The Alpini are an extraordinary military component of the Italian Army highly specialized in mountain operations. They are light infantry that have acquired great fame for their operational capabilities and their specific training for the mountain environment. Their identity is deeply rooted in the traditions and values that they have developed over the years
: Various corps have been considered ideal precursors of the Alpini, from Roman military units such as the Legio Julia Alpina and the Cohorte Montanorum to the Alpine hunters engaged as Garibaldi volunteers in the second and third wars of independence. However, once the Risorgimento was over, there were no specific forces organized by the State to defend the alpini passes. During the reorganization of the Italian army that began following the Prussian success in the war against France, the "Ricotti reform" was launched by General and Minister of War Cesare Francesco Ricotti-Magnani, which provided for a restructuring of the armed forces conducted on the Prussian model, based on the general obligation to short-term military service, in such a way as to subject all physically fit conscripts to military training, abolish surrogacy and transform the Italian army into a numerical army, an expression of the human potential of the nation.
Let us therefore apply the Prussian system because this is what the needs of the times dictate: our country needs to militarize and discipline itself, just as our army needs to cultivate itself, and compulsory military service will benefit both.
Nicola Marselli in “Events of the 1870-1871"
In the innovative fervor within the Ricotti administration, the problem of the defense of the alpini passes was also addressed. Until then it had been believed that a real defense of the passes was impossible and that a potential invader had to be hindered by the fortified barriers of the valleys, but definitively stopped only in the Po Valley. This tactic would have left completely undefended all the alpini passes from Simplon to Stelvio and all of Friuli, that is, 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 soldier, was in fact a Captain of the Bersaglieri, and never became one, was a passionate scholar attentive to the military operations conducted in the previous centuries in the alpini territories, and from the beginning he grasped the contradictions that the Italian recruitment system entailed.
Because of the complex recruitment system concentrated in the plain, at the time of mobilization the men would have had to flow from the Alpine valleys to the inhabited centers to be equipped and organized, then return to the valleys to withstand the impact of an enemy who in the meantime would have been able to organize and deploy his forces in the best possible way. In this way a chaotic concentration of men would have been created in the military districts capable of supplying the personnel who had come down to the valley together with those stationed in the plain, with consequent and inevitable delays. To this would have been added - always according to Perrucchetti - another serious limitation: the mobilization needs would have led to the creation of heterogeneous battalions composed of provincials from the plain who were not suited to mountain warfare and were not familiar with the places.
In 1872 Perrucchetti wrote an article for Rivista militare, in which he dealt with the problem of defending the alpini passes and suggested some innovations for the military organization in the border areas. In the border areas, local mountaineers would be recruited, similarly to the Prussian territorial organization, according to which the Alpine area would be divided into valleys into many defensive units, each constituting a small military district. In each defensive unit, the recruited forces would be formed into a certain number of companies grouped around an administration and command center, so as to have as many defensive units as there were alpini passes to protect. According to Perrucchetti, the soldiers assigned to these units had to be accustomed to the harsh climate, to the fatigue of moving in the mountains, to the dangers of rough and dangerous terrain and to the discomforts of bad weather; for their part, the officers had to have direct and profound knowledge of the territory, alpinisti even before being soldiers. Finally, relations with the civilian population had to be close and spontaneous, so as to benefit from the function of informants and guides that the mountaineers could carry out for the benefit of the troops. Local recruitment, in addition to providing men already accustomed to the hard life in the mountains, was a strong element of cohesion among the troops: by gathering together in companies the young men from the same valley, and by stationing them in their land of origin, significant advantages were obtained without exposing oneself 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 afterward, on the occasion of the call to arms of the class of 1852, the formation of the first fifteen Alpine companies began, which would be formed within a year.
The speed with which the Ministry decided on the constitution had as a counterpart negative repercussions on the number and especially on the equipment. The uniform was the same as the infantry, with obvious inconveniences in relation to the needs of the mountains; felt kepi, cloth coat worn directly over the shirt, canvas gaiters and low shoes. The armament consisted of a recent model rifle, the “Vetterli 1870”, in line with those of the other European armies, but with an excessive weight and length for movement on rough terrain, while the officers were equipped with the model sabre. 1855 and the obsolete “Lefaucheaux” rotary pistol. For the transport of materials, each company had only one mule and a baggage cart, so as to fill the soldiers' backpacks not only with personal effects, but with everything useful to the company, from food, to ammunition, to firewood itself.
The organizational shortcomings, however, did not affect the affirmation and growth of the Specialty, whose companies in 1873 were increased to twenty-four and divided into seven battalions.
