The glorious Alpini, a wonderful Italian history for over 150 years

The Alpini are an outstanding military component of the Italian Army highly specialised in mountain operations. They are light infantry that has acquired a great reputation for their operational capabilities and specific training for the mountain environment. Their identity is deeply rooted in the traditions and values they have developed over the years

Origins of the Alpine Corps

Various corps have been considered ideal precursors of the Alpini, from Roman military units such as the legio iulia alpina and the cohorte montanorum to the hunters of the Alps engaged as Garibaldi volunteers in the Second and Third Wars of Independence. However, when the Risorgimento was over, there were no specific forces organised by the state to defend the Alpine passes. During the reorganisation of the Italian army that began following the Prussian success in the war against France, the 'Ricotti reform' was launched, initiated by General and Minister of War Cesare Francesco Ricotti-Magnani, which envisaged a restructuring of the armed forces based on the Prussian model, based on the general obligation to perform short-term military service, so as to subject all physically fit conscripts to military training, abolish subrogation and transform the Italian army into a numerical army, an expression of the nation's human potential.

Let us therefore apply the Prussian system, for this is what the needs of the times dictate our country needs to militarise and discipline itself, just as our army needs to cultivate itself, and compulsory military service will be good for both

Nicola Marselli in 'Events of 1870-1871"

In the innovative fervour within the Ricotti administration, the problem of the defence of Alpine passes was also addressed. Until then, it had been assumed that a real defence of the passes was impossible and that an eventual invader would have to be hindered by the fortified barricades in the valleys, but finally stopped only in the Po Valley. This tactic would have left all Alpine passes from Simplon to Stelvio and the whole of Friuli completely undefended, i.e. the most direct and powerful line of invasion available to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In the autumn 1871 the general staff captain and former geography teacher, Giuseppe Perrucchetti, prepared a study entitled Considerazioni su la difesa di alcuni valichi alpini e proposta di un ordinamento militare territoriale nella zona alpina (Considerations on the defence of certain Alpine passes and proposal for a territorial military order in the Alpine area), taking up an earlier study by 1868 by General Agostino Ricci in which he upheld the principle that the defence of the Alps should be entrusted to the mountain people. Born in 1839 in Cassano d'Adda, therefore not in the mountains, Perrucchetti, who was not an Alpine, he was in fact a Captain of the Bersaglieri, and never became one, was a keen scholar of the military operations conducted in the previous centuries in the Alpine territories, and from the very beginning he grasped the contradictions that the Italian recruitment system entailed.

Because of the complex recruitment system concentrated in the plains, upon mobilisation men would have had to flow from the Alpine valleys to the population centres to be equipped and framed, then return to the valleys to withstand the impact of an enemy that in the meantime could better organise and dispose of its forces. This would have created a chaotic concentration of men at the military districts to supply the personnel that had descended into the valley together with those stationed on the plains, with consequent and inevitable delays. To this would have been added - again according to Perrucchetti - another serious limitation: the need for mobilisation would have led to the creation of heterogeneous battalions made up of provincials from the plains who were not very well adapted to mountain warfare and who were not familiar with the area.

In 1872 Perrucchetti signed an article for Rivista militare, in which he dealt with the problem of the defence of Alpine passes and suggested some innovations for the military order in border areas. Local mountaineers would be enlisted in the border areas, similar to the Prussian-style territorial order, whereby the Alpine area would be divided by valleys into many defensive units, each constituting a small military district. In each defensive unit, the recruited forces would be formed out of a certain number of companies grouped around an administration and command centre, so that there would be as many defensive units as there were Alpine passes to protect. According to Perrucchetti, the soldiers destined for these units had to be accustomed to the harsh climate, the fatigue of moving around in the mountains, the pitfalls of rugged and dangerous terrain and the discomforts of bad weather; for their part, the officers had to be direct and profound connoisseurs of the terrain, mountaineers even before being soldiers. Finally, relations with the civilian population had to be close and spontaneous, so as to take advantage of the function of informers and guides that the mountaineers could perform for the troops. Local recruitment, in addition to providing men already accustomed to the hard life in the mountains, was a strong element of cohesion between the troops: by bringing young men from the same valley together in companies and stationing them in their homeland, considerable advantages were obtained without exposing themselves to risks.

Due to the budgetary problems that afflicted the Ministry of War, and therefore fearing an unfavourable vote by Parliament, Ricotti did not present an organic project for the creation of a new corps, but included it in a general restructuring of the military districts, which were to become sixty-two from fifty-four, together with the creation of a number of Alpine companies limited to fifteen. The project was supported by the Minister of War in Quintino Sella's government, Ricotti-Magnani, who shared the need for the defence of the Alpine passes and prepared the decree in which the new corps, disguised as a stealth corps, was established. The decree was then signed by King Victor Emmanuel II on 15 October 1872 in Naples. In the ministerial report accompanying Royal Decree No. 1056, the establishment of the first Alpine companies was mentioned. Immediately afterwards, on the occasion of the call to arms of the class of 1852, the formation of the first fifteen Alpine companies began, which were to be formed within a year.

Evolution, armament and uniforms

The speed with which the Ministry decided on the constitution had negative repercussions in terms of numbers and, above all, equipment. The uniform was the same as that of the infantry, with obvious drawbacks in relation to the demands of the mountains; felt chepis, a cloth coat worn directly over the shirt, canvas gaiters and flat shoes. The armament consisted of a recent model rifle, the "Vetterli 1870", in line with those of other European armies, but of excessive weight and length for movement over impervious terrain, while the officers were equipped with the Mod. 1855 and the obsolete 'Lefaucheaux' rotary pistol. For the transport of materials, each company had only one mule and one baggage cart, so that the soldiers' rucksacks were filled not only with personal belongings, but with everything useful to the company, from foodstuffs to ammunition and even firewood.

The organisational shortcomings, however, did not affect the affirmation and growth of the Speciality, whose companies were increased to twenty-four in 1873 and divided into seven battalions.

The organic evolution was accompanied by a progressive adaptation of uniforms and armament. As early as 1873, the Corps' distinguishing feature became the 'Calabrese' hat with the black feather, adorned with a frieze representing an eagle with spread wings surmounted by a royal crown.

In October 1874 the flapped coat was replaced with a less awkward blue-grey jacket, over which a turquoise bersagliera cape was worn, and the flat shoes were replaced with high boots.

Meanwhile from 1873 Mountain Artillery was established and four years later the first regiment was formed. It was a speciality capable of operating in the high mountains to provide adequate fire support for the Alpine troops, capable of operating in areas inaccessible to towed artillery. Mountain batteries and Alpine units soon got used to living and manoeuvring together.

