Word: celeris
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...face of a British Intelligence operative. But the fact remains that Italy threw into the fight, at the outset, ten full divisions numbering, with supply and labor troops, over 200,000 men, to which two more divisions were added after the going got rough. These included many celeri (mobile) units. At the Pindus passes the invaders were confronted by not more than eight divisions out of the 13, plus one of cavalry, which Greece could mobilize but of which she could equip only ten for fighting. Not even numbers of airplanes made much difference, for Italian planes outnumbered the Greeks...
Italian divisions have but two regiments each, 10,000 men. Three semi-mechanized celeri (swift) divisions are built around light tanks, horse-drawn and motorized artillery, with Bersaglieri (sharpshooters) on bicycles, motor trucks, motorcycles. Three armored divisions, and six armored regiments have heavier (eight-to-twelve-ton) break-through tanks, besides assault tanks, infantry in trucks, an engineer company with bridging equipment, anti-tank and anti-aircraft units...
...elaborate mechanical devices with which munitions makers have been whiling away the quiet years. Troops will advance this week under shell barrages. There will be clouds of real tear gas to penalize those slow with their masks. Benito Mussolini is particularly anxious to find out if his newly organized celeri (speedy) divisions are really as efficient as they appear on paper or if the mass of electrically controlled machine guns, trucks, tanks, microphone plane finders and other gadgets with which they are equipped are too complicated for simple Italian soldiers to operate...
...Bono will serve as a field judge. Minister of Education Francesco Ercole will head field telegraph and radio. Minister of Finance Guido Jung has a regiment of artillery. Hardest job goes to Under Secretary of Corporations Alberto Asquini who will be responsible for one of the still untried celeri divisions. Easiest goes to dapper, foppish Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs Fulvio Suvich, whose principal job is to serve as Il Duce's messenger boy at international conferences. He will encase his elegant legs in the breeches of the King's own Lancers, the swank Vittorio Emanuele II Regiment, and spend...