V Army Corps (Italy)

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5º Corpo d'armata
5th Army Corps
Active1 April 1860 - 2013
Country Kingdom of Italy
 Italian Republic
Branch Royal Italian Army
 Italian Army
RoleCorps Command
Garrison/HQVittorio Veneto

The V Army Corps was one of three corps the

20th Infantry Division Friuli
in Florence.

History

Origins

The history of the 5th Army Corps begins with

siege of Gaeta
.

After the war the corps was garrisoned in Florence, the capital of the newly united Italy. It commanded two elite divisions: the 1st Division of the Line in Florence and the 15th Division of the Line in Perugia. Both divisions were made up by Grenadier regiments.

At the outbreak of the

IV Army Corps in the Romagna and crossed the lower Po and Adige rivers in force on 11 July 1866. Bypassing the Austrian fortresses and main army on his left flank Cialdini marched his army all through the Veneto, dispatching one division under Giacomo Medici to invade Trentino and cut the Austrian line of retreat and three divisions under Raffaele Cadorna to march at speed to the city of Trieste. Cialdinis army reached the Isonzo
river on 24 July 1866.

World War I

The Asiago plateau after the Battle of Asiago

After the

Valsugana valleys and over the Asiago plateau soon bogged down in determined Austrian resistance. The corps consisted of the 9th and 15th Division of the Line (Infantry), the 34th Territorial Division, the 2nd, 4th and 8th Bersaglieri regiments and the 6th Alpini Regiment
. All soldiers of the 6th Alpini Regiment had been recruited from valleys in the area of operations and thus fought in a territory they knew perfectly well. However the 6th Alpini Regiment was never employed as a whole, but single companies or battalions were given specific mountain summits, ridges or passes to conquer and hold.

After the initial advance had been brought to a halt by the

Brusilov Offensive, on 4 June the Austro-Hungarian High Command decided do end its offensive operations in Italy before its strategic goal - a breakthrough into the Venetian
plains behind the main Italian Army - had been achieved.

After the end of the Austrian offensive the corps remained in the same area of operation until the end of the war.

World War II

After the war the V Army Corps was garrisoned in

12th Infantry Division "Timavo" in Trieste and the [[15th Infantry Division "Carnaro" in Pula. At the outbreak of World War II the corps was guarding the border with Yugoslavia. Headquartered in Pivka it consisted of the 12th Infantry Division "Sassari", 15th Infantry Division "Bergamo" and 57th Infantry Division "Lombardia"
.

On 6 April 1941, under command of

Yugoslav partisans. The corps (commanded by General Renato Coturri, General Alessandro Gloria from January 1943 and by General Antonio Scuero from May 1943) was garrisoned in Crikvenica at the time and consisted of the 153rd Infantry Division "Macerata" in Delnice, 154th Infantry Division "Murge" in Sinj
and the XIV Coastal Brigade in Crikvenica.
After Germany invaded Italy following the Italian-Allied armistice in September 1943 the corps was disbanded by the Germans.

WWII Commanders

Cold War

In 1945 the V Territorial Military Command was activated in

Lagunari
troops in Venice on 15 January 1951.

On 1 May 1952 the V Territorial Military Command was renamed as V Army Corps and as the

Armored Division "Ariete" on 1 October 1952. division also exchanged its Sherman tanks for more powerful M26 Pershings. On 30 September the corps 1953 moved to Vittorio Veneto
and ceded command of the Julia to the new Carnia-Cadore Troops Command, which covered the V Army Corps left flank.

Over the next years the corps added further units to keep up with the geopolitical situation of the

14th Field Artillery Regiment formed the Trieste Troops Command tasked with defending the city. At the same time the Lagunari regiment in Venice grew to three amphibious battalions and one tank battalion with M47 Patton tanks. In Gorizia on 1 January 1959 the mechanized Cavalry Brigade "Pozzuolo del Friuli" activated with two mechanized, one tank battalion and one self-propelled artillery group, to replace the Mantova, which had moved its headquarters to Udine
.

The most significant addition to the corps was the

III Missile Brigade. The brigade activated on 1 October 1959 in Vicenza and initially consisted of one missile artillery regiment with two missile groups, each of which was armed with eight Honest John missile launchers. The MGR-1 Honest John was a nuclear-capable surface-to-surface missile intended to destroy the large Warsaw Pact armored formations. By the 1963, when the brigades headquarters was moved to Portogruaro, the brigade contained four missile groups and one group with M115 howitzers
.

The corps - along with the

4th Army Corps was part of NATOs Allied Land Forces Southern Europe Command (LANDSOUTH) in Verona
.

5th Army Corps

In

1975 the Italian Army undertook a major reorganisation
: the regiment level was abolished and battalions came under direct command of brigades, which combined units from different combat arms. In the same year the spelling of the name of the corps was changed from V Army Corps to 5th Army Corps. Therefore, the 5th Army Corps' new structure at the end of 1975 was as follows:

Structure of the 5th Army Corps in 1986 before the divisional level was abolished (click to enlarge)

In 1976 the entire corps was heavily involved in the rescue and cleanup efforts after the 1976 Friuli earthquake.

Vittorio Veneto
Gorizia
Mantova
Aquileia
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Combat brigades of the 5th Army Corps in 1986
Structure of the 5th Army Corps in 1989 at the End of the Cold War (click to enlarge)

In 1986 the Italian Army abolished the divisional level and realigned its forces to counter a possible

Italian Co-Belligerent Army to liberate Italy from Nazi-occupation - the army decided to rename the 132nd Armored Brigade "Manin" as 132nd Armored Brigade "Ariete" and the Mechanized Brigade "Isonzo" as Mechanized Brigade "Mantova". Although the Folgore divisions carried and equally significant name the army decided to transfer the traditions of the Folgore division to the existing Paratroopers Brigade "Folgore"
.

After the reform of 1986 the V Corps was structured as follows:

Each mechanized brigade fielded about 4,700 men, while the armored brigades fielded about 3,400 men. Together with the corps' support units the entire corps fielded over 60,000 men.

After the Cold War

With the end of the Cold War the Italian Army began a decade long reduction of its forces. The first brigade to disband was the Mameli on 1 April 1991, followed by the Vittorio Veneto on 31 July 1991. The units subordinated to these brigades were mostly disbanded, with a few units joining other brigades. The Garibaldi completed its move to Caserta in the South of Italy on 1 July 1991 and left the 5th Army Corps on that day. Finally on 1 December 1991 the Aquileia was reduced to 3rd Artillery Regiment Aquileia, which was then disbanded in September 1992. Over the next few years the Trieste Troops Command and the Amphibious Troops Command were disbanded.

In 1997 the army undertook the next big reform process and the 5th Army Corps saw its Gorizia and Mantova brigades disbanded on 30 August 1997, but it received the

3rd Army Corps
. On 1 October 1997 the 5th Army Corps changed its name and became the 1st Defence Forces Command (1° Comando Forze di Difesa or COMFOD 1°). The new structure of the corps was:

On 1 December 2000 the

Projection Forces Command (COMFOP) ceded two of its brigades - the Paratroopers Brigade "Folgore" and Airmobile Brigade "Friuli"
to the 1st Defence Forces Command. In 2002 the command changed composition for the last time: the Centauro was disbanded on 5 October 2002 and all support units were either disbanded or transferred to other commands. However, in the same year the command began to build up a deployable division-level headquarters. Said headquarters became operational in October 2005 and was given the name Division Command "Mantova".

Today

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COMFOD 1 unit locations 2013