Alpini

Alpini
Alpini
	War Cross of Military Valor; 2 Bronze Medals of Army Valor; 1 Gold Medal of Civil Valor; 1 Bronze Medal of Civil Valor; 1 Silver Cross for Army Merit; 1 Cross for Army Merit.
Commanders
Notable; commanders	Luigi Reverberi

The Alpini are the

Alpine Troops Headquarters. The Alpini's name comes from their inceptive association with the Alps, the mountain range that Italy shares with France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia

. An individual soldier of the Alpini is called Alpino.

Established in 1872, the Alpini are the oldest active mountain infantry in the world. Their original mission was to protect Italy's border with France and

Balkans Campaigns and on the Eastern Front

.

During the Cold War the Alpini formed five brigades, which during the 1990s were reduced to two.

History

1872 to 1887

2° Engineer Regiment

.

In 1872, Captain

Lieutenant General Agostino Ricci, who in 1868 had organised exercises in the mountains to assess the feasibility of a specialised mountain infantry corps. Five months after Perrucchetti's article, the first 15 Alpini companies

were formed by Royal decree no. 1056, with their activation effective on October 15, 1872 - the date marked as the official Corps Day. The activation of the mountain companies thus made the Alpini the oldest active Mountain Infantry in the world.

At first the Alpini were organized as a

Venetia, the northern borders of which coincided in large part with the Alpine Arch. Prior to gaining the new northern borders, homeland defence was based on the so-called Quadrilatero strategy. That outdated strategy, however, ignored the geopolitics of the new Italian Kingdom. It called for primary defence of the Po Valley

region ("Pianura Padana") farther to the southwest, but left the Alpine region undefended (as it was considered a territory mainly unsuitable for military operations).

Recruiting Italy's mountain valleys locals and organising them into a special corps was indeed an innovative idea. They possessed superior knowledge of mountain territory and greatest adaptability to Alpine conditions. At the beginning, the mountain regions were divided into seven military districts, each commanded by an Officer and home to at least two Alpini companies, each consisting of 120 personnel. Soldiers were equipped with the Vetterli 1870 rifle. In 1873 nine more companies were added, thus totalling 24. In 1875, the companies doubled in size, having 250 soldiers and 5 officers, which were then organised into 7 Alpini battalions. Each battalion was named after one of the seats of the seven military districts:

1° Cuneo, 2° Mondovi, 3° Torino (Susa), 4° Torino (Chivasso), 5° Como, 6° Treviso, 7° Udine

In 1877, five Alpini mountain artillery batteries were formed and - in the following year - the Alpini had already grown to 36 mountain infantry companies organised into 10 battalions. On November 1, 1882, the Alpini organisation doubled in size to 72 companies and a total of 20 Alpini battalions. The latter plus 8 Alpini mountain artillery batteries were now organized into six numbered Alpini regiments and two Alpini mountain artillery brigades with their respective headquarters and support formations. Each battalion was named after the area it was required to defend in case of war:

Regiment	Garrison/HQ	1st Bn.	2nd Bn.	3rd Bn.	4th Bn.
1st Alpini	Mondovì	Alto Tanaro	Val Tanaro	Val Camonica
2nd Alpini	Bra .	Val Pesio	Col Tenda	Val Schio
3rd Alpini	Fossano	Val Stura	Val Maira	Monti Lessini
4th Alpini	Torino	Val Pellice	Val Chisone	Val Brenta
5th Alpini	Milan	Val Dora	Moncenisio	Valtellina	Alta Valtellina
6th Alpini	Conegliano	Val d'Orco	Val d'Aosta	Cadore	Val Tagliamento

The numbers used earlier to distinguish the battalions were dropped while - at the same time - the companies were now numbered from 1 to 72. In order to distinguish the battalions, soldiers and non-commissioned officers were issued thread tufts of various colors (the Nappina), which were added to the Cappello Alpino: white for the First Bn., red for the Second Bn., and Green for the Third Bn. of each regiment. Special Bn. and Fourth Bn. were issued blue tufts. Soldiers of the Mountain Artillery units were issued a green tuft with a black patch in the middle onto which the number of the battery was written in yellow numbers.

On June 7, 1883, the green flames (Italian: "fiamme verdi") collar patch was introduced, thus making the Alpini officially a speciality within the Italian infantry corps. The Cappello Alpino, with its black raven feather, was also introduced at that time. The distinctive headdress quickly led the Alpini to be nicknamed "The Black feathers" (Italian: "Le Penne Nere"). Officers hats had the black feather replaced with a white eagle feather. At first, the hat was a black felt hat, but as soon as the new green-grey uniform was adopted in 1909 the hat was changed to the distinctive grey felt still in service today.

