Prince Eugene of Savoy

In terms of nationality, categorizing Prince Eugene of Savoy can be a little complicated. He was an Italian by blood, born in France who gained a place in history as a general for the Hapsburgs of Austria. He was born in Paris on October 18, 1663 to Olympia Mancini (a niece of Cardinal Mazarin) and Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons, Count of Dreux and Prince of Savoy (a grandson of Duke Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy) and son of the Prince of Carignano. At the time this was a collateral branch of the House of Savoy but it would eventually become the line that would make up the Kings of Italy. Eugene was the youngest of five sons who, along with their three sisters, saw little of their parents. His father was a dutiful soldier, usually off on campaign, and his mother was wrapped up in the petty politics of the French court surrounding King Louis XIV. Prince Eugene was not very old when his father died and scandal forced his mother to flee France across the Belgian border, then the territory of the House of Hapsburg. Prince Eugene, as a younger son, was expected to have a clerical occupation but the life of a priest did not appeal to the young Prince Eugene and he applied to King Louis XIV for a commission in the French army. Unfortunately (for France at least) the King refused, being rather unfavorable towards the family of the Prince and not terribly impressed by his, perhaps, over-confident attitude.

So it was that the Kingdom of France lost the chance to have as one of their own a man who would prove to be one of the greatest military leaders in history and certainly the most renowned captain of his age. Of course, throughout his childhood, no one expected Prince Eugene to pursue a military career at all. Considered to be something of a weakling and not at all attractive, the grandmother who mostly raised him pushed toward the Church but, as time would tell, the priesthood was not his calling. He went to Austria and joined the army of the Hapsburg Emperor, rising rapidly through the ranks, establishing his reputation early in the war to liberate Hungary from the Turks and the War of the Grand Alliance. His rise was based purely on merit; he won battles and was rewarded with promotion after each success so that by the time he was thirty he had already attained the position of field marshal. One of his greatest early victories was at the battle of Zenta in 1697. A 10-hour forced march put his men into position quickly, deployed behind hills which enabled him to take the Turks by surprise as they attempted to cross the Zenta River into Transylvania. Prince Eugene launched a pincer-attack that pinned the Turks against the river and allowed his army to wipe them out. Over 20,000 Turks were killed in the battle compared to losses of less than 500 for Prince Eugene.

This also illustrates the tactics that would define the career of Prince Eugene of Savoy and win battle after battle for him; speed, mobility and clever use of the terrain to his own advantage. At these, Prince Eugene was a master and they proved a winning combination for him. During the War of the Spanish Succession he defeated the French at Carpi in 1701, joined with the British forces of the great Marlborough to defeat the French and Bavarians at Blenheim in 1704 and two years later led a victorious campaign that drove the French out of Italy. In 1708 he besieged and finally captured the French fortress at Lille, designed by the brilliant French military engineer Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban, which had previously been considered totally impregnable. That same year the Prince joined forced with Marlborough again to administer another victory over France in Flanders. Throughout his career, the Prince often made the supposedly impossible seem almost easy as he won battle after battle and campaign after campaign, rapidly gaining the reputation of one of the greatest military leaders of his time. Given that so many of his victories were over the armies of France, one cannot help but wonder if anyone in Paris cursed the seemingly inconsequential decision of King Louis XIV not to enlist the young Savoy in the French army as he had originally intended. One cannot help but wonder how history might have been changed if he had done so and if the Prince of Savoy had fought under the golden lilies instead of the double eagle.

Already a living legend in western Europe, Prince Eugene ended his career where he had first started it, fighting in the east against the Ottoman Turks. He fought his last major campaign in 1716 which saw a battle any observer would have expected to be his last. The Prince found himself totally surrounded by a massive Turkish army of 200,000 men with only a quarter as many in his own ranks. Anyone would have thought his fate was sealed. However, still true to character, the Prince kept his cool and would not even consider conceding the field and attempting to retreat. Instead, he targeted the Turkish artillery and launched a daring bayonet charge on the guns in the middle of the night, capturing the enemy position, throwing their army into confusion and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. The entire situation was reversed and in the aftermath the Hapsburg armies marched triumphantly to liberate the city of Belgrade. After this campaign, the Prince retired from active duty in the field but continued to serve as a military advisor to Emperor Charles VI. Still, the Prince had always been drawn to the active and adventurous life of the soldier and that never went away so that he found it extremely difficult to remain behind a desk in Vienna. He could not resist joining the Austrian army in the field in the Rhine valley during the War of the Polish Succession. He died in Vienna two years later on April 21, 1736.

