The most famous cavalry charge of the Second World War is certainly the one carried out by the Savoia Cavalleria in Isbuschenskij , in the Russian steppes, on August 24, 1942 . The importance of the fact of arms had both a psychological value, managing to break the encirclement that the Russians were carrying out around the Italian troops, and military, slowing down the Soviet advance taken with the counter-offensive of the previous 20 August. In this sense, it is the last fact of arms that saw a "cavalry charge" in the classic sense of the term with such significant effects against an army made up of regular troops. However, many are unaware that the Royal Italian Army could boast the last cavalry charge in modern military history with the one that took place on October 17, 1942, in Poloj (now Sluny), on the Croatian-Bosnian border
The episode is contextualized in the period of Italo-German occupation of the Balkan peninsula, a particularly bloody theater of war ignored by Italian historiography. During the months of the partisan war between Tito's Yugoslav fighters and the Nazi-fascist troops supported by the Ustaše of Ante Pavelic. Like the Serbo-Croats and the Nazis, the Italian regular troops were guilty of violent acts against the local population, driven not only by racist and anti-communist propaganda, but by specific orders of the military high commands:
“It is well known that excesses of reaction, carried out in good faith, will never be prosecuted. "
After the aggression by the Axis forces on the Soviet Union (summer 1941), the Communist-inspired anti-fascist guerrillas began to become more and more pressing. This movement was organized in the Yugoslav People’s Liberation Army and over time assumed an increasingly widespread and decisive force and organization, acting as a thorn in the Axis side. Both the Germans and the Italians had to employ a considerable number of regiments and divisions to control the Balkan area, stripping the Soviet and Libyan front.
The 14th Cavalry Regiment of Alexandria it was one of the Italian departments present in the occupied territories whose troops were mainly on horseback:the regiment with the highest mobility among all those in the area. Registered in the 1st Rapid Division “ Eugenio di Savoia " , its knights had the task of patrolling and controlling the Croatian territory.
The cavalry has always been considered the noble weapon par excellence, because only the wealthiest could possess, maintain and govern a horse, with all the attached and connected. With the arrival of firearms, the use of cavalry gradually lost importance in military tactics, although units of cavalrymen remained framed in all armies, with patrol and reconnaissance functions thanks to the skills of the horse.
At the beginning of the conflict, Italy had 17 cavalry regiments, divided between line cavalry, spearmen and cavalrymen. Such a large number of horsemen was also synonymous with the poor progress in technology and motorization that the Royal Army had had in the period between the two wars.
The cycle of actions that saw the realization of the charge began on 1 October 1942 The objective that the 1st Rapid Division had to carry out was to "drive back the rebel formations reported in the Perjasica area, headquarters of the strongest partisan bands". The operation was to be carried out in three distinct phases in order to break the resistance in the area and eliminate the partisan forces of the " Udarne brigade "( Assault Brigade ) Croatian.
Despite the difficulties encountered during the reconnaissance period, the Italian forces were not faced with too fierce resistance. The rebel formations, in fact, followed the movements of the Italian column from afar, engaging it in small clashes and trying to understand its plans.
On 17 October, during yet another reconnaissance in the Korana area, the formation was hit since the morning by repeated attacks with small arms by partisan forces. Given the difficulty of maneuvering with horses, and the danger of a strong enemy both from a military and psychological point of view, the commander of the regiment, Col. Antonio Ajmone Cat , having assessed the situation and the approach of darkness, he decided to settle in defense on some modest hills to achieve a tactical advantage and force the enemy to discover himself. It so happened that the column of col. Cat had joined the gen. Mario Federico Mazza , Deputy Commander of the Division, who, in agreement with gen. Cesare Lomaglio, Division commander, ordered to continue towards Primislje, although the operation appeared risky due to the darkness.
At 6.30 pm they began to move, but after a few kilometers they were attacked again by violent fire from automatic weapons and hand grenades. In the repeated charges the banner had been lost:the following morning the captain Fabio Martucci commander of the machine gun squadron with his attendant Morgan Ferrari found him entangled on the branch of a tree and recovered it.
The losses of the day were of 2 officers missing, deceased but whose bodies could not be recovered, 1 dead officer, 5 wounded, 10 dead, 56 wounded and 50 missing between non-commissioned officers and cavalrymen. The lost horses were 109, the wounded 60. There is no precise news of the losses of the Yugoslav partisans, which however would have amounted to over a hundred. On 18 and 19 October the regiment stopped in Perjasica, at the disposal of the “Lombardia” Division command.
Already in the aftermath of the battle there was, in the Italian high commands, the desire to cancel the episode. Some veterans remember the speech given by gen. Mario Roatta in front of the cavalrymen lined up:
At those words, however, the commander of the regiment, Colonel Antonio Ajmone Cat, exploded:
The ineptitude of generals Lomaglio and Mazza was promptly silenced, not so much so as not to discredit the two senior officers, but to avoid leaking what was the general lack of preparation of the entire Italian military system. Ironically, the col. Ajmone Cat was instead removed from command and deprived of any official recognition. The context of the partisan war and the Italian occupation of the Balkans certainly did not help to give due credit to the story after the war, making the whole story almost forgotten.
The regiment was dissolved on 30 June 1979 without having never received a banner reward for the events of October 1942.
Bibliography:
Raffaele Arcella, The last charge. Dolnij Poloj October 17, 1942 , and. Bonanno, 2009
Antonio Poma, The last charge of the Italian cavalry , and. Busseto Palazzolo
Elena A. Rossi, A separate war. The Italian military in the Balkans 1940-1945 , and Il Mulino