The Kingdom of Italy entered World War II in 1940, with an armed conflict with France and Great Britain. The main type of Italian land armed forces was the infantry, which at the beginning of the war numbered 59 divisions. It is worth adding that the Italian infantry divisions in 1938 underwent a deep reorganization. A single division after such a reorganization was called from the Italian " divisione binaria ". This reorganization was based on the introduction of a division composed of two infantry regiments, instead of three, which was used, for example, in the German army. Moreover, the Italian infantry division also had (after 1938) support artillery regiments, a mortar battalion, an engineer battalion and a company of anti-tank guns. Of course, there were also staff and communications units, etc. A single Italian infantry regiment usually consisted of 3 or 5 battalions. Support weapons in the Italian regiment were: 24 heavy machine guns, 108 light machine guns, 6 81 mm mortars, 54 45 mm light mortars and 4 65 mm light infantry guns (Cannone da 65/17). The artillery regiment was equipped with 36 100 and 75 mm guns. Most often they had horse traction. It is worth adding that the divisions stationed in Libya had a slightly different structure, as they had three infantry regiments (each with an artillery company) and an artillery regiment, however, consisting of only 77 mm guns. Such a division consisted of about 7,400 people. In the course of the fighting in North Africa, efforts were made to increase the motorisation of Italian infantry divisions, but with only a limited effect.
The Battle of Stalingrad is widely regarded as the bloodiest single battle World War II. It was fought between the Red Army and the Axis forces - especially the Wehrmacht - on the Eastern Front from August 1942 to February 1943. It happened as a result of the implementation by the Wehrmacht of a plan code-named Fall Blau, which was aimed at taking over the southern areas of the USSR, reaching the Caucasus and seizing oil fields in Maykop and Baku. However, in the course of the implementation of this plan, as a result of, inter alia, the intervention of Adolf Hitler, the seizure of the city of Stalingrad became one of the main objectives of the operation. For Nazi Germany, this decision turned out to be one of the worst in the history of World War II. The Stalingrad battle turned into horribly bloody and very heavy city fights, during which every house or street was fought, and the front line often ran through rooms or staircases in apartment blocks! Ultimately, as a result of it, the Wehrmacht suffered a great defeat, and the entire 6th Army was taken prisoner by the Soviets, including Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. It is estimated that during the entire Battle of Stalingrad, the Axis forces lost about 850,000 soldiers - killed, wounded and captured. The Battle of Stalingrad also marked a turn in the war on the Eastern Front, which from then on began to take a favorable turn for the USSR.