3rd Artillery Regiment "Pistoia"

3rd Artillery Regiment "Pistoia"
3° Reggimento Artiglieria "Pistoia"
Regimental coat of arms
Active	1 July 1860 — 13 May 1943 1 Jan. 1950 — 1 July 1953 21 Oct. 1975 — 30 April 1991
Country	Italy
Branch	Italian Army
Part of	Mechanized Brigade "Goito"
Garrison/HQ	Vercelli
Motto(s)	"Ardoris peritus"
Anniversaries	15 June 1913 - Second Battle of the Piave River
Decorations	1x Bronze Medal of Army Valour
Insignia
Regimental gorget patches

The 3rd Artillery Regiment "Pistoia" (Template:Lang-it) is an inactive field artillery regiment of the Italian Army, which was based in Vercelli in Piedmont. The regiment was formed in 1860 by the Royal Sardinian Army and in 1861 joined the Royal Italian Army. During World War I the regiment served on the on the Italian front. In 1935 the regiment was assigned to the 16th Infantry Division "Fossalta", which in 1939 became the 16th Infantry Division "Pistoia". In September 1942 the division was transferred to North Africa for the Western Desert campaign of World War II. After the defeat in the Second Battle of El Alamein the division retreated with the other Axis forces into Tunisia, where the division fought in the Tunisian campaign until it surrendered to Allied forces on 13 May 1943.

The regiment was reformed in 1950 and assigned to the Infantry Division "Mantova". In 1953 the regiment was disbanded and its personnel used to reform the 6th Mountain Artillery Regiment. In 1975 the unit was reformed in Vercelli as 3rd Field Artillery Group "Pastrengo" and assigned to the 3rd Mechanized Brigade "Goito". In 1982 the group was equipped with self-propelled howitzers and renamed 3rd Self-propelled Field Artillery Group "Pastrengo". With the end of the Cold War the group was disbanded in 1991. The regimental anniversary falls, as for all artillery regiments, on June 15, the beginning of the Second Battle of the Piave River in 1918.

History

Italian Wars of Independence

After the Second Italian War of Independence the Kingdom of Sardinia annexed on 22 March 1860 the Royal Provinces of Emilia and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Consequently, on 25 March 1860, the artillery units of the annexed territories were integrated into the Royal Sardinian Army: six field batterie, six fortress companies, and one workers company from the Tuscan Army, and nine field batterie, six fortress companies, and one workers company from the Emilian Army. The influx of artillery units and the growth of units in the runup to the and during the war necessitated a new organization of the Piedmontese artillery, which at the time consisted of the Workers Regiment, the Fortress Regiment, the 1st Field Artillery Regiment, and the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment.

On 17 June 1860, which today is celebrated as the founding date of the Italian Army's Artillery Arm, four new regiments were ordered to be formed on 1 July 1860: the 3rd Regiment — Fortress Regiment, the 4th Regiment — Fortress Regiment, the 7th Regiment — Field Regiment, and the 8th Regiment — Field Regiment; while on the same day the Workers Regiment was to be renamed 1st Regiment — Workers Regiment, with the Fortress Regiment destined to become the 2nd Regiment — Fortress Regiment, and the 1st Field Regiment and 2nd Field Regiment, slated to be renamed 5th Regiment — Field Regiment and 6th Regiment — Field Regiment.

On 1 July 1860 the 3rd Regiment — Fortress Regiment was formed in Genoa and received eight fortress companies from the former Piedmontese Fortress Regiment, as well as two Tuscan fortress companies and one Emilian fortress company. One of the Piedmontese companies had participated in 1848 in the First Italian War of Independence and fought in the Battle of Pastrengo, where it earned a Bronze Medal of Military Valour, which was affixed to the regiment's flag and is depicted on the regiment's coat of arms. The same battery was also part of the Sardinian Expeditionary Corps, which was deployed to Crimea during the Crimean War in 1855-56.

After the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1861 the regiment moved from Genoa to Naples and in 1866 from Naples to Capua. The same year the regiment participated with three companies in the Third Italian War of Independence. In 1868 the regiment moved from Capu to Turin and in 1870 to Bologna. In September of the same year one of the regiment's companies participated in the capture of Rome. On 13 November 1870 the regiment was renamed 3rd Artillery Regiment and now fielded five fortress companies and eight field batteries. On 30 September 1873 the regiment ceded its remaining four fortress companies to help form the 12th Fortress Regiment. On 29 June 1882 the regiment was renamed 3rd Field Artillery Regiment.

On 1 November 1884 the regiment ceded two batteries to help from the 12th Field Artillery Regiment and on 1 November 1888 the regiment ceded eight batteries and one train company to help form the 15th Field Artillery Regiment. In 1895-96 the regiment provided three officers and 52 troops to augment units deployed to Eritrea for the First Italo-Ethiopian War. During the Italo-Turkish War in 1911-12 the regiment provided 14 officers and 403 troops to augment units deployed for the war. On 1 April 1912 the regiment ceded some of its personnel to help form the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment and on 1 January 1914 the regiment ceded its II Group to help form the 30th Field Artillery Regiment.

World War I

At the outbreak of World War I the regiment consisted of a command, three groups with 75/27 mod. 11 field guns, and a depot. During the war the regiment's depot in Bologna formed the commands of the 39th Field Artillery Regiment and 13th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment. The depot also formed two heavy field howitzer groups, and ten heavy field cannon groups.