In 1875, Realising that the area assigned to each company was too large, the battalions were increased to ten for a total of thirty-six companies, with one captain, four junior officers and 250 troops each.

In 1882 Minister of War Emilio Ferrero decided on a restructuring of the departments, and with the Royal Decree of 5 October the ten battalions with the thirty-six companies were dismembered and regrouped into the first six ternary regiments (the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in Piedmont, the 5th in Lombardy and the 6th in Veneto), i.e. composed of three battalions, which became seven in 1887 and eight in 1910.

In the summer 1883 the uniform was characterised by the colour that would distinguish it from other corps and specialities, green, a colour that two years later was extended to all the exhibits and trimmings of the uniform.

From 1888 Mountain artillery was also recruited according to origin.

In terms of armament, the Wetterli rifle 1870 was transformed into an ordinary repeating rifle in 1887 thanks to the design of artillery captain Giuseppe Vitali, who also named the new weapon the 'Vetterli-Vitali Mod. 1870/87". Despite Vitali's efforts, the need for lighter ammunition led the Small Arms Commission to adopt the 6.5 mm calibre and in September 1890 to entrust the Kingdom's arms factories with the study of a new rifle. From the various models presented, the 'Carcano Mod. 91', a shorter and more manageable rifle from the Turin arms factory, was chosen. At the same time as the Mod. 91 for the troops, the armament of Alpine officers was also renewed with the Mod. 1888 sabre and the Mod. 1888 Bodeo pistol. 1889 ordinary repeater with rotating drum.

The baptism of fire

Towards the end of the 19th century, Italy too was seized by the 'African sickness', driven by the eagerness to seek new 'living spaces' on a par with other European powers. The first nucleus of Alpine soldiers destined for Africa was made up of flying elements taken from the 69th company of the Gemona Battalion, the 56th company of the Verona Battalion and the 48th company of the Tirano Battalion. The training Battalion, made up of three companies and commanded by Major Domenico Cicconi, has a strength of five officers plus a medical lieutenant and 150 graduates and troop soldiers.

He left Chiari on 19 February 1887 for Naples, where he embarked for Massawa on 21 February 1887. The training battalion took part in the most important feats of arms in Eritrea at that time: Tokakat, Monkullo, Gherar, Saganeiti and Saati without suffering losses, but although 14 Alpine soldiers died in combat, including their commander Major Cicconi who was replaced by Major Pianavia Vivaldi, victims of the climate and tropical diseases. The remaining 445 Alpine soldiers were redeployed to Naples on 22 April 1888, having given an excellent performance and left a good reputation.

In winter 1895/96, Prime Minister Francesco Crispi dispatched a second contingent of Alpini and a mountain artillery battery to Ethiopia as reinforcements requested by General Oreste Baratieri, governor of the colony, after the failures of Amba Alagi and Macallé.

ù Created for the defence of the Alpine arc, this mountain infantry corps had its field battle baptism in the Battle of Adua in Ethiopia, during which the Alpini suffered unspeakable hardships, and where at the dawn of 1 March 1896 Despite initial confidence in the enterprise, General Baratieri's 15,000 soldiers, including 954 Alpinis, were overwhelmed by the more than 100,000 warriors of Menelik II. Of the 954 Alpini that left Italy under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Davide Menini, only 92 remained alive, and Menini himself was decorated with the silver medal of memory.

The entire mountain battery, known as 'la siciliana', whose artillerymen came from the Enna area, immolated themselves on its pieces. The first Alpine to be awarded the gold medal for military valour was Captain Pietro Cella, born in Bardi, who also died that morning in Adua. An honourable epilogue, despite the fact that defeat was the inevitable conclusion of a badly and hastily organised mission.

On the eve of the First World War

In the fifteen years between the turn of the century and the outbreak of the First World War, the Alpine troops did not undergo any decisive changes, except perhaps for the introduction of skiing.

While the use of troops equipped with skis was already known in the armies of northern Europe from the beginning of the 19th century, and for patrol and relay use can even be dated back to a few centuries earlier, in Italy the Alpinis only experimented with them in winter 1896/'97, on the initiative of artillery lieutenant Luciano Roiti. During that winter, the 3rd Regiment carried out several experimental exercises, with encouraging results that led to the organisation of specific training camps at company level with the recruitment of Swiss and Norwegian instructors. In just a few years, skis gained a permanent place in the Alpine troops' equipment and with a decree of 25 November 1902, War Minister Giuseppe Ottolenghi ordered their use in the regiments.

In the early years of the century, a debate was opened as to whether the Alpini and Bersaglieri units should be merged to create a single corps. The Bersaglieri from their origins in the Kingdom of Savoy were normally deployed in the mountains and the physical complexity on the basis of which they were selected was the same as the Alpini. However, the special demands of mountain warfare were ill-suited to the larger troop groupings that this union would bring. This hypothesis was therefore shelved for several decades.

From the six regiments established in 1882 and the seventh formed in the 1887, units were increased by a few thousand between the 1908 and 1909 with the establishment of the 8th regiment after the opening of the Simplon railway imposed greater defensive requirements in the Ossola valley.

On the initiative of Luigi Brioschi, president of the Milan section of the Italian Alpine Club, in 1908, After almost two years of experimentation, a grey-green uniform was adopted and two years later, the cap was also adapted to the new colours. As far as armament was concerned, the novelty of the early years of the century was the machine gun, which had become established after the Russo-Japanese conflict of 1905. The first machine guns used by the Alpinis were the Maxim Mod. 1906 (used in the Libyan campaign) and the Maxim-Vickers Mod. 1911 distributed from 1913.

In 1910 there was the formal sanction of the symbiosis between Alpini and Mountain Artillery, with the adoption for the latter of the grey felt Alpine hat with the feather, which, however, instead of black was often brown not only for the lower officers, as laid down in the regulations, but also for non-commissioned officers and troop artillerymen. The colours of the tassels also changed, of course.

On the eve of the First World War, three Mountain Artillery regiments with a total of thirty-six batteries, equipped with 65/17 cannons, were operational.

The Italo-Turkish War

The outbreak of the Italo-Turkish conflict for the possession of Libya in the autumn of 1911 meant a new operational deployment for Alpine troops on African soil. The 29 September 1911, after the rejection of the ultimatum, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire and just a week later, the 4 October, the first men of the expeditionary corps commanded by Lieutenant General Carlo Caneva landed in Tobruch.

