Corpo Truppe Volontarie

The Corpo Truppe Volontarie (Division of Volunteer Troops) was an Italian expeditionary force which was sent to Spain to support Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

Soon after the beginning of civil war in Spain, Benito Mussolini decided to give the Spanish Nationalists his help. At the beginning of civil war most of elite Nationalist forces were situated in Spanish Morocco and the Canary Islands. Smaller parts of the Nationalist rebels and Guardia Civil forces which were situated in the military districts of Pamplona, Saragossa, Oviedo, Salamanca, Ávila, Segovia and Cadiz. These fought with pro-government miltias, Guardia Assault Forces and the parts of the army which were loyal to the Leftist Popular Front Government. Making the situation very difficult for the Nationalists, the Spanish airforce and navy declared their loyalty to the government. The situation was clear that if rebellious forces in Spain proper didn't get help from elite forces from Morocco, the rebellion would easily be put down. Franco and the other leaders sent emissaries to Rome and Berlin, calling for help. Mussolini decided to send planes and pilots to Morocco to support and transport nationalist forces from Morocco to the peninsula, allowing the Nationalists to take the initiative on the Iberian Peninsula. The Italians used Spanish Nationalist and also Portuguese harbours as staging points for sending supplies to the pro-Nationalist forces and also for landing troops to support the Nationalist rebellion. Italian submarines began to blatantly (and illegally under international law) sink Spanish, Soviet and other nations' ships which were transporting materials to Republican harbours. The Italian navy stopped attacking ships transporting supplies to the Republicans following the Treaty of Nyon on the 16 August.

3 IX 1936 Republican forces under command of Captain Alberto Bayo from Catalonia made a landing operation on Majorca. His formations were the target of Italian air forces which attacked on 24 October. On the same date, Italian bombers and fighters made their first flight to Madrid. This flight was intended to demonstrate to the Republican forces in Madrid the power of Franco's allies. In the following days, they began bombing raids on the Spanish capital.

2 XI: Italian and German bombers with escorts were attacked by Russian planes which were named "Chatos" by the Spanish and this resulted in some losses of planes.

XII December: 1936 After the collapse of Franco's offensive on Madrid, Mussolini, after consulting with Ciano and Roatta (two of the most influential generals in Italy at the time), decided to send regular army forces to Spain.

22 December: The first formations which were made up of 3000 soldiers landed in Cadiz. They were named as Italian Army Mission.

At the time of January 1937, 44,000 Italian soldiers and members of the Fasci di Combattimiento fought in Spain. By the end of February, they were named the Corpo Truppe Volontarie. They were organised into 4 Italian divisions and two mixed Italo-Spanish brigades. The "Littorio" division was a regular Italian army division which was also fully motorized. Divisions "Dio lo Vuole" (In English "God wants it"), "Fiamme Nere" (in English "Black Flames"), "Penne Nere" (in English "Black Feathers"). These contained regular soldiers and volunteers from the Fascist party or people who were lied to by officers that they were being sent to Africa to make a movie or for work. These were semi-motorised. The Italian Corps had special weapons such as tanks, armoured cars, 10 divisions of field artillery, antitank artillery and 4 batteries of aa artillery. At the beginning of March, the "Corpo Truppe Volontarie" contained over 50 thousand soldiers.

8 February 1937: Italian corps along with Nationalist army formations captured Malaga. Mussolini decided that his own forces would begin a fourth offensive on Madrid which is known in history as Battle of Guadalajara. 8- 11 March: Fascist offensive 12-18 March: Republican counter-offensive

Republican forces won the series of battles. Out of all 4 divisions which were in corps, only Littorio division didn't have heavy losses. The other three got such heavy losses that they were organised into 2 divisions and a group of special weapons. Until the end of the civil war the commanders of the Italian Corps didn't organize their own offensives. The Commander of the Condor Legion (Germany's air support for the Nationalists), General Sperrle, commanded the Italian airforce in Spain.

18 March 1938: Barcelona was a target of 13 Italian large-scale air strikes. The Italian planes were armed with fire and gas bombs, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Following the victory of Franco and the Nationalist side over the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, Italian troops withdrew from Spain.

Bibliography

• Leon Wyszczelski "Madryt 1936-1937" Historical Battles published by Ministry of National Defence, Warsaw 1988

• Some information about Italian forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War can be found in the books of Luigi Longo. He was one of the men who organised the International Brigades.

• Some information about the Italian army was taken from internet site "La Cucaracha": Civil War in Spain 1936-1939. The address of this site is: lacucaracha.info