Italian 25 Infantry Division Bologna

The 25th "Bologna" Division was raised as an infantry division. It was stationed in Tripolitania and was sent to Libya for the invasion of Egypt. It fought in North Africa until it was destroyed in El Alamein.

Order of battle (May 1942)

39th Bologna Infantry Regiment

40th Bologna Infantry Regiment

205th Artillery Regiment

4th Anti-Aircraft Battery

437th Anti-Aircraft Battery

25th Engineer Battalion

73rd Carabinieri Company

135th Motorized Transport Company

96th Field Hospital

528th Field Hospital

66th Surgical Unit

308th Field Ambulance

Although the Australian and New Zealand Official Histories of the Second World War reflect very poorly on the Italian units, the 25th "Bologna" Infantry Division during November and December 1941 repelled a number of strong British tank-infantry assaults against their defensive positions around the fortress at Tobruk, Libya. An Italian war correspondent from from the front spoke of British attacks from Tobruk as "always beating against the unbreakable barrier" formed by the 39th and 40th Infantry Regiments of the "Bologna" Division. In the determined attack of 21 November by the British 2nd Black Watch Regiment the Italian unit survived largely intact the British onslaught and there were 200 British dead. [http://www.blackwatch.50megs.com/tobruk.html]

Having dismissed the Italian infantry division, Private Sid Martindale, 1st Battalion Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, meanwhile noted that the 25th "Bologna" Infantry Division who in the final battle at El Alamein had taken the full weight of the British armoured attack had fought bravely: "The more we advanced the more we realized that the Italians did not have much fight on them after putting up a strong resistance to our overwhelming advance and they started surrendering to our lead troops in droves. There was not much action to see but we came across lots of burnt out Italian tanks that had been destroyed by our tanks. I had never seen a battle field before and the site of so many dead was sickening." [http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Sid/pages/chapter9.html] The "Bologna" Division, tried to fight their way out of Alamein and marched in the desert without water, food or transport before surrendering exhausted and dying from dehydration. [http://books.google.com/books?id=Hn9chmb3PSEC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=italian+bologna+division+without+water+alamein&source=web&ots=LkjtGmvTR5&sig=TUKc0x-HNLonh3Y7367EOwLyQCo Watson (2007), p.27] It was reported that Colonel Dall'Olio, commanding the "Bologna", surrendered saying, "We are not firing because we haven't the desire but because we have spent every round." In a symbolic act of final defiance no one in the "Bologna" raised their hands."