Tenth Army (Italy)

The Italian Tenth Army was an Italian Army which fought in World War I and in Italian North Africa during World War II.

After the disastrous defeat at Caporetto (November 1917) the Italian Army was completely reorganized by Armando Diaz and the new 10th Italian Army was formed. It was in fact a British-Italian Army under command of the Earl of Cavan. It consisted of

It participated in the successful Battle of Vittorio Veneto (October-November 1918).

In 1940, the Tenth Army was based in Cyrenaica (eastern Libya), and faced the British in the British protectorate, Kingdom of Egypt. The Italian Fifth Army, was based in Tripolitania (western Libya) opposite French Tunisia.

When Italy declared war on 10 June 1940, the Tenth Army consisted of five divisions and the Fifth Army consisted of nine. After the Fall of France at the end of June, several divisions were transferred from the Fifth Army to strengthen the Tenth Army, which was increased to ten divisions.

On 13 September 1940, about four divisions of the Tenth Army advanced into Egypt. Four infantry divisions and the Maletti Group marched 100 kilometres (62 mi) in four days and stopped at Sidi Barrani. The Maletti Group included most of the M11/39 medium tanks in North Africa and numerous L3 tankettes. Defensive positions were prepared by the Italians in fortified camps.

In December 1940 during Operation Compass, the British counter-attacked in what initially was to be a five-day raid against the Italian camps in Egypt. The Italian camps were overrun and the rest of the Tenth Army was pushed further and further back into Italian Libya. Many Italian soldiers surrendered once the British troops encircled them in static fortified garrisons at places like Bardia and Tobruk.

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