Garibaldi Italian Partisan Division (NOAU)

After the surrender of Italy on September 3, 1943 , the 1st Alpine Division Taurinense was in Niksic and Danilovgrad . She tried to go along the coast of the Adriatic Sea in order to successfully evacuate to her homeland, but about half of the soldiers were disarmed by the Germans. The remaining Italian soldiers were forced to hide in the forests and mountains of Yugoslavia and ask for help from the partisans. On October 11, 1943 , the 1st Italian partisan brigade Aosta was formed, numbering about 800 soldiers from 4 battalions. On October 19, the 2nd Italian partisan brigade of the same strength was formed near Kolasin. In Beran, meanwhile, the 19th Venice Infantry Division was based, which after surrender tried to choose between the partisans and the Chetniks the further side for the continuation of the war. After negotiations with Peko Dapchevich, the Italians managed to persuade the Yugoslavs, and on October 10, 1943, the division took the side of the Yugoslav partisans, and after its troops the 5th brigade was formed with a 2nd shock corps of 5 thousand people.

In Plevle, on December 2, 1943 , a new NOAU division was finally formed, called the Garibaldi partisan division . It consisted of 5 thousand people from four brigades ( 1st , 2nd , 3rd and 4th ), subordinate to the command of the headquarters of the 2nd shock corps of the NOAU, led by Peko Dapchevich. In addition to the soldiers of the 1st Alpine Taurinensee and the 19th Venice Infantry, the division also included artillerymen from the Aosta artillery group and the 155th Emilia Infantry Division , who, after surrender, were blocked in Montenegro, but were combined into the Biela Gora battalion. A distinctive feature of the partisans was the red Garibaldi banner. Close cooperation with the Yugoslav partisans bore fruit in 1944, when the partisans achieved a number of victories even before the arrival of Soviet troops.

On February 13, 1944 , the brigade was reorganized: instead of four brigades, only three remained, and some of the servicemen moved into partisan units of the 2nd Army Corps in order to train them in artillery shooting, communications, engineering and other military specialties. In August 1944, Italian partisans during the siege of Mount Durmitor (2522 m) in Montenegro covered the Yugoslavs, who evacuated the wounded and their field hospitals, which greatly helped the partisans. The division later assisted the 3rd Shock , 29th Herzegovina and 37th Sanjak divisions of the NOAU , fighting in the Lima Valley in Serbia. After the liberation of Montenegro and Herzegovina, the division was relocated to Dubrovnik .

On March 8, 1945, by order of the High Command of the NOAU and the Italian High Command, the division was withdrawn from the NOAU and sent to Sicily to wait for the end of the war. Of the 16 thousand soldiers, 3800 returned armed, 2500 returned with wounds or infectious diseases, 4600 were released from concentration camps. Almost half of the division’s personnel fell in battle or went missing. On April 25, 1945 , the regiment Garibaldi of the three battalions Aosta, Venice and Torino was formed from surviving soldiers in Viterbo . On September 5, 1945, the regiment entered the 185th Folgor Airborne Division , on December 1, 1948 it was transformed into the 182nd Garibaldi Infantry Regiment, and on November 1, 1958 it was named the 182nd Garibaldi Mechanized Regiment.

In 1947, at the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty, Italy and Yugoslavia discussed the question of their border and the identity of Trieste in the presence of the head of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito . Tito said that the Italian partisans rendered invaluable assistance to the Yugoslavs in the victory over fascism. At the same time, Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi argued with the Edward Cardel , who then served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia, during the Italo-Yugoslav negotiations: Kardel at the conference did not recognize the Italians' merit in defeating the fascist dictatorship, saying that Italians the ranks of the Yugoslav partisans fought for the restoration of the monarchy in Italy, and not for the freedom of peoples.

