The 3rd Army ( it, 3ª Armata) was a
World War I and
World War II field army of the
Royal Italian Army
The Royal Italian Army ( it, Regio Esercito, , Royal Army) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfre ...
and the only army-level command of the
Italian Army during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
.
World War I
At the start of the participation of Italy in World War I (May 1915), the 3rd Army occupied the southern part of the
Isonzo Front. It was commanded by
Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta and consisted of the
* VI Corps (Lieutenant General
Carlo Ruelle Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to:
*Carlo (name)
* Monte Carlo
*Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
*A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince Cha ...
),
* VII Corps (Lieutenant General
Vincenzo Garioni),
* XI Corps (Lieutenant General
Giorgio Cigliana
Giorgio Cigilana was an Italian general. He had been the governor of Tripolitania for a short time in 1914.
At the beginning of World War I he commanded the 11th corps of the 3rd Italian army.
Biography
Cigilana was born in Castellamonte (Turin ...
).
The 3rd Army participated in all eleven
Battles of the Isonzo
The Battles of the Isonzo (known as the Isonzo Front by historians, sl, soška fronta) were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I mostly on the territory of present-day Slovenia, and the remaind ...
(1914-1917). It withdrew in relative good order during the
Caporetto disaster of October 1917 and played a leading role in the final victory offensive a year later. This gave it its name "La Armata Invitta" ("The undefeated Army").
There is a museum of the 3rd Army in
Padua.
World War II
In June 1940, the 3rd Army was formed and based in Southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. It was disbanded on 20 December 1940.
Its commander was General
Carlo Geloso.
Cold War
As a founding member of NATO Italy was obliged to assign in case of war its military forces to NATO's integrated military command. While the
Italian air force would have come under
Fifth Allied Tactical Air Force
Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five.
Fifth or The Fifth may refer to:
* Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth"
* Fifth column, a political term
* Fifth disease, a contagious rash that ...
(5 ATAF) in
Vicenza, the Italian Army would have come under
Allied Land Forces Southern Europe (LANDSOUTH) in
Verona. However tensions between Italy and
Yugoslavia over the
Free Territory of Trieste were high and as Yugoslavia was not a
Warsaw Pact member any conflict between the countries would have likely not involved NATO. Therefore on 1 May 1952 the Italian Army re-activated the 3rd Army in
Padua to be able to circumvent NATO's chain of command in case a war would break out between Italy and
Yugoslavia.
3rd Army duplicated the functions of LANDSOUTH with a purely Italian staff. To not violate NATO's integrated military command Italy described 3rd Army in all official documents as "the command designated "3rd Army"".
On the same date as the command designated "3rd Army" the army also activated two
corps commands: the
IV Army Corps in
Bolzano and
V Army Corps in
Vittorio Veneto, followed by the
VI Army Corps in
Bologna in 1956 and the
III Army Corps in
Milan in 1957. During peacetime the corps' were assigned to the army's General Staff in Rome, while during wartime, depending on who the enemy would have been, the corps would have been assigned either to 3rd Army or LANDSOUTH.
However with the easing of tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia, which culminated in the division of the Trieste Free Territory with the
Treaty of Osimo, the army decided to disband the command designated "3rd Army", along with VI Army Corps on 1 April 1972, with all the functions of higher command resting with LANDSOUTH from that date onward.
References
{{Large formations of Italy in World War II
Field armies of Italy in World War I
Field armies of Italy in World War II