Under a blazing sun, more than 15,000 Italian servicemen swung down Rome's Via dei Fori Imperiali one morning last week in celebration of the fourth anniversary of the Italian Republic. Romans missed the dash and color traditional with Italian soldiery. The cheers which had greeted the few mounted carabinieri and their red-plumed helmets died into shocked silence when the beloved Bersaglieri (sharpshooters) rode by in halftracks instead of trotting jauntily on foot to the tune of blaring bugles. An old woman watching the parade nodded her head toward Mussolini's old balcony on the Piazza Venezia. "He did things much better," she said.
Military men disagreed. In the military attachés' box, U.S. officers looked approvingly at the businesslike troops, heard murmured appreciation from Western European colleagues. Western officers were interested in an old question: Would the Italians perform as smartly on the battlefield as they did on parade? Consensus was that the quality of Italy's army was far better than Mussolini's.
"From Ourselves Alone." No Western military observer thinks that the Italian army in its present state could hold up a Russian attack for more than a few weeks.
The hope is that Italy can build an army capable of holding the southern half of Italy until the Allies can land help.
Last week, Marshal Giovanni Messe, retired chief of staff and respected "elder statesman" of the Italian army, gave his views of Italy's military position. In the event of an immediate all-out war, wrote Messe in the magazine Oggi, the Russians would have 45 divisions available for use against Austria, Italy and Yugoslavia. To counter them, there are 30 Yugoslav and eight Italian divisions. But, asked the marshal, "What if our neighbor [Yugoslavia] should look for shelter under the protecting wing of 'Great Mother Russia'? ... It is evident that in our sector security can be obtained from ourselves alone." Soldier Messe recommended two immediate steps: build up the police and security forces to protect Italy's interior from Communist infiltration; strengthen Italy's air transport forces.
Messe's program could not be carried out under peace treaty restrictions on Italian armament, which limit Italian armed forces to 300,000 men and forbid Italy from experimenting with new weapons, possessing such "offensive" weapons as bombers and long-range artillery.