What was supposed to be an easy and triumphant occupation, actually suffered from the very beginning of operations the limitations of a campaign improvised in a few days and conducted with the complete underestimation of the enemy forces. The Turkish troops, estimated at about 5,000 men in Tripolitania and 3,000 in Cyrenaica, retreated inland and started a consistent resistance in the desert, also thanks to the support of the indigenous population. After the first skirmishes, the extent of the conflict was soon realised; it was a difficult war so that the contingent had to be increased from the initial 35,000 men to over 100,000, in which the environment and the hostility of the population made it impossible to maintain control of the occupied lands. In the end, the tally was 3,500 dead (of which 2,500 Italians and about 1,000 Eritreans, Libyans or Somalis), 1,500 prisoners; 37 cannons and 9,000 rifles were the material losses.

The Alpine troops took part in the Libyan campaign with a large contingent: thirteen mountain batteries plus the 'Saluzzo', 'Edolo', 'Mondovì', 'Feltre', 'Vestone', 'Ivrea', 'Fenestrelle', 'Verona', 'Susa' and 'Tolmezzo' battalions. These were not employed as autonomous units, but aggregated with infantry units, taking part in all significant battles, from Ain Zara (4 December), in Sidi Said (26-28 June), in Zuara (July 1912). After the signing of the Treaty of Ouchy, the 'Feltre', 'Vestone', 'Susa' and 'Tolmezzo' battalions with three mountain batteries remained in Libya, united in the 8th 'Special' Alpine Regiment under the command of Colonel Antonio Cantore.

After a period of marching training, the regiment had to adapt to fighting in the dunes against the Berber tribes or against the Muslims in Cyrenaica or in the Tripolitan hinterland in a war longer than expected, so much so that the first contingents that landed in Tobruch in October 1911 (such as the 8th 'special' Alpine Regiment) in May 1915, when Italy entered the war against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were still defending Tripoli and Homs against the guerrilla actions of the indigenous population.

The First World War

The 24 May 1915, With Italy's entry into the First World War, the Alpini occupied important and impervious points, from the Stelvio Pass to the Julian Alps, via the Tonale Pass and Mount Pasubio. On that day, the first soldier to lose his life among the Italian troops was an Alpine from the 16th Company of the Cividale Battalion, 8th Regiment, named Riccardo Giusto, who at 04:00 on 24 May while crossing the border on Mount Natpriciar he was shot by an Austrian sharpshooter.

They took part in the bloodiest battles, such as the Ortigara battle with the conquest of the mountain of the same name, the defeat at Caporetto, up to the resistance on Mount Grappa and General Armando Diaz's final counter-offensive, which led to victory in October 1918. The Alpini were the protagonists of a conflict that was fought almost entirely in the Alps, and on all fronts, from the glaciers of the Adamello to the Dolomite peaks, from the Karst to Mount Grappa, from the high plateaus to the Piave, suffering more than 35,000 dead and missing and around 80,000 wounded.

Establishing the exact number of Alpini mobilised during the Great War is difficult. During the conflict, the Alpine troops reached their peak, reaching eighty-eight battalions with three hundred and eleven companies, totalling just under 240,000 men. This figure is purely indicative because the numbers varied and the gaps left by the fallen and wounded were filled, at least in part, by new recruits. In addition, sixty-seven mountain artillery groups must be added to the total of 175 batteries. In this period, the Alpine recruitment areas were extended to almost all mountain districts of the peninsula.

Among the many military events of the war that involved the Alpine troops, it is possible to identify some that are significant for their dramatic nature, such as the conquest of Mount Nero, the war on the Adamello and Mount Cavento glaciers and the Battle of Ortigara, which caused thousands of casualties, especially among Alpine units. These battles, and all those in which the Alpine troops took part, made these mountain troops a true symbol of the national effort.

From the first post-war period to fascism

Of the sixty-one Alpini battalions existing in November 1918, more than half were disbanded and by the end of 1919, the eight regiments had almost entirely regained their 1914 appearance. Already the year after the end of the conflict, some veteran Alpine officers, all of whom were keen mountaineers from the Milan CAI, decided to create an association between those who had served in the Alpini corps. Initially the idea was to make it a sub-section of the CAI, then Arturo Andreoletti's line prevailed, who considered the Club too exclusive and advocated the birth of something autonomous, and on 8 July 1919 the National Alpini Association (ANA) in Milan was established at the headquarters of the Association of Surveyors, with Major Alpine Daniele Crespi as its first president. Andreoletti, still considered the founder par excellence, was later the first president elected by the Assembly of Delegates. Soon the association had its own newsletter l'Alpino, born the same year on the initiative of Lieutenant of the Alpini Italo Balbo, later a well-known exponent of fascism.

In September of 1920 the ANA organised the first national assembly on Mount Ortigara, which three years earlier had been the scene of violent clashes with some 24,000 fallen, many of whom Alpini, and from that first meeting, twenty more followed until June 1940, in Turin, when the outbreak of World War II suspended the event for seven years.

In 1925 the A.N.A. also incorporated the Ass. Artiglieri da Montagna (Mountain Artillerymen Association), further consolidating the symbiosis, also moral, between the two specialities of their respective arms.

In the meantime, the country was experiencing the strong social tensions of the immediate post-war period: the part of the population that had been on the margins of national life for decades was now claiming a primary role, on the strength of the sacrifices they had endured in the war, from food rationing to preceptions in the arms industry, as well as, of course, stripping and looting in the areas invaded by the enemy after Caporetto. The tensions were fuelled by the workers who, in order to support the effort of the armaments industry, had not been sent to the front and also for this reason had been able to understand and spread the social demands that had led to the recent revolution in Russia. The consequent demands of public order, also linked to the objective structural and logistical difficulties of a country devastated in its economy, made demobilisation a long and complicated operation and meant that a force of around 300,000 men was kept in arms, enough to keep alive divisions theoretically suppressed on paper.

The Alpinis in the early post-war period also distinguished themselves in roles other than soldier. In 1928, The airship Italia flew over the North Pole and on its return, on 25 May, it entered a terrible storm that caused it to lose altitude until it crashed into the Arctic pack, where the command gondola was destroyed on impact and ten men were thrown onto the ice, while the remaining six crew members remained on board the vessel.

