Word: rodolfos
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Encirclement. They knew just about what to expect, for geography canalizes desert warfare. Some of the enemy's drives were already either under way or poised to strike. Month ago Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Italy's expert in African warfare, led the spearhead of a drive from Libya into Egypt. After his first crushing spurt, he had pegged in at Sidi Barrani (see map), and his forces had been consolidating themselves there ever since. The British were 80 miles east at Mersa Matruh, the outpost to which they had decided to retire, with tip & run tactics, whenever the drive...
Last week Rodolfo Graziani flew to Rome to get orders from his boss, who at Brenner Pass in an armored train had just got orders from his boss. The orders, if advices reaching London had any basis, delighted Mussolini and infuriated Graziani. II Duce had reason to be pleased: Herr Hitler reportedly told him that Germany would send substantial forces into the Southern Theatre for the winter. Marshal Graziani's pique was due to the inference that the Italians, and specifically the Italian Command, were eunuchs in warfare, unable to do heavy jobs without some muscle to help them...
...Roman warriors. How long she and Mark Antony lingered in Paraetonium (now Mersa Matruh) history has forgotten. The city crackled in the sun, crumbled into decay, remained virtually forgotten some 2,000 years until last week another Roman warrior sought to enter its now squalid streets. He was Marshal Rodolfo Graziani...
Italian strategy was not the German one of fanning and pinching mechanized columns. There was only one Italian drive. The Italian commander, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, used Foch's plan of "applying superior force at one point." From Fort Capuzzo in Libya (see map}), fortnight ago, started the Italian spearhead-a long thin line of light Fiat tanks in Indian file, three infantry regiments, including many blacks, a machine-gun battalion, a company equipped with mortars, an artillery regiment with heavier 10-centimetre Ansaldos and Vickers 15.2s, two sapper companies with well-drilling and road-building equipment...
Meanwhile in Libya the British tried an offensive of prevention, knowing that General Rodolfo Graziani was massing at least two divisions at Bardia, on the coast, for a drive into Egypt. Early one morning the British Fleet based at Alexandria suddenly appeared off Bardia. On the bulletin board of one of the battleships the captain had posted a notice: "This action will be short and sharp and we shall have some fun." For 25 minutes the 15-inch guns of the battleships and the 6-inchers of the cruisers poured a steel rain into Bardia. Aerial spotters reported the damage...