The organic evolution was accompanied by a progressive adaptation of the uniforms and armament. Since 1873, the distinguishing element of the Corps was the “Calabrese” hat with a black feather, decorated with a frieze depicting 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 had been established and four years later the first regiment was formed. It was a specialty capable of operating in high mountains to provide adequate fire support to the alpini, capable of operating in areas inaccessible to towed artillery. Mountain batteries and alpini units soon became accustomed to living and maneuvering 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 insignia and finishing touches of the uniform.
From 1888 Mountain artillery was also recruited based on origin.
As for the armament, the Wetterli rifle 1870 It was transformed in 1887 into an ordinary repeating weapon thanks to the project of the artillery captain Giuseppe Vitali, who also gave the name to the new weapon, namely the “Vetterli-Vitali Mod. 1870/87“. Despite Vitali’s efforts, the need for lighter ammunition led the Portable Weapons Commission to adopt the 6.5 mm caliber and in September 1890 to entrust the Kingdom’s arms factories with the study of a new rifle. Among the various models presented, the one from the Turin arms factory was chosen, the “Carcano Mod. 91”, shorter and easier to handle. In parallel with the Mod. 91 for the troops, the officers’ armament alpini was also renewed with the Mod. 1888 sabre and the Bodeo Mod. pistol. 1889 ordinary repeater with rotating drum.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Italy too was struck by the “mal d'Africa”, driven by the desire to seek new “living spaces” on a par with other European powers. The first nucleus of alpini destined for Africa was formed by volunteers 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, composed of three companies and commanded by Major Domenico Cicconi, had a force of 5 Officers plus a Medical Lieutenant and 150 graduates and 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 the winter 1895/96, the Prime Minister Francesco Crispi sent to Ethiopia a second contingent of Alpini and a mountain artillery battery as reinforcements requested by General Oreste Baratieri, governor of the colony, after the failures of Amba Alagi and Macallé.
Born for the defense of the Alpine arc, this mountain infantry corps instead had its baptism in field battle in the battle of Adua in Ethiopia, during which the Alpinis suffered unspeakable suffering, and where at dawn 1 March 1896 Despite the initial confidence in the enterprise, General Baratieri's 15,000 soldiers, including 954 Alpinis, were overwhelmed by the over 100,000 warriors of Menelik II. Of the 954 Alpinis that left Italy under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Davide Menini, only 92 remained alive and Menini himself was decorated with the silver medal posthumously.
The entire mountain battery, called “the Sicilian”, whose gunners came from the Enna area, sacrificed itself on its pieces. The first Alpine to be awarded the gold medal for military valor was Captain Pietro Cella, born in Bardi, who also died that morning in Adua. An honorable epilogue, despite the defeat being the inevitable conclusion of a poorly and hastily organized mission.
In the fifteen years between the beginning of the century and the outbreak of the First World War, the Alpine troops did not undergo any significant changes, except perhaps for the introduction of skiing.
While the use of ski-equipped troops was already well known in the armies of Northern Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, and for patrol and courier use it can even be dated back to a few centuries earlier, in Italy the Alpinis were only tested in the 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 organization of specific training camps at company level with the hiring of Swiss and Norwegian instructors. In just a few years, skis acquired a permanent place in the equipment of the alpini and with a decree of 25 November 1902, the Minister of War Giuseppe Ottolenghi ordered their use in the regiments.
In the early years of the century, a debate was opened on the opportunity to unite the Alpini units with the Bersaglieri units, creating a single corps. The Bersaglieri units, since their origins in the Savoy kingdom, were normally employed in the mountains and the physical build on which they were selected was the same as the Alpini. However, the special needs of mountain warfare did not go well with the larger groupings of troops that this union would have brought. This hypothesis was therefore set aside 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 eighth regiment after the opening of the Simplon railway had imposed greater defensive needs 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 hat was also adapted to the new colours. As regards armament, the novelty of the early years of the century was the machine gun, which became established after the Russo-Japanese conflict of 1905. The first machine guns used by the Alpini were the Maxim Mod. 1906 (used in the Libyan campaign) and the Maxim-Vickers Mod. 1911 distributed starting from 1913.
In 1910 the formal sanction of the symbiosis between Alpini and Mountain Artillery was achieved, with the adoption for the latter of the grey felt Alpine hat with a feather, which however, rather than black, was often brown not only for junior officers, as established by the regulations, but also for non-commissioned officers and artillerymen. Obviously the colours of the tassels also changed.
On the eve of the First World War, three mountain artillery regiments were operational for a total of thirty-six batteries, equipped with 65/17 guns.
