Brigata meccanizzata “Sassari”

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Coat of arms of the mechanized brigade "Sassari"

The Brigata meccanizzata “Sassari” ( German  Mechanized Infantry Brigade “Sassari” ) is a unit of the Italian Army stationed in Sardinia . The brigade , whose headquarters are in Sassari , is historically and culturally closely linked to the island.

assignment

The infantry brigade "Sassari" is subordinate to the Acqui division command in Capua near Naples . It is mainly 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 Sardinia, but can also be deployed on the mainland or to fulfill NATO alliance obligations. In Sardinia, it also takes on support and security tasks on behalf of civil authorities if required .

structure

Arms of the 151st Infantry Regiment
Arms of the 152nd Infantry Regiment

All regiments of the brigade have battalion strength . The 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment, originally stationed in Milan , was relocated to Sardinia at the end of 2009. The 1st Panzer Regiment is also located in Teulada, a partially active administrative and training association that looks after the local military training area (in the southwest of the island). The Salto di Quirra military training area in the east of the island is also used. The transfer of other regiments from northern Italy to structurally weak areas of Sardinia has been suggested several times.

equipment

The brigade is equipped, among other things, with armored wheeled vehicles that have taken the place of a modified version of the M113 personnel carrier in the infantry . It is protected vehicles Lince and to Radschützenpanzer type Freccia . The latter were delivered to the brigade for the first time at the end of 2018, but were made available on loan for missions abroad from 2010.

history

Regional recruitment

The regiments of the Italian army were except for the Alpini not recruited regionally up to the present time. For political and social reasons, emphasis was placed on so-called national recruitment, i.e. H. the soldiers of the army units should come from different parts of the country. Especially immediately after the Italian unification it was believed that this would strengthen the new nation-state. In addition, the army in Germany was repeatedly used for police tasks and for this purpose associations were needed that had no substantial emotional connections to possible operational areas and their populations. In other European countries, people have known since time immemorial that local recruiting can be beneficial. The associations formed in this way are usually characterized by greater cohesion in use.

When Italy entered the First World War in 1915, the army set up numerous additional brigades as part of the general mobilization , which considerably expanded the peace holdings of 48 infantry brigades (including the nationally recruited infantry brigade " Cagliari ", Inf.rgt. 63 and 64). Among the new brigades was the infantry brigade "Sassari" with its two infantry regiments 151 and 152 , which was set up in Tempio Pausania ( Sassari ) and Sinnai ( Cagliari ) on March 1, 1915. The soldiers of these regiments came almost exclusively from Sardinia , the officers for the most part Part. This method of recruiting due to temporal and geographical reasons was an exception. Soon the contrast between the infantry brigade "Sassari", the Alpini and the Bersaglieri, also specially recruited, on the one hand, and many other regiments on the other, became clear . Although living on an island, the Sardinians were primarily a hill tribe. As shepherds, they knew long stays in the inhospitable mountains of Sardinia, full of privation, and the military grouping of such people with their very own, traditional Sardinian language ultimately caused the "granite-like" nature of the brigade, which was often quoted later.

  • Left collar tab 151/152. InfRgt

  • Later beret badge 151. InfRgt

  • Later beret badge 151. InfRgt

  • Right collar tab 151./152. InfRgt

First World War

From July 1915, the brigade fought in the first Isonzo battles and stood out on the lower reaches of the river in the battles for the “Frasche” and “Razzi” trench systems. In 1916 it was moved to the Asiago plateau to face the offensive launched there by the Austro-Hungarian army. In June 1916 the brigade captured Monte Fior, Monte Castelgomberto and Casera Zebio there. For this mission, their two regiments received the very rarely awarded gold medal for bravery . After the Battle of Good Freit , which brought Italy to the brink of defeat at the end of 1917, the brigade (unlike many other formations) fought with extraordinary hardness and discipline during the retreat from the Isonzo to the Piave . The battalion of Major Musinu was the last of the entire Italian army, which withdrew the end of 1917 behind the Piave. The battalions of the “Sassari” brigade were again at the forefront in January 1918 during the first Italian counter-offensive to Karfreit. North of Vicenza they fought in the battle for the Col de Rosso, the Col d'Echelle and the Monte Valbella. When they ran out of supplies there during the changeable fighting, they attacked only with bare weapons. This moment is of particular importance for the history of the brigade and especially for that of today's autonomous region of Sardinia. The Italian soldiers were usually sent into enemy fire under the shout “Forward, Savoy !”. On this critical occasion, initially only a few, then all soldiers of the brigade shouted “Forward, Sardinia!”. For this battle, the two regiments were again awarded gold medals, which was a one-off event in the army during the war. In the First World War, the "Sassari" suffered the highest losses of all Italian infantry brigades. The Sardinian writer and autonomist Emilio Lussu also fought in the “Sassari” brigade during the First World War and left a haunting description of the war there in his book Un anno sull'altipiano (“A year on the plateau”). The significance of this book in Italy corresponds roughly to that of Erich Maria Remarque's novel “ Nothing New in the West ” in Germany .

