Italian Marines with 8-mm Breda M37 machine gun after landing in Sitia on the island of Crete.

Italian Marines 

Nisei (Nippo-American) soldier and Italian soldier of the 'salmerie' of CIL (Corpo Italiano di Liberazione = Italian Liberation Corps, the southern regular army fighting against Germans) caressing a mule. Summer 1944. DVX

Best friend of mountain troops

Ono of the last Italian ww2 top ace has died last november 8, aged 97.
Luigi Gorrini, (12 July 1917 – 8 November 2014) was a former Italian World War II fighter pilot in the Regia Aeronautica and in the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana. During the conflict he flew with the Corpo Aereo Italiano (CAI, Italian Air Corps) during the Battle of Britain, fought over Libya and Tunisia, and was involved in the defence of the Italian mainland. Gorrini was credited with 19 (24 according to some sources) enemy planes shot down plus 9 damaged, of several types: Curtiss P-40, Spitfire, P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, B-17 "Flying Fortress" and B-24 Liberator. He claimed his air victories flying the biplane Fiat C.R.42 and monoplanes Macchi C.202 and C.205 Veltro, and the Fiat G.55. Gorrini was the top scoring C.205 pilot. With the Veltro he shot down 14 enemy planes and damaged six more. He was the highest ranking Italian ace still alive until his death, and the only surviving fighter pilot awarded the Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare (Gold Medal of Military Valor). 
On 19 July 1943, during a single sortie west of Rome, during the famous Allied bombing of the Capital, Gorrini destroyed a four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber and a Lockheed P-38 Lightning (another P-38 was damaged). Next day, he claimed another P-38 destroyed and a P-38 damaged.
On august 28, 1943 Gorrini, still flying a Veltro, shot down two Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, in a single engagement. One wing of his C.205 was damaged after an overheating cannon muzzle exploded. After running out of gasoline, he glided back to his base for a powerless landing. On 29 August, he claimed two P-38s destroyed and two more damaged.
Gorrini has been awarded with a Medaglia d'oro al Valor Militare (in 1958), two of Bronzo, and German Iron Cross of First and Second Class. DVX

Italian top ace Gorrini dies aged 97

Another RSI female agent captured by the OSS, Giuliana di Fazio, alias Giuseppina di Cecca, alias...
DVX

Silver fox agent

The Ausiliarie were also used as agents of the Silver Foxes, the RSI secret service. Carla was one of these agents, name code Ghero 103, here in a POW photo-id.

Carla is arrested by the OSS October 22, 1944 near Pistoia while trying to fall within the CSR after a daring mission to Rome and Umbria.
For his work - write the Americans that had questioned her in Florence - she had been provided with "food pills" ( tablets of concentrated food ) , a pocket knife , money in large amounts, dextrose pills ( " Energen dextro " ) , German Chocolate , emergency rations , " confetti tonics " of a chemical company in Bologna, Emilia.
The Americans call her " one of the best agents of the German secret service and remarkable for his courage and intelligence as for his fanatical fascist zeal."

Ghero 103

Ausiliaria of the Padua Black Brigade "Danilo Mercuri". DVX

Black Brigade Ausiliaria

RSI Ausiliaria ready to leave backpacked. DVX

Time to leave

Ausiliarie welcoming soldiers in a refreshment room for troops. DVX

Welcomed

RSI Ausiliarie of the Turin Black Brigade "Augusto Cristina" receive the fascetti badges on the collar after their oath. DVX

Collar badge ceremony

Two Ausiliarie of the Marina Nazionale Repubblicana (RSI navy). DVX

Souvenir photo

Rightist partisans showing a captured Stg 44 and a Sten clearly parachuted by the Allies. Their Alpini caps and the blue (probably) neckerchieves indicate they are monarchist/liberal or (like the Fascists called them) "Badoglian" partisans. If communist/socialist or leftist they would have shown communist insinia, red stars and red neckerchieves. Probably this Stg was captured with a good amount of ammo, because talking with old partisans they said that this was a great weapon to capture but they've a big problem in it's use that was the absolute lack in their side of 7,92 mm ammo. DVX

Partisans with Stg 44

Policy mug shot of the future Duce, taken on the occasion of his expulsion from Switzerland in 1903 for ... Anarchist activities.  Mussolini sampled across the menu before deciding on his Order ... Best regards, JR.

Young Benito.

Benito Mussolini look a Regia Aeronautica’s Savoia-Marchetti SM.84 bomber and torpedo aircraft during its visit to Decimomannu airfield, Sardinia, 16 May 1942. Victor Sierra

The Duce looking

The Duce Benito Mussolini inspect a group of German serviceman during a visit in Sicily. The seaplane Cant-Z-506s in background suggest Augusta sea harbor near Syracuse. Date of the photo (Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2006-0102) June 16, 1942. Victor Sierra

Duce and Germans

Il Duce talking to a young guardiamarina (midshipman) during his review of the S. Marco division. Behind the Duce is just visible the Marshall Rodolfo Graziani. DVX

Talks to a guardiamarina

Il Duce inspects the marines of S. Marco division. Behind him General Aldo Princivalle, first commander of the unit. In background the Feldmarshall Wilhelm Keitel with another German high officer. DVX

S. Marco marines

Il Duce inspecting the marines division S. Marco in summer 1944. DVX

Il Duce inspecting the division S. Marco

Italian motorcyclist marksmen (Bersaglieri) from the 3rd Mobile Division of the Expeditionary Corps in the suburbs of Stalino, Soviet Union (today's Donetsk, Ukraine).


Bersaglieri

An alpino of the CIL (Italian Liberation Corp, the "Cobelligerant" army of southern Italy) awarded by Gen. Clark, probably after the Mignano-Montelungo battle or after the Monte Marrone battle. DVX

Awarded by the other new ally

Legionary Ermenegildo Mascitti awarded with Iron cross 1st and 2nd class on the Anzio-Nettuno front. Note the skull of the Arditi.
He was taken prisoner on may 25th 1944 and passed the rest of the war in a U.S. prison camp. DVX

Awarded by the ally

Élite Italian Bersaglieri in the Western Desert of North Africa, 1941, manning ... what, exactly, can anybody tell me ?  Maybe it is just the angle, but I am a bit foxed as to what this weapon is ?  Best regards, JR.

Bersaglieri in the Sand ...

Portrait of a Capomanipolo (Black Shirts 2nd Lt). DVX

Capomanipolo

A mortars company in a moment of pause in the Spanish countryside. DVX

Mortars company

CTV troops piling up weapons captured. DVX

Captured weapon

An L33 light tank of the CTV during the Spanish civil war. DVX

Italian Forces

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