Many thanks to Arturo Filippo Lorioli for contributing this article.
1st Rgt. "Fanti dell'Aria" (Air Infantry)
1st Libyan Parachutist Battalion. (colonial troops)
2nd Libyan Parachutist Battalion. (colonial troops)
1st National Parachutist Battalion. of Lybia (italians).
This unit, togheter with the two Libyan Battalions, were trained at the Libyan Parachutist School Camp of Castel Benito (near Tripoli - Libya). All the following units were trained in Italy, at the National Parachutist School of Tarquinia, and later at the Parachutist School of Viterbo too.
As the Carabinieri are the senior service of the Italian Army, the number of the 3rd Carabinieri Battalion. was soon changed in 1st, while the 1st and 2nd Battalions were renamed 2nd and 3rd.
4th Parachutist Battalion. 5th Parachutist Battalion. 6th Parachutist Battalion. 7th Parachutist Battalion. 8th Guastatori (assault engineers) Parachutist Battalion. Regimental Arty.company, 1st Parachutist Rgt. Regimental Arty.company , 2nd Parachutist Rgt. Parachutist Support company. (for the 185th Par.Div. "Folgore") Parachutist Engineers company. (for the 185th Par.Div. "Folgore") Parachutist Radio company. (for the 185th Par.Div. "Folgore") Parachutist Mortars company. (81mm) (for the 185th Par.Div. "Folgore")
9th Parachutist Battalion. 10th Parachutist Battalion. 11th Parachutist Battalion. 12th Parachutist Battalion. 13th Parachutist Battalion. 14th Parachutist Battalion. 10th/bis Parachutist Battalion. Regimental Arty.company, 3rd Parachutist Rgt. Regimental Arty.company (later 1st Battalion/184th Arty.Rgt. with 47/32 AT guns) Regimental Arty.company (later 2nd Battalion/184th Arty.Rgt. with 47/32 AT guns) Indian former-POWs Parachutist platoon, of the "Azad-Hindustani" Battalion of the "Frecce Rosse" (Red Arrows) Group. Parachutist detachment of the Assault Battalion. "Tunisia" of the "Frecce Rosse " (Red Arrows) Group. 101st company, 1st Battalion/10th Arditi (commandos) Rgt. 111th company, 2nd Battalion/ 10th Arditi Rgt. 1st Parachutist Unit (Air Force) Parachutist Battalion of the "San Marco" Naval Inf.Rgt. (Navy) Parachutist training to elements of the SIM - Servizio Informazioni Militari (Military Intelligence Service) for espionage missions.
15th Parachutist Battalion. 16th Parachutist Battalion. 17th Parachutist Battalion. 18th Parachutist Battalion. 19th Parachutist Battalion. 20th Parachutist Battalion. 8th/bis Parachutist Battalion. 184th Guastatori (assault engineers) Parachutist Battalion. Regimental Arty.company (later 3rd Battalion/184th Arty.Rgt. with 47/32 AT guns) 121st company, 3rd Battalion/10th Arditi Rgt. 131th company, 3rd Battalion/10th Arditi Rgt. 285th Parachutist Assaul Battalion "Folgore" 1st A.D.R.A. Battalion (Arditi Distruttori Regia Aeronautica - Air Force Saboteurs Commandos) Parachutist Support company. (for the 184th Par.Div. "Nembo") Parachutist Engineers company. (for the 184th Par.Div. "Nembo") Parachutist Radio company. (for the 184th Par.Div. "Nembo") Parachutist Motorciycle company. (for the 184th Par.Div. "Nembo") Parachutist Mortars company. (81mm) (for the 184th Par.Div. "Nembo") 1st Parachutist Arty Battalion (intended for the planned Par.Div. "Ciclone")
The abovementioned units were organized as follows:
1st Parachutist Rgt: 2nd, 3rd and 4th Par.Battalions., regimental Arty.company. 2nd Parachutist Rgt: 5th, 6th and 7th Par.Battalions., regimental Arty.company. 3rd Parachutist Rgt: 9th, 10th and 11th Par.Battalions., regimental Arty.company.
The Regimental Arty.companys were soon renamed 1st, 2nd and 3rd Par.Arty.Battalions, and later grupped in the Parachutist Arty.Rgt. The abovementioned units, togheter with the 8th Guastatori Battalion and the divisional companys were grouped on September 1st 1941 as the 1st Parachutist Div. (the 3rd Rgt actualy joined the Div. some monthes later, because it was still training). On June 1942 the Div. got his name, "Folgore" (Lightning), and some monthes later was moved to North Africa (under the cover name 185th "Cacciatori d'Africa" Infantry Division - later 185th "Folgore" Parachutist Division), changing the numbers of his Rgts as follows:
1st Par.Rgt : renamed 3rd and later 185th Par.Rgt. 2nd Par.Rgt : renamed 1st and later 186th Par.Rgt. 3rd Par.Rgt : renamed 2nd and later 187th Par.Rgt. Par.Arty.Rgt : 185th Par.Arty.Rgt.
