Eleventh Army (Italy)


The Eleventh Army was one of the field armies of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. It was formed in November 1940 for service in the Greco-Italian War, and after the German invasion of Greece and the capitulation of that country in April 1941, assumed occupation duties in the Greek mainland. It remained on station in Greece until the Italian armistice in 1943, when it was forcibly disbanded by the Germans.

History

It was formed on 9 November 1940 out of the 11th Army Corps, then based in Italian-occupied Albania and engaged in operations against Greece alongside the 9th Army. Its engagement against the Greeks lasted until the fall of Greece in April 1941.

Occupation of Greece

Thereafter, the Eleventh Army assumed duties of occupation in Greece, headquartered in Athens. Its command also doubled as the Higher Armed Forces Command Greece, with responsibility over mainland Greece, as well as the island of Euboea, the Northern Sporades and Skyros, and Kythera. The remainder of the Ionian Islands came under the Higher Armed Forces Command Albania, while the Italian Dodecanese, the Italian-occupied Lasithi Prefecture on Crete and the bulk of the Cyclades came under the Higher Armed Forces Command of the Italian Islands of the Aegean at Rhodes. Apart from the units of the Eleventh Army, the Higher Armed Forces Command Greece also included the Air Force Command Greece, and the Western Greece Naval Military Command at Patras.
In April 1943, an assessment of the combat readiness of the Eleventh Army's eight remaining divisions in terms of armament and means of transport found only one—the 11th Infantry Division Brennero—as "complete", with three more "effective" and the rest "incomplete". In a similar evaluation of their completeness in personnel a fortnight later, only Brennero and the 33rd Infantry Division Acqui were classed as "complete", with the remainder as "effective". The situation remained largely the same during another review of their combat readiness in June.
It was forcibly disbanded by the German Army in September 1943, after the Italian capitulation.

Orders of battle

August 1941

During the first months of its occupation of Greece, Eleventh Army comprised the following units:
In spring 1943, Eleventh Army comprised the following units: