Division "Acqui"

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Current coat of arms of the Acqui division
Coat of arms of the division in World War II

Divisione “Acqui” is the name of a division staff of the Italian army . The staff is in Capua near Naples .

The division command succeeds the 33rd Infantry Division "Acqui", which in September 1943 on the Greek islands of Kefalonia and Corfu ended its involvement in the Second World War in a dramatic way. Many of their soldiers were shot by units of the German Wehrmacht in the massacre on Kefalonia .

assignment

The Acqui division is under the command authority COMFOP Sud in Naples. The following five brigades stationed in central and southern Italy are normally subordinate to the divisional headquarters :

In addition, the divisional command is the only one of currently three Italian commands of this type intended for foreign missions and is held ready for exercises and larger operations under NATO command. If necessary, the Acqui division staff is supplemented by staff from the other two staffs. When deployed, other units are also assigned to the division staff, so the division does not necessarily operate with the above-mentioned brigades. The division command can (not simultaneously) produce the following task forces:

  • a Joint Task Force Headquarters for national needs
  • a European Union Force Headquarters for the needs of the EU
  • a small Land Component Command for NATO needs
  • a full divisional staff for missions abroad

history

Origins

The division, named after the Piedmontese city of Acqui Terme , has its origins in the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont , from which the Kingdom of Italy emerged in 1861 . In 1703 Viktor Amadeus II approved the establishment of the Desportes regiment , which took part in the War of the Spanish , Polish and Austrian Succession until 1747 , and then took part in the battles against French revolutionary troops between 1792 and 1796 as the Chablais regiment . After the defeat by Napoleon it existed as the national regiment of Alessandria until 1798.

Acqui collar tabs as worn in the First and Second World Wars.

Until the First World War

In 1814 the Alessandria regiment was re-established. From 1815 it was called a brigade , although it should only achieve the appropriate strength in the event of war. In 1821 the Alessandria Brigade was involved in the revolts against the restoration of absolutism , so it was briefly disbanded and re-established under the name Acqui . In 1832, as part of an army reform, the brigades were reorganized, which were then divided into two regiments of three battalions each. The two regiments of the Acqui Brigade were given the numbers 17 and 18 in 1839.

In this form, the brigade took part in the three Italian wars of independence and the Crimean War between 1848 and 1866 . From 1887 it was used in whole or in part in East Africa and from 1911 in Libya . During the First World War , the Acqui Brigade fought on the lower Isonzo and on the Karst there , on the Asiago plateau , on the Piave and in Trentino .

Until World War II

Monument to the Acqui Division in Kefalonia.
Coat of arms of the 18th “Acqui” infantry regiment, 1939

With the army reform of 1926, the brigades were abolished in their previous form. The 17th infantry regiment went to the 14th Infantry Division in Gorizia , the 18th to the 11th Infantry Division in Bolzano . In the course of another army reform in 1938 and 1939, the so-called binary or two-tier (infantry) divisions were introduced, which usually took over the names and sister regiments of the old brigades. As a result, the 33rd Infantry Division Acqui was established in Merano in December 1938 with the two infantry regiments 17 and 18. In addition, the 33rd Artillery Regiment and other division troops came into being . In this line-up, the division took part in the short campaign against France in the Western Alps in June 1940 , and then from December 1940 in the disastrous campaign against Greece . After the German victory, the division occupied the Greek islands of Corfu , Kefalonia and Zakynthos, as well as temporarily some other islands and parts of the neighboring mainland. In June 1942, the division received the insufficiently trained 317th Infantry Regiment as reinforcement, which was finally stationed on Kefalonia together with the 17th and the divisional headquarters, while the 18th remained on Corfu together with an artillery division and parts of the division troops.

