Battle and Capture in North Africa: The Experience of Two Italian Servicemen

Raffaello Cei and Giovanni Palermo both served in the Italian military forces during the Second World War. Following battles against Allied forces in Libya, both men became prisoners of war in the Union of South Africa. While thousands more Italian captives had similar experiences to those of Cei and Palermo, this article looks at the memoirs of these two men with the aim of enriching our understanding of the Italian forces' range of lived war experience, specifically that of battle and capture in 1941 and 1942.