The outbreak of the Italo-Turkish conflict for the possession of Libya, in the autumn of 1911, meant a new operational employment for the Alpine troops in Africa. 29 September 1911, after the ultimatum was rejected, 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, in reality suffered from the limitations of a campaign improvised in a few days and conducted with full underestimation of the enemy forces from the very beginning of the operations. The Turkish troops, estimated at around 5,000 men in Tripolitania and 3,000 in Cyrenaica, retreated inland, starting a significant resistance in the desert, also thanks to the support of the indigenous population. After the first clashes, the extent of the conflict was immediately clear; it was a difficult war for which 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 toll was 3,500 dead (of which 2,500 Italians and around 1,000 Eritrean, Libyan or Somali Ascari), 1,500 prisoners; The losses of materials instead were 37 cannons and 9,000 rifles.
The Alpine troops participated in the Libyan campaign with a large contingent: thirteen mountain batteries plus the battalions “Saluzzo”, “Edolo”, “Mondovì”, “Feltre”, “Vestone”, “Ivrea”, “Fenestrelle”, “Verona”, “Susa” and “Tolmezzo”. These were not employed as autonomous units, but attached to 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 remained in Libya with three mountain batteries united in the 8th “special” alpini Regiment under the command of Colonel Antonio Cantore.
After a period of marching training, the regiment had to adapt to fighting among the dunes against the Berber tribes or against the Muslims of Cyrenaica or in the Tripoli hinterland in a war that lasted longer than expected, so much so that the first contingents that landed in Tobruk in October 1911 (such as the 8th Regiment alpini “special”) in May 1915, when Italy entered the war against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were still engaged in defending Tripoli and Homs from the guerrilla actions of the indigenous population.
The 24 May 1915, with Italy's entry into the First World War, the Alpini occupied important and inaccessible points, from the Stelvio Pass to the Julian Alps, passing through the Tonale Pass and Mount Pasubio. That same day the first soldier to lose his life among the Italian troops was an Alpine soldier 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 that of Ortigara with the conquest of the mountain of the same name, the defeat of Caporetto, up to the resistance on Mount Grappa and the final counter-offensive of General Armando Diaz, which led to the victory of October 1918The Alpinis were the protagonists of a conflict that was fought almost entirely in the Alps, and on all fronts, from the Adamello glaciers to the Dolomite peaks, from the Carso to Mount Grappa, from the plateaus to the Piave, suffering over 35,000 dead and missing and approximately 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 feats of arms of the war involving the alpini it is possible to identify some significant for their drama, such as the conquest of Monte Nero, the war on the Adamello glaciers and Monte Cavento and the battle of Ortigara which caused thousands of victims especially among the Alpine units. These battles and all those in which the alpini took part, made these mountain troops a true symbol of the national effort.
Of the sixty-one Alpini battalions existing in November 1918, more than half of them 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 alpini veteran officers, and all alpinisti enthusiasts of the CAI of Milan, decided to create an association among those who had served in the Alpini corps. Initially it was thought to make it a subsection of the CAI, then the line of Arturo Andreoletti prevailed, who considered the Club too exclusive, and supported the birth of something autonomous, and on 8 July 1919 the National Association Alpini (ANA) in Milan, was established at the headquarters of the Surveyors Association, with the first president being Alpine Major Daniele Crespi. Andreoletti, still considered the founder par excellence, was later the first President elected by the Assembly of Delegates. The association soon had its own newsletter, the Alpino, created the same year on the initiative of Alpini lieutenant Italo Balbo, later a well-known exponent of fascism.
In September of 1920 the ANA organised the first national gathering on Mount Ortigara, which three years earlier had been the scene of very violent clashes with around 24,000 casualties, many of whom were Alpini, and from that first meeting another twenty followed until June 1940, in Turin, when the outbreak of World War II suspended the event for seven years.
In 1925 the ANA also incorporated the Mountain Artillery Association, further consolidating the moral symbiosis between the two specialties of the respective Armed Forces.
In the meantime, the country was experiencing strong social tensions in the immediate post-war period: the part of the population that for decades had been on the margins of national life now claimed a primary role, strengthened by the sacrifices suffered in the war, from food rationing to conscriptions in the arms industry, in addition of course to the plundering and looting in the areas invaded by the enemy after Caporetto. The tensions were fueled by the workers who, in order to support the efforts of the arms industry, had not been sent to the front and also for this reason had had the opportunity to receive and spread the social demands that had led to the very recent revolution in Russia. This also created a hostile climate between veterans and workers, the former judging the latter as "shirkers", who on the other hand reproached them for not having been insubordinate, and for having therefore contributed to the great capitalist project that had undoubtedly drawn economic profit from the war. The resulting public order requirements, also linked to the objective structural and logistical difficulties of a country devastated in its economy, made the demobilization a long and complicated operation and meant that a force of around 300,000 men was kept under arms, enough to keep alive units that had theoretically been 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 the way back, on May 25, it entered a terrible storm that made it 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 members of the crew remained on board the envelope; nothing more was heard of them or the airship, among the ten there was also General Nobile, who managed to send a first SOS message.
