Non-Italian, Non-German Axis Forces in Italy

[Frentebro]

Does anyone know what Axis Ally nations (if any) had troops in Italy?

[Rick Research]

I doubt it. The Bulgarians didn't even take part in the war against Russia (which didn't save them from Soviet invasion in '44), the Rumanians and Slovaks were mired in the Russian Front, and the Croats were fully involved in the Balkans. The Finns, of course, were also not involved with war against all the allies either and did not leave their own 1939 borders, even after 1941.

The Croats might have been involved at the very end, since they did have tiny naval forces in the Adriatic.

That would only leave such odds and ends as Ostvolk units as possibilities. The "Indian Legion" may also have been there (if I remember their supposed "frontline" service correctly?) but they also would not qualify as the troops of a sovereign Axis ally.

[Dave Danner]

Quite a few Ostvolk in Italy, including Cossacks and the 162. Turcoman division. Also Polish labor battalions. As for the independent (Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Spain) and nominally independent (Croatia and Slovakia) Anti-Comintern Pact members, I would agree with Rick. Lots of Ustashi ended up in Italy after the war, though, with a little help from the Vatican, on their way to Argentina and elsewhere.

[DaveM]

Ost battalions

Hi
I to have read of Cossack and the Turkoman Ost battalions in Italy....when compared to other opponents Canadians encountered there unlike 1st Falschim. Div, 90th Pzgd, these Ost units retreated or surrendered at the first signs the going was getting tough.
Cheers
Dave

[Frentebro]

Thank you, guys.

[Dave Danner]

The most motivated Ostvölker joined the Wehrmacht to fight the Bolsheviks. Most of the rest just wanted to get out of POW camps. It is unsurprising that their motivation to fight the western Allies wasn't very high.

Dave

[ccmax]

Foreign troops under the WH

A lot of the normal Heer infantry divisions had foreign personell in the service units, mainly from Eastern Europe.

As an example, here is a list of nationalities of "German" soldiers captured by partisans near the end of the war:

French 3
Russians 83
Iugoslavians 3
Romanian 1
Czech 2
Sudeten 1
Poles 47
Austrians 17
Germans 120
Italians 12

All these men were serving in the same division.
Strangely, these men were not listed as Hiwis, but as regular German soldiers.It is unclear if they were in fact volksdeutsche who remebered their status of citizens of other nations after capture.


I also read that in the Trieste/Gorizia area there were troops from Croatia. I can't find the reference right now. The Turkoman division saw action in Italy for sure.

[Valter Gorenc]

162nd Turkoman division served in Italy on anti-partisan and maybe some other duties too, as well as several Cossack units. Some italian author wrote a novel about the later ones, "The army of lost rivers".
I don't know about Croats in Trieste/Trst and Gorizia/Gorica, but there were several Slovenian Home-guards units in 1944-45. Home-guards (Slovensko domobranstvo), also called Slovenian national security corps (Slovenski narodni varnostni zbor -SNVZ) in costal region, were collaborationist, anti-communist units which held the status of German auxilliary police. There was Home-guards NCO school in St.Ivan (San Giovanni?) near Trieste, and among their teachers were such infamous SS officers as Christian Wirth and Kurt Franz-Lalka.

Valter

PS: This should be my first post. Hello to all forum members!