Posted on 01/28/2008 7:22:30 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
New Italian Goosestep Is a Thrill to Il Duce
WIRELESS to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
ROME, Jan. 27. – One unexpected effect of the visit by Premier Benito Mussolini to Germany last September was seen today when, much to everybody’s surprise, the goosestep was performed for the first time in the annals of Italian military history by 2,000 Black Shirts reviewed by Mussolini.
The Premier was so impressed and enthused by the result that he suddenly jumped off the reviewing stand and, taking his place at the head of the Black Shirts with his entire staff, goosestepped with the best of them right across the parade ground.
The goosestep, which is new in Italy, will not be known by that name or any other suggesting foreign importation. It will be known as the Roman step. Any one reading a description of it, however, will perceive immediately its close relation, if not the twin brother, of the goosestep.
It is performed, according to accounts of it appearing in an Italian newspaper, “by keeping the leg rigid and striking the foot violently against the ground.”
I always thought that looked tough on the knees.
But as treacherous as Hitler was, the one person that he stood by until the end was.....Mussolini.
Nope. It's talking about a real event.
I knew it was a real event. The tone of the story just gives me a vision of the journalist smirking as he types it out. It is clear that the American press viewed Hitler as genuinely bad news well before January 1938. Benito, OTOH, seems to have been seen as a more or less ridiculous figure still.
So, what’s that got to do with Giuliani?
I don’t know. Maybe Rudy loves a parade.
Remember too, that Hitler's actions weren't all altruistic. Mussolini's actions allowed the British to get a foothold [read airbases] in Greece - within bombing range of the oil fields at Ploesti, Romania - Hitler's main source of petroleum.
As for the DAK, it was built from scratch units, was never intended [by Hitler or the OKH] as more than a leavening element for the Italians, as was not envisaged [by anyone but Rommel] as an offensive force to liberate Italian North Africa, and invade Egypt.
The Bersagliare continued to run everywhere. they didn’t adopt the “Passo Romano”.
And what does PzLdr signify?
Bersagliare] [and I could have the spelling wrong] are elite Italian Infantry [mountain troops, I believe], who wear cock feathers in their hats, and move everywhere in the Bersagliare trot. Kind of like and “Airborne shuffle”.
PzLdr ia an acronym for “Panzer [Armor] Leader”. It was the English title of Heinz Guderian’s autbiography. I was an Armor officer in the Army from 1968-1972 [high point of my life], so I decded to use it as my handle.
I suspected it was something like that, and thought it kind of a strange screen name. Now I get it.
Here is an earlier post, for those who missed it.
That’s a canard; the Balkan invasion didn’t materially help the USSR. Spring 1941 was unseasonably wet and the Germans could not have jumped off on Barbarossa much before June 22.
The real reason the Barbarossa failed was over reach; it was logistically impossible to vanquish the USSR in one campaign season as a matter of space and time. Hitler needed to plan a two year campaign.
As for Mussolini, my favorite description of him is “Sawdust Ceasar.” On the other hand, whatever bad you say about him, he flatly refused German requests to deport the Jews to the death camps until his fall in 1943.
1/28/38
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