After the public announcement of the armistice in Cassibile on September 8, 1943 and negotiations with German authorities that lasted until September 15, the 12,000-strong division under its commander Antonio Gandin finally refused to lay down its arms and demanded free travel to Italy. This decision led to heavy fighting for days between German units and the Acqui Division , which had vacated the key positions on Kefalonia during the negotiations as a sign of goodwill. German air raids and reinforcements sealed the fate of the isolated division, which surrendered on September 22, 1943. At first Hitler's orders were not to take prisoners. To date, there is no consistent information about the exact extent of the massacre . The executions particularly affected the officers of the division. In the fighting between September 15 and 22, almost 1,300 Acqui soldiers were killed . After that, a small part of the division joined the Greek resistance, over 1200 men remained under German command, the rest were transported to concentration camps , with at least 1200 prisoners dying when ships went down, and more in the camps.

Coat of arms of the 17th Acqui Infantry Regiment with references to the House of Savoy , the Chablais region and Acqui Terme .

post war period

After the war, the fate of the Acqui division was largely hushed up. The Italian government stopped a legal appraisal because they did not want to hinder the integration into the West and the rearmament of West Germany. Only after the Cold War was the case publicly taken up again. Today, the decision of the soldiers of the Acqui division against the laying down of their weapons, and in particular the attitude with which they died, is regarded as the starting point of the war of liberation (guerra di liberazione) , whereas for a long time only the resistance and the partisan struggle were recognized in Italy.

In the army, on the other hand, the 17th Acqui Infantry Regiment was set up again at the beginning of 1948 and placed under the Granatieri di Sardegna division stationed in Rome and central Italy , giving the regiment a kind of guard status. The 33rd Acqui Artillery Regiment was also re-established in northern Italy.

Soldiers of the 33rd Acqui Artillery Regiment in 2007.

In the course of the army reform of 1975, the brigades divided into battalions became the standard. The Granatieri di Sardegna division was downgraded to a mechanized brigade. The staff of the motorized infantry brigade Acqui was formed from the staff of the 17th Infantry Regiment in L'Aquila . It consisted of the 9th Butera tank battalion in L'Aquila, the motorized infantry battalions 17 San Martino in Sulmona , 57 Abruzzi in Sora and 130 Perugia in Spoleto, as well as the 48th artillery battalion Taro , the logistics battalion Acqui and smaller support units , all with headquarters in L'Aquila. The brigade took on territorial security tasks in central Italy. It was intended to repel amphibious operations as well as airborne or commando operations. In contrast to several other brigades, the Acqui was initially not dissolved after the end of the Cold War because the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia were followed with concern. In 1991 the brigade could be mechanized with surplus material from northern Italy. The brigade was finally dissolved at the end of June 1996, with individual subordinate units being retained. The 17th Acqui Infantry Regiment went to the Army Training Command and is still responsible for basic training for recruits in Capua . The 48th Artillery Regiment in L'Aquila was renamed the 33rd Artillery Regiment Acqui in 1995 and was subordinate to the Granatieri di Sardegna Brigade in Rome until its dissolution in 2013 .

Re-establishment

After the division level in Italy was completely abolished in 1986, it was re-established at the end of 1992 with the so-called 3rd Italian Division. This division staff was within the III. Corps formed in Milan (today NRDC ) because the contributions of the individual NATO countries to the Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) were based on the division level. The designation took on both the III. Corps as well as the Italian 3rd Rapid Division Principe Amedeo Duca d'Aosta of World War II.

In 2002, the three divisional units Tridentina (Bozen), Mantova ( Vittorio Veneto ; later Friuli , since 2019 Vittorio Veneto in Florence ) and Acqui ( San Giorgio a Cremano ) were introduced in Italy , which were intended for planning tasks and the implementation of foreign assignments. The Acqui division took on the role of the 3rd (Italian) division in the ARRC, which was dissolved in 2002. In the following years, the Acqui division staff achieved a very high level of training through a number of realistic exercises in an international context. This staff then became the only Italian divisional staff intended for foreign missions, which can be supported by the other two personnel and material if necessary.

In 2018, the divisional headquarters took over the troop service management of all brigades stationed in southern Italy; however, the staff is still geared towards the management of military contingents with different compositions abroad. At the end of 2018, the divisional headquarters moved from San Giorgio a Cremano near Naples to Capua, to a barracks at the local airfield .