The first rescuers were the Alpini of the expedition led by the Alpine Captain Gennaro Sora, from Bergamo, who commanded a team formed by Sora, in the centre of the photo, and by the alpini, 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 18 June 1928 set off towards the Pole in search of Umberto Nobile and his crew. Sora's expedition, however, was unsuccessful 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 alpinismo was established in Aosta to provide ski-alpinistic training for Alpine troops. The school soon became a center of excellence in the field of sports and ski-alpinistic, so much so that it was considered the “mountain university”.
In the 1930s, the defence of the alpini borders was entrusted to the Royal Guardia di Finanza, the Royal Carabinieri, the Border Militia and to alpini units which were also given the task of guarding the new defensive works of the permanent fortification, then being designed and built along the Italian mountain border, from Ventimiglia to Istria.
This use of the Alpine troops was in contrast with the doctrines of that time which envisaged the use of large Alpine units wherever the need required it, the troops themselves being suitable for carrying out dynamic actions and not militias intended for the defence of fixed points. Therefore with the royal decree law n. 833 of 28 April 1937 a special corps called Guardia alla frontiera (GaF) was established, which had the task of permanently guarding the fortified system of the Vallo Alpino del Littorio, a fortified line along the entire Italian border. The GAF included infantry, artillery, engineering and service units, but was often commanded by Alpini officers and had the Alpine hat without the feather as headgear. Subsequently, due to the harshness of the living conditions at high altitude, it was formally recognized as an Alpine unit, but incongruously it was not allowed to use the feather. The Guardia alla frontiera was therefore assigned to the defense of national borders, while the Alpinis were expected to be used in any place required by military needs, even in offensive actions and outside the Alpine theater: for this purpose in 1934 the Alpine divisions “Taurinense”, “Tridentina”, “Julia” and “Cuneense” were formed, to which the “Pusteria” was added in 1935. To these units were added the battalion "Duca degli Abruzzi" (attached to the Central Military School of alpinismo) and the battalion "Uork Amba" and, it should be noted, five mixed battalions of the Military Engineers and Logistics Services (which at the time also included the transmissions). Thus the supports of the Alpine Troops were born, as alpine specialties of their respective branch of the Army to which they belong, therefore in all respects belonging to the Corps, alongside the Alpini and the Mountain Artillery which from 4 June 1934 it was renamed Alpine Artillery to further underline the cohesion and the new methods of employment, which included the sometimes temporary support of a mountain battery to an Alpine battalion
In total, the Alpini Corps came to include 31 battalions, 93 companies, 10 Alpine artillery groups and 30 batteries, divided into five divisional commands.
The development of the alpini armament during the twenty years 1919-'39 was essentially limited to machine guns and curved-fire weapons. In the first case, it was a question of creating an automatic weapon for collective fire that was lighter and more mobile than the Fiat Mod. 14 heavy machine gun, which was more suitable as a position weapon. After various experiments, the light Breda Mod. 30 was developed, which became the accompanying weapon of the Alpine rifle teams. In line with the needs of mountain warfare, two new mortars were developed, the 45 mm Brixia Mod. 35 and the 81 mm one. The lack of attention that the armed forces gave to the development of new weapons, especially to the tank and anti-tank weapons, meant that the only gun capable of stopping armoured troops, the 47/32 Mod. 1935, was assigned to only three Alpine divisions (Cuneense, Tridentina and Julia), resulting in serious deficiencies in the face of the massive use of armoured vehicles in other armies.
The years 1935-'36 saw the alpini still engaged in Africa and precisely in Ethiopia, where they landed in Massawa from where the alpini of the 5th Alpine Division "Pusteria" participated in the war operations, with the battles of Amba Aradam and Amba Alagi. On March 31st there was the final battle of Mai Ceu, where Hailé Selassié's troops were forced to retreat and for the Emperor of Ethiopia it was defeat. For the Italian column formed by a thousand vehicles the road to Addis Ababa was clear, and the "Pusteria", with only 220 losses, returned in April 1937.
After operations in Albania during the Great War, less than twenty years later the alpinis landed again on the coasts of Durazzo and Valona. 7 April 1939 at the behest of the Duce, who wanted to rebalance the move of the German ally in Austria a few months earlier. It was an expedition marked by disorganization, so much so that the mules themselves embarked without packsaddles, harnesses and halters at the time of disembarkation began to escape from the port invading the streets of Durazzo. The alpinis remained in the city for a couple of weeks, then scattered throughout the country through the mountains that can be reached thanks to the roads built on that occasion by the military engineers.
