You'd Have to be a Lunatic

In a recent interview on the Beasts of War Youtube channel, Richard (Too Fat Lardies) Clark said, “You would probably have to be a lunatic to want to refight that particular part of the war”. The campaign he had in mind was the less-than-impressive Italian invasion of southern France in June 1940.  

Richard has a case. It was all over in a couple of days and the Italians lost nearly as many men to frostbite in the High Alps as they did to enemy action. Even where the French did cause casualties, it was overwhelmingly their artillery, firing from what is sometimes called the southern extension of the Maginot Line, that did the damage. Nowhere did the Italians penetrate more than a couple of kilometres into France.

However, I already have the French, some Airfix Italians have been sitting in my one-day-I’ll-paint-them pile for years, and the theme for Crisis Point 2019 is “War in the Mediterranean”. So you know what? Call me a lunatic.

Actually, all is not quite as bad as the traditional view would have it. To quote from Wikipedia:

“The fighting in the streets of Menton was fierce. The Italians pushed through the Baousset quarter and took the hilltop Capuchin monastery of Notre-Dame de l'Annonciade on 23 June.”

Baousset to Notre-Dame de l'Annonciade is about 5km by road so there's plenty of room for any number of Chain of Command tables in the area occupied by the Italians (eventually).

So I've gone and ordered some Italian LMG teams from Dixons.