Still today Prince Eugene of Savoy stands as one of the most brilliant military leaders Europe has ever produced. He was a master at quick movements, assessing a situation and turning it to his advantage and he was never lacking in courage. In fact, he sustained many serious wounds throughout his career due to his habit of always leading from the front. He worked well with his allies and never seemed to have any prejudices against anyone other than the French against whom he remained quite bitter throughout his life. He abolished the custom of purchasing commissions in his army and promoted men based solely on their ability and his fondness for cavalry in scouting enemy positions and fighting in both mounted and dismounted roles would influence the Hapsburg armed forces for centuries. He also took great care to establish forward supply bases to keep his troops well fed and well equipped, proving the point that, as the old saying goes, ‘amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics’. His campaigns were brilliant and secured the place of Austria as the dominant power in the German-speaking world. Today he might not be as well remembered as some of the other great captains of history but the Comte de Saxe, Frederick the Great and Napoleon all studied his career and adopted his innovations. It says something that Napoleon, Emperor of the French, considered Prince Eugene of Savoy one of the most gifted and influential military leaders of all time. One cannot help but wonder what the Prince would have thought of such a compliment coming from such a quarter.

Italy in World War II

Of all the major participants of World War II, probably none have been so unjustly deprecated in terms of their fighting ability as the royal armed forces of Italy. Part of this was an intentional propaganda effort on the part of the Allies (mostly the British) to both demoralize the Italians and to stir up resentment among the Germans toward their partner on the battlefield. However, there was also a wider sort of prejudice on the part of north Europeans (mostly Germanic peoples) toward the Latin nations of southern Europe and this can be seen far beyond World War II in the way that the military accomplishments are shrugged off and defeats exaggerated when it comes to countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and even France. It is true that things were far from ideal for Italy in the Second World War, there were many defeats and infinite frustrations. However, it was not the constant string of disasters many people think it was and when considering the immense material disadvantages Italy had to deal with, the courage and determination of the Italian fighting man should be seen as all the more remarkable. Despite weak logistical support, inferior weaponry, political interference and being forced to fight over a greater area than any Italian armed force since Roman times, the royal Italian military performed quite well on numerous occasions, gaining victories (temporary though they might have been) over enemies that had them outmatched in most every way.

Perhaps the biggest problem Italy had at the outset and throughout the conflict was simply being unprepared. There were reasons for this of course. Industry was severely handicapped after World War I, the strain and stress of that conflict was followed by unrest all over the country, the Fascist takeover, a rebellion in Libya, the war in Ethiopia, the intervention in Spain and then the occupation of Albania. The Italian armed forces had hardly any time to take a breath between fighting two world wars and they would be much more hard pressed in the second than in the first, fighting on fronts from East and North Africa to the Balkans to southern England to the steppes of Russia. The King was well aware that the country was not ready for a large-scale war and strongly advised Mussolini to stay out of it, however, the Duce was eager to believe those who painted a fictitious image of an Italian military that was as powerful and advanced as any other. Mussolini was also concerned with making good on his oft-repeated boast that Italy could, at any time, mobilize “8 million bayonets” to sweep their enemies away. He would be in for a rude awakening when he finally took Italy into war in June of 1940.