The summer was particularly hot and the winter particularly harsh, losses due to malaria reached 30% of the troops, and the alpini also had to suffer the humiliation of the fascist racial laws which in June 1940 they forced the units to remove officers and soldiers of Slavic origin, and not only those from the areas annexed in the war of '15/'18, 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 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 in the second line in the same valley, with some Alpini battalions constituted at the time of mobilization; in reserve were the Cuneense and the Pusteria, respectively in the Gesso and Tanaro valleys. These units were included in the Army Group West, 315,000 strong along the entire border.
Despite the overwhelming forces, the Italian units were called to operate in precarious and prejudicial conditions since, especially for the alpini of Piedmontese origin, the discomfort was exacerbated by the realization of the social and economic repercussions on the civilian population. Furthermore, thousands of poorly trained and poorly equipped troops with means and weapons found themselves fighting in an impervious terrain and against a first-rate defensive system equipped with a complex of over four hundred works served by an excellent railway 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 on the front line together with the Taurinense with the task of penetrating towards Bourg-Saint-Maurice from the Piccolo San Bernardo hill, while the other two divisions had the task of penetrating the Maira-Po-Stura sector. Unable to break through the enemy lines, the alpinis insinuated themselves into the impervious spaces between the fortified works, also taking advantage of the fog, and occupied, in the face of a disproportionate tribute of blood, a series of high-altitude positions in Savoy and the Alps, which they maintained in almost prohibitive conditions. During the night between 24 e 25 In 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 dispatch of the alpini occurred due to the breakthrough of the Italian defensive front on the Vojussa: the Greek advance threatened to reach the Adriatic and push the Italian troops back overseas. Only thanks to the influx of reinforcement units, including the three Alpine divisions, was it possible to establish a resistance position capable of holding out until the following spring. The Julia was used in the first attacks, but the disorganization of the commands meant that in just a month of difficult advances it was forced to retreat and defend itself from the Greek incursions. At the end of December, from 9,000 men, the Julia was left with only 800 units. The Greek campaign was a failure for Italy, and only the intervention of the German ally in the spring of 1941 gave a turning point to the operations. To ensure control of the Balkans in anticipation of the invasion of the Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler and his General Staff developed Operation Marita. The Italian-German attack started on 6 April and 23 Greece asked for an armistice, an armistice that came after an enormous blood tribute for the alpini, 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 force sent to the Eastern front was strengthened by constituting the 8th Italian Army or ARMIR, with a strength of over 200,000 men; of these, 57,000 constituted the Alpine Army Corps, composed of the Cuneense, Tridentina and Julia Divisions, for a total of eighteen alpini battalions, nine Alpine Artillery groups and three mixed Engineer battalions.
In this context, the spring-summer 1942, the small-scale fulfillment of the project already dreamed of decades before: 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 Tridentina Regiment, receiving the Alpine hat and shoulder boards in Caprino Veronese. The Bersalpini of the 216th Anti-tank Company 47/32 Bolzano were born, not without discontent on the part of some of those involved, and were allowed to wear crimson flames under their collars and a tiny fez in the buttonhole of the left pocket of their uniform. They were mainly from Brescia, Verona and Bolzano; 86 drivers from the Verona, Vestone and Valchiese Battalions were attached to them, with whom they soon merged given their common origins. 19 July 1942 the 246-strong company left Asti for the Eastern Front.
Instead of being deployed in the Caucasus, as initially foreseen by the plans of the Italian-German commands, the Alpine Army Corps was instead employed in the defense of the Don where the alpinis arrived in first week of September 1942 passing under the control of the Italian 8th Army.
The operational environment of the Don had characteristics that were completely different from those in which the alpinis were trained to move; a vast, uniform plain without any mountainous relief, where an invading army would have had to have armoured and motorised forces to benefit from fundamental tactical mobility. The Alpine Army Corps, on the other hand, had 4,800 mules and 1,600 vehicles that would have been largely insufficient even in much more restricted operational spaces; furthermore, all the anti-tank armament was missing, as was the anti-aircraft artillery and the means of transmission, built for use in high mountains, had limited power and were unable to establish the correct connections over long distances. In general, all the armament supplied to the alpinis was seriously insufficient: no snowploughs, no tracked vehicles, no sleds, no anti-freeze lubricants, no adequate clothing, no automatic weapons capable of withstanding the freezing Soviet temperatures were provided. The destination of the Alpine Army Corps on the Don was not born from a strategic and organic plan, but from the emergency that arose on the entire Soviet front in the summer-autumn of 1942 and that worsened in the following winter until the rout of the invading units in December-January. The alpini diverted to the Don arrived just in time to be deployed on the front line, to be surrounded by the advancing Red Army and to be forced into a tragic retreat in which over two thirds of the men fell. Overall, the alpini were assigned a sector of 70 km, so it was not possible to keep a division in reserve.
