 | Sundiszno (30)
02/27/2005 | I'll probably be the only rater to comment on the Italian airborne units. Folgore was pretty much a first-rate outfit in terms of personnel (to include its leadership), but unfortunately its equipment, and perhaps training, did not support its potential. As with many other airborne forces that were highly trained, elite units, but lightly armed, Folgore was misused in a purely infantry role. It was thrown into the breech at El Alamein, and was basically annihilated (if my memory serves me correctly, something less than a hundred troopers made it out alive - lots of anecdotes, at least in Italian publications, about just plain refusing to surrender despite the odds - typical airborne attitude the world over). Italy's current Folgore Airborne Brigade is the lineal descendant of the WW II division.
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