After seeing some old photos of the Italian SPA 43 armoured recce vehicle serving on the Eastern front in 1943, I became very interested in finding out more them and the unit they belonged to. In Arena's book "I Paracadutisti" and his "Per L'Onore d'Italia" I found the information I was looking for, these books are an excellent resource for all things ' Italian paratrooper ' a definite must have if this is 'your thing'. The books are very detailed and provide great information on many of the other Italian paratroop units. In the "Per L'Onore d'Italia" book, Capt Paris' unit is described as follows: Remnants of the 122nd and 132nd Paracadutisti/Camionettisti were placed under 2nd Fallschirmjager Div. under the command of Capt Paolo Paris and trained near Viterbo in Oct/Nov 1943 (approx. strength of 150 men). They were formed as a recon unit "Spahnung Abteilung" and assigned to 2nd FJ division. Their first tour was in the Ukraine in the region of Baranivka-Jitomir. The unit consisted of approximately 20 Fiat Spa 43 recce vehicles armed with the Breda 20/65. They participated in many engagements supporting the 2nd and 7th regiments of the 2nd Div. Capt Paolo Paris was killed in the Adjamka sector on Dec. 27 1943, near Novhorod/Kivka while he and 24 paratroopers were trying to recover 3 German tanks iced in near the Russian lines. With his death, Lt. Domenico Fania took over the unit. When the 2nd Div. was pulled back from the Russian front ' Spahnung Abteilung ' followed them to Brest in May 1944. The remaining Spa 43 went with them. The unit was assigned to the newly reconstituted 6th Regt of Col. von der Heydte and participated with them in the defensive actions in Sept 44 in Holland and Belgium (Operation Market Garden). Later that autumn, the unit was then ordered back to Italy to join the Raggruppamento Arditi Paracadutisti del ANR. One last note - the few photos of this unit appear to show all the members of this unit wearing German army uniforms, and not Italian ones as I first assumed. Back to Frontline Vol. 3 Iss. 1 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Rolfe Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com