Railway Engineer Regiment (Italy)

The Railway Engineer Regiment  () is a military engineer regiment of the Italian Army based in Castel Maggiore in the Emilia Romagna. Today the regiment is administratively assigned to the army's Engineer Command and NATO's only unit capable of railway construction and operation.

History

Formation 
During the American Civil War Union railway troops built  of railroad and   of railroad bridges. The usefulness of these troops was noted in the Kingdom of Italy and on 30 September 1873 the Italian defense minister Cesare Ricotti-Magnani ordered that each of the two engineer regiments of the Royal Italian Army was to form two railway construction companies and three railroad operations companies. On 2 July 1895 these railway companies were combined in the battalion-sized Railway Brigade, which consisted of four railway construction companies and two railroad operations companies. In October 1910 the brigade was elevated to regiment with the following structure:

 Railway Engineer Regiment , in Turin
 I Railway Engineer Battalion
 II Railway Engineer Battalion
 Transport Battalion
 Railway Operations Section
 Turin Depot
 Rome Depot

One of the companies assigned to the new regiment, the 6th Diggers Company of the 2nd Engineer Regiment, had distinguished itself during crossing of the Macerone pass on 20 October 1860 during the Third Italian War of Independence and arrived with a Bronze Medal of Military Valour, which was affixed to the flag of the newly raised regiment.

World War I  
During World War I the regiment mobilized two more railway engineer battalions, twelve railway construction companies, one railway operations battalion, four decauville companies, and 177 photoelectric sections, which operated searchlights along the Italian Front. During the conflict the regiment's units built  of railway,  of decauville trench railways and 144 bridges. The regiment began to operate the Chivasso–Ivrea–Aosta railway in 1915 and after World War I it also began to operate the Bolzano-Meran-Mals railway in the newly annexed province of South Tyrol.

World War II 
During World War II the regiment mobilized 13 railway engineer battalions and three railroad operation battalions. The battalions saw service in Libya and Tunisia during the Western Desert Campaign and Tunisian Campaign, in Southern Ukraine as part of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia, in Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece and France. In 1941 the 9th Company of the IV Railway Engineer Battalion built a combined road and rail bridge over the Corinth Canal, using an Austrian Roth-Waagner-Brückengerät. The same battalion repaired the bridge over the Gorgopotamos river after the British-Greek Operation Harling had successfully destroyed the bridge on 25 November 1942. Another bridge repaired by the regiment's troops was the Stampetta Bridge in Slovenia. The regiment's I Railway Engineer Battalion served in Ukraine and Russia, where during the Battle of Arbuzovka the battalion fought in the frontline as infantry, earning a War Cross of Military Valour. After Italy changed sides with the Armistice of Cassibile on 8 September 1943 and the regiment and its battalions were disbanded by the Germans.

Cold War 
On 15 December 1949 the I Railway Engineer Battalion was reformed as part of the 2nd Bridge Engineer Regiment. On 1 January 1954 the I Railway Battalion became an autonomous unit and the process of reforming the Railway Engineer Regiment began. On 1 October 1957 the regiment was officially reformed with the following structure:

 Railway Engineer Regiment , in Turin
 Command Company
 I Railway Engineer Battalion, in Castel Maggiore
 II Bridge Engineer Battalion, in Legnago
 Railway Operations Company

On 1 January 1962 the regiment received the VI Army Corps Engineer Battalion in Bologna and on 1 February 1964 the II Bridge Engineer Battalion returned to the 2nd Bridge Engineer Regiment. On 1 July 1965 the Railway Operations Company was elevated to II Railway Engineer Battalion (Operations). The battalion returned to operate the Chivasso–Ivrea–Aosta railway in 1949. With the 1975 army reform the VI Army Corps Engineer Battalion was disbanded on 31 October 1975.

On 8 October 1977 floodwaters of the Toce river swept the railway bridge of the Domodossola–Milan railway between Fondotoce and Feriolo away and the Railway Engineer Regiment was called up to rebuild the  bridge. On 27 May 1978 the new bridge was opened and traffic between Milan and the Simplon Railway could resume. For its work the regiment was awarded a Bronze Cross of Army Merit.

Recent times 
After the Bosnian War the regiment was deployed from 1996 to 1998 to Bosnia-Herzegovina to repair the  long Novi Grad–Bosanska Otoka–Martin Brod–Strmica railway in Northern Bosnia, which was heavily damaged during the war. For its service in Bosnia-Herzegovina the regiment was awarded a Silver Medal of Army Valour. On 1 December 1997 the regiment passed from the Tuscan-Emilian Military Region to the army's Engineer Grouping, which on 10 September 2010 became the Engineer Command.

In July 1999 after the Kosovo War the regiment was deployed to Kosovo, where the regiment operated the Skopje–Kosovo Polje–Pristina railway, and repaired/operated the Kosovo Polje–Peć and Klina–Prizren railways. The regiment returned to Italy in December 1999. For its service in Kosovo the regiment was awarded a Gold Cross of Army Merit.

In 2001 the regiment ceded the operation of the Chivasso–Ivrea–Aosta railway to the Ferrovie dello Stato and on 1 February 2002 the regiment activated the Operations Battalion in Ozzano Emilia, which received some of the troops and equipment of the 2nd Railway Engineer Battalion (Operations) in Turin, before the latter disbanded on 31 August of the same year and reformed as 32nd Engineer Battalion the next day. The new Operations Battalion was disbanded on 31 October 2017 and its functions and personnel merged into the 1st Railway Engineer Battalion.

Current structure 

As of 2019 the Railway Engineer Regiment consists of:

  Regimental Command, in Castel Maggiore
 Command and Logistic Support Company
 Railway Engineer Battalion
 1st Railway Engineer Company
 2nd Railway Engineer Company
 Technical Support Company
 Training Company

The Command and Logistic Support Company fields the following platoons: C3 Platoon, Transport and Materiel Platoon, Medical Platoon, Commissariat Platoon, and EOD Platoon. The regiment possess its own diesel locomotives, rolling stock and railway construction cars.

External links
Italian Army Website: Reggimento Genio Ferrovieri

References

Category:Engineer Regiments of Italy