Battle and massacre at Shar al-Shatt

Coordinates: 32°53′43.00″N 13°12′37.00″E / 32.8952778°N 13.2102778°E / 32.8952778; 13.2102778
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Battle and massacre at Shar al-Shatt
Part of The Massacres during the Italo-Turkish War

Map of the battle of Shar al-Shatt
Date23 October 1911
Location
Tripoli, Tripolitania, Ottoman Empire (now Libya)
32°53′43.00″N 13°12′37.00″E / 32.8952778°N 13.2102778°E / 32.8952778; 13.2102778
Result
  • Italian defensive victory
  • Ottoman strategic and political victory
    • Belligerents
    Kingdom of Italy Italy  Ottoman Tripolitania
    Commanders and leaders
    Gustavo Fara Neşet Bey
    Strength
    1,500 10,000
    Casualties and losses
    482 killed and 125 wounded Unknown

    The battle and massacre at Shar al-Shatt (Arabic: شارع الشط Shār’ ash-Shaṭ; Sciara Sciat in Italian) occurred on 23 October 1911 in the village of Shar al-Shatt on the outskirts of Tripoli, Libya during the Italo-Turkish War. 482 Italian officers and men were killed in Shar al -Shatt, of which 290 in the following massacre of soldiers who had surrendered. The incident became known as the "Massacre of Italians at Sciara Sciat."[1]

    Battle and massacre[edit]

    The Italian fleet appeared off Ottoman Tripoli on the evening of 28 September 1911; the city was quickly conquered by a force of 1,500 men.

    Despite the quick Italian conquest of the city of Tripoli and its surroundings from the Ottoman Empire by the first days of October, the interior of Ottoman Libya shortly thereafter broke out into revolt, with Italian authorities losing control over large areas of the region.

    Before the arrival of the Italian forces, cells led by Ottoman officers (called "Young Turks", like Mustafa Kemal Atatürk) encouraged native Libyans to infiltrate Italian-owned industries and companies in Tripolitania, reconnoiter roads, and take a census of all males able to bear arms in Tripoli and Derna, in preparation for a jihad of the local Muslims.

    The interior of Tripolitania rose in revolt from the first weeks and the Italian soldiers were quickly defeated by the local Muslims (supported by Turkish officers), as happened in Shar al-Shatt.[2]

    The IV Battalion of the 11th Bersaglieri Regiment of Colonel Gustavo Fara had been positioned at the small oasis village as part of the defenses of Tripoli. On 23 October, the force of about 500 Italian soldiers came under attack from the Turks and Arabs and was quickly overrun and decimated. Approximately 290 'bersaglieri' who survived the initial assault surrendered to the jihadists in the local cemetery, but all were tortured and killed.

    I saw (in Sciara Sciat) in one mosque seventeen Italians, crucified with their bodies reduced to the status of bloody rags and bones, but whose faces still retained traces of their hellish agony. Long rods had been passed through the necks of these wretched men and their arms rested on these rods. They were then nailed to the wall and died slowly with untold suffering. It is impossible for us to paint the picture of this hideous rotted meat hanging pitifully on the bloody wall. In a corner another body was crucified, but as an officer he was chosen to experience refined sufferings. His eyes were stitched closed. All the bodies were mutilated and castrated; so indescribable was the scene and the bodies appeared swollen as shapeless carrion. But that's not all! In the cemetery of Chui, which served as a refuge from the Turks and to whence soldiers retreated from afar, we could see another show. In front of one door near the Italian trenches five soldiers had been buried up to their shoulders, their heads emerged from the black sand stained with their blood: heads horrible to see and there you could read all the tortures of hunger and thirst.

    Gaston Leroux, correspondent of "Matin-Journal"[3]

    Argentine journalist Enzo D'Armesano of the Buenos Aires newspaper "La Prensa" was present the next morning in Shar al-Shatt and reported the cruelty with a description that impressed the Argentinian people. He reported that many local civilians approached the Italians' lines from behind, initially showing friendship, only to fall upon them with knives. He wrote that the three survivors of the 4th Battalion accused the Arab civilians of the Shar al-Shatt oasis of "tradimento" (betrayal).[4]

    Aftermath[edit]

    Monument in Rome for the Bersaglieri, with Sciara Sciat reference (the first at the top)

    Officially, 21 Italian officers and 482 soldiers died at Shar al-Shatt, 290 of them massacred after surrender in the cemetery.[5]

    In 1932, Mussolini inaugurated a Monument to the Bersaglieri in Rome, especially honoring those who died at Shar al-Shatt. The monument was designed by architect Italo Mancini and was created by sculptor Publio Morbiducci.[6]

    See also[edit]

    Citations[edit]

    1. ^ Gerwarth and Manela (2014), p. 37.
    2. ^ Cronaca e storia del corpo dei bersaglieri (1836-1986) (1986), p. 173.
    3. ^ Leroux (1917).
    4. ^ de Martino (1911), pp. 116–118.
    5. ^ Childs (1990), p. 86.
    6. ^ Painter (2007), p. 134.

    References[edit]

    • Childs, Timothy Winston (1990). Italo-Turkish Diplomacy and the War Over Libya: 1911–1912. Brill. ISBN 90-04-09025-8.
    • Cronaca e storia del corpo dei Bersaglieri, 1836–1986 [Chronicle and History of the Bersaglieri Corps (1836-1986)] (in Italian). Piazza. 1986. OCLC 219933820.
    • de Martino, Antonio (1911). Tripoli Italiana: la guerra italo-turca [Tripoli Italiana: The Italian-Turkish War]. Società libraria italiana.
    • Gerwarth, Robert; Manela, Erez (2014). Empires at War: 1911–1923. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-100694-4.
    • Leroux, Gaston (23 August 1917). "No title cited". Matin Journal.
    • Painter, Borden (2007). Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-8002-1.
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