Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a glorious bronze statue that will serve as a centerpiece in any Italian militaria collection. This bronze depicts an Italian Alpini soldier, one of the Italian Army's specialist mountain infantry. Established in 1872, the Alpini are the oldest active mountain infantry in the world. Their original mission was to protect Italy's border with France and Austria-Hungary. In 1888 the Alpini deployed on their first mission abroad, in Africa, a continent to which they returned on several occasions and during various wars of the Kingdom of Italy. During World War I they fought a three-year campaign on the Alps against Austro-Hungarian Kaiserjäger and the German Alpenkorps in what has since become known as the "War in snow and ice".

The bronze stands at 11¾” tall including the beautiful marble base, which measures 3⅞ x 4¾ x 1⅜”. The Alpini soldier wears his Alpini mountain cap, and is carrying a pole with which he traverses the dangerous mountainside. Slung over his back appears to be a Carcano carbine.

The bottom of the bronze itself is signed Ronco, likely for the artist, but we could not identify him. There is minor chipping and cracking in the marble base, but overall this is a tremendous display piece which has stood the test of time.

Ready for further research and display.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914 an additional 38 Alpini companies, numbered from 80 to 117, were raised from men, who had completed their military service in the preceding four years (i.e. completed it between 1910 and 1914). These companies were used to augment the regular battalions. Starting in early January 1915 each Alpini battalion activated a reserve battalion. Named after a valley (in Italian: Val or Valle) located near the regular battalion's depot, these Valle battalions were filled with men, who had completed their military service at least four years, but not more than 11 years earlier (i.e. completed it between 1911 and 1904). The companies of the Valle battalions were numbered from 201 to 281, with the numbers 227, 233, 237, 271, and 273 never assigned to a company (227th originally meant for the Val Pellice, but the battalion received the 224th Company instead; 233rd originally meant for the Val Dora, but the battalion received the 3rd Company instead; 271st originally meant for the Val Fella, but the battalion received the 8th Company instead).

After the Italian declaration of war against Austria-Hungary on 23 May 1915 the Alpini were heavily employed in the mountainous areas of the Italian front. At the end of 1915 the depots began to raise new battalions with drafted men born in 1896. These battalions were named after mountains (in Italian: Monte) located near the regular battalion's depots and they received the 38 companies already raised in 1914. The new companies of these battalions were numbered from 118 to 157. One additional Monte company (158th for the Fenestrelle battalion), and the Monte Mandrone battalion (159th, 160th, 161st company) were raised later (see 5th Alpini Regiment for details about the Monte Mandrone).

All in all the regiments of Alpini mountain infantry had during the First World War organized into between 9 and 14 battalions (3 regular and 6 to 12 reserve), operationally assigned to regiment-sized Groups (Gruppo), each Group attached to brigade-sized Groupings (Raggruppamento) with operational HQ and support elements.