The first rescuers were the Alpinis of the expedition headed by Alpine Captain Gennaro Sora, from Bergamo, who commanded a team formed not only by Sora, in the centre of the photo, but also by the Alpine soldiers, starting from the left, Corporals Giulio Bich, Silvio Pedrotti, Beniamino Pelissier, Sergeants Major Giovanni Gualdi, Giuseppe Sandrini, Angelo Casari, Giulio Deriad and Giulio Guédoz, who on 18 June 1928 set off towards the Pole in search of Umberto Nobile and his crew. Sora's expedition was unsuccessful, however, and the rescuers became shipwrecked. Sora and the others were spotted by three Swedish aircraft on 12 July, and although Nobile was eventually rescued by the Soviet icebreaker Krassin, Sora and his Alpinis went down in history for their heroism in extreme conditions. in over a month of searching for the missing

It was in the 1931 which began the first ski competitions for Alpine troops, today known as Ca.STA (Alpine Troops Ski Championships). In 1934 the Central Military School of Mountaineering was established in Aosta to provide ski-mountaineering training for Alpine troops cadres. The school soon became a centre of excellence in sports and ski-mountaineering, so much so that it was considered the 'university of the mountains'.

In the 1930s, the defence of the Alpine borders was entrusted to the Royal Guardia di Finanza, the Royal Carabinieri, the Border Militia and Alpine units, who were also given the task of guarding the new defensive works of the permanent fortification, which was then being planned and built along the Italian mountain border from Ventimiglia to Istria.

This deployment of Alpine troops ran counter to the doctrines of the time, which envisaged the use of large Alpine units wherever the need required it, since these troops were suited to dynamic actions and not militias intended for the defence of fixed points. Therefore, with Royal Decree-Law No. 833 of 28 April 1937 a special corps called the Guard at the Frontier (GaF) was established, which had the task of permanently guarding the fortified system of the Littorio Alpine Wall, the fortified line of the entire Italian border. The GAF included Infantry, Artillery, Engineer and Services units, but was often commanded by Alpini officers and had the Alpine hat without the feather as its headgear. Later, due to the harshness of the living conditions at high altitudes, it was formally recognised as an Alpine unit, but was incongruously not allowed to wear the feather. The Frontier Guard was then assigned to the defence of national borders, while the Alpinis were to be deployed anywhere required by military needs, even in offensive actions and outside the Alpine theatre: for this purpose in the 1934 the 'Taurinense', 'Tridentina', 'Julia' and 'Cuneense' Alpine divisions were formed, to which the 'Pusteria' was added in the 1935. To these units were added the 'Duca degli Abruzzi' battalion (attached to the Central Military School of Mountaineering) and the 'Uork Amba' battalion and, to be noted, five mixed battalions of the Military Engineering and Logistics Services (which at the time also included transmissions). Thus, the Alpine Troops were born, as Alpine specialities of their respective Arms, and therefore to all intents and purposes belonging to the Corps, alongside the Alpini and Mountain Artillery, which from 4 June 1934 was renamed the Alpine Artillery to further emphasise the cohesion and new methods of deployment, which involved the sometimes temporary flanking of a mountain battery with an Alpine battalion

In total, the Alpini Corps came to comprise 31 battalions, 93 companies, 10 alpine artillery groups and 30 batteries, divided into five divisional commands.

The development of Alpine armament during the 20-year period 1919-'39 was essentially limited to machine guns and curved firing weapons. In the first case, the aim was to develop an automatic weapon for collective firing that was lighter and more mobile than the heavy Fiat Mod. 14 machine gun, which was more suitable as a position weapon. After various experiments, the lightweight Breda Mod. 30 was developed, which became the accompanying weapon for the Alpine rifle squads. In line with the needs of mountain warfare, two new mortars were developed, the 45 mm Brixia Mod. 35 and the 81 mm Brixia Mod. 35. The scant attention that the armed forces gave to the development of new weapons, especially to tank and anti-tank weapons, meant that the only cannon capable of stopping armoured troops, the 47/32 Mod. 1935, was only assigned to three Alpine divisions (Cuneense, Tridentina and Julia), resulting in serious shortages in the face of the massive use of armoured vehicles in other armies.

The Ethiopian War and the Albanian Campaign

The years 1935-'36 saw the Alpine troops still engaged in Africa and specifically in Ethiopia, where they landed in Massawa from where the Alpine troops of the 5th Alpine Division 'Pusteria' participated in the war operations, with the battles of Amba Aradam and Amba Alagi. On 31 March there was the final battle of Mai Ceu, where Haile Selassie's troops were forced to retreat and for the Emperor of Ethiopia it was defeat. For the Italian column of a thousand vehicles the road to Addis Ababa was paved, and the 'Pusteria', with only 220 casualties, returned in April of 1937.

After operations in Albania during the Great War, less than twenty years later the Alpine troops landed again on the shores of Durres and Vlora on 7 April 1939 at the behest of the Duce, who wanted to balance the move of the German ally in Austria a few months earlier. It was an expedition marked by disorganisation, so much so that the mules themselves embarked without sticks, harnesses and halters at the moment of disembarkation began to flee from the port, invading the streets of Durazzo. The Alpine troops stayed in the city for a couple of weeks, then spread out across the country through the mountains that could be reached thanks to the roads built for the occasion by the military engineers.

The summer was particularly hot and the winter particularly harsh, losses due to malaria reached 30% of the effectives, and the Alpine troops also had to suffer the humiliation of the fascist racial laws that in June 1940 imposed on the units the removal of officers and soldiers of Slavic origin and not only those from the areas annexed in the '15/'18 war, but also from the lands incorporated seventy years earlier. Only the strong protests of General Sebastiano Visconti Prasca prevented the Julia Division from being seriously weakened by this measure.

The Second World War

The Second World War saw the Alpine troops initially engaged on the French border during the Battle of the Western Alps in the June 1940, where four Alpine divisions were deployed in the war zone: the Taurinense deployed on the border at the head of the Dora Baltea, the Tridentina on the second line in the same valley, with some Alpini battalions formed at the time of mobilisation; in reserve were the Cuneense and Pusteria, in the Gesso and Tanaro valleys respectively. These units were framed in the 315,000-strong Army Group West along the entire border.

Despite the preponderant forces, the Italian units were called upon to operate in precarious and prejudicial conditions because, especially for the Alpine troops of Piedmontese origin, the discomfort was exacerbated by the social and economic repercussions on the civilian populations. Furthermore, thousands of poorly trained and ill-equipped troops found themselves fighting in impassable terrain and against a first-rate defence system equipped with a complex of over four hundred works served by an excellent rail and road network. The 21 June The order to attack arrived, and the Tridentina, Cuneense and Pusteria divisions were moved to their respective theatres of battle; the Tridentina was placed in the front line together with the Taurinense with the task of penetrating towards Bourg-Saint-Maurice from the Piccolo San Bernardo pass, while the other two divisions had the task of penetrating the Maira-Po-Stura sector. Unsuccessful in breaking through the enemy lines, the Alpine troops crept into the impervious spaces between the fortified works, also taking advantage of the fog, and occupied, at a disproportionate tribute of blood, a series of high ground positions in Savoy and the Alps, which they maintained in almost prohibitive conditions. In the night between 24 e 25 June, the Armistice of Villa Incisa was signed, ending hostilities with France.

