Posted on 05/07/2008 6:30:16 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Premier Mussolini showed his land forces to Chancellor Hitler yesterday in an impressive display in Rome. The German leader was cordially but not enthusiastically cheered. The soldiers paraded with the goose-step, but it was evidently not liked. The mechanized units and chemical warfare regiment created a strong impression. An audience of 100,000 attended an open-air concert given for Hitler.
Virginio Gayda, Fascist editor, criticized Secretary of War Woodring’s speech, asserting that his remarks seemed deliberately hostile to Rome. In Tokyo a spokesman “regretted” statement made by responsible persons that tended to harm relations between two powers.
Britain and France were expected to make immediate moves to check the tension over Czechoslovakia. It was reported Germany would be asked to help abate the demands of the Sudeten party and be warned against rough action, and that Prague would be advised to make concessions.
On the Fuehrer’s right, beyond Il Duce, were the Italian princesses; at his left, beyond the King, was a very regal Italian Queen. Behind were ranged high officials of the King’s court and the most important dignitaries in the Italian Government. In many respects, and not the least in temperament, it was study in contrasts.
In the adjoining grandstands were foreign military attaches, the German military, naval and air officials Hitler brought with him, the elite of Roman society and a few merely historic personages. Former King Alfonso of Spain and former King Amanullah of Afghanistan were prominent figures in the front row.
The Italian Army is not the German Army either in size or efficiency,. Nevertheless, Hitler evidently was impressed by what he saw, as, indeed, were the other onlookers. On parade the new Italian Army has all the characteristics of a perfectly attuned machine and its equipment is excellent.
It presented some innovations today. There was a battalion of khaki-clad, sun-helmeted colonial police who are really soldiers; a new frontier guard equipped with skis, alpenstocks, ice axes and snowshoes; three squadrons of native colonial cavalry in scarlet cloaks and white burnouses or gaudy blue and red uniforms. They all made an excellent showing, especially the colonial police.
The greater part of the regular infantry taking part and some fascist militia regiments, including boys of approximately 18 years from the military training academies, marched past with the goose step that Mussolini brought back from Germany last autumn and called the Roman step.
They did it very well. Yet it was quite evident that neither to the participants nor to the onlookers was this a quite pleasing innovation. If the late John W. Gates, if by any legerdemain his spirit could have been brought back from wherever it may be at present to witness the goose stepping today, he would certainly have been willing to bet a million against a large red apple that the army hates it.
The Italian soldiers stepped it with tight mouths and set chins. The highway rang and the grandstands trembled as the heavy boots of the passing battalions came down hard on the pavement. In fact, the boots came down too heavily.
The Italian soldier has not yet learned the German soldier’s knack of providing the most display for the least physical shock. Consequently sore feet and jarred spinal columns are common ailments tonight in the parading regiments.
Perhaps 50,000 persons watched the review. Hitler, when he appeared with the King, was received with cordial but not overwhelming cheers and much of the cheering was for the King. But when Mussolini joined them there was a roar that completely drowned out the previous mild acclaim.
Il Duce deprecated the outburst with a stern wave of his hand, motioning toward his guest as the proper recipient. He was in high good humor throughout the review, joking with Hitler and his other neighbors, directing the band when to play and when to cease, waving down the applause whenever it tended, as often it did, to become personal to himself.
Fascist youth, beginning with a battalion of bare-legged Balilla, all apparently under 12 years old, and progressing to rifle-bearing lads of 14 to 18, led the march past. Then came two battalions, each 500 strong, of uniformed girls marching in ranks as even as the men.
Then two labor battalions in blue denim overalls with spades shouldered Nazi fashion, an excellently drilled battalion from the Men’s Physical Culture Institute; then the fascist militia.
Double battalions of naval and air force cadets and a battalion of carabineers, all goose-stepping, followed, and then the army proper, led by a regiment of grenadiers, took up the march. A regiment of Alpine infantry, lineal successors to the red-shirted Garibaldi volunteers – although the former red shirts are now modified to red neck ties – came next and after them Mussolini’s own black-clad bodyguard. Then came the new frontier guard, those not equipped with skis or snowshoes wearing loose hot-weather khaki jackets.
Several batteries of mountain artillery, the guns packed in sections on muleback, were a picturesque feature of this part of the parade. Another was provided by a company of mere boys, from the naval training school, hauling 3-inch guns. At the sound of their commander’s whistle they halted in front of the tribune, assembled and loaded their pieces and went through the motions of firing. Then they dismounted their guns and went on their way.
The second half of the parade was devoted to the mechanized units. A strong impression of efficiency was left by it. Four hundred baby tanks, each carrying twin machine guns and a crew of two came first traveling four abreast in companies averaging fifty each. These tanks are being utilized by the Italian Army as its modern cavalry. They can attain a speed of fifty miles an hour.
