"Italian Platoon Organisation" Topic

Just looking for info on Italian platoon organisation and have come up with two different sources. Both sources state that the platoon was split into a Rifle Group and an MG Group. However, one source states that the rifle group was led by the platoon leader (a Sergeant), the other that the MG Group was lead by the platoon leader.

Anyone know which is correct?

There was a discussion on the Axis Forum on this topic back in 2014, complete with schematics. I think you mean "squad" rather than "platoon." See: link The OB here is the earlier war OB, before the NA42 reorganization. I have yet to see anything reliable on that

The term "graduato" apparently translates into English as "NCO". I would imagine that the platoons officially had 1 sergeant of some sort and 2 corporals of some sort. I would imagine that the doctrine would have called for the senior NCO to remain back to direct the MG-armed fire team(s), while the more junior NCO lead the rifle-armed assault team. Rank has its privileges. That said, if the sergeant wanted to lead the assault section, or was ordered to do so, there was nothing that would have prevented that. Note that this Italian organization resembles the late WW I British squad organization that was divided into a "Lewis section", for fire-support, and a "bombing section" (equipped with grenades), who were supposed to do the actual assault into the trenches.

Thanks very much.

This diagram is very good. It shows, as you say, the squad leader can vary his role according to the battle:

@Gerard … I think you have the roles reversed. The Rifle Platoon was 38-42 men (depending on the year), divided into two squads. Each squad was divided into a rifle group, and an MG group.

The NCO (sergeant) was responsible for the rifle group. A corporal was responsible for the MG group.

The tactical plans were to have the MG group set up and lay down fire, while the rifle group advanced. Then the MG group would dash up and re-set, and once again provide covering fire while the rifle group advanced.

It was "harder" to lead men into battle than have men support an MG laying down covering fire. So the more experienced sergeant was responsible for the "assault" and maneuver of the rifle group. The corporal was responsible for setting up the MG and laying down covering fire.

So you had two NCOs (sergeants) and two corporals. Obviously, on the defense, where no assault is planned, the sergeants could swap duties and assignments if needed.

But the units were organized and trained with the corporals responsible for the running of the MG group.

The Italian platoon organization is different enough from most WW2 armies that it is easy to project our expectations and mis-read what is actually presented to us.

The platoon was organized into two squadri (singular: squadra, or squads). We see one squad in the diagram above.

The squad was divided into two gruppi (singular: gruppo, groups, or perhaps teams).

The basic principal was that the platoon had two halves, and each half had a base of fire and a maneuver element.

As the platoon had a very thin command element (a platoon leader with one orderly), this square organization seems to have been a bit difficult to control.

In practice, it seems that many platoon leaders fought their platoons in a binary (2 units) form rather than the square (4 units) format. This might be formed with one double-sized base of fire (2 gruppi mitraglatori) and one double-sized maneuver element (2 gruppi fucilieri). And some platoon leaders founght with one full squadra as base of fire, while the other full squadra (gruppo mitraglatori and gruppo fusilieri) maneuvering.

At least that's how I have come to understand it.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

@SeattleGamer

That makes sense, thanks.

@Mark

Thanks for the info.