Bands (Italian Army Irregulars) - Characteristics

Characteristics

A "Banda" (singular) was approximatively a company size unit. The larger unit was the battalion size "Gruppo Bande" (infantry) or "Gruppo Squadroni" (cavalry). The "Milizia" a regimental unit appeared briefly during the fascist period in the Balkans.

The first of these irregular units employed by the Regio Esercito originated from a mercenary Arab force employed by the Ottoman Empire and called Basci Buzuk, 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 Bands 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 Somalia during the 1920sIn Somalia the Italians also employed Dubats - levies that were maintained on a permanent basis and were better trained and equipped than the essentially tribal Banda.

During the guerrilla war that continued in Ethiopia after the 1936 Italian invasion, groups of irregular Banda were recruited amongst tribal groups collaborating with the Italian regime. One ot the best known of these was the Gruppo Bande irregolari "Uollo Ambassel" in northern Ethiopia.

While most Bande were recruited in the various 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.

Not only the Italian Regio Esercito employed Bands but also the other branches of the Italian armed forces and corps. The Banda n° 9 "della Marina", formed of Greek-Orthodox 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 Reggimento "San Marco" during the period 1941-43.