The first campaign was an offensive into southern France under the nominal command of HRH Crown Prince Umberto with General Emilio Battisti as his chief of staff. The troops fought bravely but were woefully ill-equipped and un-prepared. The French also offered determined resistance in spite of the rapidly crumbling situation in their own country. There was nothing really wrong with the Italian plan but the logistical support simply wasn’t there. Italian forces lacked proper equipment for the terrain, lacked artillery sufficient to penetrate French fortresses, even pots and pans to cook their food. The Italians struggled ahead, taking a few mountain villages and the town of Menton on the coast before France finally surrendered due to the German onslaught in the north. In many ways, the French campaign was a microcosm for the wider war; Italian bravery being wasted due to a lack of proper planning by the government and a near total lack of proper logistical support. Fortunately, things would go better elsewhere.

In Italian East Africa, under the command of the Viceroy, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, a general in the royal Italian air force, there were the first victories for Italian arms and won without any outside assistance. The Duke of Aosta knew that in any protracted conflict, Italian East Africa would be doomed as it was geographically isolated from the rest of the Italian empire and surrounded by British possessions. However, he attacked early and captured several towns in Kenya and the Sudan. In fact, had the weakness of the British position in the Sudan been known to him, the Duke might have been able to launch a major campaign through the Sudan to take Egypt from the south in conjunction with the planned offensive out of Libya. However, while that was not to be, what did happen was a swift and successful Italian conquest of British Somaliland by the Italian colonial army. The British retreated quickly and abandoned the colony, seeing no hope against the Italian forces moving against them. Prime Minister Churchill was outraged by this, saying that the meager British losses implied they did not even try to put up a fight. His region commander, General Wavell, replied that they were outmatched, that retreating was the only sensible thing to do and that, “A bloody butcher’s bill is not the sign of a good tactician”. And he was right, later the British would be able to return with vastly superior forces of their own and the Italians would not be able to retreat as they had done. The following year the Allies would conquer Italian East Africa (though it would take them longer than it had the Italians) in a spirited campaign in which the Duke of Aosta earned the respect of his enemies for both his skill and gallantry in fighting a campaign against hopeless odds and cut off from support from Italy.

Toward the end of 1940 was also the beginning of the Italian campaign in North Africa led by Marshal Rodolfo Graziani who was charged with the conquest of Egypt and the capture of the Suez Canal. The numbers all seemed to favor Italy but the numbers alone can be deceiving and Graziani had a hard time getting Mussolini to grasp the concept that infantry are practically useless in the desert if you have no trucks and fuel to move them. The British were lacking in numbers and their equipment was not very good but it was still of a higher quality than what the Italians had to work with and while Graziani had more men in the field, the British had more and better of the things that mattered most in the desert, especially trucks and tanks. Mussolini wanted a quick advance that might have been costly but which he was confident would succeed in overwhelming the British at which point they could seize the Suez and he could have his victory parade through Alexandria. Marshal Graziani, however, refused such brash action and advanced slowly into Egypt then stopping and setting up a defensive position. Perhaps partly as a way to draw British forces away from Egypt (and perhaps not) Mussolini ordered the invasion of Greece from Albania in October of 1940.

The British were distracted by this, transferring forces to what would prove to be a lost cause in Greece but it still wasn’t enough to ensure the conquest of Egypt. British forces counter-attacked in north Africa, pushed the Italians out of Egypt and across Libya until the situation was desperate. It was at that point that the first German assistance was sent in under the soon to be famous General Erwin Rommel. Back in Greece the Italians faced heavy counter-attacks as well by forces far more formidable than they had been led to expect. However, it was not the disaster it is often portrayed as. The lines stabilized, Greek attacks were repulsed and Italian forces began to make modest gains again. It was, at worst, a stalemate but Italian forces were nowhere near collapse or total defeat. In 1941 the Germans intervened, again, not because Italy was in dire need of immediate help, but because of a coup in Yugoslavia that took that country out of the Axis and into the Allied camp. Once the Germans became involved, German and Italian forces together had little difficulty in subduing Yugoslavia and Greece.

