Italian Corps of Volunteer Troops (Corpo Truppe Volontarie, CTV)

I am fascinated by military history, well all history, since as long as I can possibly remember. As most readers know the military units in the war consisted of a wide array of nationalities, geographic originations, politics, and religious and non-religious participants. One group that made up the military forces of the Nationalists was the Italian Corps of Volunteer Troops (Corpo Truppe Volontarie, or CTV for short). Which was a mix of regular Italian troops and Blackshirt fascists.

I think since this is the first post on the CTV I a little background on the Corp is warranted. After the rebellion broke out the Mussolini offered assistance as did Germany and on September 3, 1936 Italian bombers bombed Madrid to show the power of Italy and Germany. However, it wasn’t until Franco’s failed offensive against Madrid December 12th, 1936 that it was determined by Mussolini that Italian regular troops were needed for the war. On December 23rd, 1936 3,000 members of the “Italian Army Mission” arrived a Cadiz. However, come January 1937 there were about 44,000 Italian regular Army and Blackshirt Fascist paramilitary in Spain and by March 1937 there were 50,000 Italians in Spain.

Now designated Corpo Truppe Volontarie (CTV) the force was organized into four divisions; 4th "Littorio" Infantry Division (Lictor) - A fully motorized infantry division of the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito), 1st "Dio lo Vuole" Blackshirt Infantry Division ("God wants it"), 2nd "Fiamme Nere" Blackshirt Infantry Division ("Black Flames"), and the 3rd "Penne Nere" Blackshirt Infantry Division ("Black Feathers"). The Blackshirt Divisions AKA Camicie Nere (CNN) contained both regular army and Blackshirt paramilitary members.

Battles and campaigns of the SCW the CTV participated in were:

1937

The Battle Of Malaga (3 February to 8 February): Decisive Nationalist victory. Italian casualties were about 74 killed, 221 wounded, and two missing in the battle.

Fourth Madrid Offensive and Battle Guadalajara (8 March to 23 March): Decisive Republican victory. Italian forces suffered heavy losses, which resulted in the 3rd CCNN Division being disbanded and consolidated with the 2nd CCNN Division in April 1937.

April to August: According to Wiki “As the CCNN Divisions were reduced, Italians began to serve in mixed Italo-Spanish Flechas ("Arrows") units where the Italians provided the officers and technical personnel, while the Spanish served in the rank-and-file. The first were the Flechas Azules (“Blue Arrows”) Mixed Brigade and the Flechas Negras (“Black Arrows”) Mixed Brigade that served respectively in Extremadura and Viscaya from April to August 1937. Also in Viscaya were the CTV's XXIII de Marzo Group and 11 Artillery Groups.”

Battle of Santander August to September: Decisive victory for the Nationalists.

October: After the northern campaigns, the 1st CCNN Division and 2nd CCNN Division were consolidated with the Division XXIII di Marzo and renamed the XXIII de Marzo - Llamas Negras Division.

1938

Aragon Offensive and the March to the Sea March: The Flechas Negras Brigade was expanded and became part of the Flechas Division "Arrows"

November: The Flechas Division was strengthened and renamed "Flechas Negras" and the Flechas Azules Brigade was expanded into two other Flechas Divisions that took part in the Catalonia Offensive which was the final offensive of the war. Now there were the Flechas Negras Division "Black Arrows", Flechas Azules Division "Blue Arrows", and the Flechas Verdes Division "Green Arrows".

1939

February: Following the Nationalist victory the Italian volunteers withdrew from Spain.

Loses for the Italians during the war, out of a total force of 78,500, were 2,989-3,819  killed and about 12,000 wounded. The majority of these were from the Catalan and Aragonese Offensives.

Though deaths are of course hard for a nation the financial cost of the war was devastating for the Italians with 14-20 percent of their annual expenditure being used during the war. Alas, one would think this would have been a lesson but as we know it wasn’t.

Stay tuned for the second part of this post where we look at a piece of postal history and delve further into the CTV.