Italian Fascist Youth: World War II -- Activities

Figure 1.--Here we see an Italian boy near Salerno south of Naples doing agricultural work during World War II. We assume he is a Balilla boy doing war work. He is not wearing his Balilla uniform, but some kind of work jump suit. We have not noted that uniform before and are unsure how common it was. Or how common such effiorts were supporting the war economy.

We have been unable at this time to find much information as the role played by the Balilla on the Italian home front during World War II. There are many images showing the boys parading about in their uniforms and brandishing weapons, but we do not see mny images of activities that supported the war effort beyond military training. We suspect that they played some of the roles we have noted Boy Scouts playing in Allied countries, but can not yet confirm that. Hopefully readers will be able to provide some information on this. One part of the Balilla program was military training, but unlike the Hitler Youth failed to inculcated martial ardor in Italian youth. We note one small Bailla group near Salerno that appars to be involved in agricultural labor early in the War. We do not, however, have any informatiomn on the group or how common this kind of activity was. The boys are wearing a uniform we have not noted before, a kind of jump suit.

Home Front Support

There are many images showing the boys parading about in their uniforms and brandishing weapons, but we do not see many images of activities that supported the war effort beyond military training. We have been unable at this time to find much information as the role played by the Balilla on the Italian home front during World War II. We suspect that they played some of the roles we have noted Boy Scouts playing in Allied countries and the Hitler Youth played in Germany, but can not yet confirm that. The Soviet Young Pioneers were a little different. They were not as well organized and more children went into the arms industries than in other countries. But we believe that Italian children participated in drives, farming, child care, fire fighting, parcels for the soldiers at the front and many other activities like children participating as part of youth groups in other countries Hopefully readers will be able to provide some information on this. We note one small Bailla group near Salerno that appars to be involved in agricultural labor early in the War. We do not, however, have any informatiomn on the group or how common this kind of activity was. The boys are wearing a uniform we have not noted before, a kind of jump suit.

Military Training

One part of the Balilla program was military training, but unlike the Hitler Youth failed to inculcated martial ardor in Italian youth. Given this record, the Balilla has to be judged a failure because this and geberating support for Fascism were its major purposes. There was some basic para-military training conducted by each unit. Glorification of the military and war was a basic feature of Fascism and Italian Fascism was no exception. There were Fascist Saturdays and summer camps. Of course more rigorous military training could be conducted at camp than during the fegular Saturday meetings. Para-military training was an important objective of the program. We have, however, few details on the training at this time. The program was structured for the different age levels of the group. We note younger children handling replica rifles and learning to load them. More intensive para-military traing was coducted at camps. We do not have information at this time on the para-military activities of older boys. What ever the nature of the training, it seems to have had little impact on the martial spirit of Italian soldiers in World war II. This contrasts sharply with the impact of Hitler Youth training. It is not entirely clear to us why the military training of the two groups had such widely varied results. We suspect that both the character of the two groups as well as wider social factors were involved, but our limited information on the military training program preclude any conclusions at this time.