Back in north Africa, the situation quickly turned around thanks to the aggressive leadership of General (later Field Marshal) Rommel. Particularly when Marshal Ettore Bastico was appointed to the top command in Libya, the German and Italian forces seemed almost unstoppable. The British were driven out of Libya, Tobruk was retaken, Malta was isolated and for a time the Italian navy totally dominated the central Mediterranean. British counter-attacks gained only momentary success and by 1942, with British forces weakened by the entry of Japan into the war, German and Italian forces cleared Libya and invaded Egypt. That this was a joint effort is lost on many people but, in fact, the bulk of Axis forces in north Africa were Italian rather than German, most of the armor was Italian and, at times, Italian units came to the rescue of German ones. Rommel was even, officially, subordinate to the Italian command but usually got his own way in determining strategy. A major dispute was his decision to invade Egypt before Malta had been seized as planned. Marshal Bastico warned that their cause would be ruined by logistics and, indeed, he was ultimately proven correct. British interdiction slowed the movement of supplies and the lines of support for the Italo-German forces became severely stretched until everything came to ruin with the British victory at El Alamein in late 1942.

By that time the war had expanded greatly and Italian forces were really over-extended. Italian air forces had been sent to Belgium to aid in the “Battle of Britain” where, again contrary to what most think, they actually gave as good as they got which is all the more remarkable considering their outdated equipment. 1941 was also when Hitler launched his great invasion of the Soviet Union and, despite being stretched to the limit already, Mussolini could not resist sending an Italian army to participate. The forces were woefully ill-equipped but still fought very well, winning a number of engagements before the war situation forced Mussolini to call them back. It was while fighting in the USSR that Italian forces launched one of the last cavalry charges in history, against Red Army artillery units, that proved a stunning success. Still, losses were heavy and they were losses that Italy could not replace until finally the Italian army in Russia was all but wiped out. It was simply beyond the ability of the country to supply and fully man a significant force in southern Russia while also maintaining huge garrisons for occupation duty in Greece and the former Yugoslavia as well as a large army in North Africa. Still, given the odds against them, they performed well and were commanded by Giovanni Messe, one of the finest Italian commanders the war would produce.

In north Africa, to the disgust of Italians who wanted to fight for Libya, Italo-German forces were pulled back all the way to Tunisia where they essentially, from that time on, fought a delaying action against the British from the east and the Americans from the west. Although often overlooked, from El Alamein to the end of the war in Africa, there were Italian units that performed with exceptional skill and bravery, such as the elite airborne Folgore Division. However, it was to no avail as the military situation had clearly become hopeless by the time the last foothold in Tunisia fell to the Allies in 1943. The next target was Sicily which was defended by General Alfredo Guzzoni with some German support. However, by this time, many of the defenders were old men and young boys with the most inadequate and substandard equipment possible and it was not that great a surprise that these forces were eventually defeated. Among those lost was the veteran and hard-fighting General Enrico Francisci. As most know, this was the last straw for the Kingdom of Italy and the Fascist regime and in the aftermath HM King Vittorio Emanuele III dismissed Mussolini from office and took him into custody.

That was still not quite the end of the war for the Kingdom of Italy, however, for as soon as Italian efforts to arrange an armistice with the Allies began, the Germans began attacking Italian forces still in the field. Many were isolated and completely surrounded by German forces and were unable to offer any resistance. Some, nonetheless, still did so, such as the Italian garrison on Cephalonia island in Greece where the hopelessly outmatched Italian garrison fought heroically against German attacks in defense of the local population and their own honor as soldiers. Sadly, by the time an arrangement was made with the Allies, the Germans had occupied most of Italy and the city of Rome itself. Although Italian co-belligerent forces would serve alongside the Allies, for the most part they were sidelined from the major events of the campaign. The last great military action of the Kingdom of Italy or any Italian armed forces under the House of Savoy had come to an end.

Birthday of Carlo Emanuele the Great

It was on this day in 1562 that the future Duke Carlo Emanuele di Savoia was born. Later known as Carlo Emanuele the Great, he had a reputation for zeal and daring and during his reign as Duke of Savoy fought battles against the French, the Swiss, the Spanish and the Republic of Genoa. For a time he was considered a possible future King of Serbia, but nothing came of that. A father of ten children, he left the ducal throne to his son Vittorio Amadeo I, the "Lion of Susa" who gained the titles of King of Cyprus and Jerusalem for the House of Savoy.

