Italian gunners man their light field piece in a field of Tunisian cactus, on March 31, 1943. 

Italian gunners

Play of light over this Italian fighter Fiat CR.42 reading to taxiing. Unit and location unknown. Note in front of the pilot the gun sight and beneath of the cockpit the large Fascio Littorio, the Fascist emblem (axe’s blade silver, rods bundle brown, background sky-blue), fixed by an ordering of 25 February 1927 into effect from 1 March 1927. Victor Sierra



Light and shade

Troopers of the 3rd Regiment "Savoia Cavalleria" on the move in Russia.  On 24 October, 1942 at Isbuscensky, while far from support from the rest of their Division (Celere Division "Principe Amadeo d'Aosta) some 650 cavaliers of 3rd Regiment, under the command of Colonel Count Alessandro Bettoni de Cazzago (a former Olympic horseman), supported by their machine-gun squadron, launched a full-scale sabre charge (frontal and flank) on a Soviet Red Army force of some 2,000 Siberian infantrymen.  The charge broke the Soviet line; after a fierce fight (much of it conducted by Italian troopers on foot), the Soviet force was routed, leaving a substantial number of dead and some 500 prisoners in Italian hands.  The unfortunate Soviets were, no doubt, not in the best of morale as they were in the rearguard of a retreat to the Don at the time; also, they can hardly have been expecting a charge from horsed cavalry.  Nonetheless, the achievement of 650 cavalry in defeating a well-organised infantry force armed with modern weapons by means of a conventional sabre charge demands the highest respect.  This is the sort of thing that was regarded as next to impossible, even in Napoleon's time.  At the very least, it ranks high on the gallantry scale for any war.  With respect, JR.