page_title: Alpini
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Alpini / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: WW II Alpino Sergente Giovannucci Verino in Battle Uniform ca. 1942
context_page_description: The Alpini are the Italian Army's mountain infantry speciality. 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 subordinated 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 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.
context_section_description: After World War I all battalions with the exception of the pre-war battalions were dissolved. In 1919 the Alpini gained the 9th Alpini Regiment. In 1935 the fascist government of Italy reorganized its Armed Forces, creating five Alpine divisions and forming a new Alpini regiment: the 11th Alpini Regiment. A 12th Alpini Regiment was also formed to oversee the battalions of the 9th Alpini Regiment, which were not sent with the regimental command and the 5 Alpine Division Pusteria to fight in the Italian attack on Abyssinia. After the return of the 7th Regiment, the 12 Alpini regiment was dissolved. In 1941 the 6th Alpine Division Alpi Graie was raised with reserve units of the other five Alpine divisions.
  Thus Italy fielded the following six alpine divisions during World War II:
  1st Alpine Division Taurinense
  2nd Alpine Division Tridentina
  3rd Alpine Division Julia
  4th Alpine Division Cuneense
  5th Alpine Division Pusteria
  6th Alpine Division Alpi Graie
  Each division consisted of two Alpini regiments with three battalions each, one Alpine Artillery Regiment with three Artillery groups, one Mixed Engineer Battalion, one Logistic Battalion and some support units. The strength of each division was 573 officers and 16,887 NCOs and soldiers for a total strength of 17,460 men. Also each division had almost 5,000 mules and 500 vehicles of various types at its disposal.
  
  The divisions saw combat in France, Africa, Italy, Albania, The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Greece. One Alpini battalion was employed in East Africa. In 1942, Tridentina, Julia and Cuneense division were sent to fight in the Soviet Union. In Russia, instead of being deployed in the Caucasus mountains as expected, the Alpini were tasked with holding a front on the plains of the Don River. As a result of this disastrous strategic decision, troops armed, trained, and equipped for mountain warfare were pitted in the plains against tanks and mechanized infantry, to counter which they were neither equipped nor trained.  Despite this, the Alpini held the front until January 1943, when, due to the collapse of the Axis front, they were encircled by the advancing Soviet Army. The Alpini were able to break the encirclement in Battle of Nikolayevka and fight their way towards the new line of the front established after the Axis retreat. Only about one third of the Tridentina division (4250 survivors of 15,000 troops deployed) and one tenth of the Julia (1,200/15,000) were able to survive this odyssey. The Cuneense division was annihilated.
  After the Armistice of Cassibile between the Kingdom of Italy and Western Allies became public on 8 September 1943, Italy split in half. The king went to the South of Italy and left the Royal Italian Army without any orders. Subsequently, most divisions of the Army surrendered without a fight to the invading German forces. The only Alpini division to resist the Germans was the 1st Alpine Division Taurinense, which along with the 19th Infantry Division Venezia and remnants of the 155th Infantry Division Emilia resisted German attempts to occupy Montenegro. After suffering heavy casualties the divisions troops were given the choice to either surrender or to retreat into the Durmitor mountains and continue the fight. The 16,000 men, who had chosen to fight, formed then the Italian Partisan Division Garibaldi, which entered the II Corps of the Yugoslav Partisans and fought on the Yugoslav Front until it returned to Italy in March 1945.
  On June 25, 1944, the 3rd Alpini Regiment was recreated in Southern Italy with the battalions Piemonte and Monte Granero. Along with the 4th Bersaglieri Regiment it formed the 1st Italian Brigade of the Italian Liberation Corps, which fought in the war on the Allied side. After the Bersaglieri regiment had suffered heavy casualties the two regiments were merged on 30 September 1944 to form the Special Infantry Regiment, which entered the Legnano Combat Group. The Combat Group was equipped with British weapons and materiel and fought as part of the Polish II Corps on the extreme left of the British 8th Army near t
caption: WW II Alpino Sergente Giovannucci Verino in Battle Uniform
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