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I spoke to a friend today whose grandfather was in the 2/10th at Tobruk. He reminisced that he occasionally used a Mannilicher-Carcano for short range work from his dugout. I have also been researching the Italians in Africa, and their uniforms in general, and have turned up some interesting facts on kit and history.
firstly, those Italian Camo shelter halves are correctly known as M29 Shelter halves, and were the first camouflaged groundsheets ever issued. They were used in Africa by the Italians, and also were made in tan and olive drab. Interestingly enough, there were whole divisions of Italian troops who were never issued tropical gear before arriving in the tropics, this meant that the Italian reinforcements sent to Africa in the post-El-Alamein 2 period made extensive use of allied tropical uniform items (including side-caps).
Secondly, the Australians were not the most studious note-takers throughout the African campaign. There are continuous instances where Italians are reporrted or identified as Germans. Making the running list of Axis forces encountered by Australian battle groups quite sketchy. This train of thought is well illustrated by a friends Grandfather who gave said friend a rank patch he souveniered off of a German, the badge was actually an Italian Lance-corporals chevrons. So even up close, the Axis forces must have seemed rather homogenous in appearance to the average Aussie digger.
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