Brigata alpina "Tridentina"

Coat of arms of the Alpini Brigade Tridentina

The Brigata alpina “Tridentina” ( German Alpini Brigade “Tridentina” ) was one of five mountain troop brigades of the Italian army . The units of the brigade were stationed in South Tyrol . The name "Tridentina" refers to Venezia Tridentina , the old name of today's region of Trentino-South Tyrol , where the brigade was based. Today, a division staff for foreign missions bears the name of the former brigade.

history

During the First World War , the Alpini initially had no major associations of their own . The alpine regiments were only used for administrative purposes; their battalions were assigned to other units for use and grouped into combat groups there. Towards the end of the war the Alpini were concentrated in four divisions (5th, 52nd, 75th, 80th), which, in contrast to the other infantry divisions, were called mountain divisions.

After the war, the Alpini regiments and their battalions were formed into closed combat formations and the establishment of pure Alpini large formations with their own numbering was considered.

Until World War II

Coat of arms 2ª Divisione alpina “Tridentina”

Fighting of the Alpini behind enemy lines (January 1943)

Coat of arms of the 5th Alpini Regiment

Coat of arms of the 6th Alpini Regiment

Coat of arms 11th Alpini Regiment

Coat of arms of the 5th Mountain Artillery Regiment

Coat of arms logistics battalion Tridentina

In 1923 the nine Alpini regiments that existed at the time were combined into three groups, which in 1926 were given the name " Brigades ". The 2nd Brigade with the Alpini Regiments 5, 6 and 7 and the 2nd Mountain Artillery Regiment was in South Tyrol and in the Dolomites . In 1935 the brigade became the 2nd Tridentina Alpini Division , which now consisted only of the 5th and 6th Alpini Regiments in Merano and Sterzing as well as the aforementioned artillery regiment in Merano and other division troops.

In the Second World War , after poorly prepared and largely unsuccessful operations by the Tridentina against France and Greece , Mussolini ordered the deployment of an entire Alpine Army Corps to the Soviet Union. It consisted of the Tridentina , Julia and Cuneense divisions . Instead of in the Caucasus as originally planned , the mountain troops were deployed in the Russian steppe against Soviet tank units. On December 16, 1942, the Red Army launched a major attack on the Don . The operation Little Saturn was the destruction of the Italian 8th Army to the goal. Their Alpini Corps was initially not affected, but it was cut off from their own lines in the further course. On the other side of the front, it fought against Soviet units from January 13 to 26, 1943 in severe frost. Mainly thanks to the use of the Tridentina division, commanded by General Luigi Reverberi , it was able to prevail in the battle of Nikolajewka and reach German lines on February 1, 1943. The Cuneense division was destroyed in the fighting, 1200 of Julia's 15,000 soldiers remained, and around 4,250 of the equally strong Tridentina . The survivors returned to Italy by April 1943. After the armistice in Cassibile , the Tridentina division was dissolved on September 10, 1943 in South Tyrol. Many of their soldiers spent the rest of the Second World War in German internment camps .

In the cold war

In 1945 the Friuli infantry division , which had participated alongside the Allies in the final phase of the Italian campaign , reached South Tyrol, where it remained stationed until 1949. Together with the 6th Alpini Regiment, which was re-established in Merano, and various support units, it was under the 4th Territorial Command in Bolzano. In the course of the reconstruction of the Italian mountain troops, the five Alpini brigades Taurinense in Turin , Orobica in Meran, Tridentina in Brixen , Cadore in Belluno and Julia in Udine were established between 1949 and 1953 . The IV Mountain Corps was established in Bolzano from the above-mentioned territorial command to guide them.

The Tridentina Alpini Brigade, set up on May 1, 1951 , initially consisted of the 6th Alpini Regiment with three battalions moved to Bruneck , the 2nd Mountain Artillery Regiment in Brixen with three battalions, and the 21st Sperrverband in Bruneck with three battalions as well smaller support units , including an army aviation unit in Toblach and an alpine paratrooper platoon.

With the army reform of 1975, the brigades divided into battalions became the standard. After the reorganization, the Tridentina Alpini Brigade consisted of the Bassano Alpini battalions in Innichen and Trento in Welsberg-Taisten as well as the Bolzano battalion in Bressanone, the Asiago artillery battalions in Toblach and Vicenza in Elvas , and the Val Brenta blocking battalion in Bruneck , from the Tridentina logistics battalion in Vahrn and from smaller support units .

