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This article is about the Italian Royal Army (''Regio Esercito'') which participated in World War II. The Italian Royal Army was reformed in 1861 and lasted until 1946. The Royal Army started with the unification of Italy (''Risorgimento'') and the formation of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia''). It ended with the dissolution of the monarchy. The Royal Army was preceded by the individual armies of the various independent Italian states and was followed by the Italian Army (''Esercito Italiano'') of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''). ==Organization== The Italian Army of World War II was a "Royal" army. The nominal Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Royal Army was His Majesty King Vittorio Emanuele III. As Commander-in-Chief of all Italian armed forces, Vittorio Emanuele also commanded the Royal Air Force (''Regia Aeronautica'') and the Royal Navy (''Regia Marina''). However, in reality, most of the King's military responsibilities were assumed by the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini.〔Mollo, p.83〕 Below Mussolini was the Supreme Command (''Comando Supremo''). The Supreme Command featured an organic staff which functioned through its defense ministries and through its various high commands. The defense ministries were based on function and included a Ministry of War, a Ministry of the Admiralty, and a Ministry of the Air. The high commands were based on geographic regions and included Army Group West, Army Group Albania, Army Group East Africa, Army Group Aegean, and Army Group Libya.〔 Below the Army Group were armies. Armies were typically composed of two or more corps, along with separate units directly commanded at the army level. The corps were then typically composed of two or more divisions, along with separate units directly commanded at the corps level. The division was the basic formation of the Italian Royal Army. On 10 June 1940, the army had 59 infantry divisions, three National Security Volunteer Militia (''Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale'', or MVSN) divisions, five high mountain (''alpini'') divisions, three mobile (''celere'') divisions, two motorized divisions, and three armored divisions. In addition, there were estimated to be the equivalent of about nine divisions of frontier guard troops.〔 There were also numerous colonial formations at or near the division level composed of troops from Italian Libya and Italian East Africa. Impressive on paper, most Italian divisions did not have the full complement of men or materials when war was declared in 1940. The armored divisions had lightly armed "tankettes" instead of tanks. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royal Italian Army during World War II」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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