Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice felt Robin Hood style hat with a wide ribbed band and rope design around the base. Large relief embroidered eagle Alpine cap device with a blue-green background. Eight small metal stars with one large metal star in the center below the badge. The interior features small remnants of a brown leather sweatband with a torn white fabric liner marked with the Italian national eagle and the maker mark. Shows extreme wear but overall nice condition.

This example has a lovely braided chinstrap still intact. The interior shows that only 20% of the sweatband is left inside, with the rest torn away long ago. The lining is torn but still retains the maker’s mark:

SAFINA
V.le Partigiani 23
Tel. 3560
AOSTA

The cap is roughly Size 7. A very nice example of a quite decorative military cap, ready to display.

The personnel for the mountain (Alpini) divisions was drawn from Italy's mountainous Alpine region and tended to be of superior quality. In addition to being well trained for mountain warfare, they were expert in the handling of pack artillery.

The mountain divisions differed from a standard infantry division in that each regiment had its own artillery, engineering, and ancillary services associated with the regiment on a permanent basis. This made each regiment of a mountain division relatively self-supporting and capable of independent action.

By design, a mountain division consisted of a divisional headquarters, two mountain infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a mixed engineer battalion, a chemical warfare company, two reserve mountain infantry battalions, and divisional services. The divisional headquarters included an anti-tank platoon.

Each mountain infantry regiment included its own headquarters company, with a platoon of flamethrowers. Each regiment also included three mountain infantry battalions and regimental services. At full strength, the firepower for a mountain infantry regiment was 27 heavy machine guns, 81 light machine guns, 27 45 mm mortars, 12 81 mm mortars, and 27 flamethrowers.

The artillery regiment was split between the two infantry regiments. Each regiment was provided with a battalion of 75 mm howitzers. All were transported on pack animals.