The 52nd Infantry Division "Torino" (Italian: 52ª Divisione di fanteria "Torino") was an infantrydivision of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. The Torino was named after the city of Turin (Italian: Torino) and classified as an auto-transportable division, meaning it had some motorized transport, but not enough to move the entire division at once. The division was formed by expanding the Torino Brigade in June 1940 and was based with two of its regiments in Civitavecchia, while the 81st Infantry Regiment "Torino" was based in Rome. The division took part in the Invasion of Yugoslavia and was then sent to the Eastern front as part of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia.[1][2]
History
The division's lineage begins with the Brigade "Torino" established in Turin on 1 November 1884 with the 81st and 82nd infantry regiments.[3]
In March 1938 the Central Military Schools Command in Civitavecchia assumed a dual training/operational role and changed its name to Central Military Schools Command - Infantry Division "Torino" and received the 81st Infantry Regiment "Torino" from the 22nd Infantry Division "Cacciatori delle Alpi". On 1 July 1938 the Central Military Schools Command's Central Infantry School re-raised the 82nd Infantry Regiment "Torino", while the Central Artillery School re-raised the 52nd Artillery Regiment on 1 October 1938.[1][4][5]
On 5 June 1940 the division split from the Central Military Schools Command and activated as 52nd Infantry Division "Torino", with the 81st and 82nd infantry regiments, and the 52nd artillery regiment.[1]
In November the Torino was on the Krynka river to protect the southern flank of the 3rd Cavalry Division and on 6 December it attacked Chazepetowka and reach the village after two days of struggle. On 12 December 1941 the division's commander General Ugo de Carolis was killed and posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross by the Germans.[7] On 25-26 December the division faced Russian attacks at Malo Orlovka and, in the course of a counter attacks, occupied Plosky and Vife Ostraja, where it repelled violent enemy counterattacks.
The Torino remained with 1st Panzer Army until 3 June 1942 when it was subordinated to the German 17th Army. In July 1942 it entered the newly arrived Italian Army in Russia/8th Army, which formed the left flank of the German 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The 8th Army suffered heavy losses during the Soviet Operation Uranus in winter of 1942/43 and was destroyed by March 1943. Some 8,000 men of the 13,500 men of the Torino were killed or missing in Russia, including 2,814 of the 81st Infantry Regiment, 2,608 of the 82nd Infantry Regiment, 1,283 of the 52nd Artillery Regiment, 483 of the XXVI Mortar Battalion, 208 of the LII Mortar Battalion, 154 of the 52nd Transmission Company, 114 of the 171st Anti-Tank Company, and 102 of the 52nd Medical Section.[8]
The survivors of the division returned to Italy, where on 1 June 1943 the 159th Infantry Division "Veneto" was renamed 52nd Infantry Division "Torino". The reformed Torino was disbanded by the Germans following the Armistice of Cassibile.[9]
Organization 1941
When the division was deployed to Russia it consisted of the following units:[10]
^Wendal, Marcus. "Italian Army". Axis History. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
^"Le operazioni delle Unità Italiane al Fronte Russo (1941-1943)". Quadro di battaglia dell'8ª Armata italiana in Russia (in Italian). Rome: Ministero della Difesa Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito Ufficio Storico Roma, 1977. 1977. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
^F. dell'Uomo, R. Puletti (1998). L'Esercito Italiano verso il 2000 - Vol. Primo - Tomo II. Rome: SME - Ufficio Storico. p. 122.
