[Menydh]

To be honest, in Spain the Italians were not very highly regarded, be it by the Reds or by The Nationals. And their defeat at the Battle of Guadalajara, no matter what it may be speculated --the Germans pointed to technical and leadership defficiencies, and the Italians pointed to the metereology--, did not help to change this view.

The Italian divisions of volunteers (CTV) were reorganized from that point on, and engaged only in support actions of the Spanish Nationals, for the most part.

Mussolini needed to clean the affront of Guadalajara, and sent the order O vincire o non si torna ("Or there is a victory, or there is no return to home"). However the truth is that the Italians were already evacuating the wounded.

The opportunity came near to the end of the war in the north front, with the advance over Santander. And the Italian CTV managed to take Santander. However, this would be far from a glorious deed.

The defense of Santander had been left by the Government of The Republic to the Basque Government and its Gudaris (fighers or warriors, in Basque). The truth is that the only real Basque Gudaris there were the Nationals Navarran brigades, made up mostly of Traditionalists. The troops organized by the Basque Government did not pose any resistance, and they were usually found in search of National troops to surrender. Further, the Basque Government resolved that if they surrendered to the Italians they would get a better deal, than if they fell in the hands of The Nationals.

Inspite this all, the highly motorized Italian troops had to share the honour of the conquest with the Navarran Brigades who were on foot.

Add to this that the frequency which the Italian troops were sent to the rearguard to rest, provoked a disregard of the Spanish.

The problem, as it appears, was on the one hand that many of them had volunteered without knowing what the Spanish Civil War was about, in the belief that it would be a quick, easy and victorious walk through. On the other hand, the high ranks were a mixture of military and political officers, which surely brought a degree of inefficiency to it. I would point here to the same (and even increased) mistake in the Spanish Republican Army, where academy officers and chiefs were summarily replaced by political commisaires.