"The 54th Infantry Division "Napoli" was created in Caltanissetta on 15 April 1939, formed by the 75th and 76th Infantry Regiment and by the 54th Field Artillery Regiment.
The Division spent the entirety of the war in southern Sicily, stationed between Caltagirone, Mirabella and Piazza Armerina, ready to intervene in support of the coastal units in the case of an enemy landing on the coast between Gela, Licata and Pozzallo. Its first commander was General Renato Coturri, replaced in 1943 by General Giulio Cesare Gotti Porcinari, a 54-year-old officer hailing from an aristocratic Florentine family (he held the title of Count) who had fought with the Bersaglieri in the Italo-Turkish War and World War I, receiving two Bronze Medals for Military Valor.
At the time of the Allied landings in July 1943, the "Napoli" Division was divided into two groups, one of which was stationed between Ramacca and Scordia (west of Catania and Augusta), and the other more to the south, in Palazzolo Acreide, as a mass of manoeuvre for the XVI Corps. After the landings, the Division engaged the advancing Allied columns in heavy fighting near Noto and between Lentini and Brucoli; units from the Division launched reiterated counterattacks near Floridia throughout July 10, until they were attacked by prevalent Allied forces coming from Ponte Diddino on their left flank and forced to retreat towards the hills north of Solarino, where they kept countering the enemy advance during July 11. At the same time, other units from the Division were heavily engaged in Palazzolo Acreide; on July 12, it seemed for some time that the frontline had been stabilized on the Palazzolo-Solarino-Priolo line, but on the following day more Allied troops, having landed north of Augusta, encircled the Division, which was almost wiped out in the subsequent fighting. On that day, General Gotti Porcinari and his staff were captured near Solarino. On July 14 the surviving forces that had managed to escape encirclement gathered near Scordia, where they were almost completely destroyed while protecting the withdrawal of other Axis units from Caltagirone-Vizzini towards Scordia. Between 16 and 24 July the remains of the Division sustained sporadic rearguard fighting, and on July 25 – the day of Mussolini's removal from power – they were sent to Linguaglossa where they were supposed to be reorganized. The impossibility of obtaining replacements, however, rendered this impossible, therefore they withdrew towards Messina, crossing the straits between 11 and 14 August and being then gathered near Fondaco Melia, south-east of Scilla (Reggio Calabria). So few men had escaped from Sicily, anyway, that the Division was officially dissolved on 14 August; the only one to suffer this fate, among the four Italian "regular" infantry divisions that fought in Sicily…"
Main page
link
Amicalement
Armand
gets his hands on some fields and fences.
