Alpini
The Alpini are the Italian Army's specialist mountain infantry. Part of the army's infantry corps, the speciality distinguished itself in combat during World War I and World War II. Currently the active Alpini units are organized in two operational brigades, which are subordinate to the Alpine Troops Headquarters. The Alpini's name comes from their inceptive association with the Alps, the mountain range that Italy shares with France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. An individual soldier of the Alpini is called an Alpino.
Established in 1872, the Alpini are the oldest active mountain infantry in the world. Their original mission was to protect Italy's border with France and Austria-Hungary. In 1888 the Alpini deployed on their first mission abroad, in Africa, a continent to which they returned on several occasions and during various wars of the Kingdom of Italy. During World War I they fought a three-year campaign on the Alps against Austro-Hungarian Kaiserjäger and the German Alpenkorps in what has since become known as the "War in snow and ice". During World War II, the Alpini fought alongside the Axis forces primarily in the Balkans Campaigns and on the Eastern Front.
During the Cold War the Alpini formed five brigades, which during the 1990s were reduced to two.
History
1872 to 1887
In 1872, Captain Giuseppe Perrucchetti published a study in the May edition of the Military Review. In the study, he proposed to assign the defence of mountain borders of the recently established Kingdom of Italy to soldiers recruited locally. Indeed, thanks to their knowledge of the surroundings and personal attachment to the area, they would be highly capable and better motivated defenders. Perrucchetti drew heavily on the work of Lieutenant General Agostino Ricci, who in 1868 had organised exercises in the mountains to assess the feasibility of a specialised mountain infantry corps. Five months after Perrucchetti's article, the first 15 Alpini companies were formed by Royal decree no. 1056, with their activation effective on October 15, 1872 - the date marked as the official Corps Day. The activation of the mountain companies thus made the Alpini the oldest active Mountain Infantry in the world.At first the Alpini were organized as a militia, capable of defending Italy's northern mountainous borders. Austria's surrender in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 resulted in Italy annexing the province of Venetia, the northern borders of which coincided in large part with the Alpine Arch. Prior to gaining the new northern borders, homeland defence was based on the so-called Quadrilatero strategy. That outdated strategy, however, ignored the geopolitics of the new Italian Kingdom. It called for primary defence of the Po Valley region farther to the southwest, but left the Alpine region undefended.
Recruiting Italy's mountain valleys locals and organising them into a special corps was indeed an innovative idea. They possessed superior knowledge of mountain territory and greatest adaptability to Alpine conditions. At the beginning, the mountain regions were divided into seven military districts, each commanded by an Officer and home to at least two Alpini companies, each consisting of 120 personnel. Soldiers were equipped with the Vetterli 1870 rifle. In 1873 nine more companies were added, thus totalling 24. In 1875, the companies doubled in size, having 250 soldiers and 5 officers, which were then organised into 7 Alpini battalions. Each battalion was named after one of the seats of the seven military districts:
In 1877, five Alpini mountain artillery batteries were formed and - in the following year - the Alpini had already grown to 36 mountain infantry companies organised into 10 battalions. On November 1, 1882, the Alpini organisation doubled in size to 72 companies and a total of 20 Alpini battalions. The latter plus 8 Alpini mountain artillery batteries were now organized into six numbered Alpini regiments and two Alpini mountain artillery brigades with their respective headquarters and support formations. Each battalion was named after the area it was required to defend in case of war:
| Regiment | Garrison/HQ | 1st Bn. | 2nd Bn. | 3rd Bn. | 4th Bn. |
| 1st Alpini | Mondovì | Alto Tanaro | Val Tanaro | Val Camonica | |
| 2nd Alpini | Bra. | Val Pesio | Col Tenda | Val Schio | |
| 3rd Alpini | Fossano | Val Stura | Val Maira | Monti Lessini | |
| 4th Alpini | Turin | Val Pellice | Val Chisone | Val Brenta | |
| 5th Alpini | Milan | Val Dora | Moncenisio | Valtellina | Alta Valtellina |
| 6th Alpini | Conegliano | Val d'Orco | Val d'Aosta | Cadore | Val Tagliamento |
The numbers used earlier to distinguish the battalions were dropped while - at the same time - the companies were now numbered from 1 to 72. In order to distinguish the battalions, soldiers and non-commissioned officers were issued thread tufts of various colors, which were added to the Cappello Alpino: white for the First Bn., red for the Second Bn., and Green for the Third Bn. of each regiment. Special Bn. and Fourth Bn. were issued blue tufts. Soldiers of the Mountain Artillery units were issued a green tuft with a black patch in the middle onto which the number of the battery was written in yellow numbers.
