Fall Achse
In forty-eight hours an entire armed forces changed hands. What the Germans could reach they took; what could move made for Malta.
The Italian armistice was announced on the evening of 8 September 1943, and the German plan to disarm its ally was already written. Fall Achse ran for eleven days and stripped an entire armed forces: across the whole operational area — Italy, southern France, Yugoslavia, Greece and the Aegean — the Wehrmacht recorded 977 armoured vehicles, 16,631 motor vehicles and 8,322 artillery pieces taken, along with more than a million rifles. Those totals are frequently quoted as an Italian haul; roughly two-thirds of the personnel disarmed were outside Italy, and the figures below are labelled by what they actually measure.
The seizure had two halves that are rarely told together. The first was capture: what stood on Italian soil on the day was inventoried, given a German designation with the suffix (i) for italienisch, and issued. The second was production. Ansaldo, Fiat, Reggiane and SIAI were inside the occupied zone, and for several types the Germans built more after the armistice than they captured at it — 91 Semovente 105/25 against 26 taken, 120 AB 41 against 57, and 299 further SM.82 transports, which made the Savoia-Marchetti the foreign aircraft used in the largest numbers by the Luftwaffe.
The Regia Marina is the exception that proves the shape of it. Ordered to Malta rather than surrendered in port, the fleet sailed, and the Germans were left with hulls in the builders’ yards and light craft in occupied harbours. The cost of the passage was the flagship: the Roma, sunk on 9 September by two guided bombs, with 1,393 men aboard her.
