World War II Database

The Camicie Nere para-military organization, known as the "Blackshirts" in English, was created in the late 1920s but its roots dated back to the days immediately after WW1. When Benito Mussolini rose to power in 1922, it was Blackshirt troops who spearheaded his entrance into Rome. Alongside of the Italian Army, Blackshirt Legionario fought insurgents in Italian colonies in North Africa and defeated the Abyssinian forces in East Africa. Success slowed as they fought in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, however, and by the time they ventured into the Balkan Peninsula during the early years of WW2 and later marched across Soviet borders, the tides of war turned against them. The Italian Blackshirt 1935-45 not only detailed the history of this national militia's rise and fall, but it also provided information on the men's WW2-era uniforms, weapons, equipment, training, belief, and organization, all of which spanned across the pre-1943 Axis-aligned Italy and post-1943 Italy that was effectively in a state of civil war. The ability for the two co-authors to gain access to previously untranslated primary sources made this book a good source to learn about this very organization that had not been written about too often. Typical of a book in Osprey's "Warrior" series, the text was supplemented by a collection of photographs and illustrations; some of the former came from the authors' own private collections thus had not been published before. Although Italy had not played as critical a role in the war as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had wanted, which lessened the impact of Blackshirts in WW2, the organization was still an important part of the military history of Italy.

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