A regiment of engineers filling forty armored trucks, twenty men to a truck and equipped with searchlights, radio and all the necessary signaling appliances, was followed by a chemical warfare regiment, the most sinister looking organization in the parade. The men in the first trucks all wore gas masks. The trucks next in line carried flame throwers and their crews were completely shrouded in long asbestos coats, sou’westers and face protectors. There were twenty of these crews of flame throwers.
In motorized artillery the parade was especially strong. A battalion of anti-aircraft guns filled thirty-six trucks, a gun and its crew to a truck. Four regiments of field artillery followed, equipped with every caliber of weapon – available apparently in unlimited quantity – from three-inch to eight-inch guns and howitzers of even larger caliber.
A regiment of picturesque Bersaglieri moving at their traditional dog trot with bugles blowing and a regiment of horse-drawn field artillery, the new fascist cavalry and regular cavalry – dragoons and lancers – and mounted native colonial troops came at the end of the parade.
It closed with still another innovations – a company of Bersaglieri mounted on motorcycles, a machine gun on each.
Official figures on men, animals and material in the parade are, 30,500 men 2,500 horses and mules, 920 motor vehicles, 400 armed cars (tanks), 200 mortars and 600 guns.
It would be misleading to fail to record that this aggregation made a deep impression upon those who beheld it. Mussolini’s evident happiness over the military might that his country was thus able to demonstrate to its German ally deepened that impression. It is further strengthened by the comment on the review in tonight’s Giornale d’Italia, whose editor, Virgino Gayda, generally regarded as the mouthpiece of the Fascist Government, writes:
“All competent military observers concede that despite anything the pen pushers on the other side of the Alps my say the two war tests that Italy has undergone since the World War – the one in Africa and the one in Spain – far from impoverishing Italian spirit and material have raised Italy’s war potential. Armed forces are created for war and it is in war, not in academic parades, that spirits and arms are forged and tempered. The new experiences of actual war have permitted Italian arms and their commanders to bring materials, systems and formations up to date.
“The new ideal of a swift war of rapid decision announced by Mussolini in his Senate speech of March 30, today inspires the whole of Italy’s preparations for war.
“Here is Italy’s decisive force, inspiring fear in her enemies, precious for her friends. It is well that the world should have an exact notion of Italy’s capacity for swift intervention. The world is still at a loss and misled. False pastors of peace are driving it criminally to war.”
After the review Hitler lunched at the German Embassy. He then visited the exhibition now being held in celebration of the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of Augustus, illustrating the various phases of the political, economic and social life of the Roman Empire. Afterward he attended a reception in the capital given by the Governor of Rome.
Tonight 100,000 persons attended an open-air concert at Villa Borghese Park given in Hitler’s honor. He sat with the Italian King and Queen and Mussolini in a specially built central tribune. The concert was declared the largest ever given anywhere in the world.
Four thousand musicians, chosen from Italy’s best bands after rigorous tests, and a chorus of 6,000 voices took part under the baton of Maestro Marinuzzi of the Royal Opera House. They occupied a semicircular stage, which is, perhaps, the largest ever built.
The concert was comprised wholly of music by massed bands and choruses. Afterward 800 couples from the most picturesque of Italy’s peasant regions danced the Saltarello, the popular folk dance common to all sections of the country. The music for it was provided by 900 accordion players, also wearing the costumes of their regions. Streams of multi-colored lights in the meantime played over the scene.
The spectacle terminated with a new edition of the historic pageant of royal carabineers, in which a great mass of performers appeared in ancient costumes.
Closing the museums has provoked the circulation of a number of unfounded reports, among which is one that Hitler expressed a desire to visit them in the capacity of a private citizen and the Pope deliberately snubbed him by ordering them closed.
Though there can be no doubt of the Pope’s intention of showing his strong disapproval of Hitler, the explanation of the step given in the Vatican is somewhat different. It is said there, unofficially, that the Pope objected to seeing the museums overrun by a large number of swastika-bearing visitors in Rome for Hitler’s visit, therefore he decided to keep them out by closing the doors till the reason for their presence in Rome has been removed.
This was the second distinct snub administered by the Pope to Adolf Hitler in connection with his visit to Rome. The first was the Pontiff’s decision to go to Castel Gandolfo ahead of his usual time, although his Summer residence is not so comfortable at this season of the year. Before he went, rumors had been spread that Hitler would pay a visit to him and that an attempt would be made by the German leader to mitigate the controversy between the Nazis and the Vatican.
Last Wednesday the Pope, speaking to 436 newly married couples, regretted the flying in Rome “of a cross that is not the cross of Christ.”