In October of the same year, the Cuneense, Tridentina, Pusteria and Alpi Graie divisions were moved to the Greek-Albanian front where the Julia was already present, which was also the first to carry out war actions in the sector. The Alpine troops were sent because of the breakthrough of the Italian defensive front on the Vojussa: the Greek advance threatened to reach the Adriatic and drive the Italian troops back overseas. Only thanks to the influx of reinforcement divisions, including the three Alpine divisions, was it possible to establish a resistance position capable of holding out until the following spring. The Julia was employed in the first attacks, but the disorganisation of the commands meant that in barely a month of difficult advances it was forced to retreat and defend itself against Greek incursions. By the end of December, the Julia was left with only 800 men. The Greek campaign was a failure for Italy, and only the intervention of the German ally in the spring of 1941 gave a turnaround to operations. To secure control of the Balkans in anticipation of the invasion of the Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler and his General Staff devised Operation Marita. The German-Italian attack started on 6 April and 23 Greece asked for an armistice, an armistice that came after a huge blood toll for the Alpine troops, with 14,000 dead, 25,000 missing, 50,000 wounded and 12,000 frozen.

In 1942 By decision of Mussolini and the high command, the expeditionary corps sent to the eastern front was strengthened by forming the 8th Italian Army or ARMIR, over 200,000 strong; of these, 57,000 made up the Alpine Army Corps, consisting of the Cuneense, Tridentina and Julia Divisions, with a total of eighteen Alpine battalions, nine Alpine Artillery groups and three mixed Engineer battalions.

In this context, the spring-summer 1942, the realisation on a smaller scale of the project that had already been envisaged decades earlier: a merger between Alpini and Bersaglieri. The 216th Anti-tank Company of the 7th Bersaglieri Regiment, stationed in Cavalese, was assigned to support the 6th Tridentine Regiment, receiving its alpine hat and insignia in Caprino Veronese. The Bersalpini of the 216th counter tank company 47/32 Bolzano" were born, not without the discontent of some of those involved, who were allowed to wear crimson flames under their lapels and a tiny fez in the left breast pocket of their uniform. They were mainly from Brescia, Verona and Bolzano and were joined by 86 drivers from the Verona, Vestone and Valchiese Battalions, with whom they soon amalgamated given their common origins. the 19 July 1942 the 246-strong company left Asti for the Eastern Front.

Instead of being deployed to the Caucasus, as initially planned by the Italian-German commands, the Alpine Army Corps was instead employed in the defence of the Don where the Alpine troops arrived in the first week of September 1942 moving to the Italian 8th Army.

The operational environment of the Don was completely different from those in which the Alpine troops were trained to move; a vast, uniform plain with no mountainous relief, where an invading army would have had to have armoured and motorised forces to benefit from fundamental mobility on the tactical level. The Alpine Army Corps, on the other hand, had at its disposal 4,800 mules and 1,600 vehicles, which would have been largely insufficient even in much smaller operational spaces; it also lacked all anti-tank armament, anti-aircraft artillery and transmission means, which were built for use in the high mountains, had limited power and could not establish the correct connections over long distances. In general, all the armament supplied to the Alpine troops was severely inadequate: no snowploughs, no tracked vehicles, no sleds, no antifreeze lubricants, no adequate clothing and no automatic weapons capable of withstanding the freezing Soviet temperatures were provided. The destination of the Alpine Army Corps on the Don was not the result of a strategic and organic plan, but of the emergency that had arisen on the entire Soviet front in the summer-autumn of 1942 and which was accentuated in the following winter until the rout of the invading units in December-January. The Alpine troops diverted to the Don arrived just in time to be deployed in the front line, to be surrounded by the advancing Red Army and to be forced into a tragic retreat in which more than two thirds of the men fell. All in all, the Alpine troops had a 70 km sector, so it was not possible to hold a reserve division.

The first period of the Alpine troops' stay on the line was mainly one of 'operational stasis', with no major actions on either side, and the Alpine troops concerned themselves with ensuring survival conditions in view of the winter by building shelters, covered posts, supplying all kinds of material, digging anti-tank ditches, laying mines over vast areas and positioning reticulates and firing positions.

After defeating the Romanian army, encircled the German 6th Army at Stalingrad in November 1942 and destroyed a large part of the ARMIR in December, the 14 January 1943 The Red Army launched the mighty Ostrogožsk-Rossoš' offensive and routed the Hungarian and German troops deployed on the flanks of the Alpine corps, which was then quickly surrounded by Soviet armoured columns; the three Alpine divisions were forced to retreat in a very long march across the icy Soviet plains, suffering extremely high losses. Two of the divisions (the Julia and the Cuneense) were finally trapped at Valujki and forced to surrender, while the survivors of the Tridentine Division managed to break through after a series of desperate battles, the best known of which was the Battle of Nikolaevka, managing to conquer the town and get out of the 'pocket'.

The total losses of the Alpine Army Corps (Alpine Julia, Cuneense and Tridentine Divisions and Vicenza Infantry Division) in the battle exceeded the 80% of the forces deployed on the Don front: out of an initial force of approximately 63,000 men, 1,290 officers and 39,720 soldiers were killed or missing, 420 officers and 9,910 soldiers were wounded, for a total of 51,340 losses. Generals Umberto Ricagno (commander of the Julia), Emilio Battisti (commander of the Cuneense) and Etvoldo Pascolini (commander of the Vicenza) also fell prisoners. The fate of the young Bersalpini company was also very indicative. Of the 246 personnel, half managed to get out of the pocket, of the other half, only three returned home, two of them with frostbite wounds.

Far more effective than historiography, literature has consigned the events that took place in the Soviet Union to future memory with books such as One Hundred Thousand Fridges of Ice and Nikolajewka: c'ero anch'io by Giulio Bedeschi (medical officer), Il sergente nella neve by Mario Rigoni Stern, Warwarowka Alzo Zero by Ottobono Terzi di Sissa, Mai tardi, La guerra dei poveri and La strada del Davai by Nuto Revelli and I più non ritornano by Eugenio Corti; all authors who participated in the retreat, some were Alpini, others like Ottobono Terzi, although coming from other units had joined Alpini units as fighters.

