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Page 5 of 11
Umberto in Libya
"Embarked in Naples, date 1 June, Ship Italia."
So starts the story by Umberto of his experience in the war.
"Disembarked in Tripoli in the early hours of the morning of 3 June."
Umberto arrived in Libya shortly before Italy entered the war. He remained in Tripoli until 18 June and is then moved with his Battalion to Cyrenaica at the border of Egypt.
"Stopped for several days in the surroundings of Derna at a place called Martub. Moved from Martub, 15 July to Porto Bardia."
Umberto remained in the area until 9 September
"Stopped for two days at Ponticello. At night of 11 September, we left walking to Fort Capuzzo where we arrived at dawn of 12 September.
Day 16-9-40 (16 Sept 1940) we moved from Capuzzo and the same day we walked to Solum."
Then the story is interrupted. Some blank pages follow. What was happening? Umberto does not tell of war operations but only of troop movements. The places mentioned are all near the Egyptian border, but still in the Italian Lybia.
The area of operations of war between 1940 and 1941
The Italian government's intention is clear. They are gathering troops on the border to attack Egypt, which was a British territory, and conquer it together with the very strategic and desired Suez Canal. On 19 August, despite the contrary opinion of some of his Generals, Mussolini declared the need to move the attack in North Africa. So in mid-September, and as also told by Umberto, the Italians reached Solum and on 16 September they conquered Sidi el Barrani. But Umberto did not go that far. He stopped at the rear with his Company, at Solum, some fifty kilometers from the front line.
The surroundings of Bardia where Umberto was located in 1940,
before he was captured in Bardia on 5 January 1941
Little happened for the next three months. Italy was preparing for the conquest of Alexandria and the Nile delta. But the British General O 'Connor, head of the Western Desert Force, on 9 December 1940 anticipated the expected Italian attack. He launched the so-called Compass Operation, which ended on 7 February 1941 with the temporary conquest of Cyrenaica by the British. At the end of the Operation, the 10th Italian “Armata” no longer existed. Of its 135,000 men only about 8000 could take refuge in Tripolitania.
Umberto’s story resumes some pages later, on 7 August 1940 with the description of enemy bombings and war operations, shortly before the Italian offensive to Egypt would have been ordered.
"Day 7 August 40. Enemy plane bombing when we were taking a bath in Porto Bardia.
Day 17 August 40. Bombing [from] enemy ship on our sector at P. Bardia, with shells 1.67 meters long, diameter 40.
Fortunately the one fallen in our midst did not explode.
Day 11 September. Plane bombing Ponticello.
Day 12 September 40. Plane bombing Capuzzo and enemy artillery on our sector. The same even on 12 at night.
Day 13 [September] 40. At dawn our artillery opened fire making 160 pieces sing, persistently directed to Solum. I remember with this action we broke through enemy lines and, immediately after, Solum was occupied by our infantry."
Umberto also recorded the Italian attack of 13 September, with 160 pieces of artillery shelling the enemy lines at Solum non-stop. This operation will lead to the conquest of Sidi el Barrani three days later on 16 September. But the British were not just watching, and Umberto remembered, among the consequences of enemy counterattack, the dead and injured people in those "days of sorrow".
"Day 14 [September] 40. Heavy enemy plane bombing on Capuzzo, causing 13 dead and many injured men. Among the dead men were three belonged to our Company.
Day 14. For me day of pain because I have seen several dead comrades.
Day 16-9-40. We moved from Fort Capuzzo to Solum.
Day 17-9-40 and night of 18. A heavy enemy plane bombing, little damage caused."
In the following months the situation comes, it is said, to a standstill.
"Day 25-10-40. Moved from Solum, encamped close to the 23rd Army Corp, in the area of Alfai.
There are no more bombings until the beginning of December 1940, when the British initiate the Compass Operation. Umberto writes:
"Day 12-12-40. Moved from Alfai, because enemy tanks were attacking us. We took four days to reach Bardia. For several days we kept to the front of Bardia. Taken prisoners on 4 January 1941 and a starving life began."
Thus in half of a little page of his diary, Umberto summarizes the first Italian withdrawal from Egypt, the fall of Bardia, and the beginning of his imprisonment with many of his comrades. In a single day, 4 January 1940, 30,000 Italian were taken prisoners at Bardia! When Umberto writes these annotations, the “starving life” had already begun!
Umberto’s notebook about the fall of Bardia
On 5 January 1941, the Corriere della Sera (the most important Italian journal) headlined on the first page "The battle of Bardia." But not even a word about the defeat. They spoke instead of "Fierce resistance of our troops", "Heavy losses inflicted to the enemy", and "Planes incessantly support the action". After all, this was the official version given by the Army General Quarter with the war bulletin n.211, which stated:
"Yesterday in the Cyrenaica border area, the enemy has attacked with forces from the land, sea and air and it restarted the great battle that lasted from 9 December. Our troops, under the command of General Bergonzoli, resisted with great strength, inflicting significant losses to the enemy. Planes incessantly supported the action by strafing and bombing enemy naval units, bases, troops and armored vehicles. The battle is still ongoing. Three of our aircraft did not return to base. "
Then they mention the Greek war front and the one in Eastern African; nothing else about Bardia. The day after the same Corriere della Sera headlines "The fierce battle on the front of Bardia." Again they report about losses inflicted to the enemy. The war bulletin n.213 speaks only of "one of our planes did not return."
Corriere della Sera – 5 January 1941
On 8 January 1941 the defeat of Bardia is a fact in history and the Corriere della Sera can no longer deny the obvious. A great headline across eight columns opens the first page: "Exaltation of the indomitable valor of troops fighting on all fronts". The entire first page of the newspaper is occupied by an account of the furious battle from 12 December based on "enemy sources", which highlight the value of Italian soldiers. In the end, the defeat is accepted and the paper concludes:
"A world not polluted by bad faith and perfidy should consider Bardia as a page of glory of the Italian Army."
So goes the usual rhetoric of war and the regime. But, in such a tragic moment for Italy, what else could they tell those families of so many young men committed to the war effort? While they write of their value and strong resistance, the tens of thousands of Italian soldiers captured in Bardia are already marching for several days towards their destiny of a long imprisonment. Among them there is Umberto Cofrancesco.
Italian soldiers made prisoners in Bardia
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