The Black Devils. The true story of the Battle of Mogadishu

More than twenty-five years have now passed since that 2 July 1993 battle in Mogadishu between Italian troops and Somali rebels. But the memory of those clashes is still vivid in everyone's mind, not only those who experienced it first-hand like General Paolo Riccò. Also known as the battle of the 'Pasta' checkpoint and remembered for being the first one involving Italian army troops since the end of the Second World War, it was a very bloody clash in which three Italian soldiers lost their lives and many others were seriously wounded. The XV Parachute Company 'Black Devils', thanks to the extremely tough training their captain, General Riccò, had subjected them to, was the only company capable of responding to the Somali militia attack. In this tightly-packed account, General Riccò, the current commander of the Army Aviation and Bronze Medal for Military Valour for the courage he showed in Mogadishu, reconstructs the true story of those tragic days through unpublished documents and testimonies, revealing the details of an event whose aspects have not yet been fully disclosed.