On 15 October 1872, the
Royal Italian Army formed 15 locally recruited
Alpini companies in the
alpine regions of
Northern Italy. Nine more companies were formed the following year. In 1875 the 24 companies were organized into seven battalions, and in 1878 the companies were increased to 36 and the battalions to ten. On 1 November 1882, the Alpini companies were increased to 72 and grouped into 20 battalions. On the same date the battalions were assigned to six newly formed Alpini regiments, which were numbered 1st to 6th from West to East, while companies were numbered from 1 to 72 from to West to East. Upon entering the regiments, the battalions, which until then had been designated by a
Roman numeral, were named for their recruiting zone, while the Alpini companies were renumbered sequentially from 1st to 72nd. One of the six Alpini regiments formed on 1 November 1882 was the 4th Alpini Regiment, which was formed in
Turin in
Piedmont. The new regiment received the Battalion "Val Pellice", which recruited in the
Pellice Valley, the Battalion "Val Chisone", which recruited in the
Chisone Valley, and the Battalion "Val Brenta", which was recruited in the
Brenta valley in
Veneto. •
4th Alpini Regiment, in
Turin • 38th, 39th, 40th, 86th, and 111th Alpini Company • Alpini Battalion "Aosta" • 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 87th, and 103rd Alpini Company • Alpini Battalion "Intra" • 7th, 24th, 37th, and 112th Alpini Company • Alpini Battalion "
Val d'Orco" • 238th, 239th, and 240th Alpini Company • Alpini Battalion "
Val Baltea" • 241st, 242nd, and 280th Alpini Company • Alpini Battalion "
Val Toce" • 207th, 243rd, and 281st Alpini Company By the end of 1915 the Alpini regiments began to form additional companies with recruits born in 1896. These new companies were numbered from 118th to 157th and were used, together with the 38 companies formed earlier, to form an additional reserve battalion for each regular battalion. These new battalions were named for a mountain () located near their associated regular Alpini battalion's base, and the reserve battalions received the same
Nappina as their associated regular Alpini battalion. The 4th Alpini Regiment thus added the following
Monte battalions: • 86th, 111th, and 132nd Alpini Company • Alpini Battalion "
Monte Cervino" • 87th, 103rd, and 133rd Alpini Company • Alpini Battalion "
Monte Rosa" • 112th, 134th, and 135th Alpini Company As the mountainous terrain of the
Italian front made the deployment of entire Alpini regiments impracticable, the regimental commands of the eight Alpini regiments were disbanded in March 1916. Likewise in April 1916 the pre-war alpine brigade commands were disbanded, and the personnel of the regimental commands and alpine brigade commands used to from twenty regiment-sized group commands and nine brigade-sized grouping commands. Afterwards Alpini battalions were employed either independently or assigned to groups, groupings, or infantry divisions as needed. During the war a total of 31,000 men served in the 4th Alpini Regiment, of which 189 officers and 4,704 soldiers were killed in action, while 455 officers and 10,923 soldiers were wounded.