The 185th Rgt did not went to North Africa, but exchanged its 2nd and 4th Battalions for the 11th Battalion of the 187th Rgt and remained in Italy as cadre for the new 184th Parachutist Div. "Nembo", formed on November 1942, that was built up in the following monthes as follows:
185th Parachutist Rgt: 3rd, 8th/bis and 11th Battalions. 184th Parachutist Rgt: 12th, 13th and 14th Battalions. 183rd Parachutist Rgt: 10th/bis, 15th and 16th Battalions. 184th Parachutist Arty.Rgt. 184th Guastatori Battalion.
An armoured mixed Battalion with L6/40 light tanks and M14/42 medium tanks was attached to the Division (not parachutist trained, of course!)
A new Prachutist Div., named "Ciclone", was under construction at the moment of the September 8th 1943 Armistice. At that time the following units were already operational : 17th and 19th Para Battalions, 1st ParaArty.Battalion.
The 18th and 20th Para Battalions were still training.
Navy: elements of the "San Marco" Naval Inf. Rgt started parachutist training in the summer of 1941, and were formed in a Battalion early in 1942. The Battalion (called "P" - parachutist) was un-officialy grouped with the assault swimmer Battalion of the "San Marco" (Battalion "N" - nuotatori), and were usually referred to as the "N-P" Battalion (Battaglione Nuotatori-Paracadutisti), even if the two units were independent and never officialy merged.
Air Force: on November 1942 the Air Force grouped its 1st Parachutist Unit (renamed "Battalion") with the "Loreto" Battalion (an air-transportable ground-crews and engineers unit expecialy trained to operate captured enemy airfield) in the 1st Air Force Assault Regiment "Amedeo d'Aosta". A 3rd Battalion of Parachutist Demolition Engineers was planned but never formed. At the moment of the September 8th 1943 Armistice the 2nd Battalion ADRA had just begun the training of its first elements.
1st Battalion/1st "Fanti dell'Aria" Rgt and 1st National Parachutist Battalion of Lybia: Formed the "Mobile Group Tonini" under the 10th Army, and fought against the British in the "O'Connor's Offensive". The Lybian Battalion was almost destroyed defending the El Fteiah airport, and its last element were finaly overrun at Agedabia. The National Battalion managed to retreat to Benghazi, when it was part of the "Pasquali Group". After the surrender of Benghazi the vast majority of the paras managed to infiltrate the British lines and reach the Italian lines, where they were re-embarked to Italy and divided among the new Battalions forming at Tarquinia. I have found no trace of any operational use of the 2nd Lybian Parachutist Battalion. The sources are a bit confusing, as some of them states that the National Parachutist Battalion of Lybia was the 2nd Battalion of the "Fanti dell'Aria" Rgt, but I think it was a separate unit.
1st Carabinieri Parachutists Battalion: from December 18th to Dec 20th 1940 the Battalion was severely engaged by the british in a defensive action at Eluet el Asel, in Lybia. Albeit surrounded, the survivors managed to break through the british lines at Lamluda, and one platoon was attached to the 285th Parachutist Assault Battalion=
Division "Folgore":
The first combat of the Div. was during the "Six days battle", attacking the Alam Halfa position from August 30 to September 3rd 1942 with remarkable local success. During September the Div. dug-in as the southernmost element of the Axis line, divided in the following Tactical
Groups (from north to south):
The two units were engaged in several raids against Allies airfields and communication lines in Tunisia, Lybia and Algeria in 1943. Those operations, performed by small teams of 8 or 9 men each, were generally unsuccesfull, and only four objectives were reached : the bridges of Bonira, Beni Mansour and Uadi Bouduvaou and the Airport of Benina North. A few teams of the 10th Rgt were air-dropped in Sicily on July 1943 to operate sabotage missions behind the Allies lines, but due to the hostility of the civilian population (already fed-up of the war) were soon betrayed and captured.
On spring 1943 the 185th Rgt was sent to Venezia-Julia (the north-eastern Italian region) for operations against the Jugoslavian communist partisans, performed very efficently with the complete securing of the border zone around Gorizia. The rest of the Div. went to Sardinia, to defend the island from the possible Allies landing with the German 90th Panzergrenadieren Div.=
Meanwhile the 185th Rgt was moved to the South of Italy, and at the beginning of August to Sicily, where it fought several delaying action to cover the retreat of the Axis forces. After the evacuation of Sicily, similar delaying actions were fought in Calabria.
The 19th Battalion of the "Ciclone" div fought a bitter battle against German forces on the Futa Pass until September 12th, when it disbanded to avoid capture. It is worth to point out that the decision was always an hard one, and the units that went to the Allies side did it quite grundingly, to honour their oath of fidelity to the King, while the ones that went to their not-so-beloved German kameraden did it because they could not accept the shame of the treason committed by the King.
The 11th Battalion of the "Nembo" was almost immediatelly integrated in the Allies forces, as 1st Recce Squadron "F". The rest of the immediatelly available "Nembo" parachutists were formed in the 185th Independent Parachutist Unit
"Nembo" (4 para, 1 mortars, 1 AT guns and 1 HQ companys), and entered in the 1st Motorized Group, the first major unit of the Royal Army to enter service with the Allies.