Eleanor of Toledo, Duchess of Florence

It is probably a debatable point, but Eleanor of Toledo, Duchess consort of Florence, is usually pointed to as woman who set the standard for “First Ladies” all the way up to the present day. Eleanor was born in 1522 in Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, the second daughter of Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo, Marquis of Villafranca who was the Viceroy of Naples on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V aka King Carlos I of Spain. At the age of seventeen she was married to Cosimo I de’ Medici, Duke of Florence who, in 1569, would become the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was an arranged marriage with Eleanor’s father expecting his daughter to gain some of the Medici wealth (which was more apparent than real) and the Medici hoping to gain some status and security by marrying someone highly placed in the Spanish aristocracy and related to the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor. With Spain dominating Florence and much of the surrounding area in Italy at that time, being on good terms with the House of Hapsburg was a necessity. Part of the agreement for the marriage was that it would be a show of loyalty to the Hapsburg Emperor sufficient enough to allow for the removal of the Spanish garrison.

However, arranged or not, the marriage was certainly a success as far as what was most required of royal couples; ensuring the survival of the Medici family by producing heirs. There was certainly no problem in securing the succession and Duchess Eleanor gave her husband eleven children between 1540 and 1554, two of whom would succeed their father as Grand Dukes of Tuscany in the future. Given the less than ideal birth status of the previous leaders of the House of Medici, Duke Cosimo was intent to present a new public image of respectability, stability and traditional values. His own large family would be the centerpiece of this new look and Duchess Eleanor was the most important part of it. As far as her public image went, there could not have been a better choice. Not only was Eleanor quite the fertile myrtle, she also had a lovely but reserved appearance which gave the impression of strength and stability to those who saw her. She was also quite religious and a patron of the Society of Jesus, still relatively new at that time. At first the people were inclined to dislike her because of her Spanish origins, and given what so many Italians had been through, that is hardly surprising, but her patronage of the Church, the arts and charitable causes soon won everyone over.

Duchess Eleanor was as conscious as anyone of putting her best face forward and took great care about her appearance, which included sitting for portraits as the prim and proper consort (and later mother of an heir to the throne) as well as wearing lavish gowns. This cannot be dismissed as mere vanity. It was an effort to inspire confidence among the people and visiting dignitaries as to the wealth, stability and power of the Medici monarchy. Nor was it merely an act. Duchess Eleanor was a serious and intelligent lady who ruled Tuscany as regent on behalf of her husband when he was absent. She was also sincerely pious and her devotion to the Church inspired her many acts of charity as well as her donations that allowed for building a number of new churches and her encouragement in bringing the Jesuits into Florence. There was more to her than her public face though and in private she was known for her great (if sometimes low-brow) sense of humor, great personal determination and love for games of chance. And, of course, she was always the perfect hostess, gracious, charming as well as being a close unofficial advisor to her husband in his rule of the duchy and later grand duchy.

Only relatively recently have researchers discovered what a tremendously tough woman Duchess Eleanor was. Studies done on her remains have shown that she suffered from a severe calcium deficiency that must have caused her immense pain. From the results we can surmise that her teeth must have given her a great deal of trouble and that her bones would have caused her incredible agony (she may have even shrank quite a bit over her life). Given all that she was going through, in addition to giving birth to eleven children and still always remaining the ideal consort, public figure, national hostess and even running the government when necessary, Duchess Eleanor emerges as an extremely remarkable woman. Sadly, her life was cut all too short when, at the age of only 40, she died on December 17, 1562 in Pisa during a malaria epidemic that also took the lives of two of her sons.

The Strange Case of the Luigi Torelli

In the Italian submarine fleet, or most any naval force in the world, few ships had such an odd and colorful career as the Torelli, a Marconi class submarine (pennant number TI) launched on January 6, 1940. It was an extremely successful submarine, sinking seven enemy vessels for a total of 43,000 tons during her short career as a raider. The Torelli made one patrol in the Mediterranean and then slipped past the British at Gibraltar on September 8, 1940 to join the Italian submarine forces in the Atlantic operating out of Bordeaux, France. On her first patrol in the Atlantic, the Torelli sent four enemy ships to the bottom. The sub had no such luck on her second patrol but did add another ship to her score card on her third patrol. In December of 1941 the Torelli along with three Calvi class submarines aided in the rescue of 254 sailors from the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis. During "Operation Neuland" the intrepid Italian sub sent two more enemy ships to the bottom but her closest call was to come from the air rather than the sea.

