Most unsual Italian Eastern Front ID

[dagwood]

Very interesting Italian dog tag found in the Voronezh area. Seems like the Ministero Della Difesa site doesn't work anymore but if I remember verifying in the past Augostino was born in California and died in Russia 1/43, unknown location. Would anyone know if it would be possible to find his exact unit or possible family members here in the USA? Based on where it was found I would suspect one of the three Alpini or the Vicenza divisions. I understand there were quite a few proud Italians that went back to the mother country to fight for Mussolini. Too bad he ended up dying for another cause.

Thanks,

Gary

[OldSteel]

Morning Gary,
I do not know if he has family members in the US, but I did a research and I know who he was:
Name: Agostino
Surname: Pavioni
Born: May 28, 1916 in USA
Rank: Private
Unit: 5th Alpini Regiment-2nd Div. Alpina "Tridentina"
Died: March 31, 1943, in the "Field of Imprisonment 67" (Bostianovka)

His is a typical name of Sondrio Province (Lombardy Region), a mountains and valleys area, not far from the Swiss border.
All the young people of these areas were enlisted in the Alpine troops during WW2, and I do not think it was back in Italy to fight.
In my opinion, probably his family has lived in the US for a limited time for work, and then, as often happened, they returned to Italy when Agostino was still a kid, before the war.
Typically the Italians born in the US, fought in the US Army, both in WW1 that in WW2.
The 2nd Div. Alpina "Tridentina" was a valiant military Unit that fought on the Russian Front in 1942-1943 (Opty, Postojali, Nowa Karkowa, Ladomirowka, Malakajewe, Nikitowka, Nikolajewka).
Nikolajewka was an epic battle where the Div. Tridentina managed to break the encirclement of the Red Army and allowed the return to home of 40,000 Italian soldiers.
I hope I was helpful.

Regards
Roberto

[dagwood]

Hi Roberto,

Thank you very much for the research! Yes the Tridentina was very valiant in the defense of the Don in 1942-43. Unlike it's neighboring Alpini divisions about a third of them made it back to Axis lines w/o their heavy equipment. Tridentina was the luckiest of the bunch compared to Cuneense, Julia and other Italian divisions. From what I remember from the histories was that it was the Tridentina that led the break out from Nikolajewka (with another German infantry division) that saved most of the group.

Gary

[dagwood]

Roberto,

Could you post the link for the Italian Army archive site where you can pull this information? The old site seems to be not functioning.

Thanks,

Gary

[OldSteel]

Morning Gary,
you can use this, it works very well, but yu can only do searches for Russian Front Fallen:
Cerca caduti

Regards
Roberto

[OldSteel]

I hope to do something pleasant by adding a few pieces of my collection, original memorabilia from the Russian Front.

Regards
Roberto



M33 helmet belonged to a veteran of the 277th Infantry Regiment of 156th Vicenza Division, this Division was part of Alpine Expedionary Corps in Russia, which was reached and destroyed by Red Army while he was covering the advance of Div. Tridentina who opened the gap to the encirclement at Nikolajewka, but very few men of this Unit returned to home.
During winter the helmet was covered with white lime on the grounds of mimicry, in spring lime was washed away, but you can still see the marks of the brushing on the external surface and in the last picture you can still see his sketches inside.


Russian Front Veterans badge


Field Cap M34 by 2nd Lieutenant 80th Infantry Regiment "Roma"-9th Div. Pasubio

[dagwood]

Hi Roberto,

Here is my ww2 Italian Alpine display. I am trying to represent the 9th regiment (L'Aquila), 3rd division "Julia". Are the badges and medals placed in the correct positions for this display? The medal around the neck is a battalion medal for company 59 60 61 of the "Vicenza" division. My helmet is also marked "3" but I'm guessing this is for the regiment designation?

Thanks,

Gary

[OldSteel]

Hello Gary,
first of all thank you for having shared this nice display, complete with lots of details and compliments for the knowledge of argument.
As for the medals, the ones you used are actually the most popular ones distributed to Russian Front Veterans, but they were not brought on field uniforms, the ribbons were used instead.
However, the main medal I see, namely the "Ice Cross" (CSIR commemorative medal) was granted to Veterans with the order sheet of April 12, 1943, Julia was reconstituted in the summer of 1943 and dissolved after the armistice in September 1943, for this reason these medals were generally worn by Veterans later in the postwar period.
The helmet, as it is configured, belongs to 3rd Mountain Artillery Regiment of Julia Division.

Regards
Roberto

[dagwood]

Here are a couple more pictures of my display. Thank you Roberto for explaining the use of Italian awards on uniforms during ww2. I suspected that the CSIR medal and Russian campaign badge were mostly worn by veterans after the war but I thought it would like nice on my display. Were any awards actually worn in the field during ww2? Even though the badge is for a infantry regiment I'm trying to recreate a artillery solider. For now I have used a German 50mm mortar backpack until I can find a Breda 45mm one. Does 'green' helmet emblem always refer to the 3 battalion of a regiment, red 2nd, white 1st?

One last question. Was the shoulder sleeve metal badge 'Julia' used by most enlisted men during their time in Russia or was it obsolete or practicable nonexistent by that time?

Thanks the for help!

Gary

[OldSteel]

Hi Gary,
I try to answer your questions:
The badges and medals of the Russian Front were widely worn by Veterans in the post war period, but were also worn in the war period in the following cases:
1) Soldiers past to RSI in the period from September 1943 to April 1945, in particular, they worn the most practical "Russian Front" badge.
2) Soldiers who were part of the Combat Groups aggregates to Allied troops in some cases wore the badge on the British battle dress that was supplied to him, period 1944-45.
3) However, I personally saw photos of the war period where there were soldiers wearing both: "Ice Cross" and the badge, but it was a short-lived use at home on the return from the forehead from April 1943 to September 1943 and generally were souvenir photo made during free time and not in operational situations.
Badges and Medals must be classified in:
-WW2 production
-Postwar production
They are similar but not equal and obviously have a different value, both types were worn by veterans, but often the postwar are sold as WW2 examples.

As far as the "Nappina" color is concerned, it is as you say, that is:
White = first battalion
Red = second battalion
Green = third battalion
Blue = fourth battalion
This rule was valid for all Regiments, this link may be useful:

LISTA GENERALE NAPPINE


The green, as yours example, during WW2 was used by the following Battalions:
Edolo, Saluzzo, Belluno, Bassano and Cividale.
On your Mountain Artillery helmet, you should use the one with green oval, and yellow battery number inside.
The plume holder used by you is the Officer's model, in the case of a soldier the one should be used the steel mobile model, this post can be of help to you:

Http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/world-...nfused-664551/


Instead for the "Shoulder Badge" ("Scudetti" in Italian): they were born by the "Baistocchi reform", a complete revision of the Regio Esercito uniform made in 1934, these badges were used since 1935 and became obsolete in 1940, at the beginning of the war, when new rules were put in place to simplify the uniforms for war use, obviously I can not rule out that it was occasionally used during the war.
To complement your display, I also suggest adding an important accessory to the Italian uniform, the T35 (Territoriale 1935) gas mask, you can yet still find online examples in good condition at low cost, this post may be interesting:

Italian Gas Mask Mod. T35, and other patterns

Given the length of the explanation, I hope that despite my limited knowledge of English language, I have been able to give a clear explanation.

Regards
Roberto