Formation howitzer during the
Third Battle of the Isonzo cannon is moved into position In 1910, the
Royal Italian Army decided to form a new artillery speciality, which would be equipped with heavier howitzers than the field artillery's
75/27 mod. 06 field guns and with more mobile howitzers than the fortress artillery's siege mortars and siege howitzers. In 1911, the army ordered 112
15 cm sFH 13 heavy field howitzers from the
German arms manufacturer
Krupp and acquired a license to produce the gun in Italy. In March 1912, Krupp delivered last of the 112 ordered howitzers and, on 1 April 1912, the Royal Italian Army formed two heavy field artillery regiments: the 1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment in
Casale Monferrato and the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment in
Modena. Both regiments consisted of a command, a
depot, the I Howitzers Group, and the II Howitzers Group. Each group fielded two batteries, with four
15 cm sFH 13 howitzers per battery. Upon entering Italian service the howitzers received the designation
149/12 heavy field howitzer. The personnel for the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment's command, two groups, and depot was drawn from the
3rd Field Artillery Regiment and 15th Field Artillery Regiment, while the army's 149/12 howitzers training battery at
San Maurizio Canavese was divided between the two regiments. On 1 November 1912, both regiments added the III Howitzers Group with three batteries and two years later, on 15 November 1914, both regiments added the IV Howitzers Group with three batteries. Between 5 and 20 January 1915, both regiments added the V and VI groups with two batteries per group. Afterwards each regiment fielded six groups with a combined 14 batteries and 56 howitzers. By summer 1916, Ansaldo began production of a simpler gun carriage for the 149/12 howitzer. This new variant was designated 149/12 mod. 16. Consequently, the Italian
War Ministry's Undersecretary for Arms and Ammunition ordered an additional 92 149/12 mod. 14 and 149/12 mod. 16 batteries, 84 of which would be assigned to 28 newly formed howitzer groups, while the remaining eight batteries would be used to bring the two heavy field artillery regiment's eight groups, which fielded just two batteries, to full strength. At the same time, the army decided to renumber the howitzer groups: groups equipped with German made 149/12 howitzers and 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers, would be numbered I to XXII, while the groups equipped with 149/12 mod. 16 would be numbered XXIII to XLIV. Likewise 149/12 and 149/12 mod. 14 batteries would be numbered 1st to 66th, while 149/12 mod. 16 batteries would be numbered 67th to 132nd. As the four groups formed in spring 1916 (XIII, XIV, XV, and XVI) were scheduled to replace the siege carriages of their 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers with the new Ansaldo gun carriage, they were renumbered as XXIII, XXIV, XXV, and XXVI groups. Between November 1916 and February 1917, Vickers-Terni delivered enough 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers to form 18 batteries (37th to 54th), with which six new groups were formed (XIII to XVIII). In the same timeframe Ansaldo delivered enough 149/12 mod. 16 howitzers to form 24 batteries (79th to 102nd), with which eight new groups were formed (XXVII to XXXIV). Most of these howitzer groups were formed by the depots of field artillery regiments, while the two heavy field artillery regiments focused on forming cannon groups: the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment's depot formed only the command of the XXVIII Howitzer Group and four batteries with 149/12 mod. 16 howitzers. By the end of 1916, the number of cannon groups equipped with 105/28 cannons reached 22 groups with 66 batteries, while the number of groups with 102/35 mod. 14 naval guns on SPA 9000 trucks was capped at six. To command the heavy field artillery's groups at the front, the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, together with the 1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment and various field artillery regiments, formed the commands of 25 heavy field artillery groupings. Specifically, over the course of the war, the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment's depot in Modena formed the commands of the 2nd, 12th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th heavy field artillery groupings, as well as the command of the 2nd Mixed Artillery Grouping. Of the various cannon groups, the regiment's depot formed the commands of the III, IV, VII, X, XII, XV, XVII, XX, XXII, XXIV, XXVI, XXVIII, XXXII, XXXIV, XXXIX, XL, XLI, and XLIII cannon groups, as well as 54 cannon batteries for these groups. The regiment's depot also formed the 500th Siege Battery for the army's heavy artillery.
Interwar years After the end of the war the Royal Italian Army began the process of downsizing its heavy field artillery. However, in November 1919, the army decided to assign a heavy field artillery regiment to each of its 14
army corps. Consequently, in summer 1920, the army formed an additional twelve heavy field artillery regiments, each of which consisted of two cannon groups and two howitzer groups. As part of this reorganization, the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment was assigned four groups, which had been formed by other regiments: the VIII Cannons Group, which had been formed by the depot of the
1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, the IX Cannons Group, which had been formed by the depot of the
3rd Field Artillery Regiment, the XLIV Howitzers Group, which had been formed by the depot of the
28th Field Artillery Regiment, and the XXVI Howitzers Group, which had been formed by the depot of the
11th Field Artillery Regiment. Upon entering the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, the VIII and IX cannon groups were redesignated I and II cannon groups with
105/28 cannons, while the XLIV and XXVI groups were redesignated III and IV howitzers groups with
149/12 howitzers. The regiment was assigned to the
VI Army Corps in
Bologna, which during the same year was renumbered
IV Army Corps. In 1986, the Italian Army abolished the divisional level and brigades, which until then had been under one of the Army's four divisions, came under direct command of the army's
3rd Army Corps or
5th Army Corps. Consequently, on 31 October 1986, the Mechanized Division "Folgore" was disbanded and the next day, on 1 November 1986, the Artillery Specialists Group "Folgore" was renamed 6th Artillery Specialists Group "Montello". The group was named for
Montello hill, which had been a key Royal Italian Army artillery observation post during the
First Battle of the Piave River in November 1917 and, which saw some of the fiercest fighting during the
Second Battle of the Piave River in June 1918. On the same date the group joined the
5th Army Corps' Artillery Command and was assigned the flag and traditions of the 6th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment. On 13 July 1987, the
President of the Italian Republic Francesco Cossiga issued a decree to confirm the assignment of the flag and traditions of the 6th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment to the group.
Recent times On 31 March 1991, the 6th Artillery Specialists Group "Montello" was reduced to a reserve unit and the following 8 May the flag of the 6th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment was returned to the
Shrine of the Flags in the
Vittoriano in
Rome for safekeeping. On 30 June of the same year, the group was officially disbanded. == References ==