On September 21, 1983, a monument to the Italian partisans was inaugurated in Plevle in the presence of the Chairman of the Presidium of the SFRY Mika Shpilyak and Italian President Sandro Pertini , as well as veterans of the Yugoslav partisan movement and the Italian Resistance Movement. Based on the monument in Italian and Serbo-Croatian, it was written:

On December 2, 1943, the partisan Italian division "Garibaldi" was formed in Plevla, which fought as part of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia - the Garibald partisans made a significant contribution to the struggle for freedom and friendship between the peoples of Yugoslavia and Italy. The Union of Fighters for Montenegro, September 21, 1943 .

Original text (Italian)

Il 2 dicembre 1943 fu costituita a Pljevlja la Divisione partigiana italiana “Garibaldi” che combatté nel quadro dell'Esercito popolare di liberazione della Jugoslavia - I partigiani garibaldini hanno dato un contributo notevole alla lotta per la liberi Jugoslavia e d'Italia. - Associazione combattenti del Montenegro 9/9/1943

Currently in Split on Zagreb Street there is a commemorative plaque dedicated to Italian partisans.

• December 2, 1943 - end of February 1944 : Giovanni Batista Oxilia, former commander of the 19th Venice Infantry Division
• Late February 1944 - July 1, 1944 : Lorenzo Vivalda, former commander of the 1st Alpine Division “Taurinense”
• July 2, 1944 - March 8, 1945 : Carlo Ravnich, former commander of the Aosta artillery group, and after the surrender of Italy, commander of the partisan brigade of the same name

Award Statistics

The division was directly awarded the Order of Brotherhood and Unity. Five divisions of the division were awarded the gold medal “For Military Valor” (8 soldiers also received it), one unit received the silver medal “For Military Valor” (and another 88 soldiers), 4 soldiers were awarded the Military Order of Savoy, 1351 - the bronze medal “For military valor ”, 713 - with a military cross“ For military valor ”.

Some awarded

• Beer, Cesare (major)
• Riva, Mario (captain)
• Pascuali, Willie (lieutenant)
• Rizzo, Luigi (lieutenant)
• Bonetti, Pierfranco (Second Lieutenant)
• Fayla, Giuseppe (Second Lieutenant)
• Ramirez, Ettore (Private Alpine Riflemen)
• Castaña, Oreste (private alpine shooters)

• Darby, Seton-Watson, Phyllis Auty, Laffan, Clissold, Storia della Jugoslavia - Gli slavi del sud dalle origini a oggi, Torino, Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1969.
• Documenti allegati ad una targa Araldica del 182º Reggimento Fanteria Corazzata Garibaldi.
• Documento di presentazione ai soldati da parte del comandante del 182º Reggimento negli anni 1970 al 1976.
• Irnerio Forni, Alpini garibaldini - Ricordi di un medico nel Montenegro dopo l'8 settembre, Milano, Mursia, 1992.
• Milano Stefano Gestro, La divisione italiana partigiana "Garibaldi" Montenegro 1943-1945, Mursia gruppo editoriale, 1981.
• Lando Mannucci, Per l'onore d'Italia - La Divisione italiana partigiana "Garibaldi" in Jugoslavia dall'8 settembre 1943 all'8 marzo 1945, 2 edizione, Roma, 1994 (1985).
• Emilio Rubera (a cura di), La tragedia della III Brigata della divisione italiana partigiana "Garibaldi" (Jugoslavia 1943-45), Roma, 1996.
• Grupa autora. Antifašistički Split, Ratna Kronika 1941. - 1945., Knjiga II, Obrana rodne grude, 13. rujna 1943 .. Preuzeto 16. svibnja 2013 .

• La Divisione Italiana Partigiana “Garibaldi” (Italian) . ANVRG . Associazione Nazionale Veterani e Reduci Garibaldini.
• Slobodna Dalmacija / Goran Kotur. Vandali, znate li da je 'Garibaldi' branio Split od nacista! . Preuzeto 16. svibnja 2013. (Croatian)
• Profile on Vojska.net (Serbohorv.)
• Lando Manougi: Division “Garibaldi” at Tsrno Gori (Serb.)
• Pљevљa: the godish form of the garibaldi division — Sјјћњњe in Italian partisans (Serb.)