See also

literature

  • Nicola Brancaccio: La Brigata Acqui (17/18 reg.) Dalle origini (1703-1925) . Scotoni, Trient 1925.
  • Massimo Filippini: I caduti di Cefalonia: fine di un mito. Ibn, Rome 2006.
  • Ciro Maddaluno: Divisione Acqui: Cronaca di una tragedia. Cefalonia, September 1943. Civerchia, Latina 2009.
  • Gerhard Schreiber: The Italian military internees in the German sphere of influence 1943–1945. Oldenbourg, Munich, Vienna 1990
  • Giorgio Rochat: La Divisione Acqui a Cefalonia. September 1943. Mursia, Milan 1993.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Vittorio Cogno: 400 anni di storia degli eserciti sabaudo e italiano - repertorio generale 1593 - 1993. Edizioni Fachin, Triest 1995.
    The regiment was until 1774 after the regiment owners Desportes (1703), Audibert (1739), Montfort (1748) and de Sury (1769) named after the Duke of Chablais. It fought at Chivasso (1705), the Battle of Turin (1706), Fenestrelle (1708), Tortona , in the battles of Parma and Guastalla as well as in the Adige Valley and Lake Garda (1734), in Savoy and in the Valle Varaita (1743), in Cuneo and Madonna dell'Olmo (1744), in Bassignana (1745) and in Provence . It was only indirectly involved in the decisive Assietta battle in 1747.
  2. ↑ Between 1926 and 1938, each infantry division had an artillery regiment and three infantry regiments, the latter being subordinate to a brigade with the division number. The brigade commander was the division's infantry commander.
    Filippo Stefani: La storia della dottrina e degli ordinamenti dell'esercito italiano. (Ed. Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Esercito-USSME, 3 vols.) USSME, Rome 1986.
  3. ↑ The division was more precisely a mountain infantry division, which should not be confused with the Alpini divisions. The differences between the normal infantry divisions and the so-called mountain infantry divisions were minimal and only affected artillery and supplies. During the Second World War, the Acqui division (like almost all other Italian divisions) did not meet the requirements in terms of personnel (actual strength), organization, operational doctrine (binary division), equipment and training at any time. The situation was even worse with the regiments of the 300 series of numbers that were subsequently added, in this case the 317th Infantry Regiment. The long, uneventful period of occupation in the Ionian Islands did not improve this situation.
    Ciro Maddaluno: Divisione “Acqui”: Cronaca di una tragedia. Civerchia, Latina 2009.
  4. ^ Luigi Caligaris: Cefalonia secondo Filippini. paginedidifesa.it, October 26, 2006 ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. General Gandin clearly foresaw the end of his division before the fighting began. While the balance of power on Kefalonia was still 6 to 1 in favor of the Acqui division on September 8, 1943 , it was already 1 to 1 on September 15. The division could not expect any support from Italy or the Allies, while from the nearby Greek mainland German reinforcements arrived. After some initial Italian successes, the heavy German air raids largely decided the fighting, as expected. After that, the officers in particular were executed, although it was mainly the troops that refused to lay down their arms and that the staff officers and Gandin were sometimes accused of cowardice. Shortly before the fighting began, he had his soldiers ask for their opinion. Ciro Maddaluno: Divisione Acqui: Cronaca di una tragedia. Cefalonia, September 1943. p. 101 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.paginedidifesa.it

  5. ↑ In contrast to the ordinary judiciary with its self-governing body Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura , the military prosecutors at the time were still bound by the instructions of the government (until the reform in the 1980s). An exchange of letters between Foreign Minister Gaetano Martino and Defense Minister Paolo Emilio Taviani was crucial in this context . See closet of shame .
  6. ↑ Named after the Battle of San Martino , in which the Acqui Brigade took part in 1859.
  7. ↑ As of 1991, the battalions were renamed regiments again for reasons of tradition, but generally still had and still only have battalion strength.
  8. ↑ The brigades of the field army in northern Italy were directly subordinated to the three corps in Milan , Bozen and Vittorio Veneto , the other brigades in central and southern Italy to the territorial commands there (the Acqui Brigade of the Militare Centrale Region in Rome).