A (singular) was approximatively company sized with 100 - 200 men. An individual member of a "band" was called a "Gregario". The larger unit was the battalion size (infantry) or (cavalry). The a regimental unit appeared briefly during the fascist period in the
Balkans. The first of these irregular units employed by the originated from a mercenary Arab force employed by the
Ottoman Empire, called
Bashi-bazouk (which became "basci buzuk" in Italian), that was created in Eritrea by the
Albanian adventurer Sagiak Hassan in the second half of the 19th century. In 1885, the Italian Colonel
Tancredi Saletta, commanding officer of the first Italian troops involved in the conquest of
Eritrea, enlisted Bashi-bazouks in the service of
Italy. As lightly armed irregulars the were able to perform duties for which regular Italian and colonial troops were unsuited and at lower cost. Locally recruited bands were employed in the conquest of
Italian Libya from 1911 to the 1930s. Their Somali counterparts played an important role in
Italian Somaliland during the 1920s. In
"Somalia italiana", the Italians also employed
Dubats; levies that were maintained on a permanent basis and were better trained and equipped than the . During the guerrilla war that continued in Ethiopia after the 1936 Italian invasion, Bande were recruited amongst groups collaborating with the Italian regime. One of the best known of these was the in northern Ethiopia. While most were recruited in the Italian colonies in Africa, many units bearing this designation were also created as
auxiliaries during the Second World War in Albania and in the occupied territories of the former
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The other branches of the Italian armed forces and corps created . The n° 9 , formed of
Serbs,
Croats,
Slovenes and local young Italians from
Dalmatia, was established in
Zara under the control of the (Italian Royal Navy). These naval auxiliaries fought side by side with a company from the from 1941 to 1943. After the fall of
Asmara the group (reduced to just 176 soldiers) did
guerrilla war for many months. == See also ==