1941 Bardia Captured

January 1941. British Movietone News. After the disaster at Sidi Barrani and the withdrawal from Egypt, Italian General Annibale "Electric Whiskers" Bergonzoli faced the British from within the strong defences of Bardia. Mussolini wrote the following to Bergonzoli: "I have given you a difficult task ... I am certain that 'Electric Whiskers' and his brave soldiers will stand at whatever cost, faithful to the last." To Mussolini, Bergonzoli replied: "I am aware of the honor and today I have repeated to my troops your message ... simple and unequivocal." Bergonzoli had approximately 40,000 defenders under his command. The Italian divisions defending the perimeter of Bardia included remnants of the 62 Infantry Division Marmarica, remnants of the 63 Infantry Division Cirene, the 1st "23 March" Blackshirt Division, and the 2nd "28 October" Blackshirt Division. These divisions guarded an eighteen-mile perimeter which had a permanent anti-tank ditch, extensive wire fence, and a double row of concrete strong points. As a "mobile reserve" there were a dozen medium tanks and over one-hundred L3 tankettes. While the L3s were generally worthless, the medium tanks for the first time included a few M13/40 with the turret-mounted 47 mm anti-tank gun as its main armament. This was a vast improvement over the hull-mounted 37 mm gun of the M11/39s. Bergonzoli also had the remnants of the 64 Infantry Division Catanzaro and some "fortess troops" in Bardia itself. Unfortunately for Bergonzoli, he had little more than a month's supply of water. On 3 January 1941, following the reorganisation of his forces (now re-named XIII Corps), O'Connor resumed his offensive. As the Allied forces advanced, several large Italian units were surrounded, cut off from supply, and defeated. After some hard fighting, one position after another surrendered. The Australians captured Bardia on 5 January, taking 45,000 prisoners and 462 guns for a loss of 130 dead and 326 wounded of their own. The war booty included 462 guns of various kind, 12 serviceable medium tanks, 115 L3/35 tankettes and 708 motor vehicles. However the fighting was fierce. An Australian historian later wrote that "in parts their defence was most efficient and often extremely brave." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Compass

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[ItaloGallese]

@thekcra yes but Hollywood wouldnt make any films about the resistance of the Folgore, Decima Mas operations etc. The Italians were badly armed and equipped with poor leadership

[ItaloGallese]

Shocking the ignorance od some commentary here. Embarassing actually. the Italians were not motorised....troops being sent on foot were cut off, and easily surrounded, cut off and without water in the desert. The problem being that academic research is from th e same sources recycled constantly. Most of it being British and some German.

[ItaloGallese]

@thekcra They were TOTALLY ill equipped. Artlieery from 1890 (WW1), armoured car type tanks, and worst of all little motorisation meant taht they were cut off, surrounded and without water. Conveniently glossed over by standard British history who needed a weak enemy to distract from the Germans.

[puffin51]

Weird. They show the British 3.7 in AA guns going forward. These were standard equipment of the British, similar in performance to the German 88mm. But it never occurred to the British to issue an AP round and make the trifling changes that would make that piece effective in the AT role, still less to design a tank turret to take it. Nobody's ever explained why not.

[thekcra]

italian dictator Mussolini only had a loud mouth, sadly the Italians were not that supported in battle on morale like the Germans were with their leadership...they never put up any heavy fighting anywhere and easily surrendered enmasse...the only movie made by hollywood where Italian soldiers are seen winning with superiority is the 1980s Omar Mukhtar....

[Secretxchanel]

There were traitors within the Italian army, no planes were sent to bomb the warships bombarding Bardia.

[rjl518]

70th anniversary... Operation Compass moves forward!!!

[andmelix77]

Hi..

oooohh very good video..

can you pls help me..?

where i try to find this video???

[ALMC04]

The army sizes when compared to the result of this battle look ridiculous, keep the British ones coming Skoblin.