1ª Armata

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The 1ª Armata ( German  1st Army ) was an army of the Italian Army in the First and Second World Wars .

First World War

Until 1914 there were four so-called designated army commands in Italy in Milan (1st), Genoa (2nd), Florence (3rd) and Bologna (4th), which had planning tasks in peacetime. In the event of war, army high command should be formed from these bodies and corps and other units and units subordinate to them. These commands were thus similar to the German army inspections .

The Italian plans in north-east Italy largely depended on the fact that the Trentino at that time belonged to Austria-Hungary and from there it was possible to cut off Italian troops in Friuli with an attack on Venice . Until the Bosnian crisis in 1908, the Italian defense strategy essentially provided for a concentration of troops in the Padua area, while cavalry and other more mobile units were left in the very north-east . The 3rd Army was intended to defend the Alpine border from the Stilfser Joch to Monte Peralba , the 1st and 2nd Armies were to hold the Piavel line and, if possible, recapture abandoned areas in the northeast by counterattacking them, while the 4th Army was to hold a reserve role was intended.

Map of the Italian Front (1915-1917)
Map of the Italian Front (1917–1918)

After the Bosnian crisis and the increasing tensions between Italy and Austria-Hungary, the 1st and 4th armies were assigned to the Trentino front arc, the 2nd and 3rd armies were assigned to the Piavel line, which was then used for the Italian war of aggression despite the danger from Trentino East to the Isonzo . The 1st Army only had defensive tasks in front of the Trento fortress , breakthroughs were believed to be made in the area of ​​the 4th Army in the direction of the Pustertal and otherwise on the Isonzo.

The command of the 1st Army was formed in October 1914 from the designated Army Command in Milan. 1915 stood the army with the III. and the V Corps with a total of six divisions and several smaller formations between the Stilfser Joch and the Croda Granda at Passo Cereda in the southern Dolomites . This was followed by almost four years of trench warfare , in which, among other things, the Pasubio gained particular fame. By 1916, the 1st Army was expanded to six army corps and twelve divisions. The Italian units on the plateau of the seven municipalities , on which Austria-Hungary had attempted a breakthrough in May 1916 , were first taken over by the new 6th Army (Comando Truppe Altipiani) from December 1, 1916 to July 20, 1917 . In addition, a corps in the area of ​​the Brenta went to the 4th Army and the III, standing between the Stilfser Joch and Lake Garda . Corps to the Army High Command and then to the new 7th Army .

After the German-Austrian-Hungarian victory in the twelfth battle of the Isonzo and the Italian retreat to the Piave, the units of the Altipiani Comando stubbornly fought off attempts to break through into the lowlands at the end of 1917. At the end of January 1918, parts of the 1st Army launched the first counter-attacks on the plateau. In March 1918, the 6th Army, which had been re-established, took over the Altipiani Comando , which reduced the front of the 1st Army (also known as the Trentino Army) to a relatively small section north of Verona . After the battle of Vittorio Veneto at the end of October 1918 and the collapse of the Danube monarchy, the 1st Army occupied Trento on November 3, 1918 . In 1919, the command of the 1st Army was converted back into a designated army command.

Second World War

The command of the 1st Army was re-established in August 1939. In 1940 it stood on the border with France in the section from the Ligurian coast to Monte Granero , in the north the 4th Army joined up to the Aosta Valley , behind these two armies the 7th Army was in reserve. These three armies formed the Army Group West , which had defensive tasks during the so-called seat war between Germany and France. When the German success became apparent during the campaign in the west , Benito Mussolini announced on June 10, 1940 that Italy would enter the war and on June 21, 1940 ordered the army group West to attack France. France signed the Compiègne armistice the next day and the armistice with Italy in Rome on the evening of June 24th.

In four days the 1st Army achieved with their II., III. and XV. Army corps against bitter French resistance only minimal gains in terrain. The focus of the attack was on the coast where Menton was captured and on the Colle della Maddalena . The 1st Army was disbanded on July 31, 1940.

Map related to operations in Tunisia

After the defeat in the second battle of El Alamein and the subsequent retreat of the German-Italian Panzer Army Africa from Egypt to the Mareth Line in southern Tunisia , the 1st Army was in command there in February 1943, consisting of the Panzer Army and the Italian High Command re-established for Libya and the XX. and the XXI. subordinate to the Italian Army Corps. While the Italian 1st Army initially remained on the Mareth Line, the German 5th Panzer Army took over the northwestern front after the Allied landing in French North Africa ( Operation Torch ). The two armies, each consisting of German and Italian units, together formed the new Army Group Africa . Until the surrender on May 13, 1943, the 1st Army fought in the Tunisian campaign in which it had to withdraw gradually to the north. Despite the inevitable defeat, the Army Commander-in-Chief, General Giovanni Messe , was appointed Marshal of Italy for the military achievements of his army in the defensive battles on May 13, 1943 .

Commander in chief

headquarters

literature

  • Vittorio Cogno: 400 anni di vita degli eserciti sabaudo e italiano - repertorio generale 1593 - 1993 . Edizioni Fachin, Trieste 1995.
  • Hans Jürgen Pantenius: Conrad von Hötzendorf's idea of attack against Italy. A contribution to coalition warfare in the First World War. (Diss. Munich 1982, 2 vol.) Böhlau, Cologne, Vienna a. a. 1984.
  • Giorgio Rochat, Giulio Massobrio: Breve storia dell'esercito italiano dal 1861 al 1943. Einaudi, Turin 1978.
  • Filippo Stefani: La storia della dottrina e degli ordinamenti dell'esercito italiano. (Ed. Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Esercito-USSME, 3 vols.) USSME, Rome 1986.

Web links