The first period of the alpini's presence on the line was mainly one of "operational stasis", with no significant action on either side, and the alpini were concerned with ensuring survival conditions in view of the winter by building shelters, covered positions, supplying all types of material, digging anti-tank ditches, laying mines over large areas and positioning wire fences and firing positions.
After defeating the Romanian army, he encircled the German 6th Army at Stalingrad in November 1942 and destroyed much of the ARMIR in December, the 14 January 1943 the Red Army launched the powerful Ostrogožsk-Rossoš' offensive and routed the Hungarian and German troops deployed on the flanks of the Alpine corps, which was then rapidly surrounded by Soviet armored columns; the three Alpine divisions were forced to retreat with a very long march across the frozen Soviet plains, suffering very high losses. Two of the divisions (the Julia and the Cuneense) were finally trapped in Valujki and forced to surrender, while the survivors of the Tridentina division managed to open their way after a series of desperate battles, the most famous of which was the battle of Nikolaevka, managing to conquer the town and get out of the "pocket".
The overall losses of the Alpine Army Corps (Julia, Cuneense and Tridentina Alpine Divisions and Vicenza Infantry Division) in the battle exceeded 80% of the troops deployed on the Don front: out of an initial force of about 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 prisoner. The fate of the young Bersalpini company is also very indicative. Of the 246 troops, half managed to get out of the pocket, of the other half only 3 returned home, 2 of whom with frostbite wounds.
Much more effective than historiography, literature has consigned the events that occurred in the Soviet Union to future memory with books such as Centomila gavette di ghiaccio 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 povero 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, even though they came from other units, had joined as fighters in Alpini departments.
With the proclamation of the armistice on 8 September 1943, the history of the alpini was divided. Most of the men joined the partisan groups in the north (such as the famous Fiamme Verdi formations of the 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. The 4th Alpine Division "Monterosa" was formed in the RSI, which was joined by other Alpine units included in the "Littorio Division", the Alpini Tagliamento Regiment and the "Valanga" sapper battalion of the Decima Mas. Those who 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 harshly with the Germans on the Apennines in the first days after the armistice, the alpini “L'Aquila” battalion which with the Allies went up the entire peninsula to victory, while the veterans from the Soviet Union of Cuneense and Tridentina gave life to partisan formations in Alto Adige.
The only organised Alpine units whose events could be followed were those included in the Allied army engaged in the war of liberation, such as the "Piemonte" battalion, initially part of the First Motorised Group, which inApril 1944 was absorbed by the 3rd Regiment alpini and included in the newly formed Italian Liberation Corps (CIL). The battalion was then employed in the Adriatic sector until August 1944, when the CIL, having come into contact with the Gothic Line, was disbanded to be replaced by the Combat Groups. The Piemonte battalion became part of the “Legnano” combat group together with the L'Aquila battalion, participating in the clashes in the Idice valley and in the pursuit of the Germans up to Bergamo and Turin. The alpini “Monte Granero” battalion, absorbed together with the Piemonte into the 3rd Regiment, was sent to Sicily in September 1944 to serve in public order.
The reconstruction period of the Alpine troops after the conflict was relatively long; from the initial two battalions (Piedmont and L'Aquila) to the establishment of the five brigades that constituted the Alpine corps until the early nineties, approximately eight years passed.
Considerable economic constraints affected the equipment, the armament and even the real possibility of keeping the expected effective force in service. In the first weeks after incorporation, the recruits received only the fatigue uniform consisting of the Allied paratroopers' overalls and the dark green shirt already issued to the Southern Army (the so-called "Verdoni"), the complete uniform, also Anglo-Saxon, was distributed with a great delay, the rifle was the ancient English Enfield; furthermore, in the face of a theoretical conscription of 15 months, early discharge at about a year was in fact routine.
In the meantime, the associative activity of the ANA had gradually regained strength.April 1947 the newspaper L'Alpino reappeared, Nell'October 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 in Bolzano of veterans of the Monterosa, who at the time had not been recognized as having belonged to an Alpine unit in order to participate in the associative life of the ANA
The numerical constraints imposed by the armistice were overcome only in 1949 with Italy's entry into the Atlantic Pact where the armed forces committed themselves to controlling the eastern borders and public order throughout the peninsula. Meanwhile. In the same year the Alpine Military School of Aosta was reconstituted, while the Border Guard was absorbed by the Alpine troops, giving life to the Alpini arrest specialty.
To guard the new fortified works, in the early 1950s the "position battalions" were first formed, then the "position groupings" and then, in 1962, to the "arrest units". The position battalions and position regiments up to the 1957 were in charge of all the mountain and plain positions. From that date, however, the plain fortifications remained with the Infantry of Arrest, while the mountain ones passed definitively to the Alpini.
