4 Alpine Division Cuneense - Italian Participation in The Eastern Front

Italian Participation in The Eastern Front

In September 1942 the “Cuneense” was sent with the Alpini divisions Julia and Tridentina and other Italian units to the Soviet Union to form the Mountain Corps of the Italian Army in Russia (Armata Italiana in Russia, or ARMIR) and fight alongside the Germans against the Red Army. Taking up positions along the Don river the Italian units covered part of the left flank of the German Sixth Army, which spearheaded the German summer offensive of 1942 into the city of Stalingrad.

After the Red Army successfully encircled the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad during Operation Uranus, Soviet attention turned to the Italian and Hungarian units along the Don. On 13 January 1943 the Soviet offensive Operation Little Saturn began and the three Alpini divisions found themselves quickly encircled by the rapidly advancing armoured forces of Soviet General Filipp Golikov's Voronezh Front. The Alpinis held the front on the river Don, but within three days the Soviets advanced 200km to the left and right of the Alpini. On the evening of 17 January the commanding officer of the corps General Gabriele Nasci finally ordered a full retreat. At this point the Julia and Cuneense divisions were already heavily decimated and only the Tridentina division was still capable of conducting combat operations.

The 40,000 men strong mass of stragglers - Alpinis and Italians from other commands, plus various Germans and Hungarians - formed two columns, that followed the Tridentina division, supported by a handful of German armoured vehicles, which led the way westwards to the new Axis front. On 24 January the Cuneense formed its own column and marched south of the Tridentina division. As the Soviets had already occupied every village bitter battles had to be fought to clear the way. On the morning of 28 January the division had walked 200km, fought 20 battles, lost 80% of its men and spent 11 nights camped out in the middle of the Russian Steppe. Temperatures during the nights were between -30°C and -40°C. During the 28th the last remnants of the division were annihilated by Cossack forces. The last survivors of the 1st Alpini regiment burned the regiment's flag to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. The Cuneense then ceased to exist.

On 11 February 1943 the count of the survivors gave the following result:

• 1st Alpini Regiment out of 5,206 men: 722 survivors; none of the soldiers of the battalions Ceva, Pieve di Teco and Mondovì survived.
• 2nd Alpini Regiment out of 5,206 men: 208 survivors; none of the soldiers of the battalions Borgo San Dalmazzo and Saluzzo survived.
• 4th Alpine Artillery Regiment out of 3,897 men: 379 survivors; none of the soldiers of the Artillery Group Mondovì survived.
• 4th Mixed Engineer Battalion out of 1,240 men: 139 survivors
• Support units out of 1,313 men: 159 survivors

In total 1,607 men of the division's total of 17,460 survived Operation Little Saturn.