Paracadutisti

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Folgore Parachute Brigade performing airborne operations training with a U.S. Army jumpmaster

The Paracadutisti (English:

Italian army
's infantry corps.

History

The first Italian paratroopers were trained shortly before

Royal Italian Air Force
also had paratrooper units.

In 1941 the staff at Castel Benito was transferred to Tarquinia near Rome where the main Italian Parachuting School was raised, which immediately began to form the first units for the 185th Paratroopers Division "Folgore".

The divisions

Original military uniform of a paratrooper of the division Folgore in 1942

A second Parachuting School was established in Viterbo and the 184th Paratroopers Division "Nembo" was raised. A third division, the 183rd Paratroopers Division "Ciclone" was in the process of forming but the Armistice of Cassibile and the following German invasion of Italy interrupted its organization.

Folgore

Main article: 185th Paratroopers Division "Folgore"

In 1941 the 5,000-man strong

Western Desert Campaign from July 1942 until its destruction in the Second Battle of El Alamein
. After the battle the survivors were grouped into the CLXXXV Paratroopers Battalion.

During the Second battle of El Alamein the division was attacked by six British divisions (two armored and four infantry). Lacking effective anti-tank weapons, the Italian paratroopers stopped British tanks with their obsolete

petrol bombs
. The Folgore, having run out of water, withdrew from the El Alamein at 2:00 a.m. on 3 November 1942. At 2:35 p.m. on 6 November what was left of the division was surrounded by the British forces. The exhausted paratroopers destroyed their weapons and then surrendered.

Nembo

Main article: 184th Paratroopers Division "Nembo"

The

Combat Group "Folgore"
.

Ciclone

1944 paracadutisti motorcycle
Main article: 183rd Paratroopers Division "Ciclone"

The 183rd Paratroopers Division "Ciclone" was planned to become the third Italian paratroopers division, however the Armistice of Cassibile and disbanded by the invading Germans.

RSI Paracadutisti

A number of paratroopers units were raised by

Mussolini's Italian Social Republic
:

  • National Republican Army - raised the 350-men Paratroopers Battalion "Nembo", which suffered 70% casualties during the Battle of Anzio
  • National Republican Air Force
    - raised the Paratroopers Regiment "Folgore" with three battalions
  • San Marco Regiment
    's Paratrooper Battalion. A flood of volunteers joined the battalion increasing it to over 1,400 men
  • Padan Plain
    from August 1944 until 1945

Modern Italian paratrooper units

Italian Army

183rd Paratroopers Regiment "Nembo" parading 2 June 2006 in Rome

Missions

In 1982 the Folgore brigade landed in

INTERFET in East Timor. The Folgore participated from August 2005 to September 2005 in Operation Babylon in Iraq and was last deployed to Afghanistan
in December 2014.

In August 2007, the Folgore took part in United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, under aegis of the United Nations (Resolution 1701), as a result of the war between Israel and Hezbollah of summer 2006.

Other Italian paratroopers units

See also

  • Paratroopers
  • Paratrooper forces around the world

Notes

  1. ^ Fowler 2010, p. 61.

References

  • Fowler, William (2010). The Secret War in Italy: Operation Herring and No 1 Italian SAS. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing.
    ISBN 9780711035287
    .
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