Because of their large size, most Italian submarines tended to be slower to submerge compared to some others and this made them particularly vulnerable to air attack. However, as a result, Italian submariners became very skilled anti-aircraft gunners. While most other subs would crash dive on spotting an enemy plane, since they most likely could not get underwater fast enough, Italian subs would stay on top and shoot it out with enemy aircraft. In the eastern Atlantic, while returning from hunting around the Bahamas the Torelli was attacked by a British flying-boat on June 5, 1942 and suffered heavy damage. Because of this, the submarine was unable to dive and had to try to make it back to Bordeaux only on the surface. Only two days later the Torelli was spotted by the British and quickly attacked by two Sunderlands. However, the Italian anti-aircraft fire was so fierce that their bombing runs were ruined, though they did manage to spray the sub with gunfire that killed Sergeant Flavio Pallucchini and wounding Captain Antonio de Giacomo and another officer. Still, one of the planes was hit and both were finally forced to retreat and the Torelli returned to port for repairs.

Once at sea again, the Torelli was on patrol off the coast of Brazil when she was attacked by three Catalina American torpedo planes and, because of a valve malfunction, was unable to submerge and again had to shoot it out on the surface. The Italian gunners shot down one of the Catalinas and forced the other two to retreat but took several casualties and suffered a lot of damage. The radio-man was killed, the chief engineer, an assistant engineer and the captain were all wounded and the captain was forced to turn command over to his first lieutenant. Still, they made it back in one piece but because of the extensive damage suffered, the days of the Torelli as a commerce raider were over. Her offensive weapons were removed and she was converted to a long-range transport with her torpedo tubes being converted into extra fuel tanks. On June 14, 1943 she left Bordeaux loaded with supplies as well as a German engineer, two civilian mechanics and Japanese Colonel Kinze Sateke, a telecommunications specialist who has just undergone training in Germany. These passengers were to be delivered to Singapore to help in modernizing the Japanese war effort.

The Allied code-breakers found out about this special voyage and had aircraft searching from Gibraltar to the Cape but they failed to locate the Torelli which made the passage through the Atlantic and Indian Oceans without incident to Japanese-held Singapore. However, by the time they arrived the King had dismissed Mussolini and taken Italy out of the war. After that time the Germans grabbed all Italian personnel and equipment they could get their hands on and that included the Torelli which was drafted into the German navy, as part of their Far East submarine flotilla (the 12th and later 33rd U-Boat Flotilla) and the crew were thrown into a POW camp. However, once Mussolini established his puppet regime in Salo the Italian crew were given the choice of joining the Italo-German navy of the Italian Social Republic. They decided to join Mussolini's navy, unfortunate, but not surprising given that their only other option was prison camp. So, the Torelli was joined by more Germans and renamed the UIT-25. However, the strange career of the Torelli did not end there. When the Salo Republic collapsed and Germany surrendered the sub was taken over by the Japanese and continued on as I-504 of the Imperial Japanese Navy, serving in the Pacific until the Japanese surrender with a German-Italian-Japanese crew. Communications onboard must have been rather complicated! They ended up scoring the last Axis victory of World War II when they were attacked by American bombers when the Italians on the 13.2mm Breda shot down one of the American planes in Kobe, Japan. After the Japanese surrender the submarine was scuttled by the U.S. Navy, ending a long and colorful career.

Our Prayers for Japan

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake has struck off the coast of Japan, 303 miles northeast of Tokyo and a tsunami warning has been issued. Details are still scarce at this point but hopefully it will not be as bad as the last such disaster, which Japan has still not recovered from. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Japanese people at this difficult time.
God bless Japan.
Long live the Emperor.

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