The Alpini were also distinguished by the green cuffs on the dark blue tunics worn for

full dress

and barrack dress until 1915, and by green piping on their light blue/grey trousers. When grey-green service uniforms were trialled by the Alpini in 1906, before being adopted by the entire army in 1909, the distinctive green collar patches and typical headdress were retained.

The materials, weapons, and equipment of each battalion were stored in the major village of a specific area they were required to defend in case of war. Soldiers of a battalion were only recruited from that area. In 1887, the names of the battalions were changed from those of the defended areas to those of local villages. Therefore, e.g., the Edolo Bn. soldiers were recruited in the vicinity of that village Edolo - where the battalion's arsenal, training ground, and officer's housing were also located. Local recruitment generated strong bonds with and self-identification between the locals and the Alpini units, as men assigned to a single company were all recruited from the same village, and the companies from one valley were all part of the same battalion.

In 1887 the Mountain Troops Inspectorate (Italian: Ispettorato delle truppe alpine) was established in Rome, and took administrative command of all Mountain troops. This led to the reorganization of the Alpini Corps: on August 1, 1887, the

1st Mountain Artillery Regiment was formed in Turin

with nine batteries, each equipped with four 75 mm howitzers. The resulting new layout of the Alpini Corps was as follows:

Regiment	Garrison/HQ	1st Bn.	2nd Bn.	3rd Bn.	4th Bn.
1st Alpini	Mondovì	Ceva	Pieve di Teco	Mondovì
2nd Alpini	Brà	Borgo San Dalmazzo	Vinadio	Dronero
3rd Alpini	Torino	Fenestrelle	Susa I	Susa II *
4th Alpini	Ivrea	Pinerolo	Aosta	Ivrea
5th Alpini	Milan	Morbegno	Tirano	Edolo	Rocca d'Anfo **
6th Alpini	Verona	Verona	Vicenza	Bassano
7th Alpini	Conegliano	Feltre	Pieve di Cadore	Gemona

* (renamed "Exilles" in 1889) ** (renamed "Vestone" in 1889)

1888 to 1914

Although established as a defensive mountain warfare force, the 1° Battaglione Alpini d'Africa (1st African Alpini Battalion) was established in 1887. The battalion's four companies were composed of volunteers taken from all other Alpini battalions. As part of the Corpo Speciale d'Africa (Special African Corps), the battalion deployed to Eritrea to take revenge for the lost battle of Dogali. The battalion returned on April 27, 1888, to Naples, having lost its commanding officer and 13 men due to tropical diseases.

Back in Italy, eight mules were assigned to each Alpini company in the same year. The Vetterli 70 rifle was replaced by the newer Vetterli-Vitali mod. 70/87 rifle. Also, based on a general reorganization of the Italian militia system, 38 Alpini companies and 15 mountain batteries were assigned to active units of the Regio Esercito (Royal Italian Army). In 1892 the Alpini were the first troops to be issued with the new Mod. 91 rifle, which was replaced in 1897 by the Mod. 91TS version and remained in service until 1945.

When the tensions between Italy and Abyssinia escalated into the

Battle of Adowa. The Alpini were outnumbered and heavily defeated by Abyssinian troops. Over 400 out of 530 men died, including the commanding officer, Lt.Col. Davide Menini. After the battle, the first Gold Medal for Military Valor (Italian: Medaglia d'oro al valor militare) was awarded to a member of the Alpini Corps: Capitan Pietro Cella and his Alpini from the 4th company occupied and held the Amba Rajo (English: Rajo Mountain) until March 2, thus allowing the rest of defeated Italian Army forces to flee. Capitan Cella and all his men died in the effort. In memory of their ultimate sacrifice, he has been awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valor (^[1]

). After such a defeat, an Alpini expeditionary regiment with 5 battalions was formed and sent to Eritrea on March 7, 1896, but it saw little combat and was repatriated in June of the same year.

During the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, a Mountain Artillery Battery was sent to China as part of the international relief force that lifted the siege of the International Compound in Beijing, and remained on garrison duty in Tianjin until the end of 1901. On November 13, 1902, after a short period of experimentation with skis the Alpini began to form specially-equipped and trained Skiing Companies (Italian: Compagnie Sciatori). After a heavy earthquake on September 8, 1905, in the Calabria region (Southern Italy), the Alpini deployed to the area for three months to assist in the clearance of debris and reconstruction efforts. They experienced a similar situation in 1908, after the devastating Messina earthquake.

