Italian Civil War - Factions

Factions

There were many confrontations between the two parts, and many civilian were involved into clashes, or tortured, abused and killed by extremists from both sides. In this phase of conflict, that developed in paraller with the Italian Campaign, partisans were supported by Allied forces with small arms, ammunitions and explosives, launched by planes being part of special warfare squadrons. These air operational units were part of RAF and USAF because Allied command did not consider positively the use of Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force squadrons for this task (as requested by Italian Co-belligerent Armed Forces) due to the risk of confrontation between Italians. Another form of cooperation between Allied forces and partisans was exerted by military missions, parachuted or landed behind enemy lines, and often composed by Italian military personnel and/or Italian-American soldiers members of OSS, but elsewhere from specialists (communications, sabotage) and secret services members. Where possible, both sides avoided situations in which Italian units of opposite fronts were involved in combat episodes, but this happened in some rare cases. The bulk of episodes of blood between Italians were clashes between partisans and fascist of various armed formations.