136th Armored Division TL37 75mm/Italian Mortar squad *Battalion Group "Giovani Fascisti"* - premium?

My pitch for some Italian Premium squads (please excuse the formatting):

Battalion Group “Giovani Fascisti” (* The division was never fully formed and staffed, and it never had armored vehicles: the 1st Tank Infantry Regiment, which was briefly assigned to it never reached the division in Libya.)

The 301st Legion CC.NN. “Primavera” was officially established on 12 April 1941. Already on 18 April it was decided to enroll the young fascists as volunteers in the Royal Italian Army to form the Battalion Group “Giovani Fascisti”. The army performed a thorough selection, which reduced the number of those able to enlist to about two thousand of the class of 1922. However the age and parental consent were not controlled properly and besides the class of 1922, also youths from 1923 and 1924, as well as three volunteers from 1925 and one from 1926 were enrolled in the three battalions of the Battalion Group “Giovani Fascisti”. The Fascist militia withdrew its uniforms and the volunteers received the army’s gray-green uniform and the two-pointed crimson gorget patches of the Bersaglieri corps with an added yellow border. As headgear the battalion group received a black fez, but not helmet. The volunteers fought the entire war without being issued helmets. On 21 April 1942 the battalion group took the oath to King.

The division participated in the Tunisian Campaign from beginning to end. The division had arrived at the Mareth Line on 25 January 1943 and with all other Italian and German units on the Mareth Line entered the Italian 1st Army on 23 February. On 6 March 1943 the Giovani Fascisti participated in the [Battle of Medenine]



75/27 field guns mounted on TL.37 in North Africa
(Battle of Medenine - Wikiwand), and ten days later in the Battle of the Mareth Line. On 25 March the division retreated together with the other Axis forces to the prepared defensive position at Wadi Akarit. On 6–7 April 1943 the British Eighth Army broke through the Axis line in the Battle of Wadi Akarit and the Italian 1st Army was forced to withdraw Enfidaville.

While the British Eighth Army and Italian 1st Army at Enfidaville remained static, to their North Allied forces overran German and Italian defenses and took Bizerte and Tunis. By 12 May 1943 the remaining 80,000 men of the Italian 1st Army were surrounded and the next day its commanding officer General Giovanni Messe surrendered his army to British General Bernard Freyberg. The Giovani Fascisti was officially declared lost on the 13 May 1943.

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