It’s 1917, and you’re positioned in the southern alps between Italy and your home,
the Austria-Hungarian empire.
It’s usually a beautiful place to be, but today the air is filled with war and anticipation.
You’re here to fight now, and you’re prepared to do whatever it takes to batter your traitor
enemies, the Italians.
Suddenly, you hear the sound of an artillery barrage in the distance.
You gulp: this is it.
The soldiers around you spring into action instantly and you get ready to join them,
but your officer motions for you and a few others to stay behind in the trench.
Fine.
It’s almost scarier to be waiting behind like this, crouched below the ground as you
hear grenades exploding all around you, powerless to do anything.
Just hoping that none of your friends are the victims.
Still, you have to stand your ground.
That’s when, out of nowhere, a load of soldiers jump into your trenches.
The Italians.
Looks like you’re at the center of the battle after all.
But what was going on?
This wasn’t what was supposed to happen or the scenario you’d run through in training.
Why was the enemy jumping into your trenches while the artillery attacks were still going
on?
Must be some dirty new tactic.
Still, you’re ready to fight.
You jump up, finger on the trigger of your rifle, poised to attack.
That’s when you noticed something even stranger.
Now that you look at the enemy troops in front of you, you couldn’t believe your eyes.
These guys weren’t carrying guns or grenades with them.
Instead, they were armed with nothing but knives!
This definitely wasn’t part of the drill.
The man in front flashes an evil grin at you.
Italy isn’t usually known for being the country with the bravest or most terrifying
troops during the World Wars.
No disrespect to them, but the Italian military regularly underperformed.
Before World War One, the country was part of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary,
but began the war as a neutral territory.
Then, Italy joined the Allied Powers, hoping for some sweet new territory in Austria-Hungary.
Oh, and at a later point it refused to take on Germany, who they were supposed to be fighting
against.
It’s all very confusing and messy.
As if it wasn’t bad enough to be so untrustworthy, the Italian troops also had a reputation for
having bad equipment and terrible leadership.
Even when they outnumbered their opponents, they tended to suffer heavy losses because
of their ineffectiveness.
But despite its seemingly fickle and hopeless reputation, Italy did have one saving grace:
the terrifying, knife-fighting special forces troops also known as the Arditi.
You stare at the knife in front of you, sharp and long.
You weren’t sure whether this unusual choice of weapon should be a relief or absolutely
terrifying.
On the bright side, it meant these guys were absolutely insane.
But on the downside, well, it meant they were absolutely insane!
Well, you weren’t about to go down quietly.
It was war.
Before you can stop to think about whether to shoot, the man opposite flings himself
at you, forcing you to engage in vicious hand-to-hand combat with him.
Much to your surprise, he fights with immense skill and strength.
It’s totally unlike anything you could have expected from the stories you were told about
the notoriously bad Italian forces.
All around you, there’s fighting and chaos.
You can already see a soldier slitting the throat of your officer, now dropping to the
ground as blood drips down him.
With an extra burst of strength, you try to kick the man you’re fighting away from you
to aim at him with your gun, but he deflects your blow effortlessly and knocks you to the
ground.
You brace yourself for the worst.
But just then, you hear the sound of shots being fired down from up above the trench.
Finally, some return to normality and technology after those crazy few minutes fighting with
your hands.
You just hope the people firing the shots are your men.
You look up, and thankfully, you see your fellow Austrian-Hungarian soldiers.
About time.
With your rifle still in your hand, you get ready to take down as many of these crazy
Italians as you can.
But before you know it, they knock the rifle out of your hands.
Great.
Now, you’re helpless, completely at the mercy of madmen.
You wait for whoever is closest to cut to the chase and inflict the same treatment on
you as your officer received.
Here it comes...
Unlike most Italian troops, the Arditi were an elite combat group who actually knew what
they were doing.
King Victor Emmanuelle the Third sanctioned the group in 1917, probably after realizing
just how hopeless the rest of the Italian army was.
Most of the members started out as either small raiding parties in the army, Alpini
mountain groups, the mountain infantry known for distinguished combat, or the Bersaglieri
light infantry, infantry corps with high mobility.
Over time these creme de la creme soldiers evolved into their own group.
The Arditi weren’t just a regular unit or tied to a division like the rest of the infantry
— they were an elite special forces group.
Created in the image of military legends like Cristoforo Baseggio and Giuseppe Alberto Bassi,
Arditi men boasted greater motivation and even better education than the rest of the
slackers in the Italian army.
And it didn’t take long to see that their impressive background paid off.
These men were kicking ass.
As the war went on and the state of most of the Italian army proved embarrassing, there
was a clear solution: get more soldiers to join the Arditi.
The government created a specialized school for new Arditi recruits, and nobody could
join unless they passed with flying colors.
It wasn’t an easy task — the training exercises mimicked the real-life conditions
of the war, which is another way of saying it was very dangerous and you’d have to
be crazy to give it a go.
I’m not exaggerating — the camps had a very high fatality rate.
After all, the word Arditi literally means daring ones.
They also trained in some pretty niche stuff, like fencing.
Not the first thing that comes into your head when you think of big, tough, fighter guys,
but I guess it worked for them.
