Product details
- ISBN 9781846035050
- Weight: 242g
- Dimensions: 180 x 244mm
- Publication Date: 10 Jan 2010
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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This book documents the experiences of the Italian armed Fascist militia, the Camicie Nere (Blackshirts), from the Italian–Ethiopian war of 1935–36, through the Spanish Civil War to the end of World War II.
The Blackshirt legions were raised under army control from 1928, and were employed in 1933 in Libya in counterinsurgency operations against the Senussi tribes; from 1935 in Italy's war against Ethiopia; and during the Spanish Civil War. Following the outbreak of World War II, the Blackshirts fought in North Africa, Greece, Croatia, on the Eastern Front and finally in Italy itself following the Allied invasion.
It explores their origins, development, recruitment, training, conditions of service, uniforms and equipment, battle experience, political and ideological motivation.
Pier Paolo Battistelli earned his PhD in military history at the University of Padua. A scholar of German and Italian politics and strategy throughout World War II, he is active in Italy and abroad writing titles and essays on military history subjects. He is a contributor to the Italian Army Historical Office and has written numerous books for Osprey.
Piero Crociani acts as a consultant for the Italian Army Historical Branch and is the author of several articles, essays and books on Italian military history. Amongst his published works are The Albanians in the Italian Armed Forces (Rome, 2001) and The Neapolitan Army 1806–15 (Milan, 1987).
Entirely self-taught, Giuseppe Rava has established himself as a leading military history artist.
