The Divisions of the Army of the RSI 1943-1945 by Paolo Crippa and Carlo Cucut

The full title would not fit, so the rest is "1st Bersaglieri Division 'Italia' and 2nd Grenadiers Division 'Littorio'"

Length: 98 pages

This is another of the Soldiershop books on Italy's war effort. These two divisions were raised from Italian POWs in Germany from 1943, as well as loyalists to Mussolini. We are told about their training in Germany and transfer, by rail, road and foot, from training to their homeland. There are several nice black and white pictures of the units in Germany, with Mussolini visiting the 1st Division in training, and with the troops in the line.

The 1st Division was stationed in early 1945 facing the U.S. Fifth Army, as well as dealing with partisans. The 2nd Division was sent to the Franco-Italian border to hold the sliver of land they'd taken in 1940.

We get the order of battle of each division, as well as how their paper strength was supposed to be as opposed to how many they did muster, as well as shortfalls in equipment.

The pictures are the best thing. I especially love one pic on page 43 which shows Mussolini's crazy eyes.

The worst thing, as happens with other things from this publisher, is the translation to English leaves something to be desired, and we find some things don't even get translated, and you have to guess from context that they're talking, for instance, about a hill, when it says "quota".

Overall this tells you a great deal about these forgotten units, and I give it 3 stars out of 5.