A massive expansion of the Alpini begun in 1909. On July 15 the

2nd Mountain Artillery Regiment was formed in Vicenza with four artillery groups and a total of 12 batteries. In 1908, two new battalions - namely the Tolmezzo and Pallanza (later renamed as Intra in 1909) - had already been formed and assigned to the 7th and 4th regiments, respectively. On October 1, 1909, the "Tolmezzo" and "Gemona" battalions from the 7th Alpini regiment, along with the newly raised Cividale battalion, became the three battalions of new 8th Alpini Regiment, based in Udine. The first commander of the 8th Alpini regiment was Col. Antonio Cantore, who would become a living legend to the Alpini during World War I

. As the 8th Alpini regiment was formed, the Alpini could now count on 25 battalions organised into 8 regiments, 2 mountain artillery regiments with 24 batteries organised into 8 groups, and 75 reserve companies organised into 22 battalions. Reserve battalions were named after the valleys from where their soldiers, former Alpini, were recruited (also known as the 'Valle' battalions).

Regiment	Garrison/HQ	1st Bn./Grp.	2nd Bn./Grp.	3rd Bn./Grp.	4th Bn./Grp.
8th Alpini	Udine	Tolmezzo	Gemona	Cividale
1st Mountain Artillery	Torino	Oneglia	Mondovì	Torino-Susa	Torino-Aosta
2nd Mountain Artillery	Vicenza	Conegliano	Bergamo	Vicenza	Belluno

In 1910 the last pre-war Alpini battalion was established as the Belluno Bn. in the very same city.

When Italy declared war on Turkey in 1911 in an attempt to conquer Libya, the Alpini units were once again deployed on desert combat. From 1911 to 1914, the Saluzzo, Mondovì, Ivrea, Verona, Tolmezzo, Feltre, Susa, Vestone, Fenestrelle, and Edolo battalions, together with the Torino-Susa, Mondovì, and Vicenza artillery groups, were deployed to Libya on missions of different duration. The first units to be sent to Libya were the Saluzzo (25 October 1911), Mondovì (3 November 1911), Ivrea (3 November 1911) and Verona (16 December 1911) battalions. When the unexpected Turkish resistance caused an embarrassingly slow advance of the Italian forces, reinforcements were sent to Libya. On October 18, 1912 Turkey and Italy signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which ended the war between the two nations. Italy, however, had now to face a full-scale rebellion by the local population, and required more troops than those deployed in combat to suppress it. Therefore, in October 1912 the Tolmezzo, Feltre, Susa, and Vestone battalions were deployed in Zanzur, Libya, and formed the 8th Special Alpini Regiment (Italian: 8° Reggimento Alpini Speciale) under the command of Colonel Antonio Cantore. The last Alpini unit to leave Libya was the Feltre battalion. It reached Italy in August 1914, while the Bedouin rebellion in Libya continued unabated.

World War I

Italian positions on Cinque Torri summit today.

mine

.

During World War I the 26 peacetime Alpini battalions were increased by 62 battalions and saw heavy combat all over the alpine arch. During the war years the Alpini regiments consisted of the following battalions (the pre-war raised battalions are in bold; their reserve battalions, named after valleys (in Italian: Val or Valle), and the newly raised battalions, named after mountains (in Italian: Monte) drawn from the same recruiting areas as the original battalions follow below the pre-war battalions):

Regiment
1st Alpini^[2]	Monte Mercantur	Pieve di Teco Val Arroscia Monte Saccarello	Mondovì Val d'Ellero Monte Clapier
2nd Alpini^[3]	Borgo San Dalmazzo Val Stura Monte Argentera Cuneo	Dronero Val Maira Bicocca	Saluzzo Val Varaita Monviso
3rd Alpini^[4]	Val Pellice Monte Granero	Fenestrelle Val Chisone Monte Albergian Courmayeur	Exilles Val Dora Monte Assietta	Moncenisio
4th Alpini^[5]	Ivrea Val d'Orco Monte Levanna Pallanza	Monte Cervino	Intra Val Toce Monte Rosa
5th Alpini^[6]	Morbegno Val d'Intelvi Monte Spluga Monte Mandrone	Tirano Valtellina Monte Stelvio Monte Tonale	Edolo Val Camonica Monte Adamello Monte Ortler	Val Chiese Monte Suello Monte Cavento
6th Alpini^[7]	Verona Val d'Adige Monte Baldo	Vicenza Val Leogra Monte Berico Monte Pasubio	Bassano Val Brenta Sette Comuni
7th Alpini^[8]	Feltre Val Cismon Monte Pavione	Val Piave Monte Antelao	Belluno Val Cordevole Monte Pelmo Monte Marmolada
8th Alpini^[9]	Tolmezzo Val Tagliamento Monte Arvenis	Monte Canin	Monte Matajur *Monte Nero*

The Alpini battalions fielded 264

companies

of one captain, four lieutenants and 250 men each. The Alpini regiments were never sent into battle, but remained at their seats to continue training recruits. The Alpini battalions were grouped together in regiment-sized Groups (Gruppo), and the groups were attached to brigade-sized Groupings (Raggruppamento), which deployed the Alpini battalions as needed.

