| 11th Army | |
|---|---|
| 11ª Armata | |
| Active | 9 November 1940 – September 1943 |
| Country |  Kingdom of Italy |
| Branch |  Royal Italian Army |
| Type | Field army |
| Engagements | Greco-Italian War,Italian occupation of Greece |
The11th Army (Italian:11ª Armata) was aWorld War IIfield army of theRoyal Italian Army. It was formed in November 1940 for service in theGreco-Italian War, and after theGerman invasion of Greece and the capitulation of that country in April 1941, assumed occupation duties in the Greek mainland. It remained on station in Greece until theArmistice of Cassibile on 8 September 1943, when it wasforcibly disbanded by the Germans.
It was formed on 9 November 1940 out of the 11th Army Corps, then based inItalian-occupied Albania and engaged inoperations against Greece alongside the9th Army. Its engagement against the Greeks lasted until thefall of Greece in April 1941.
Thereafter, the Eleventh Army assumed duties of occupation in Greece, headquartered inAthens. Its command also doubled as theHigher Armed Forces Command Greece (Comando Superiore Forze Armate Grecia, abbrev.C.S. FF. AA. Grecia), with responsibility over mainland Greece (apart from the German and Bulgarian zones in northern Greece and the German zone in eastern and southernAttica), as well as the island ofEuboea, theNorthern Sporades andSkyros, andKythera.[1] The remainder of theIonian Islands came under the Higher Armed Forces Command Albania (Ninth Army), while theItalian Dodecanese, the Italian-occupiedLasithi Prefecture onCrete and the bulk of theCyclades came under the Higher Armed Forces Command of the Italian Islands of the Aegean atRhodes.[1] Apart from the units of the Eleventh Army, the Higher Armed Forces Command Greece also included the Air Force Command Greece (Comando Aeronautica Grecia), and the Western Greece Naval Military Command (Comando Militare Marittimo della Grecia Occidentale) at Patras.[2]
In April 1943, an assessment of the combat readiness of the Eleventh Army's eight remaining divisions in terms of armament and means of transport found only one—the11th Infantry DivisionBrennero—as "complete", with three more "effective" (over 70% of pack animals and 70% to 90% of vehicles from thetable of organization and equipment) and the rest "incomplete" (with figures of completeness around 60%).[3] In a similar evaluation of their completeness in personnel a fortnight later, onlyBrennero and the33rd Infantry DivisionAcqui were classed as "complete", with the remainder as "effective".[4] The situation remained largely the same during another review of their combat readiness in June.[5]
It wasforcibly disbanded by theGerman Army in September 1943, after theItalian capitulation.
During the first months of its occupation of Greece, Eleventh Army comprised the following units:[7]
In spring 1943, Eleventh Army comprised the following units:[10]