During the Cold War the greatest threat to Italy came from ten division equivalents that the Warsaw Pact could dispose of in Hungary . A possible attack against northeastern Italy could be carried out through northern Yugoslavia in the direction of Gorizia , or through southeastern Austria via Graz , Klagenfurt and Villach in the direction of Udine . In the latter case, which was considered more likely, a second thrust through the Drautal and the South Tyrolean Pustertal was expected with the aim of bringing the most important Alpine crossings in the region under control and thus definitely separating the NATO forces in Central Europe from those in northern Italy and this may fall into the flanks in the further course.

The Tridentina Alpini Brigade was tasked with preventing an enemy intrusion into the Puster Valley. For this purpose, the bunkers of the Alpine Wall in South Tyrol were reactivated and expanded, especially between Innichen and Bruneck, and were occupied by soldiers from the aforementioned blocking units. A resolute defense on the front line near San Candido was also important because from there a path opened in a southerly direction over the Kreuzbergpass into Cadore and the Piave Valley , via which the enemy could stab the Italian army units in Friuli in the rear. The Alpini Brigade Cadore stationed in Belluno and Cadore was supposed to prevent this in cooperation with the Tridentina .

In the event that Warsaw Pact troops violated Austrian neutrality first, it was assumed that Austria would allow the establishment of a connection between the Alpini Brigade Orobica in Merano and the German 1st Mountain Division in Garmisch-Partenkirchen . For building and securing these important connections on the burner and the Reschenpass , the associations were Orobica in Sterzing and Vinschgau provided. The maintenance of these connecting routes was of such great importance that in the event of a breakthrough in the Pustertal in the Tridentina area, tactical nuclear weapons would have been used. The corresponding nuclear projectiles were stored in the Rigel site near Natz-Schabs . In 1983 the nuclear missiles were withdrawn from South Tyrol because the Lance missiles stationed elsewhere and the other heavy artillery of the Aquileia missile brigade seemed sufficient for the corresponding tasks . In the Tridentina itself, the Val Brenta blocking battalion was cadre in 1986 except for one company .

After 1990

After the end of the East-West conflict, the Alpini Brigade Orobica was disbanded in Merano in 1991, with three of its battalions being taken over by the Tridentina . The latter brigade lost its two previous artillery battalions, Asiago in Toblach and Vicenza in Elvas and the cadre reserve battalions Bolzano in Brixen and Val Brenta in Bruneck. The remaining battalions generally took on the name regiment and the corresponding numbering for reasons of tradition. In the 1990s, the Tridentina consisted of a staff and supply association in Brixen, the Alpini regiments 5 in Sterzing, 6 in Innichen and Toblach, 11 in Bruneck, the 18th Alpini training regiment and the 5th mountain artillery regiment in Merano and from a logistics battalion in Vahrn near Brixen.

In 1997 the Alpini Brigade Cadore was dissolved in Belluno and the IV Mountain Corps in Bolzano was renamed Comando Truppe Alpine or Mountain Troop Command . The Tridentina Alpini Brigade was finally disbanded between 2000 and the end of 2002. Their 5th Alpini regiment in Sterzing went to the relatively distant Alpini Brigade Julia in Udine, the reduced 6th Alpini regiment at the new location in Bruneck was taken over by the mountain troop command and entrusted with training tasks and the maintenance of the remaining military facilities in the Puster Valley and the remaining associations dissolved.

The name and traditions of the Tridentina were transferred to a new division headquarters within the mountain troop command in Bolzano on January 1, 2003. Together with two other staffs of this type in Vittorio Veneto (now in Florence ) and San Giorgio a Cremano , the Tridentina divisional staff was responsible for planning tasks and was supposed to take over the management of foreign missions if necessary. For this reason, these staffs had no permanent subordinate units. In contrast to the two other divisional commands, the Tridentina had a relatively low level of readiness and acted more as a reserve brigade staff. While the other two divisions took over the troop service leadership of the brigades around ten years later, the situation at Tridentina remained unchanged, also because the long-planned dissolution of the mountain troop command in Bolzano failed due to local political resistance.

literature

Dieter Krüger : Burning gentian: NATO's operational planning for Austria and Northern Italy 1951 to 1960. Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 2010.
Dieter Krüger, Felix Schneider (Hrsg.): The Alps in the Cold War: Historical area, strategy and security policy. Oldenbourg, Munich 2011.

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