But there were plenty of perks to being a member.
They got their paws on the fancy gear, including heavy armor and state-of-the-art weaponry.
Maybe not worth risking your life for, but hey, it’s something.
They also got better pay, better rations, nicer accommodation, and most importantly
of all, they never had to sleep in those stinky and muddy trenches.
All of this may be nice and impressive, but it’s far from the most interesting aspect.
What really set the Arditi apart from anyone else was their style of combat — and I’m
not talking about fencing.
Not ones to hide behind big guns or tanks, the Arditi preferred to engage in bloodthirsty
hand-to-hand combat.
They didn’t call them the daring ones for nothing.
And their weapon of choice?
Knives.
There you are, lying in the ground in the trenches, waiting for some crazy, knife-wielding
soldier to slit your throat and finally put an end to all of this.
All you can hope for is that one of your men takes them out before they can take you out.
Adrenaline courses through your veins.
Yet nothing happens.
Nothing.
What are they playing at?
This isn’t how the drill goes.
Looking around, you realize that most of the other guys from your troop haven’t been
killed either.
Despite the crazy glimmers in their eyes and the daggers in their hands, it seems like
these savages are going to spare you.
But why?
To your left, one of your men tries to kick the Italian guy holding him prisoner.
The next thing you know, his throat is being slit.
You grimace and look away.
It seems like they’re only killing the ones who resist.
So, what are they going to do with you?
What are your men above playing at?
It’s about time they put their guns to good use.
You hear grenades exploding and shots being fired, but you’re not sure your side is
winning.
The Italians seem to have full control both inside and outside of the trenches.
Well, at least you’re not dead yet.
The prospect of being sent to a prisoner of war camp is a small comfort — but you’ll
cross that bridge when it comes to it.
Then, the firing stops.
That can’t be good news.
Looking up, it seems like the Italians managed to take the rest of your troops as prisoners
too.
Hopefully they managed to take a few casualties before things came to that.
The Italian soldiers restrain you all and settle down into the trench, muttering to
each other in their language and leaving you wondering what’s going on.
It’s going to be a long night.
The Arditi used pugnale fighting knives, which sort of look like small swords (insert picture
). Pretty cool — until they’re pointed at your chest.
Think of them as somewhere between a shock troop and an assault troop.
Generally, shock troops generally clear positions for the rest of the army, while assault troops
do the attacking.
But the Arditi did both.
They had a winning tactic.
They’d launch themselves into the trenches of the enemy when they were least expecting
it, most often at night.
Another popular way to attack was by distracting the enemy with an artillery barrage.
While some Arditi soldiers threw grenades on top of the ground to cause chaos and attract
attention, another sect would jump into the trenches armed with only their knives.
Once they took the place under control, they’d wait in the enemy trenches with the troops
held as prisoners until the rest of the Italian forces arrived.
So merciful, right?
But before you start thinking they were just a bunch of softies for not killing their enemies,
make no mistake — they had an ulterior motive.
The Arditi received generous compensation from the Italian government in exchange for
both the weapons of the enemy and the enemy themselves.
Alive.
Safe to say they profited nicely from the war.
The Arditi also had to show how different and special they were by fighting in much
smaller groups than the rest of the Italian infantry troops.
They fought in units of around five officers, 41 non-commissioned officers, and 150 men.
But, you know, this is knife-fighting demons we’re talking about here.
The first we know of them is their attack in August 1917 at Monte Fratta on the Isonzo
Front, between Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces.
In classic Arditi style, the battle took place at night for the ultimate element of surprise.
With their impressive skills and aggression, the Arditi succeeded in capturing 500 enemy
soldiers.
They were merciful too, taking many of the opposite side as prisoners where possible.
Or greedy for the rewards, depending on your perspective.
Ultimately, their tactics played an important role in the victories of the Allies.
Just as trench warfare was reaching a stalemate, and the war was dragging on, the Arditi succeeded
in breaking things up.
Just a shame that it all went to pot in the Treaty of Versailles...
Yet make no mistake: the Arditi were far from invincible.
They certainly took a high-risk, high-reward strategy, and it didn’t always pay off.
Going all-out on the offensive and neglecting the defensive isn’t always a good strategy,
and it left them highly vulnerable to counter attacks.
In fact, every attack, between a fifth and a quarter of the soldiers would end up as
casualties.
Hardly surprising considering they’d go around throwing grenades and jumping into
enemy trenches, hoping for the best.
Also, sometimes military leaders would place them into defensive positions even though
they were trained for exactly the opposite purpose.
These were called experimental units, but they may as well have just gone with the name
suicide missions.
In one mission, every single Arditi soldier died.
But back to our poor, unfortunate Austro Hungarian prisoner...
As the Italians marched you into their camp, the other soldiers began to cheer and clap
for them, gazing at them as if they were gods.
Immediately, they’re lavished with the best food and gifts.
Meanwhile, you and the rest of your men are whisked off to the prisons.
As you settle into your new home, you gloomily wonder if you should have focused on fighting
with knives instead of rifles.
Maybe in the next war...
Now, check out our videos about the only countries that have never lost a war or the new war-winning
strategy of the US.