Reggimento “Lancieri di Aosta” (6º)

Coat of arms of the 6th district "Lancieri di Aosta"

Reggimento “Lancieri di Aosta” (6º) is the name of the 6th Cavalry Regiment of the Italian Army . The regiment 's since 1991 Palermo stationed and is subject to on Sicily -based mechanized brigade Aosta . With its armored vehicles it supports the other units of the brigade and takes on reconnaissance tasks .

structure

The Lancieri di Aosta are a cavalry regiment in battalion strength . It consists of five squadrons . Since 2009 it has been organized as a mixed tank reconnaissance unit. In addition to the staff and supply squadron, it has four squadrons with 40 wheeled armored vehicles of the Centauro type and 36 armored vehicles of the Puma type and a few other vehicles. Until 2008 the regiment only had heavy squadrons with a total of 54 Centauros .

history

Soldiers of the 6th Rgt. "Lancieri di Aosta" during an exercise

Origins

Although the regiment and the higher-level brigade are named Aosta , the two associations have no common origins and no common history until 1991. The 6th Infantry Regiment of the Aosta Brigade, which was disbanded in 1955, also has no historical reference to the Lancieri di Aosta (6th) . The cavalry regiment was relocated from north-east Italy to Sicily in 1991 for military reasons, whereby the matching of names and numbers is a desirable by-product. This also applies to the 6th Bersaglieri regiment of the brigade.

The regiment was named Aosta Cavalleria on September 16, 1774 by King Viktor Amadeus III. of Savoy in Voghera . The King of Sardinia-Piedmont carried out various reforms in the Piedmontese army during these years , which were based on the work of Frederick the Great of Prussia . Three cavalry regiments, Dragoni del Génévois , Piemonte Reale Cavalleria and Savoia Cavalleria each ceded two of their squadrons, with whom Aosta Cavalleria was then formed. The king entrusted the new regiment to his son, the Duke of Aosta, who became King Victor Emanuel I in 1802 . The name of the regiment refers to the Duke of Aosta, who was sixteen years old at the time the regiment was drawn up and became the honorary colonel of the association. The first in command was Colonel Alessandro Amoretti d'Envie.

From 1792 to 1796 the regiment fought against the French revolutionary troops. After Napoleon I occupied Piedmont in 1796 , Aosta Cavalleria was dissolved, but his squadrons were temporarily taken over by the regiments Piemonte Reale Cavalleria and Savoia Cavalleria .

Italian unification

In contrast to many other Piedmontese regiments, Aosta Cavalleria was not set up again immediately after the end of Napoleonic rule. This only came about in the course of the comprehensive military reforms of King Karl Albert in 1831. Because another cavalry regiment ( Lancieri di Novara ) had been established in the meantime , Aosta Cavalleria received the serial number 6 when it was re-established on October 3, 1831 in Vercelli .

In the first Italian War of Independence , it fought at Goito , Mantua , Santa Lucia and Custozza in 1848 , and then at Novara in 1849 . In 1850, as part of further reforms, the regiment was assigned to the light cavalry and was given the name Cavalleggeri di Aosta . At the same time it contributed to the creation of the new Chevauleger regiment Cavalleggeri di Alessandria . Two years later, the Cavalleggeri di Aosta were again equipped with lances , which was nothing unusual for the time ( chevauleger-lanciers ). In 1855 and 1856 parts of the regiment took part in the Crimean War and fought a.o. a. at the Tschornaja and at Kamara.

In the second Italian War of Independence, the Cavalleggeri di Aosta fought at Castelnuovo Scrivia (May 5th), Montebello della Battaglia (May 20th), Madonna della Scoperta (June 24th) and the siege of Peschiera del Garda (June 26th to 7th) . July). In 1860 the regiment took its current name Lancieri di Aosta , which means that it fell into the category of Uhlans , which, however, was not called that in various European countries. In the years that followed, the Lancieri di Aosta were used in Apulia against so-called " brigands ".

In the third Italian War of Independence, the regiment with the Cavalleggeri Guide stood out in the battle of Custozza, which was unfortunate for Italy . With his commander, Colonel Alessandro Vandone, at their head, the Lancieri di Aosta rode a total of 14 attacks on June 24, 1866 , one of them uphill. For the missions at Oliosi, Cascina Valpezzone and especially on Monte Vento, the regiment was awarded the highest Italian military order. June 24 is still a regimental holiday today.

In 1870 parts of the regiment were used to capture Rome , and from 1887 also in Italian East Africa .

