ITALIAN WWII DESERT PATROL

The Kingdom of Italy entered World War II in 1940, with an armed conflict with France and Great Britain. The main type of Italian land armed forces was the infantry, which at the beginning of the war numbered 59 divisions. It is worth adding that the Italian infantry divisions in 1938 underwent a deep reorganization. A single division after such a reorganization was called from the Italian " divisione binaria ". This reorganization was based on the introduction of a division composed of two infantry regiments, instead of three, which was used, for example, in the German army. Moreover, the Italian infantry division also had (after 1938) support artillery regiments, a mortar battalion, an engineer battalion and a company of anti-tank guns. Of course, there were also staff and communications units, etc. A single Italian infantry regiment usually consisted of 3 or 5 battalions. Support weapons in the Italian regiment were: 24 heavy machine guns, 108 light machine guns, 6 81 mm mortars, 54 45 mm light mortars and 4 65 mm light infantry guns (Cannone da 65/17). The artillery regiment was equipped with 36 100 and 75 mm guns. Most often they had horse traction. It is worth adding that the divisions stationed in Libya had a slightly different structure, as they had three infantry regiments (each with an artillery company) and an artillery regiment, however, consisting of only 77 mm guns. Such a division consisted of about 7,400 people. In the course of the fighting in North Africa, efforts were made to increase the motorisation of Italian infantry divisions, but with only a limited effect.