On June 7, 1883, the green flames collar patch was introduced, thus making the Alpini officially a speciality within the Italian infantry corps. The Cappello Alpino, with its black raven feather, was also introduced at that time. The distinctive headdress quickly led the Alpini to be nicknamed "The Black feathers". Officers hats had the black feather replaced with a white eagle feather. At first, the hat was a black felt hat, but as soon as the new green-grey uniform was adopted in 1909 the hat was changed to the distinctive grey felt still in service today.
The Alpini were also distinguished by the green cuffs on the dark blue tunics worn for full dress and barrack dress until 1915, and by green piping on their light blue/grey trousers. When grey-green service uniforms were trialled by the Alpini in 1906, before being adopted by the entire army in 1909, the distinctive green collar patches and typical headdress were retained.
The materials, weapons, and equipment of each battalion were stored in the major village of a specific area they were required to defend in case of war. Soldiers of a battalion were only recruited from that area. In 1887, the names of the battalions were changed from those of the defended areas to those of local villages. Therefore, e.g., the Edolo Bn. soldiers were recruited in the vicinity of that village Edolo - where the battalion's arsenal, training ground, and officer's housing were also located. Local recruitment generated strong bonds with and self-identification between the locals and the Alpini units, as men assigned to a single company were all recruited from the same village, and the companies from one valley were all part of the same battalion.
In 1887 the Mountain Troops Inspectorate was established in Rome, and took administrative command of all Mountain troops. This led to the reorganization of the Alpini Corps: on August 1, 1887, the 7th Alpini Regiment was formed in Conegliano Veneto and assigned two battalions from the 6th regiment. The number of battalions had grown by two, thus reaching 22. On November 1, 1887, the 1st Mountain Artillery Regiment was formed in Turin with nine batteries, each equipped with four 75 mm howitzers. The resulting new layout of the Alpini Corps was as follows:
| Regiment | Garrison/HQ | 1st Bn. | 2nd Bn. | 3rd Bn. | 4th Bn. |
| 1st Alpini | Mondovì | Ceva | Pieve di Teco | Mondovì | |
| 2nd Alpini | Brà | Borgo San Dalmazzo | Vinadio | Dronero | |
| 3rd Alpini | Turin | Fenestrelle | Susa I | Susa II * | |
| 4th Alpini | Ivrea | Pinerolo | Aosta | Ivrea | |
| 5th Alpini | Milan | Morbegno | Tirano | Edolo | Rocca d'Anfo ** |
| 6th Alpini | Verona | Verona | Vicenza | Bassano | |
| 7th Alpini | Conegliano | Feltre | Pieve di Cadore | Gemona |
1888 to 1914
Although established as a defensive mountain warfare force, the 1° Battaglione Alpini d'Africa was established in 1887. The battalion's four companies were composed of volunteers taken from all other Alpini battalions. As part of the Corpo Speciale d'Africa, the battalion deployed to Eritrea to take revenge for the lost battle of Dogali. The battalion returned on April 27, 1888, to Naples, having lost its commanding officer and 13 men due to tropical diseases.Back in Italy, eight mules were assigned to each Alpini company in the same year. The Vetterli 70 rifle was replaced by the newer Vetterli-Vitali mod. 70/87 rifle. Also, based on a general reorganization of the Italian militia system, 38 Alpini companies and 15 mountain batteries were assigned to active units of the Regio Esercito. In 1892 the Alpini were the first troops to be issued with the new Mod. 91 rifle, which was replaced in 1897 by the Mod. 91TS version and remained in service until 1945.