Previously he had shown his determination not to countenance the activities of the Nazis when he called Cardinal Innitzer to Vatican City after that prelate had announced his approval of the annexation of Austria. It was reported he had rebuked the Cardinal for his support of the Nazis.
It is understood that the order calls for 12,000 of these weapons at a cost of nearly $8,000,000. About 5,000 of the guns will cross the Atlantic for use in the British Army and the rest will equip the Canadian militia.
This is the first time Canada has received an opportunity to make munitions for Britain in peace time, although during the war the Dominion filled large munitions orders.
The British delegation now in the United States seeking factories where they may place orders for planes is expected to visit Canada. It is possible that ultimately Canadian plants will be engaged in making planes for Britain. For the past two years the Canadian Defense Department , in a hurry to get its two-year $70,000,000 program completed, has tried in vain to get certain types of planes made in Britain. The British plants were preoccupied with British Government orders which had priority.
The contract for the Bren guns will be on a cost plus basis with the Canadian and the British Government s cooperating in providing the machinery. Eventually other orders will be given to the Toronto firm. Already some Canadian steel plants have been filling orders for shell casings for the British Government.
Reports from Ottawa are to the effect that the Canadian Government plans to take over complete control of the John Inglis Company with the idea of its ultimate conversion into a Canadian arsenal.
I’ll pass on reviewing this one...
There is a typo in the title. These events, of course, were seventy years ago.
This paragraph caught my attention even though I did not know who John W. Gates was (John Warne Gates (May 18, 1855–August 9, 1911), also known as "Bet-a-Million" Gates, was a pioneer promoter of barbed wire who became a Gilded Age industrialist.) or what legerdemain means (legerdemain \lej-ur-duh-MAIN\, noun: 1. Sleight of hand. 2. A display of skill, trickery, or artful deception.).
They did it very well. Yet it was quite evident that neither to the participants nor to the onlookers was this a quite pleasing innovation. If the late John W. Gates, if by any legerdemain his spirit could have been brought back from wherever it may be at present to witness the goose stepping today, he would certainly have been willing to bet a million against a large red apple that the army hates it.
You don’t run across this kind of journalism these days.
The main article is followed by stories about what the Pope thought of Hitler’s visit and where Bren machine guns are to be manufactured.
Soldiers who make good parades - usually don’t win battles..
FWIW, I have an Inglis/Browning Hi-Power. Same company that made the Bren MG during the war. It’s chambered in 9mm.
86 seconds. I’m impressed.
Italian infantry rifle. Never fired, dropped once.
Battle-ready units never pass inspection & Inspection-ready units never ‘pass’ battle.
The French army looked good on parade, too. The Italians may have looked good for the show, but I suspect the military insiders in the UK knew to not fear the Italians.
Their equipment was substandard (the M-13 tank was an iron coffin), the artillery was horse-drawn and of WW1 vintage. There as a lack of motor transport, and the Italians had few modern technological advancements. For example, none of their warships had radar, which made them highly vulnerable to the Royal Navy in night engagements.
Italian industry was not capable of building better equipment or even making what they had in sufficient quantities to support prolonged military operations.
Worse yet, the Italian soldier knew his equipment was junk, and had no stomach to fight; what were they fighting for?
It was all a facade. When Hitler called on Mussolini for actual support in September 1939, Mussolini declared Italy was not prepared to fight and gave Hitler a list of raw material demands that Mussolini knew full well that Hitler could not provide.
But it takes a lot of practice to play Retreat on the bugle while running to the rear. That doesn't leave much time for target practice.
A regiment of picturesque Bersaglieri moving at their traditional dog trot with bugles blowing . . . came at the end of the parade.
Please don’t ever change the title. There’s nothing so deeply satisfying as driving Obsessive Compulsives nuts.
Youse maka a funny?
Actually, one can see Italian Army rifles from that era being advertised in Shotgun New, a shooting industry publication.
German and British rifles are there for various amounts, starting at $125 and up.
Soviet infantry rifles start about $75. (All in wholesale quantities) Our beloved Garand M-1 is never seen for less that $500 approximately.
But for the budget conscious, the Italian rifle is usually about $50 to $60.
“Virginio Gayda, Fascist editor”
Lefty journalists haven’t changed in seven decades, and neither have their risible names.
An Army only effective against Ethiopians armed with bows and arrows, and spears.
Nice phrase.
Oswald bought his "mail order" in the early sixties for around $17 and change. I don't think that included the optics. It seemed to work well enough in Dallas.
Regards,
GtG
The Ethiopian Army was a joke. The Italians were abysmal at fighting the Greeks, in the Balkans and later in Italy proper.
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