The Alpini after the armistice

With the proclamation of the armistice on 8 September 1943, the history of the Alpine troops became divided. Most of the men joined the partisan groups in the north (such as the famous Green Flames formations of Alpine Officer Romolo Ragnoli in the Brescia area) or the Allied units that were moving up the peninsula, others became part of the newly formed Italian Social Republic (RSI), while the less fortunate ended up imprisoned in Soviet or German camps. In the RSI, the 4th Alpine Division 'Monterosa' was formed, joined by other Alpine units framed in the 'Littorio Division', the Alpini Tagliamento Regiment and the 'Valanga' breaker battalion of the Decima Mas. Those who instead decided to fight alongside the Allies and the resistance operated throughout the south and in particular in Abruzzo. The 6th Alpine Division "Alpi Graie" was formed, which clashed hard with the Germans on the Apennines in the first days after the armistice, the Alpine battalion "L'Aquila" that with the Allies went up the whole peninsula to victory, while the Cuneense and Tridentina veterans from the Soviet Union gave life to partisan formations in Alto Adige.

The only organised Alpine units whose events could be followed were those framed in the Allied army engaged in the war of liberation, such as the 'Piedmont' battalion, at first in the First Motorised Regiment, which in theApril 1944 was absorbed by the 3rd Alpine Regiment and framed in the newly formed Italian Liberation Corps (CIL). The battalion was then deployed in the Adriatic sector until August 1944, when the CIL came into contact with the Gothic Line it was disbanded and replaced with the Combat Groups. The Piedmont battalion became part of the "Legnano" Combat Group together with the Aquila battalion, participating in the battles in the Idice valley and in the pursuit of the Germans as far as Bergamo and Turin. The Alpine battalion "Monte Granero", absorbed together with Piedmont into the 3rd Regiment, in September 1944 was sent to Sicily on public order duty.

The post-war period

The period of reconstruction of the Alpine troops after the conflict was relatively long; from the initial two battalions (Piedmont and Aquila) to the establishment of the five brigades that made up the Alpine corps until the early 1990s, around eight years passed.

Significant financial constraints affected equipment, armament and even the actual possibility of keeping the planned force in service. The recruits in the first few weeks after incorporation received only the fatigue fatigues of the Allied paratroopers and the dark green shirt already worn by the Army of the South (the so-called 'Verdoni'), the complete uniform, also Anglo-Saxon, was distributed with great delay, the rifle was the old English Enfield, and, in addition, against a theoretical draft of 15 months, the pre-dismissal at about a year was in fact routine.

In the meantime, the associative activity of the A.N.A. had gradually revived.April 1947 the newspaper L'Alpino reappeared, in theOctober 1948 the first post-war assembly was held in Bassano del Grappa, (which after a stop in the 1950 due to technical reasons, resumed without interruption) while the 2 October 1949 there was a gathering of Monterosa veterans in Bolzano, who at the time had not been recognised as belonging to an Alpine department in order to be able to participate in the life of the A.N.A.

The numerical constraints imposed by the armistice were only overcome in the 1949 with Italy's entry into the Atlantic pact where the armed forces undertook to control the eastern borders and public order throughout the peninsula on their own. Meanwhile. In the same year, the Alpine Military School in Aosta was reconstituted, while the Frontier Guard was absorbed by the Alpine troops, giving rise to the speciality of the Alpini arrest troops.

In order to garrison the new fortified works, 'position battalions' were first established in the early 1950s, then 'position groupings', and then, in the early 1950s, 'position battalions' were formed. 1962, to 'arrest units'. The position battalions and position regiments up to the 1957 took charge of all mountain and plain positions. From that date, however, the lowland fortifications remained with the Halting Infantry, while the mountain fortifications were definitively handed over to the Alpini.

In the mid-1950s, the Alpine troops were then increased to five brigades:

• "Taurinense', stationed in Piedmont with headquarters in Turin and units in Val Chisone, Val di Susa and the Cuneo area; recruitment base in Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta, Piacentino and the Apennine areas of Liguria and Tuscany;
• "Orobica', stationed in western South Tyrol, with its headquarters in Merano and units in the Venosta and Isarco valleys; recruitment area Lombardy and South Tyrol, but limited to South Tyrolean aliquots from the areas where the units were stationed;
• "Tridentina', stationed in eastern South Tyrol, with headquarters in Bressanone and divisions in the Pusteria and Isarco valleys; recruiting base in Trentino-Alto Adige and the province of Verona;
• "Cadore', stationed in Veneto with headquarters in Belluno and wards in Cadore; recruitment basin in the provinces of Belluno and Vicenza and in the Apennine areas of central-eastern Emilia-Romagna;
• "Julia', stationed in Friuli with its headquarters in Udine and its units in Carnia (one battalion, 'L'Aquila' detached in Abruzzo); recruitment pool in the far north-east and in Abruzzo. More specifically, in Veneto in the provinces of Padua, Treviso and Venice, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in Abruzzo and in the province of Isernia.

The 1950s saw the birth of the 'Monte Cervino' Alpine paratroopers, who to this day, having also acquired the NATO designation of 'Rangers', represent the elite of the Alpine troops. Another innovation was the establishment of the Recruit Training Centre (CAR), for the initial training of conscript recruits.

In the 1970s, as part of a restructuring of the army to reduce contingents by making the military institution more efficient and modern, the Alpine troops were reorganised with the abolition of regiments and the formation of higher-level units; the brigades. These Alpine brigades were united in the 4th Alpine Army Corps of which the first commander in the 1952 was General Clement Primieri, which also included support units of cavalry, artillery, military genius, transmissions, light aviation and services. The task of the 4th Army Corps was the defence of the north-eastern Alpine sector in the event of an attack by Warsaw Pact forces. In the summer 1972, To celebrate the centenary, representatives of five Alpine brigades and the Alpine Military School organised the so-called 'centenary raid' with a march from Savona via Trieste to 20 July in Rome.

Alpine troops since 1963 was also the contingent that made up the Italian component assigned to NATO's Allied Mobile Force-Land (AMF-L), dependent on the Allied Command in Europe. A small, mobile task force created with personnel from the Taurinense, consisting of 1,500 men divided into three units: the 'Airborne Alpine Tactical Group', the 'Airborne Medical Unit' and the 'National Support Element' for the contingent's logistical support.

In the 1980s, the Alpine troops began their involvement in international and humanitarian missions abroad. Among these were the peacekeeping missions in Lebanon ("Lebanon 1" and "Lebanon 2" missions between 1982 e 1984)

The 1990s

In the early 1990s, as the Soviet threat disappeared, the restructuring process of the army began, which resulted in the suppression of both historical and more recent departments of the Alpine troops, including the Orobica and Cadore Brigades and the Alpini d'Arresto. In 1997 the 4th Alpine Army Corps was reorganised into the Alpine Troops Command consisting of three Brigades (Taurinense, Tridentina and Julia), which became two in 2002 following the suppression of the second.

