subgroups. Such results have underlined the need of a systematical information campaign on oral hygiene in Italian schools.

Italian soldiers in the Balkans. The experience of the occupation (1941–1943)

Though during the last 60 years historians have thoroughly studied various aspects of the Fascist regime, the history of Italian occupations has gone unnoticed but for a few excellent exceptions.1 ...