When the tensions between Italy and Abyssinia escalated into the First Italo–Abyssinian War the 1° Battaglione Alpini d'Africa was reformed and sent to Eritrea again. It would soon become the first Alpini unit to engage combat. Four batteries of the 1st Mountain Artillery Regiment were also sent to Eritrea to augment the four deployed brigades under command of Oreste Baratieri. The battalions' first engagement was on March 1, 1896, during the Battle of Adowa. The Alpini were outnumbered and heavily defeated by Abyssinian troops. Over 400 out of 530 men died, including the commanding officer, Lt.Col. Davide Menini. After the battle, the first Gold Medal for Military Valor was awarded to a member of the Alpini Corps: Capitan Pietro Cella and his Alpini from the 4th company occupied and held the Amba Rajo until March 2, thus allowing the rest of defeated Italian Army forces to flee. Capitan Cella and all his men died in the effort. In memory of their ultimate sacrifice, he has been awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valor. After such a defeat, an Alpini expeditionary regiment with 5 battalions was formed and sent to Eritrea on March 7, 1896, but it saw little combat and was repatriated in June of the same year.
During the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, a Mountain Artillery Battery was sent to China as part of the international relief force that lifted the siege of the International Compound in Beijing, and remained on garrison duty in Tianjin until the end of 1901. On November 13, 1902, after a short period of experimentation with skis the Alpini began to form specially-equipped and trained Skiing Companies. After a heavy earthquake on September 8, 1905, in the Calabria region, the Alpini deployed to the area for three months to assist in the clearance of debris and reconstruction efforts. They experienced a similar situation in 1908, after the devastating Messina earthquake.
A massive expansion of the Alpini begun in 1909. On July 15 the 2nd Mountain Artillery Regiment was formed in Vicenza with four artillery groups and a total of 12 batteries. In 1908, two new battalions - namely the Tolmezzo and Pallanza - had already been formed and assigned to the 7th and 4th regiments, respectively. On October 1, 1909, the "Tolmezzo" and "Gemona" battalions from the 7th Alpini regiment, along with the newly raised Cividale battalion, became the three battalions of new 8th Alpini Regiment, based in Udine. The first commander of the 8th Alpini regiment was Col. Antonio Cantore, who would become a living legend to the Alpini during World War I. As the 8th Alpini regiment was formed, the Alpini could now count on 25 battalions organised into 8 regiments, 2 mountain artillery regiments with 24 batteries organised into 8 groups, and 75 reserve companies organised into 22 battalions. Reserve battalions were named after the valleys from where their soldiers, former Alpini, were recruited.
| Regiment | Garrison/HQ | 1st Bn./Grp. | 2nd Bn./Grp. | 3rd Bn./Grp. | 4th Bn./Grp. |
| 8th Alpini | Udine | Tolmezzo | Gemona | Cividale | - |
| 1st Mountain Artillery | Turin | Oneglia | Mondovì | Torino-Susa | Torino-Aosta |
| 2nd Mountain Artillery | Vicenza | Conegliano | Bergamo | Vicenza | Belluno |
In 1910 the last pre-war Alpini battalion was established as the Belluno Bn. in the very same city.
When Italy declared war on Turkey in 1911 in an attempt to conquer Libya, the Alpini units were once again deployed on desert combat. From 1911 to 1914, the Saluzzo, Mondovì, Ivrea, Verona, Tolmezzo, Feltre, Susa, Vestone, Fenestrelle, and Edolo battalions, together with the Torino-Susa, Mondovì, and Vicenza artillery groups, were deployed to Libya on missions of different duration. The first units to be sent to Libya were the Saluzzo, Mondovì, Ivrea and Verona battalions. When the unexpected Turkish resistance caused an embarrassingly slow advance of the Italian forces, reinforcements were sent to Libya. On October 18, 1912 Turkey and Italy signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which ended the war between the two nations. Italy, however, had now to face a full-scale rebellion by the local population, and required more troops than those deployed in combat to suppress it. Therefore, in October 1912 the Tolmezzo, Feltre, Susa, and Vestone battalions were deployed in Zanzur, Libya, and formed the 8th Special Alpini Regiment under the command of Colonel Antonio Cantore. The last Alpini unit to leave Libya was the Feltre battalion. It reached Italy in August 1914, while the Bedouin rebellion in Libya continued unabated.