Brigata meccanizzata “Pinerolo”

Coat of arms of the Pinerolo Brigade

The Brigata meccanizzata “Pinerolo” ( German Mechanized Infantry Brigade Pinerolo ) is a major unit of the Italian Army . The brigade's headquarters are in Bari , the subordinate units are stationed in the south-eastern Italian region of Apulia .

assignment

The Pinerolo infantry brigade is subordinate to the Acqui Divisional Command in Capua near Naples . It is used for peace missions abroad within the framework of the EU , NATO or the UN . In the area of national defense, she is responsible for southern Italy , but can also be deployed in other regions or to fulfill NATO alliance obligations. In southern Italy, if required, it also takes on support and security tasks on behalf of civil authorities .

structure

Coat of arms 9th InfRgt "Bari", erected in 1734 as battalion La Regina

Staff and Supply Association Pinerolo ( Bari )
9th Infantry Regiment Bari ( Trani )
82nd Torino Infantry Regiment ( Barletta )
7th Bersaglieri Regiment ( Altamura )
15th Cavalry Regiment Cavalleggeri di Lodi ( Lecce )
21st Trieste Artillery Regiment ( Foggia )

11th Engineer Regiment (Foggia)

Pinerolo Logistics Regiment (Bari)

All regiments of the brigade have battalion strength . The majority of the brigade is stationed near the military training areas of the Murgia plateau (Torre di Nebbia) .

equipment

The brigade has been converted from tracked vehicles to wheeled vehicles in recent years and is the first in Italy to focus on the new concept of networked operations management . The infantry regiments replaced their old armored personnel carrier of the type VCC-1 (a modified version of the team transporter M113 ) with new wheeled armored Freccia , beginning with the 82nd Infantry Regiment. As part of the Soldato Futuro program , the infantrymen received, among other things, the new Beretta ARX-160 assault rifle . In the course of the conversion, the 31st Panzer Regiment ( Leopard 1 , later also Ariete ) was replaced by the reactivated Cavalleggeri di Lodi ( Centauro and other wheeled vehicles). Instead of the M109L self-propelled howitzers , the artillery regiment now has field howitzers FH70 , which can fire range-increased, guided Vulcano shells .

history

The Pinerolo Infantry Brigade was formed in 1821 and 1831 from the Lullino Infantry Regiment ( Saluzzo di SAR ) founded in 1672 in the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont and consisted of infantry regiments 13 and 14. It took part in the Italian wars of unification and in the First World War. After that, her two regiments, together with the 225th Infantry Regiment Arezzo and the 18th Field Artillery Regiment, formed the 24th Infantry Division based in Chieti in central Italy . With the army reform of 1939, the weak so-called binary divisions, consisting of only two infantry regiments, arose, including the Pinerolo division with infantry regiments 13 and 14, and the 18th field artillery regiment. In 1941 the 313rd Infantry Regiment was added as a supplement. The division tragically ended the war in Greece in the fall of 1943 . Many of their soldiers died in Greek and German internment camps in 1944.

The division was re-established in Bari in 1952 , but ten years later it was reduced to a brigade that, after the army reform of 1975, comprised three mechanized infantry battalions (9th Bari , 13th Valbella , 231st Avellino ), a Bersaglieri battalion (67th Fagaré ) , a tank battalion (60th Locatelli ), a field artillery battalion ( 47th Gargano ) and a logistics battalion ( Pinerolo ). In the 1990s, some of the battalions mentioned were replaced by battalions from northern Italy, which from 1992 were called regiments. From 1997 the brigade had, among other things, two tank regiments for some time and was therefore referred to as the "tank brigade". At the moment the brigade can be reinforced by additional armored forces from the cavalry and armored troop school in nearby Lecce if necessary.

The brigade distinguished itself in rescue operations in the area between Avellino , Salerno and Potenza at the end of 1980 after a severe earthquake . From 1992 to 1994 units of the brigade were deployed in Sicily and Calabria to maintain public order, then in Apulia to curb the flow of refugees from Albania . Since the late 1990s, the brigade operated several times in Albania and especially in Kosovo . In 2010, parts of the 82nd Infantry Regiment were sent to Afghanistan for the first time with new Freccia wheeled armored vehicles. At the end of 2011, the brigade in Lebanon took over leadership in the western sector of the UNIFIL deployment area.

In the mid-1990s the brigade received the 31st Panzer Regiment from the Centauro tank brigade stationed in northern Italy . From 2011 to 2017 this was temporarily subordinate to the cavalry and armored force school in Lecce and served as a mixed test association ( battle lab ) for the digitization of the combat troops. A long-planned reclassification to a cavalry regiment on wheeled armored vehicles officially took place at the beginning of 2020, when the 15th Cavalleggeri di Lodi cavalry regiment, dissolved in Lenta in Piedmont in 1995 , was reactivated in Lecce in place of the 31st tank regiment (reflag) . The brigade has had its own logistics association again since 2013.

photos

Radschützenpanzer Freccia , with infantry brigade equipped

Anti-tank mortar version of the Freccia , 82nd Infantry Regiment Torino

FH70 field howitzers , 21st Trieste Artillery Regiment

Soldiers of the 11th Engineer Regiment

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