In the mid-1950s, the Alpine troops were then increased to five brigades:
In the fifties the alpini paratroopers “Monte Cervino” were born, who still today, having also acquired the NATO qualification of “Rangers”, represent the elite of the Alpine troops. Another novelty was the institution of the Recruit Training Center (CAR), for the initial training of conscripts.
In the 1970s, as part of a restructuring of the army to reduce contingents and make 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 grouped together in the 4th Alpine Army Corps, whose first commander in 1952 was General Clemente Primieri, which also included support units of cavalry, artillery, military engineers, broadcasting, light aviation and services. The task of the IV Army Corps was the defense of the north-eastern Alpine sector in the event of an attack by the 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 that from Savona, passing through Trieste, arrived on 20 July in Rome.
Alpine troops since 1963 the contingent that constituted the Italian component assigned to the Allied Mobile Force-Land (AMF-L) of NATO, dependent on the Allied Command in Europe, was also drawn. A small and mobile task force created with personnel from the Taurinense, formed by 1,500 men divided into three units: the "Air Transportable Tactical Group alpini", the "Air Transportable Health Department" and the "National Support Element" for the logistical support of the contingent.
The Alpine troops began to be involved in international and humanitarian missions abroad in the 1980s. Among these, the peacekeeping missions in Lebanon (missions “Lebanon 1” and “Lebanon 2” between 1982 e 1984)
In the early nineties, with the waning of the Soviet threat, the process of restructuring the army was started, which involved the suppression of departments for the Alpine troops, both historical and more recent, including the Orobica and Cadore Brigades and the Alpini d'Arresto. In 1997 the IV Alpine Army Corps was reorganized 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 alpini engaged in a training and logistical renewal that allowed it to become one of the most suitable specialties for use abroad, where well-trained men are needed, militarily accustomed to moving in small autonomous groups. For example, the intervention in Albania (KFOR) dates back to 1993.
To overcome the difficulties related to public opinion against using conscripts for missions abroad, in 1995 the recruitment of volunteer personnel was introduced, and this new availability of personnel transformed the brigades into a precious reservoir of units to be used both in internal public order operations (the “Forza Paris” missions in Sardinia, the “Vespri Siciliani” in Sicily and the “Riace” in Calabria), and in humanitarian operations abroad: Operation Provide Comfort in Iraqi Kurdistan at the end of the Gulf War. (1991), the Onumoz operation in 1993/'94 with the Taurinense and Julia brigades included in the “Albatros” contingent in Mozambique and the peacekeeping missions in Bosnia (Joint Guard operation and Constant Guard operation 1997/1998, Operation Alba (1997) and AFOR (1999), OSCE/KVM in Kosovo (1998/'99) after the NATO intervention and the withdrawal of the Serbian army, and in Afghanistan (from 2002 Operation Nibbio, Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF). These are the main theatres of operation of the Penne Nere between the twentieth century and the two thousand years; if on the one hand this has allowed the Alpini to be appreciated at an international level, on the other it has led to the reduction of the purely Alpine training in favour of a versatility of employment in every world theatre.
The first batch of alpinis sent to Afghanistan was a company of the then alpini “Monte Cervino” Battalion, which arrived in Kabul in May 2002. On 30 January 2003 the farewell ceremony of the 9th Regiment alpini took place in L'Aquila, which in a few days would represent the bulk of the Italian unit sent to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The regiment settled in Khowst, 300 kilometers 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 airport.
As of 20 April 2010, until October of the same year, the Taurinense replaced the “Sassari” mechanized brigade at the head of the “Regional Command West” of Herat, the NATO command responsible for the western part of Afghanistan, and progressively deployed all its units: the Alpine infantry regiments (the 2nd of Cuneo led by Colonel Massimo Biagini, the 3rd of Pinerolo under the command of Colonel Giulio Lucia and the 9th of L’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 of Fossano under the command of Colonel Emmanuele Aresu. This last unit was used above all in support of the “Provincial Reconstruction Team” of Herat, a military structure engaged in the civil reconstruction of that province.
Subsequently other regiments of alpini, even those not belonging to Taurinense, served in Afghanistan, including the 5th, 7th and 8th. The 3rd Regiment alpini 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 meeting of tribal councils has been built from scratch and some villages have been equipped with teaching materials for education and tools for agriculture, as well as with medicines and clothing; thanks also to the funds collected directly in Piedmont from the population or provided by the public administrations of the region, it has been possible to restore 15 km of irrigation canals flanked by the same number of wells to make drinking water available to the villages. The 7th Regiment alpini, under the command of Colonel Paolo Sfarra, together with the 2nd Engineer Regiment and the 232nd Transmission Regiment, returned to Italy in February 2011, after having patrolled and organised forward bases in the districts of Bakwa, Gulistan and Purchaman, places where a girls' school was rebuilt, a square and a bazaar were paved, a mosque and a medical clinic were restored, and water wells were 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 Julia Brigade was relieved by the Paratrooper Brigade “Folgore”, the Alpini had left seven dead soldiers on the field (five victims of homemade mines and two killed in firefights).
