Item:
ONSV6253

Original WWII Italian Royal Alpine Artillery Officer's Evening Dress Peaked Visor Cap

Item Description

Original Item: Only One Available: This is an excellent condition genuine WWII Italian 3 bronze band strap visor hat, indicating the rank of Captain. The front of the cap has a lovely hand-embroidered bullion badge, showing an Eagle perched on a horn with a Cross in the middle, the insignia of the Italian Royal Alpini, or mountain troopers. Below this is the crossed cannons for artillery.  There are two labels on the sweatband, which identify the cap.

The first one is in English, and is a sticker:

Royal Alpine Artillery
Gala Visor Cap. Black
evening dress! - Captain
Very Rare

There is also a paper label stapled to the front in Italian:

Berretto nero per uniforme da sera. (Riforma Baistrocchi
1934 - Ufficiale Artiglieria Alpina )

This basically translates to "Berretto nero per uniforme da sera. (Riforma Baistrocchi
1934 - Ufficiale Artiglieria Alpina )".  The cap is offered in very good condition and free of moth damage. The leather sweatband is in great shape, and the inside is lined with white satin fabric. The celluloid diamond on the top is present, but torn away on one side. Under this is the original manufacture information.

The Leather chinstrap and visor are complete, but do show some age related deterioration. There are also some scrapes into the underside of the visor. Size is approximately 58-59cm (US 7 1/4 - 7 3/8).  Ready to display!

 

The Alpini are the Italian Army's mountain infantry speciality. Part of the army's infantry corps, the speciality distinguished itself in combat during World War I and World War II. Currently the active Alpini units are organized in two operational brigades, which are subordinated to the Alpine Troops Headquarters. The Alpini's name comes from their inceptive association with the Alps, the mountain range that Italy shares with France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. An individual soldier of the Alpini is called Alpino.

In 1935 the fascist government of Italy reorganized its Armed Forces, creating five Alpine divisions and forming a new Alpini regiment: the 11th Alpini Regiment. A 12th Alpini Regiment was also formed to oversee the battalions of the 9th Alpini Regiment, which were not sent with the regimental command and the 5 Alpine Division Pusteria to fight in the Italian attack on Abyssinia. After the return of the 7th Regiment, the 12 Alpini regiment was dissolved. In 1941 the 6th Alpine Division Alpi Graie was raised with reserve units of the other five Alpine divisions.

Thus Italy fielded the following six alpine divisions during World War II:

1st Alpine Division Taurinense
2nd Alpine Division Tridentina
3rd Alpine Division Julia
4th Alpine Division Cuneense
5th Alpine Division Pusteria
6th Alpine Division Alpi Graie

Each division consisted of two Alpini regiments with three battalions each, one Alpine Artillery Regiment with three Artillery groups, one Mixed Engineer Battalion, one Logistic Battalion and some support units. The strength of each division was 573 officers and 16,887 NCOs and soldiers for a total strength of 17,460 men. Also each division had almost 5,000 mules and 500 vehicles of various types at its disposal.

 

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