This restructuring saw the Alpine troops engaged in a training and logistical renewal that enabled them to become one of the most suitable specialities for deployments abroad, where physically well-prepared men, militarily accustomed to moving in small, autonomous groups, are needed. for example, the intervention in Albania (KFOR ) dates back to 1993

To overcome difficulties related to public opinion against using conscripts for missions abroad, in the 1995 the enrolment of volunteers was introduced, and this new availability of personnel turned the brigades into a valuable reservoir of units to be used both in domestic public order operations (the 'Forza Paris' mission in Sardinia, 'Vespri siciliani' in Sicily and 'Riace' in Calabria) and in humanitarian operations abroad: Operation Provide Comfort in Iraqi Kurdistan at the end of the Gulf War (1991), Operation Onumoz in the 1993/'94 with the Taurinense and Julia brigades as part of the 'Albatros' contingent in Mozambique and the peacekeeping missions in Bosnia (Operation Joint Guard and Operation Constant Guard 1997/1998, Operation Alba (1997) and AFOR (1999), OSCE/KVM in Kosovo (1998/'99) after NATO intervention and the withdrawal of the Serbian army, and in Afghanistan (since 2002 Operation Kite, Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF). These are the main operational theatres of the Black Pens at the turn of the 20th century and the 2000s; while this has allowed the Alpinis to be appreciated internationally, it has also led to a reduction in purely Alpine training in favour of versatility of deployment in every theatre worldwide.

The 2000s 'The Mission in Afghanistan

The first batch of Alpine soldiers sent to Afghanistan was a company from the then Alpine Battalion 'Monte Cervino', which arrived in Kabul in May 2002. On 30 January 2003 the farewell ceremony of the 9th Alpine Regiment, which was to represent the bulk of the Italian unit sent to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, took place in L'Aquila. The regiment settled in Khowst, 300 kilometres south-east of Kabul, to replace the US contingent that had just left the area. The regiment is part of the Taurinense Brigade, the first to arrive in Kabul with four hundred men with the task of protecting the access routes to the city's airfield.

As of 20 April 2010, Until October of the same year, the Taurinense replaced the mechanized Brigade 'Sassari' at the head of the 'Regional Command West' in Herat, the NATO command responsible for the western part of Afghanistan, and progressively deployed all its units: the Alpine infantry regiments (the 2nd from Cuneo led by Colonel Massimo Biagini, the 3rd from Pinerolo under the orders of Colonel Giulio Lucia and the 9th of the Aquila under the command of Colonel Franco Federici), the engineers of the 32nd regiment stationed in Turin commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Luca Bajata and also the 1st mountain artillery regiment from Fossano under the orders of Colonel Emmanuele Aresu. The latter unit was mainly employed in support of the 'Provincial Reconstruction Team' in Herat, a military structure engaged in the civil reconstruction of that province.

Subsequently, other Alpine regiments, also not belonging to the Taurinense, served in Afghanistan, including the 5th, 7th and 8th. The 3rd Alpine Regiment has been in Afghanistan since 3 September 2002 at 18 January 2003, then returning under the command of Colonel Lucio Gatti and returning to Italy, after six months, on 19 May 2009. In these six months, the Afghan security forces have been trained and, in the valleys south of Kabul, two schools have been completed, a structure for the tribal councils has been built from scratch, and some villages have been equipped with educational material and agricultural tools, as well as medicines and clothing. Thanks to funds collected directly from the population in Piedmont or provided by the public administrations of the region, it has been possible to restore 15 km of irrigation canals and as many wells to provide the villages with drinking water. The 7th Alpine Regiment, under the command of Colonel Paolo Sfarra, together with the 2nd Engineer Engineer Engineer Regiment and the 232nd Transmission Regiment, returned to Italy in February 2011, after having patrolled and organised advanced bases in the districts of Bakwa, Gulistan and Purchaman, places where a girls' school was rebuilt, a square and a bazaar paved, a mosque and a medical clinic restored, and water wells built.

Since the first months of their mission in Afghanistan, the Alpine troops have suffered several casualties due to IEDs and landmines directed at the convoys with which the military forces move through the territory. At 4 April 2011, When the Brigata Julia was taken over by the 'Folgore' parachute brigade, the Alpini had left seven soldiers dead on the field (five victims of homemade mines and two killed in firefights).

End of regional recruitment

With the law 23 August 2004 No. 226, the suspension of military service in the sense of compulsory conscription was decreed from 1 January 2005, therefore bringing an end to regional recruitment from 2005 Alpine soldiers are recruited throughout the country.

In 2018, one Alpine department, the 4th Alpine Parachute Regiment, was validated as a special force.

Day of the Alpini

In 2022 was established by the Italian Parliament, with effect from 2023, the 'National Day of Remembrance and Sacrifice of the Alpini', to commemorate 'the heroism demonstrated by the Alpine Army Corps in the Battle of Nikolajewka' and to promote 'the values of defending sovereignty and national interest as well as the ethics of civic participation, solidarity and volunteerism, which the Alpine troops embody'. The choice of the date of 26 January, on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) and motivated by a battle within the Nazi-fascist war of aggression against the then Soviet Union, has generally been criticised as inappropriate.

Civil rescue

The first official recognition for rescue work was the bronze medal for civil valour awarded to the 'Valle Stura' Battalion, which helped extinguish a fire in Bersezio in the Stura di Demonte valley in 1883. Over time, the Alpini and ANA veterans distinguished themselves many times where help was needed. To save the people swept away by an avalanche in the Varaita valley in 1886, during the Messina earthquake of 1908, in the Vajont disaster in 1963, in the earthquakes of Friuli, Irpinia and Molise, in the Val di Stava disaster of 1985, in the Valtellina flood of the July 1987, and again afterwards in the 1997 Umbria and Marche earthquake, the Piedmont flood of 2000, in the Emilia-Romagna earthquake of 2012. Relief operations were not limited to the national territory: the Alpine troops deployed in Armenia in 1989 after a tremendous earthquake, or in peacekeeping operations in Mozambique in the 1992, or supporting Albanian and Bosnian refugees during the Kosovo war.

Staff

The Alpine troops are a multiarmed speciality, bringing together departments from the various arms and corps of the Army: infantry, artillery, genius, transmission, transport and materials, and logistics corps. Almost all Alpine departments report to the Comando truppe alpine (COMALP), an Army Corps level command (heir to the 4th Alpine Army Corps) based in Bolzano.