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.
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 Remembrance Day (27 January) and motivated by a battle within the Nazi-Fascist war of aggression against the then Soviet Union, has been generally criticized as inappropriate.
The first official recognition for a rescue effort was the bronze medal for civil valor awarded to the “Valle Stura” Battalion that intervened to put out a fire that had broken out in Bersezio in the Stura di Demonte valley in 1883. Over time, the Alpini and the ANA veterans distinguished themselves several times wherever help was needed. To save the populations overwhelmed 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 catastrophe of the Val di Stava del 1985, in the Valtellina flood of July 1987, and again later in the 1997 earthquake in Umbria and Marche, in the flood in Piedmont 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.
The Alpine troops are a multi-arms specialty, bringing together units belonging to the various branches and corps of the Army: infantry, artillery, engineers, transmissions, transport and materials, logistics corps. Almost all alpini units report to the Alpine Troops Command (COMALP), a command at the level of the Army Corps (heir to the 4th Alpine Army Corps) based in Bolzano.
COMALP depends on:
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 Alpine uniform was initially the same colors as the Piedmontese army: a blue 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 request of the president of the Milan section of the Italian Alpine Club, Luigi Brioschi. In April 1906, for a practical experiment, the alpinis of the “Morbegno” battalion of the 5th Regiment, based in Bergamo, were chosen. The experiment was a success, and thus the “gray platoon” was born, composed of forty men from the 45th company of the “Morbegno”, which made its first official appearance in Tirano.
The hat is the most well-known and representative element of the alpini uniform. It is composed of many elements to represent the rank, regiment and specialty of belonging. The latest version of the hat was introduced in 1910.
On 25 March 1873, instead of the infantry kepi, a black felt hat with a truncated cone shape (Calabrian style) and a wide brim was adopted; on the front it had a five-pointed star, in white metal, with the company number. On the left side, half-covered by the leather band, there was a tricolour cockade in the centre of which was a small white button with a fluted cross. A red inverted V-shaped braid decorated the hat on the same side as the cockade and under this was inserted a black crow's feather. For officers the hat was the same, but the feather was an eagle.
On January 1, 1875, the department commanders took the name of Battalion Commanders and no longer wore the Calabrian hat that distinguished members of the Alpine companies, but wore the headdress of the district in which they were stationed, not having their own office. In 1880, instead of the five-pointed star, a new emblem was adopted, also in white metal: an eagle "in low flight" surmounting a horn containing the regiment number. The horn was placed above a trophy of crossed rifles with fixed bayonets, an axe and an ice axe. The whole surrounded by a wreath of laurel and oak leaves.
In the early months of the First World War, the Italian army adopted the “Adrian” helmet, but the alpini and bersaglieri snubbed it because they could not place the badge on it, a feather for the former and a plume for the latter. However, there is photographic documentation that attests to its use in the Alpine troops at least until July 1916, for example by Battisti and Filzi at the time of their capture on Monte Corno. Later, it was in particular the Alpini operating at high altitudes who definitively abandoned it in favor of balaclavas and felt hats, for more practical reasons than symbolism, linked to the problems of using it in the cold, in the wind, and with the looming threat of lightning. Problems also shared by the Austro-Germans who in the mountains often also resorted to balaclavas, as well as the classic Bergmütze, still today the symbol of the mountain units of the two countries.
About 25-30 cm long, it is worn on the left side of the hat, slightly tilted backwards; for the troops it is made of raven and black in colour, for the non-commissioned officers and junior officers it is made of brown eagle while for the senior officers and generals it is made of white goose.
It was also worn on the helmet, since the Second World War, using special tassel clips (sometimes when these were not available, the end of the tassel was inserted into one of the ventilation holes).
The tassel, on the left of the hat, is the semi-ovoid disk into which the pen is inserted. For the ranks of graduates and soldiers, this disk is made of colored wool on a wooden core. For lower and higher officers, lieutenants, marshals and sergeants, the tassel is in gold metal and, in the departments of Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta, it has the Savoy cross in the center. From the rank of brigadier general onwards, the material used is instead silver metal.
Originally the colour of the tassel distinguished the battalions within the various regiments, so the 1st battalion of each regiment had a white tassel, the 2nd a red one, the 3rd a green one and, if there was a 4th battalion, a light blue one. The colours were those of the Italian flag, plus the light blue of the House of Savoy. Later, other tassels were added with colours, numbers and specific acronyms for the different specialities and departments.
It is worn on the front of the hat and distinguishes the specialty to which it belongs:
The invoice of the frieze changes according to the grade: