World War One buffs are familiar with German stormtroops, but many people are unaware that
other nations developed their own shock troops, with legacies that last even to the present day.
One good example of these is the Reparti D’assalto, the assault units of the Italian army, better
known as the daring ones, the Arditi.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about the Italian Arditi in
the First World War.
The Arditi have their origin in “companies of death”, which were groups of volunteers
who would perform the dangerous task of cutting or blasting enemy barbed wire defenses to
pave the way for the main infantry assault.
There is, however, a major difference between the companies of death and the Arditi.
The former were a kind of combat engineers, who would clear the path for the attack while
the latter were assault units in their own right.
The Arditi were chosen from amongst the bravest of men; men willing to engage the enemy in
hand-to-hand combat.
The tactical deployment of the early Arditi was to advance behind the cover of friendly
artillery fire and, as the barrage lifted, to jump into enemy trenches with daggers and
hand grenades.
The operational idea was for them to clear and hold a trench for at least 24 hours, until
regular troops could relieve them.
Now, the formation of the Arditi units in 1916 took place around the same time that
German stormtroops were being formed, but German and Italian forces were not in contact
with each other at that time in the field, or previously in the war, so there was no
direct German stormtroop influence on the Arditi.
In fact, Italian historian Angelo Pirocchi argues that the Arditi developed independently
and had a wider scope of operations than their more famous German counterparts.
They were, however, influenced by Austro-Hungarian Jagdkommando, which were spontaneously formed
within regiments for trench raids.
What the Arditi did have in common with German stormtroops was their expanded arsenal of
weapon proficiencies like machine guns and flamethrowers.
The Arditi not only deployed their own units within the army, but also had their own uniforms
and emblems.
Those that came from the Bersaglieri - light infantry - adopted the red flames on the open
collar, those from the Alpini - the mountain troops - had green flames, and those from
the regular infantry wore black flames.
A big emblem was the skull with a dagger clenched in its teeth.
The traditional symbol that no quarter could be asked nor given in combat.
This was the symbol of the vicious hand-to-hand fighting and willingness to fight to the death
of the Arditi.
Never surrender.
They were deployed as independent battalions with Roman numerals and initially the Arditi
were all volunteers.
But as the losses mounted, soldiers were increasingly assigned to Arditi units on the recommendation
of their commanding officers.
Many of them came from crack troops like the Bersaglieri and Alpini, units known for their
stamina.
They were trained in a special school behind the Isonzo River front, a school that recreated
front line conditions, including the use of explosives.
There were many fatalities among recruits.
And also during battle, where the casualty rate among the Arditi was 25-30% per attack.
Well, their motto was “O la vittoria, o tutti accoppiati”; either we win or we all
die.
Sometimes they did, in fact, all die.
Like in April 1916 at Monte Osvaldo.
The soldiers of the Arditi also had special privileges.
They had housing away from the front lines and were paid three times what the regular
troops received, and there was a system of bonuses for taking prisoners, 10 lire for
a private, 20 for an NCO, and 50 for an officer, as well as one for capturing enemy weapons,
5 lire for a rifle, 50 for a machine gun, and 500 for a piece of artillery.
These rewards were originally given to men who performed beyond the call of duty, but
in 1918 they applied to anyone.
But how were they in the field?
At their high-water mark at the end of 1917 there were 27 battalion-sized Arditi units,
but they didn’t have a significant impact on Italian battlefield performance on a strategic
or even an operational level.
For example, there were multiple Italian offensives on the Isonzo River between the summer of
1916 and the summer of 1917, and none resulted in a big breakthrough, despite the increasing
size and deployment of the Arditi.
This was in stark contrast to the German stormtroops in the Caporetto Offensive in the fall of
1917, who advanced over 100km and nearly knocked Italy out of the war.
Arditi did, however, play a big role as a military and political force that bolstered
the morale of the regular troops, but the only time they had a real noticeable effect
on operations was during the Vittorio-Veneto Offensive in October 1918.
Twelve Arditi units were formed into two assault divisions, and it was the largest concentration
of Arditi during the war.
They spearheaded the attack on the Austro-Hungarian forces and paved the way for Italian victory.
That victory was somewhat tainted by the breakdown of discipline in the Austro-Hungarian army
resulting from declarations of independence from many parts of the empire a few days after
the offensive began which caused mass desertions.
And postwar?
Well, postwar isn’t really the purview of this channel, but the bravery and patriotism
of the Arditi spoke to the Italian public imagination.
The Italian nationalist poet Gabriele D’Annunzio was the first to really capitalize politically
on the Arditi, inciting several of them to participate in his coup in 1919 in what is
now Rijeka in Croatia, though his revolt was put down by the regular Italian army.
I don’t know if that influenced the decision in 1920 to disband all the Arditi units, but
that’s what happened.
But their legacy lived on in the political street fighting leading up to the Second World
War, and both fascists and antifascists adopted symbols of the Arditi.
So you can see what they meant to the people of Italy as a symbol of bravery and Italian
national pride.
I am sure you all want to know more about shock troops from the Entente and we will
talk about them in the next special in this mini series on what you could call special
forces of World War 1.
Thank you Ruud Bruijns