In 1919 the Italian army disbanded all of the additional brigades that had been set up in 1915, with the exception of the “Sassari” brigade and three other reserve brigades (“Liguria”, “Arezzo” and “Avellino”), which had also distinguished themselves during the war. After the establishment of the new army divisions, consisting of three regiments, the two infantry regiments 151 and 152 came together with the 12th infantry regiment (“Casale” brigade) to the 12th infantry division “Timavo” in Trieste . With the army structure of 1939, the weak so-called "binary" divisions, consisting of only two infantry regiments , arose , which took over the names and the two regiments of the old brigades, which were disbanded in 1919. In 1939 the "Sassari" division was set up and the 151st and 152nd infantry regiments and the 34th field artillery regiment placed under it . To compensate for the missing third infantry regiment, the 73rd legion of the fascist "black shirts" was added in 1941.

Second World War

In 1940 the “Sassari” division remained in Istria . From there, she took part in the German-Italian attack on Yugoslavia from April 6, 1941 under the command of the 2nd Italian Army and first conquered Prezid and Čabar , then Novi Lazi- Borovec. On April 19, she reached the area of Delnice , on 20 Knin , where the divisional command remained until 1943 and from there directed operations against Yugoslav partisans. The division operated in Šibenik , Knin, Brod na Kupi , Gračac and Petrovac . From September 22nd to 25th, 1941, attempts were made in Drvar to end fighting between Croats and Serbs. The main task of the division in these two years, however, remained the fight against Yugoslav resistance groups, which reached its climax in 1942 in the battles for the Vrsa and the Sedlo Heights. In March 1943, the General Staff ordered the “Sassari” division to come to Rome because of the Allied threat to Italy, to form an army reserve with other divisions to defend the capital. This reserve was then used briefly against German units after the armistice of September 8, 1943 ( Axis case ). From September 8 to 10, 1943, the “Sassari” division fought together with the “ Granatieri di Sardegna ” and “ Ariete ” divisions in and around Rome.

post war period

After the Second World War, no brigade or division was stationed in Sardinia, but units coming from the mainland were constantly being replaced at the important military training areas on the island. In the post-war period, the two regiments of the “Sassari” initially had different stationing areas and tasks; until 1988 there was no higher brigade or division “Sassari”. The 152nd regiment was re-established in Sassari in 1958 as a training regiment, the 151st as a motorized infantry regiment in Trieste. With the army reform of 1975, the regimental level was dropped in favor of mixed brigades divided into battalions . On this occasion, the new 151st Motorized Infantry Battalion "Sette Comuni" was transferred to Cagliari and took over territorial defense tasks there. In Sassari , the 152nd Battalion "Sassari" continued to train recruits until 1988 , then it was also reclassified to a motorized infantry battalion and united with the 151st in the new Infantry Brigade "Sassari". In 1991, the brigade could be mechanized with excess material from other, disbanded brigades. The battalions of the "Sassari" reassumed the name "Regiment" in 1992, although they still only have battalion strength. The “Sassari” infantry brigade, together with the “Garibaldi”, “Folgore” and “Taurinense” brigades, was one of the first to be professionalized in the 1990s and to take part in a number of international missions, initially mainly in former Yugoslavia and then in Iraq and in Afghanistan .

photos

  • Freccia armored personnel carrier of the brigade

  • Freccia patrol in Afghanistan

  • Freccia of the Sassari Brigade

  • Brigade soldiers with Beretta ARX-160 in Afghanistan

Granatieri di Sardegna

Coat of arms of the 2nd Gren.Rgt.

The infantry brigade "Sassari" should not be confused with the brigade " Granatieri di Sardegna ". The Brigata Sassari is a relatively young (1915), regionally recruited "Line Infantry Brigade", while the Granatieri di Sardegna (1659) are nationally recruited Guards Grenadiers . For the latter, body size (“guard measure”) is an important recruiting criterion.

The reference to Sardinia in the name of the grenadier brigade goes back to their 2nd grenadier regiment, whose forerunner was established on the island in 1744. On the other hand, the name refers to the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont (capital Turin ), from which the Kingdom of Italy emerged in 1861.

See also

Web links