In his quest for military glory, Benito Mussolini sent the Italian
Eighth Army to the Eastern Front to help fight the Russians, only
to have his forces routed within little more than a month of the
launch of the Soviet counteroffensives of the winter of 1942-1943.
The Cuneense, a division of mountain troops, was hit especially
hard, with only a small percentage of its troops straggling back to
Italy; the rest were killed in action or died of frostbite or in
captivity from malnourishment, overwork, and disease. All told, the
Italians suffered roughly 75,000 dead, more than in their six-month
campaign in Greece and Albania or in their three years in North
Africa.
Nuto Revelli, who fought in Russia himself, interviewed
forty-three other survivors of the campaign for a book that has
become a classic among Italian war memoirs. First published in
Italian in 1966 as La strada del davai, Revelli's account, now
available in English, vividly recaptures the experiences and
sobering reflections of these men. It provides a chilling look at
an experience that, in English-language writing, has been
overshadowed by that of the main actors on the Eastern Front.
When news of the rout reached Italy, the shock was devastating.
In Revelli's home province of Cuneo, the recruiting territory of
the annihilated Cuneense Division, some villages lost almost all
men of military age. The resulting rage and bitterness later fueled
the partisan war against the Germans and Italian fascists.
The veterans of "Mussolini's Death March" speak candidly of
nights in the open, of extreme cold, gnawing hunger, and eruptive
madness. Thousands who survived the Soviet onslaught were taken
prisoner and died on the so-called davai marches--named for Russian
guards' command to keep prisoners moving--or later in the camps
themselves. Even so, they developed a favorable impression of the
Russian people, who provided hospitality in their small houses and
aid to the wounded. Together, their recollections provide an
eye-opening look at a largely neglected aspect of World War II.
General
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