Medal for the Italian-German campaign in Africa

The Medal for the Italian-German campaign in Africa (Italian: Medaglia commemorativa della campagna italo-tedesca in Africa settentrionale; German: Erinnerungsmedaille für den italienisch-deutschen Feldzug in Afrika, often just Deutsch-Italienische Feldzugsmedaille) was originally named Nastrino commemorativo della attuale guerra in Libia (English: Commemorative ribbon of the current war in Libya) and instituted in two versions by Benito Mussolini in spring 1942 during the North African Campaign for military service from 1940 to 1943. As a foreign war decoration, German personnel were given pre-authorization to accept and wear the medal it if was awarded. Many of the Germans used the reverse of the medal as the front.

History

The medal's die cutter (some even state designer) is Roberto De Marchis, whose name is written under the crocodile on the originals. The medal was awarded to Italian and German soldiers of the Afrika Korps, especially members of the Panzer Army Africa, renamed renamed German-Italian Panzer Army in October 1942. In February 1943, the headquarters was expanded and called Army Group Africa (Heeresgruppe Afrika, Gruppo d'Armate Africa) to manage the defence of Tunisia during the final stages of the North African Campaign. Army Group Africa included the German Fifth Panzer Army (5. Panzerarmee) and the Italian 1st Army. Command of the Army Group was turned over from Erwin Rommel to Hans-Jürgen von Arnim in March. He surrendered the Army Group on 13 May 1943, ending the Axis presence in Africa.

In Libya, Italy had a colony in which over 150,000 soldiers were stationed with tanks, guns and aircraft. In neighboring Egypt, only around 30,000 British soldiers controlled the important Suez Canal, so that on 13 September 1940, Italy decided to wage a parallel war in North Africa on its own, which was not coordinated with Hitler. Despite the capture of Sidi Barrani, the Italian offensive came to a halt after only one week and by the beginning of December 1940, the British troops had already launched a counter-offensive. They overran the Italians, recaptured Sidi Barrani and marched into Libya on 2 January 1941, where they captured the sea fortress of Tobruk and Benghazi and directly threatened the capital Tripoli. By this time, the British had already taken 130,000 prisoners and captured over 400 tanks and 1,300 guns, with few losses of their own. Mussolini had originally as a matter of pride categorically rejected German offers of support, but now, given the situation, he was forced to beg Hitler for help as he had already done after the debacle of Italy's invasion of Greece in early 1940 which led to the German Balkans Campaign. The Germans sent a "barrier unit" that was originally intended to simply hold back the English. It consisted of the 5th Light Division, the 15th Panzer Division and Luftwaffe air support from the X. Air Corps in Sicily. These units, under the command of General Erwin Rommel, formed the German Africa Corps (DAK), which arrived in North Africa in mid-February 1941. After initial reconnaissance advances, the DAK went on the offensive, recaptured all of Cyrenaica and cut off the fortress of Tobruk from the country. Tobruk is a city in eastern Cyrenaica in Libya and was of great importance in the battle for North Africa due to its deep-water port and strategic location. Originally an Italian colony, the fortified Tobruk was captured by the British on 22 January 1941 and the 25,000 Italian defenders were taken prisoner. The British then further reinforced the city with defensive structures and Tobruk, under the 9th Australian Infantry Division, withstood Rommel's first offensive and the attacks on the city on 14 and 30 April 1941. After further air raids and the relief by the British 8th Army in December, the German-Italian troops again went on the offensive against Tobruk in May 1942, broke through the fortress from the southeast on 20 June 1942, forced the defenders to surrender on 21 June 1942 and captured over 30,000 British colonial troops, including a large amount of booty (including 10,000 tons of fuel). Rommel, now famous as the "Desert Fox," was then promoted to Generalfeldmarschall. [...] After the conquest of Tobruk, the Afrika Korps marched together with the Italians far to the east and only came to a halt about 100 km from the strategically important city of Alexandria near the village of “El-Alamein”, where the British 8th Army had set up a reception position between the coast and the Qattara Depression.

The medal is silver-plated or made of bronze. It has a diameter of 31 mm, and shows on the obverse in the centre a relief of the triumphal arch Arco dei Fileni of Brega. In 1973, the triumphal arch was destroyed by Muammar Gaddafi. To the right of it is a swastika and to the left of the triumphal arch the fasces. Below the arch is a Savoy heraldic knot. The knot can also be found in the symbol of the 4º Stormo of the Regia Aeronautica (4th Wing of the Royal Italian Air Force), and until 1943 it was in the logo of the car brand Alfa Romeo. On the medal, however, it symbolises the cohesion of the Berlin-Rome axis.

The symbolism is surrounded by the inscription: ITALIENISCH-DEUTSCHER FELDZUG IN AFRICA (right) and, with exactly the same wording in Italian, CAMPAGNA ITALO-TEDESCA IN AFRICA (left). Each separated by laurel leaf (top) and oak leaf (bottom). The reverse shows a pair of soldiers in old Latin costumes with a breastplate, greaves and shoulder guards, reminiscent of the armor of a Roman legionnaire. The person on the left is a German Wehrmacht soldier , the person on the right is a member of the Italian armed forces. Together they fight, standing on the legs of a hungry, an Africa-devouring crocodile, which symbolizes the British Army. The closed mouth represents the Suez Canal, which was closed to the Axis powers.

The medal was attached to a 24 mm wide ribbon on the upper left side of the decorated person's chest, the colours of which represented the German national colours black-white-red and the Italian green-white-red (in reverse order). The red vertical centre stripes are used by both flags as the end or the beginning. Although the ribbon was uniform (green-white-red-white-black), Italian members of the armed forces wore it in the colour order starting with green, while Germans wore it with black. The clasp awarded for this was of the same colour.

Italy's betrayal

Due to the Armistice of Cassibile (de facto end of an alliance and betrayal of the brotherhood in arms by Italy) which resulted in Operation Achse (Fall Achse) as well as Italy's declaration of war against the German Reich on 13 October 1943, the right to wear Italian decorations was revoked by decree of the German High Command of the Wehrmacht on 29 March 1944 and came into effect on 8 April 1944. The Africa Campaign Medal was specifically mentioned in this order.

External links

• Italienisch-deutsche Feldzugsmedaille