At its peak the Italian Army contributed 2.5 million troops to the Axis war effort. In addition to its major role in North Africa, Italy's army invaded, and later bore the main burden of occupying, the Balkan countries. Italy also sent 250,000 men to fight on the Russian Front. In this second book of a three-part study Philip Jowett covers the organisation, uniforms and insignia of the Italian troops committed to both the North African campaign, and the often neglected East African fighting of 1940-41, including the colourful colonial units. Stephen Andrew's meticulous colour plates illustrate a wide range of uniforms.

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Product Description

At its peak the Italian Army contributed 2.5 million troops to the Axis war effort. In addition to its major role in North Africa, Italy's army invaded, and later bore the main burden of occupying, the Balkan countries. Italy also sent 250,000 men to fight on the Russian Front. In this second book of a three-part study Philip Jowett covers the organisation, uniforms and insignia of the Italian troops committed to both the North African campaign, and the often neglected East African fighting of 1940-41, including the colourful colonial units. Stephen Andrew's meticulous colour plates illustrate a wide range of uniforms.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #592239 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-25
• Released on: 2001-01-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

From the Publisher
Packed with specially commissioned artwork, maps and diagrams, the Men-at-Arms series is an unrivalled illustrated reference on the history, organisation, uniforms and equipment of the world's military forces, past and present.

About the Author
Philip S. Jowett was born in Leeds in 1961, and has been interested in military history for as long as he can remember. Before beginning his series on the Italian Army of World War II he was the author of the much praised Men-at-Arms 306 Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49. A rugby league enthusiast and amateur genealogist, he is married and lives in Leeds.

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Customer Reviews

Not all Italians have big noses!
Osprey's "Men-at-Arms" series follows a predictable format. There is some brief history, description of equipment, and the color "centerfold" illustrations of the soldiers in their uniforms with the described gear, and so on... This book with the other companion volumes about the Italian Army in WW2 is reasonably written but a bit dry. However, the illustrator,Stephen Andrew, though he did a nice job on the uniforms and gear, has depicted the men wearing those nicely done uniforms with cartoonish, huge-nosed, swarthy faces who all rather look alike. As an artist, I was vexed by this glaring defect in the illustration, and was considering whether or not the illustrator had done this intentionally as some sort of jab at Italians or just a lack of effort. One merely by browsing photographs of Italians will see that Mr. Andrew's idea of an Italian face is bizarre. And for those who are interested primarily in the soldier's gear and organization of the Italian Army of WW2 Rex Tyre's "Mussolini's Soldiers" is a better choice.

Participation of the italian army in second world war
This book splain very well the participation of the italian army in the second world war in the theater of north afrika, the drawings is good but I think that they wil be more detailed, the test is good and show how was hard the figthing against the english because they have lack of suplies, power and leadership.

Waste of money
98% of this thin book is about how many buttons a certain uniform had on it and what type of boots a certain unit wore. Almost nothing about the Italian Army of WWII was in it. A more appropriate title would have been "The Uniforms of the Italian Army 1940-45: Africa".