COMALP depends on:

• Two Alpine brigades: the 'Taurinense' with headquarters in Turin and units in Piedmont and Abruzzo and the 'Julia' with headquarters in Udine and units in Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto and Friuli. The two brigades have a similar structure, each having a command and tactical support unit, three Alpine infantry regiments, a mountain land artillery regiment, an engineer regiment and a logistics regiment. The 'Taurinense' was one of the first Army units on a voluntary basis and has many years of experience in international missions. The 'Julia', on the other hand, is the unit where Alpine traditions are most alive, having been nurtured (like the disbanded 'Tridentina') mainly by conscripts and then VFA alongside VFB. With the switch to purely voluntary recruitment, the difference has all but disappeared. These units represent one of the best realities of the Italian Army: the 'Julia' and 'Taurinense' brigades are projection units, i.e. they are rapidly deployable and available for any test or international operational deployment and have participated with their regiments in the main foreign operations of the Italian armed forces, from Albania to Bosnia, from Kosovo to Afghanistan;
• the Alpine Training Centre in Aosta: heir to the Alpine Military School, it is the institute in charge of ski-mountaineering training for cadres of the Alpine troops, as well as personnel of other Italian or foreign arms and armed forces. It also carries out high-level competitive activities with its own department of athletes. The centre employs the 6th Alpine Regiment, stationed in Brunico and San Candido, which manages the training areas in the Pusteria Valley with its own personnel, where operational departments and military training institutes are trained;
• the supports, considerably reduced in size compared to the past, as of 2011 consist of the command unit in Bolzano, which provides logistical support to COMALP; the 4th Alpine Parachute Regiment, an elite unit of the Alpine troops used for special operations.

Lastly, there are two support regiments (one of transmissions and one of parachutists), which used to be part of large Alpine units but are now attached to other commands. These regiments nevertheless remain Alpine troops to all intents and purposes, so much so that they retain their physiognomy, name, traditions and above all the Alpine hat.

The uniform

The Alpine uniform was initially the same colours as the Piedmontese army: a turquoise jacket and white trousers, which certainly did not allow for good camouflage in a mountain environment. The issue was debated between 1904 and 1906 at the urging of the president of the Milan section of the Italian Alpine Club, Luigi Brioschi. In April 1906, the Alpine soldiers of the 'Morbegno' battalion of the 5th Regiment, stationed in Bergamo, were chosen for a practical experiment. The experiment was a success, and so the 'grey platoon' was born, composed of forty men from the 45th company of the 'Morbegno', which made its first official appearance in Tirano.

The hat

The hat is the best known and most representative element of the Alpine uniform. It consists of many elements to represent the rank, regiment and speciality to which it belongs. The latest version of the hat was introduced in 1910.

On 25 March 1873, instead of the infantry chepi, a black felt hat of its own was adopted, truncated cone shape (in the 'Calabrese' style) with a wide brim; on the front it had a five-pointed star made of white metal with the company number as a frieze. On the left side, half-covered by the leather sash, was a tricolour cockade in the centre of which was a white button with a fluted cross. A red chevron in the shape of an inverted V adorned the hat on the same side as the cockade and a black raven feather was tucked under it. For the officers the hat was the same, but the feather was eagle.

On 1 January 1875, the department commanders took on the name of Battalion Commanders and no longer wore the Calabrese hat that distinguished members of the Alpine companies, but wore the headgear of the district in which they were stationed as they had no office of their own. In 1880, instead of the five-pointed star, a new ornament was adopted, also made of white metal: an eagle "in lowered flight" surmounting a cornet containing the regimental number. The cornet was placed above a trophy of crossed rifles with bayonet set, an axe and an ice axe. The whole surrounded by a crown of laurel and oak leaves.

In the first months of the First World War, the Italian army adopted the 'Adrian' helmet, but the Alpine troops and Bersaglieri snubbed it because they could not place their badges on it, the former the feather and the latter the plumet. However, there are photographic records that attest to its Alpine use at least until the end of July 1916, for example by Battisti and Filzi when they were captured on Monte Corno. Later, it was particularly the Alpinis operating at high altitudes who definitively set it aside in favour of balaclavas and felt hats, for more practical reasons than symbolism, linked to the problems in using them in frost, in the wind and with the looming threat of lightning. Problems also shared by the Austro-Germans, who also often resorted to balaclavas in the mountains, as well as the classic Bergmütze, still today the symbol of the mountain troops of the two countries.

The pen

Approximately 25-30 cm long, it is worn on the left side of the hat, slightly tilted backwards; for troops it is raven and black in colour, for non-commissioned officers and junior officers it is brown eagle and for senior officers and generals it is white goose.

It has also been worn on the helmet, since the time of the Second World War, by means of special tassel clips (sometimes when these were not available, the end of the tassel was threaded through one of the air holes).

The tassel

The tassel, found on the left side of the hat, is the semi-ovoid disc into which the feather is inserted. For the ranks of graduates and troop soldiers, this disc is made of coloured wool on a wooden core. For junior and senior officers, lieutenants, marshals and sergeants, the tassel is made of gilded metal and, in the Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta departments, bears the Savoy cross in the centre. From the rank of brigadier general onwards, the material used is instead silver-plated metal.

Originally, the colour of the tassel distinguished the battalions within the various regiments, so that the 1st battalion of each regiment had a white tassel, the 2nd red, the 3rd green and, if there was a 4th battalion, blue. The colours were those of the Italian flag, plus the blue of the House of Savoy. Later, other tassels were added with specific colours, numbers and initials for the different specialities and departments.

The frieze

It is worn on the front of the hat and distinguishes the speciality to which it belongs:

• general officers: eagle with laurel wreath and shield with the initials 'RI' in the centre
• mountaineers: eagle, cornet, crossed rifles
• mountain artillery: eagle, cornet, crossed cannons
• pioneering genius: eagle, cornet, crossed axes
• combat engineers: eagle, cornet, gladius, flaming grenade and crossed axes
• transmissions: eagle, cornet, antenna, Folgores and crossed axes
• transport and materials: eagle and winged gear
• health (medical officers): eagle, five-pointed star with red cross, crossed staffs of Aesculapius
• health (psychologist officers): eagle, five-pointed star with red cross, letter psi Greek alphabet
• health (non-commissioned officers and troops): eagle, five-pointed star with red cross
• administration and commissariat: eagle, turreted crown, purple rod and laurel wreath
• Corps of Engineers: eagle, turreted crown, cogwheel and laurel wreath

The invoice of the frieze changes according to the grade:

• gold-plated metal wire or gold-plated plastic for officers, non-commissioned officers, and military personnel on permanent duty.
• black plastic for pre-service troops.