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Alpini
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The elite group of Italian soldiers known as Alpini (Alpines in English) formed in 1872 and are the oldest active mountain infantry in the world. Their mission was to protect Italy's northern mountain border with Austria and France. Africa (which they returned to many times) was their first mission abroad, but they became more widely known during World War 1 when they fought against the Austro-Hungarian Kaiserjäger and the German Alpenkorps for 3 long years (the "War or ice and snow"). During the Second World War, the Alpini fought alongside *Axis forces on the Eastern front and in the Balkans Campaign. With the reorganization of the Italian Army in the 1990's, many brigades were disbanded. The Alpini are known world-wide for having the best trained well equipped mountain troops and are presently active in Afghanistan. *Axis forces - countries that were opposed to the Allies during WWII - such as Germany and Japan, although some nations entered and later left the Axis during the course of the war. |
| Alpini Nappina As well as the new style badge, the “nappina” was also introduced in 1880. This wool pompom (initially red in colour) was attached to the side of the hat with the Battalion number embroidered [ ... ] |
| Alpini Badge A new badge (still made of metal) was introduced in 1880 to replace the five-pointed star. This badge was now to be a low flying eagle upon a horn with the soldiers’ regiment number on it. The ho [ ... ] |
| Alpini Hat You can distinguish the Alpini soldiers due to their hats which are called “a la calabrese” (an English businessman style hat). The hat is kind of triangular in shape (iscoceles triangle on its si [ ... ] |
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