The war, today known as the "

Via Ferrata

for climbing enthusiasts. In addition, along the former frontline it is still possible to see what is left of hundreds of kilometers of barbed wire.

In this kind of warfare, whoever occupied the higher ground first was almost impossible to dislodge, so both sides turned to drilling tunnels under mountain peaks, filling them up with explosives and then detonated the summits, including its defenders, to pieces: i.e.

Monte Pasubio, Lagazuoi, etc.^[10]

Climbing and skiing became essential skills for the troops of both sides and soon ski battalions and special climbing units were formed. It was during these years that the Alpini, their spirit and their deeds became famous. Most of the Alpini songs originated during this time and reflect upon the hardships of the "War in Snow and Ice".

At the war's end the Alpini counted 114,948 casualties: 14,175 KIA, 61,620 WIA, 39,153 MIA (most lost in avalanches or to mine warfare).

World War II

Corporal, Louis Celotti. ca. 1925 (note the Cappello Alpino under his left arm)

After World War I all battalions with the exception of the pre-war battalions were dissolved. In 1919 the Alpini gained the

6th Alpine Division Alpi Graie

was raised with reserve units of the other five Alpine divisions.

Thus Italy fielded the following six alpine divisions during World War II:

Each division consisted of two Alpini regiments with three battalions each, one Alpine Artillery Regiment with three Artillery groups, one Mixed Engineer Battalion, one Logistic Battalion and some support units. The strength of each division was 573 officers and 16,887 NCOs and soldiers for a total strength of 17,460 men. Also each division had almost 5,000 mules and 500 vehicles of various types at its disposal.
The divisions saw combat in

Don River. As a result of this disastrous strategic decision, troops armed, trained, and equipped for mountain warfare were pitted in the plains against tanks and mechanized infantry, to counter which they were neither equipped nor trained. Despite this, the Alpini held the front until January 1943, when, due to the collapse of the Axis front, they were encircled by the advancing Soviet Army. The Alpini were able to break the encirclement in Battle of Nikolayevka

and fight their way towards the new line of the front established after the Axis retreat. Only about one third of the Tridentina division (4250 survivors of 15,000 troops deployed) and one tenth of the Julia (1,200/15,000) were able to survive this odyssey. The Cuneense division was annihilated.

After the

Yugoslav Front

until it returned to Italy in March 1945.

On June 25, 1944, the

British 8th Army near the river Idice

.

In the north a

National Republican Army, raised the 4th Alpine Division "Monterosa", which was trained and equipped by Nazi Germany.^[11]^[12] The division fought along the Gothic Line, notably against units of Brazilian Expeditionary Division, U.S. 92nd Infantry Division and 8th Indian Infantry Division. At the end of the final allied offensive, the division surrendered after the Battle of Collecchio.^[13]

Cold War

After World War II the Alpini units were once more tasked with defending Italy's northern borders. On 15 October 1949 the

IV Army Corps

a singular command was finally in place for all the Alpini, Alpine and Mountain units of the Italian Army.

IV Alpine Army Corps
- Julia
- Taurinense
- Tridentina
- Cadore
- Orobica

After the 1976 reform the IV Alpine Army Corps was responsible to defend the Italian border along the main chain of the alps from the Swiss-Austrian-Italian border tripoint in the west to the Italian-Yugoslavian border in the east. In case of war with Yugoslavia the IV Alpine Army Corps would remain static in its position guarding the left flank of the Italian V Corps, which would meet the enemy forces in the plains of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The only brigade which would have seen combat in such a case would have been the Julia.

In case of a war with the

Padan plain

. The other Alpini brigades would remain static.

In the more likely case the Soviet and Hungarian divisions would invade Austria and march through Southern

Taurinense

would remain in reserve.

Today

Structure

After the end of the Cold War, all but the Julia and Taurinense Brigades were dissolved, thus leaving the following Alpini units, that still carry the "fiamme verdi" collar insignia: