On 16 April 1861 the 1st Army Corps Bersaglieri Command was formed in
Cuneo and assigned to the
I Army Corps. The command had purely administrative functions and consisted of the preexisting I, IX, XIII, XIX, XXI, and XXVII battalions, and the I Bersaglieri Depot Battalion. On 31 December 1861 the command was renamed 1st Bersaglieri Regiment, but continued to exert only administrative functions. On 18 December 1864 the Bersaglieri regiments were reduced from six to five and consequently the
4th Bersaglieri Regiment was disbanded and its VI and VII battalions were transferred to the 1st Bersaglieri Regiment. In 1866, in preparation for the
Third Italian War of Independence, the regiment formed the XLI Battalion, which was disbanded in December 1870. On 1 January 1871 the 1st Bersaglieri Regiment was reorganized as an operational regiment with the I Battalion, VII Battalion, IX Battalion, and XXVII Battalion, while the VI Battalion, XIII Battalion, XIX Battalion, and XXI Battalion were transferred to the reformed
6th Bersaglieri Regiment. The four remaining battalions were renumbered as I, II, III, and IV battalion. On 16 September 1883 the IV Battalion was transferred to the newly formed
11th Bersaglieri Regiment. On 18 June 1886, all Bersaglieri battalions resumed their original numbering and afterwards the 2nd Bersaglieri Regiment consisted of the I Battalion, VII Battalion, and IX Battalion. On 27 April 1917 the regiment's depot in Naples formed the regimental command of the 21st Bersaglieri Regiment. The new regiment received three replacement battalions, which had been formed earlier by the depot of the 1st Bersaglieri Regiment. Upon entering the regiment the three battalions were renumbered as LXXIII, LXXIV, and LXXV battalions. On 15 May 1918 the I, VII, and IX battalions returned to Italy, followed by the LV Battalion, which left Libya on 31 May. Initially the 1st Bersaglieri Regiment was reformed as a complete unit, but already on 24 June, the day the
Austro-Hungarian Army commenced the
Second Battle of the Piave River, the regiment's battalions became autonomous again and were assigned to the 1st Assault Division, which also included Arditi battalions. Likewise the LV Battalion was assigned to the 2nd Assault Division. For the
Battle of Vittorio Veneto the 1st Assault Division was given the task to force the
Piave river and create a bridgehead on the Northern shore between the villages of
Moriago and
Sernaglia. The battle commenced on 24 October 1918 and on 27 October the 1st Assault Division crossed the Piave. Initially the division made good progress, reaching as far as
Falzè di Piave, before Austro-Hungarian counterattacks forced the division back to Moriago and
Fontigo, but by then the Austrian-Hungarian lines had already been breached and by 30 October the division was on the move to
Vittorio Veneto.
World War II At the outbreak of
World War II the consisted of the following units: On 12 November 1976 the
President of the Italian Republic Giovanni Leone assigned with decree 846 the flag and traditions of the 1st Bersaglieri Regiment to the 1st Bersaglieri Battalion "La Marmora".
Recent times On 18 September 1995, the 1st Bersaglieri Battalion "La Marmora" lost its autonomy and the next day the battalion entered the reformed 1st Bersaglieri Regiment. Due to the drawdown of forces after the end of the
Cold War the regiment's was continuously reduced until in 2000 the regiment's flag was transferred to the office of the commander of the
Mechanized Brigade "Granatieri di Sardegna" for safekeeping. On 1 January 2005 the
18th Bersaglieri Regiment in
Cosenza was renamed 1st Bersaglieri Regiment. On 22 February of the same year the flag of the 1st Bersaglieri Regiment arrived in Cosenza, where it replaced on the same date the flag of the 18th Bersaglieri Regiment, which was consequently transferred to the Shrine of the Flags in the
Vittoriano in
Rome. On 15 June 2006 the regiment deployed to
Nasiriyah in
Iraq. Taking up garrison and peacekeeping duties in the city the regiment found itself soon embroiled in the
Iraqi insurgency. On 2 December 2006 the regiment left Iraq and returned to Italy. For its conduct in Iraq the regiment was awarded a
Military Order of Italy, which was affixed to the regiment's flag. == Organization ==