From a group of men of the 10th Rgt a new 9th Assault Unit was formed, as well as a small unit of Navy "N-P", while the SIM (military intelligence) still has some of its parachute-trained operatives.
The "Nembo" div was reorganized in Sardinia, and returned on the mainland by mid 1944, organized as follows (all severely understrenght units):
183rd Rgt (15th and 16th Battalions)184th Rgt (13th and 14th Battalions) 184th Arty.Rgt (1st Battalion with 75/27 guns and 2nd Battalion with 100/32 guns) 5th AT Battalion (as far as I know not parachute-trained) 184th Guastatori Battalion Motorcycle company Mortars company Engineers company Radio company Carabinieri company (as far as I know not parachute-trained)
Later the Div. was merged with the 185th Battalion , the "San Marco" Naval Inf.Rgt and several Arty units to form the "Nembo" Combat Group . The 183rd Rgt was renamed 1st Battalion, the 184th Rgt was renamed 2nd Battalion, the 185th Battalion and the 184th Guastatori Battalion were merged in the 3rd Battalion, the 184th Arty.Rgt. was enlarged with non-para Artillery units and renamed Artillery Regiment "Nembo" (with 5 Battalions). The 9th Assault Battalion decome the 3rd Battalion of the "Legnano" Combat Group.
The new "Nebo" fought well against the Germans at Mainarde, Monte Maggiore, Filottrano and Grizzano (this last on April 19th 1945, against the German Fallschirmjaeger!).
The 1st Recce Squadron "F" was the only parachutist unit of the new Royal Army to perform several operational launches, the largest was Operation "Herring 1", a sabotage operation behind the German "Gothic Line", and performed brillantly on the zone of Poggio Rusco.
After the Armistice: the RSI - Repubblica Sociale Italiana (Italian SociaRepublic) - pro-Axis:
The first new unit to be formed was the Italian Parachutists Volunteers Group, formed by elements of the ADRA, 10th Arditi Rgt, 17th, 18th and 20th "Ciclone" Battalions, 12th and 8th "Nembo" Battalions and a replacement unit of the "Nembo" then training at Viterbo. Renamed Parachutist Group "Nembo", the unit was assigned to the 2nd Fallschirjaeger Div. One company of the 10th Arditi Rgt entered too in the 2nd FJ as its recce units, and followed this German Div in Russia and then in Holland, where it fought in the Market Garden operation.
The "P" Battalion of the Navy entered in the 10th Naval Infantry Division (a kind of "private army" inside the RSI forces), and fought with them on the North-Eastern border against the Yugolsvian 5th Korpus. Meanwhile over 1200 other parachutists regrouped at Spoleto with the 4th FJ Div, were they were re-trained to use German parachutes. A group (about 150) of them were trained as instructors at the Fallschirmschule N.4 of Freiburg (Germany), while several officers underwent specialized tactical training at the Waffenschule fur Fallschirmtruppen of Le Courtine, near Avignon (France). From this men was recruited an Independent Parachutist Battalion "Nembo", that fought very creditably against the Allied at Anzio, losing over 70% of its strenght. On December 1943 the Parachutist School of the RSI was formed at Tradate, toghether with the Air Force Arditi Parachutist Group (Air Force, also called the "Azzurro" -blue-Battalion) with 4 parachutist companys and an HQ company.
On April 1944 the Parachutist Rgt "Folgore" of the RSI Air Force was formed. Its 1st ("Folgore") and 2nd ("Nembo") Battalions come from the abovementioned Parachutist Group "Nembo", that was disbanded, and the 3rd ("Azzurro") Battalion was the Air Force Arditi Parachutist Battalion. A 2nd Parachutist Rgt "Nembo" was later formed, organized on the 4th "Ciclone", 5th "Fulmine" Battalions and the light AA-AT Arty Battalion "Uragano". Two Glider Guastatori Battalions (6th "Aquila" and 7th "Turbine") were planned, but never formed. A small number of operatives were parachute-trained for the Defence Intelligence Service (SID - Servizio Informazioni Difesa) of the RSI, and even several girls of the Women Auxiliary Service (SAF - Servizio Ausiliario Femminile) were part of the support and HQ units of the "Folgore", and parachute-trained.
On September 1943 the National Republican Guard (Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana - the new Corps that grouped the former Carabinieri, Police, Colonial Police and Blackshirts units) started recruiting The "Fulgor" Parachutist Battalion, later renamed "Mazzarini" (after the first KIA of the unit), that was part of the AA Div. "Etna" as a fast-reaction anti-parachutist unit.
As almost all the units of the RSI, its parachutist were mainly used against the Yugolsavian 5th Korpus on the North East border, and in anti-partisan warfare. Only two units fought against the Allies (Independent Parachutist Battalion "Nembo" and the 3rd "Azzurro" Battalion) performing very creditably on the Anzio front (Ardea, Molletta, Cisterna, Aprilia, Pomezia), and Castel di Decima (near Roma).