The 4th Mountain Artillery Regiment Italian: 4° Reggimento Artiglieria da Montagna) was a field artillery regiment of the Italian Army, specializing in mountain combat. Since their formation the Mountain Artillery Regiments have served alongside the Alpini, a mountain infantry corps of the Italian Army, that distinguished itself in combat during World War I and World War II. The Alpini and Mountain Artillery regiments share, besides their close history, the distinctive Cappello Alpino.
The regiment was constituted in 1934. The regimental motto was: "Su tutte l'erte e sopra ogni cima". It consisted of the following units:
- 4th Mountain Artillery Regiment HQ based in Cuneo
- Command Company in Cuneo
- "Pinerolo" Alpine Artillery Group in Beinette
- 7th Battery in Beinette
- 8th Battery in Borgo San Dalmazzo
- 9th Battery in Boves
- Ammunition and Supply Company in Crava
- "Mondovì" Alpine Artillery Group in Mondovì
- 10th Battery in Villanova Mondovì
- 11th Battery in Mondovì
- 12th Battery in Villanova Mondovì
- Ammunition and Supply Company in Magliano Alpi
- "Val Po'" Alpine Artillery Group in Piasco
- 64th Battery in Boves
- 72nd Battery in Piasco
- 73rd Battery in Verzuolo
- 116th Battery in Boves
- Ammunition and Supply Company in Manta
The regiment was sent with the 4th Cuneense Alpine Division to fight in the Soviet Union during World War II and was destroyed during the Soviet Operation Little Saturn in January 1943. 379 of the Regiments 3,897 men survived the Soviet offensive; none of the soldiers of the Artillery Group Mondovì survived.
Famous quotes containing the words mountain, artillery and/or regiment:
“We are wearied of our huts
And the smoky smell of our garments.
We are sick with desire of the sun
And the grass on the mountains.”
—Unknown. The Grass on the Mountain (l. 11–14)
“Another success is the post-office, with its educating energy augmented by cheapness and guarded by a certain religious sentiment in mankind; so that the power of a wafer or a drop of wax or gluten to guard a letter, as it flies over sea over land and comes to its address as if a battalion of artillery brought it, I look upon as a fine meter of civilization.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What makes a regiment of soldiers a more noble object of view than the same mass of mob? Their arms, their dresses, their banners, and the art and artificial symmetry of their position and movements.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)