Second Italo-Ethiopian War machine gun during the
Battle of Amba Aradam On 22 December 1935, the 4th Alpini Regiment transferred its Alpini Battalion "Intra" to the newly formed
11th Alpini Regiment, which on 31 December of the same year was assigned to the newly formed
5th Alpine Division "Pusteria". The new division had been formed for the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War and on 6 January 1936 the "Pusteria" division's units embarked in
Livorno and
Naples for the transfer to
Massawa in
Eritrea. The same month the 4th Alpini Regiment formed the 623rd Company, which consisted of volunteers and was assigned to the XI Replacements Battalion. The XI Replacements Battalion was attached to 11th Alpini Regiment and shipped to East Africa, where in the meantime the "Pusteria" was engaged in combat against Ethiopian troops. In East Africa the Alpini Battalion "Intra" fought in the
Battle of Maychew, during which the battalion distinguished itself at
Mekan Pass and was awarded a
Silver Medal of Military Valor, which was affixed to the flag of the 4th Alpini Regiment and added to the regiment's coat of arms. •
4th Alpini Regiment, in
Aosta On the evening of 17 January 1943, the Alpine Army Corps commander, General
Gabriele Nasci, ordered a full retreat. At this point only the
2nd Alpine Division "Tridentina" was still capable of conducting combat operations. The 40,000-strong mass of stragglers — Alpini and Italians from other commands, plus German and Hungarians — followed the "Tridentina", which led the way westwards to the new Axis lines. As the Soviets had already occupied every village, bitter battles had to be fought to clear the way. On the morning of 26 January 1943, the spearheads of the "Tridentina" reached the hamlet of Nikolayevka, occupied by the Soviet
48th Guards Rifle Division. The Soviets had fortified the railway embankment on both sides of the village. General Nasci ordered a frontal assault and by nightfall the troops of the "Tridentina" division had managed to break through the Soviet lines. The Italian troops continued their retreat, which was no longer contested by Soviet forces. On 1 February 1943 the remnants of the Alpine Army Corps reached Axis lines. However, on 9 September 1943, the Alpini Battalion "Ivrea", the
Alpine Artillery Group "Aosta", and the 40th Battery of the Alpine Artillery Group "Susa" had ignored the order to move to Kotor and sided with
Tito's Yugoslav
National Liberation Army forces right away. By early October the remnants these units, together with the remaining troops of the
19th Infantry Division "Venezia", retreated towards
Pljevlja. On 2 December 1943 in Pljevlja the remaining Italian soldiers, approximately 16,000 men, were grouped together in the
Division "Garibaldi". Integrated into the Partisan
2nd Corps the division fought in
Montenegro,
Herzegovina,
Bosnia, and
Sandžak until February 1945, when the last troops were repatriated via the liberated harbour of
Dubrovnik. On 12 November 1976, the
President of the Italian Republic Giovanni Leone assigned with decree 846 the flag and traditions of the 4th Alpini Regiment to the Alpini Battalion "Aosta". In case of war the "Aosta" battalion would have been assigned to the Alpine Brigade "Taurinense" as the brigade's third Alpini battalion. In October 1987, the "Aosta" battalion lost its wartime role as third battalion of the "Taurinense" brigade. On 11 September 1989, the battalion was reorganized and renamed Tactical Logistic Support Battalion "Aosta". The battalion provided logistic support to the Alpine Military School and trained the recruits destined to serve at the School, while the battalion's Alpieri Company in
Courmayeur provided advanced high altitude training. The battalion's organization at the time was as follows: •
Tactical Logistic Support Battalion "Aosta", in
Aosta • Command and Services Company • Maintenance and Transport Company • Alpieri Company, in
Courmayeur • 41st Demonstration Company • Recruits Platoon, Fusiliers Platoon, Anti-tank Platoon, and Mortar Platoon
Recent times On 1 July 1998, Tactical Logistic Support Battalion "Aosta" merged with the Alpine Military School's Complement Officer Cadets Battalion and was renamed Training Battalion "Aosta". The same year the School was renamed Alpine Training Center and assigned to the
Alpine Troops Command. In 2001, the Training Battalion "Aosta" was reduced to Training Unit "Aosta" and the flag of the 4th Alpini Regiment transferred to the Shrine of the Flags in the
Vittoriano in Rome. On 24 September 2004, the
Alpini Paratroopers Battalion "Monte Cervino" (Ranger) in
Bolzano lost its autonomy and the next day the battalion entered the 4th Alpini Paratroopers Regiment, which inherited the flag, traditions, honors and coat of arms of the 4th Alpini Regiment. On 24 June 2011, the regiment moved from Bolzano to
Montorio Veronese. In 2013, the regiment was assigned to the newly formed
Army Special Forces Command. Troops of the battalion and then the regiment were repeatedly deployed to
Mozambique,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
Kosovo, and once the
war on terror began also to
Iraq,
Afghanistan,
Libya,
Lebanon, and
Somalia. For its many deployments between 2002 and 2018 the 4th Alpini Paratroopers Regiment was awarded a
Military Order of Italy, which was affixed to the regiment's flag. In 2021 the regiment formed the Operational Support Battalion "Intra". == Organization ==