One Italian cavalry officer,the Count of Campello(Conte R. di Campello),implemented a policy of Russian liberation with Italian permission and after the German high command refused to accept his ideas.As a breeder of race horses before the war ,the Count had an instinctive high regard for the Cossacks,and when he found that many of these fine warrior horsemen of the steppe were among those surrendering to ARMIR he formed a Cossack cavalry force.
Because of the conditions prevailing at the front at that time,he was unable to provide his men with new uniforms so they continued to wear their Red army issue but without the Communist insignia.They fought well ,and at one stage of the retreat the Count of Campello was wounded and captured by the Red army.When his Cossacks heard the news they did not wait for any orders but went straight into the attack.
In the beginning ,and because they were wearing Red army uniforms,the Soviet troops did not open fire until the Cossacks were on top of them and then a massacre followed.The anti-communist horsemen cut through the Red line like a hot knife through butter,and before long their commander was liberated and placed ,very carefully ,upon a horse drawn sledge.
By that time ,the Soviet soldiers hed recovered from their intial surprise and closed the gap.The Cossacks were surrounded.Undeterred by the heavy fire which poured into their midst from all sides, the Cossacks kept circling about the wounded Count and cutting a way through to freedom for him.Their valor was crowned with success.They reached the safety of their own lines and the commander's life was saved,but hundreds of them failed to return from their errand of mercy;they had fulfilled the greatest act of Christian sacrifice in as much as they had laid down their lives for their friend.
Very little is known about the military actions fought by the Count's ormation or what finally happened to them.The same is true about the Cossack division formed by ARMIR, which fought many gallant battles.