In the world wars

At the beginning of the First World War , the Lancieri di Aosta were part of the IV Cavalry Brigade, which in turn was subordinate to the 4th Cavalry Division. The regiment operated on the lower Isonzo until the end of 1915, and in May 1916 it fought against Austro-Hungarian troops near Asiago , who had launched a major offensive on the plateau of the seven municipalities . In 1917 it took over security tasks in the area of the XXIV Army Corps during the Italian offensive on the Bainsizza plateau . After the breakthrough of the Central Powers at Karfreit , the Lancieri di Aosta tried their advance a. a. to brake at Cividale del Friuli and Fagagna . In November they withdrew behind the Piave , where they again took on security tasks. At the beginning of November 1918 they were involved in the final Italian offensive at Vittorio Veneto .

Between the two world wars, the Lancieri di Aosta experienced a period of uncertainty because, given the beginning of the motorization of the armed forces, they had no precise ideas about the future of traditional cavalry . Various cavalry regiments had mounted and armored squadrons , the latter being equipped with light cavalry tanks ( tankettes ), which were also used in World War II.

From 1920 to 1934 the regiment temporarily resumed the name Cavalleggeri di Aosta . Individual squadrons took over the names and traditions of various disbanded cavalry units. During these years parts of the regiment were restructured into pure machine gun units and motorized gradually. From 1935 to 1937, large parts of the regiment, which had grown to almost 5,800 men, took part in the war and in the so-called colonial police operations in Italian East Africa . In 1939 the Lancieri di Aosta took part in the occupation of Albania .

During the Second World War , the regiment, which was downsized again, and its five mounted squadrons were initially used in the disastrous Italian campaign against Greece . It excelled several times in helping beleaguered divisions . In March 1941 the Lancieri di Aosta took part in the German-Italian attack on Yugoslavia from Albania , after which they returned to Greece as an occupying force. There they fought against resistance groups, with which many Italian soldiers, however, secretly sympathized. When an armistice between Italy and the Allies came into effect on September 8, 1943 , the Lancieri di Aosta remained without further orders in the Greek trikala , which was still controlled despite pressure from the partisans. In the days that followed, the regimental commander agreed to cooperate with the Allies and the Greek resistance groups, which spared the Lancieri di Aosta the fate of many other Italian military units in the Balkans , whose members there usually got caught between the fronts with tragic consequences.

In the following months the regiment fought against German troops, u. a. near Larisa , where a military airfield was attacked and several planes were destroyed. Despite or because of some of the successes that the Lancieri di Aosta achieved during this period, they were suddenly attacked on October 14, 1944 by two battalions of the Greek People's Liberation Army ELAS . After fierce fighting, the regiment was finally ordered to stop firing. Most of the soldiers were held in captivity until March 1945, often under horrific conditions. In October 1944 the regiment's standard was brought to Italy.

An MG unit of the regiment fought in North Africa from 1941 to 1943 and distinguished itself at Tobruk and in the Battle of Tunisia near Enfidaville.

post war period

The 6th Cavalry Regiment Lancieri di Aosta was re-established in 1951 as a tank reconnaissance unit in Reggio nell'Emilia . It was u. a. equipped with tanks of the type M47 and until the end of the 1950s also had a small flying reconnaissance unit with propeller aircraft of the type Piper L-4 , which were then taken over by the army aviators . The regiment was disbanded on August 31, 1964. From it emerged two units at battalion level ( Gruppo Squadroni ), which carried on the traditions of the cavalry regiments Lancieri di Aosta and Cavalleggeri di Saluzzo . The so structured Lancieri di Aosta were stationed in Cervignano del Friuli , where they were in 1976 a. a. with Piemonte Cavalleria ( Villa Opicina ) and the Lancieri di Firenze ( Sgonico , 1991–1995 in Grosseto ) formed the tank brigade Vittorio Veneto (Villa Opicina near Trieste ). The Lancieri di Aosta took part in an aid operation for the civilian population after a severe earthquake in Friuli .

After the dissolution of the Vittorio Veneto tank brigade , the Lancieri di Aosta were relocated to Palermo in Sicily in May 1991 and placed under the Aosta infantry brigade there . There, two squadrons took over the traditions of the cavalry regiments Cavalleggeri di Catania (22nd) and Cavalleggeri di Palermo (30th), which had been dissolved some time ago . Instead of the tank type Leopard 1 received Lancieri di Aosta Radpanzer type Centauro . In 1993 they took on the name regiment again, although the association still has battalion strength. Since then, the Lancieri di Aosta have participated in police-like tasks in Sicily and in peace missions in the former Yugoslavia , especially after the last conscripts were passed in 2005. In 2009, the regiment was used for the first time in Lebanon as part of UNIFIL .

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