Italian Troops in the Balkans - Did any serve with the Greek Division

[tn.drummond]

Short and sweet this...

Did the Italians send any troops to the Balkan theatre and if so did they serve with the Greek division ?

All contributions gratefully received with a source for further reading being viewed as an added bonus.

Many thanks

Suddery

[Rockdoc]

There were Italian troops serving in the Entente forces on the Macedonian Front, 35th Division arriving at Salonika on 11th August 1916.

There are few books on this campaign but the Italian presence is mentioned in:

• Military Operations - Macedonia Part 2 (available from Naval & Military Press)
  
• Under The Devil's Eye, Alan Wakefield and Simon Moody (available from Amazon)
  
• The Gardeners of Salonika, Alan Palmer (available from Amazon)
  

Keith

[centurion]

There were Italian troops serving in the Entente forces on the Macedonian Front, 35th Division arriving at Salonika on 11th August 1916.

There are few books on this campaign but the Italian presence is mentioned in:

• Military Operations - Macedonia Part 2 (available from Naval & Military Press)
  
• Under The Devil's Eye, Alan Wakefield and Simon Moody (available from Amazon)
  
• The Gardeners of Salonika, Alan Palmer (available from Amazon)
  

Keith

Somewhere I've seen a photo of them being welcomed to the theatre.

[centurion]

Ishobel Ross, diary entry while in Salonika (25th August, 1916)

We can hear the guns more distinctly today, it is such a gruesome sound. We have still had no word of moving. I was in town this afternoon with Woody and Adam. We saw a whole regiment of Italian troops marching up Venizelos Street, Cavalry and Infantry. They looked splendid, and one little man standing besides me, I presume he was an Italian, quite lost his head. He was so excited he jumped up and down as if he were on a spring! The troops were cheered by the crowd that always seemed to gather from nowhere when marching feet were heard. It is extraordinary the number of soldiers of different nationalities that you see in the town.

Spartacus Educational

I think that these are Italians in Salonika

[Kate Wills]

Suddery,

A read of Italian intelligence officer Luigi Villari's memoir The Macedonian Campaign should help. Luckily, it is available as a free online text

http://archive.org/details/macedoniancompai00villuoft

[tn.drummond]

Many thanks one and all. Just what I wanted.

Best regards

Suddery

[tn.drummond]

Suddery,

A read of Italian intelligence officer Luigi Villari's memoir The Macedonian Campaign should help. Luckily, it is available as a free online text

http://archive.org/d...ompai00villuoft

This is a little gem Kate (a wonderful passage is to be found on Italian abstinence) written with patriotic gusto.

Seems the Italian contribution in Macedonia was far greater than I suspected, they left 2841 killed there and suffered an additional 5353 wounded - no trifle.

Again, thanks.

Suddery

[Kate Wills]

Glad you enjoyed it Suddery. It is refreshing to have a fresh perspective through Italian eyes. He is very complimentary about the British, and needless to say I welcomed his observations on British entertainmentments.

[KGB]

I googled it, Italians at Salonika and also Palestine.

[centurion]

I googled it, Italians at Salonika and also Palestine.

I think parts of one of the mortars they used in Palestine are still in the Citadel in Cairo.

[centurion]

Here it is