The 6th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment () is an inactive artillery regiment of the Italian Army, which was last based in Treviso in Veneto and assigned to the 5th Army Corps. In 1912, the Royal Italian Army formed two heavy field artillery regiments, among them the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment in Modena. At the outbreak of World War I the regiment consisted of six groups with a combined 14 batteries. During the war the regiment acted as training unit and mobilized seven artillery grouping commands, 18 cannon group commands, one howitzers group command, and 59 batteries of various types for the aforementioned group commands. The regiment's groups served on the Italian front, and in 1917 two of the regiment's groups fought on the Montello hill during the Second Battle of the Piave River. In 1926, the regiment was renumbered as 6th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment. During World War II the regiment formed two army corps artillery grouping commands, one of which was transferred to the 11th Army Corps Artillery Regiment, while the other grouping participated in 1941 in the invasion of Yugoslavia. The grouping then remained in Yugoslavia on occupation duty. The regiment and its grouping were disbanded by invading German forces after the announcement of the Armistice of Cassibile on 8 September 1943.
In 1951, the Italian Army reformed the regiment in Piacenza. The regiment was assigned to the VII Territorial Military Command and equipped with British and Italian materiel. In 1974, the regiment was disbanded and its flag transferred to the Shrine of the Flags in the Vittoriano in Rome for safekeeping. In 1976, the 33rd Field Artillery Regiment was disbanded and two of the disbanded regiment's batteries were used to form the Artillery Specialists Group "Folgore", which was assigned to the Mechanized Division "Folgore". In 1986, the division was disbanded and the Artillery Specialists Group "Folgore" was renamed 6th Artillery Specialists Group "Montello" and transferred to the 5th Army Corps' Artillery Command. The group was assigned the flag and traditions of the 6th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment. In 1991, the group was disbanded and the flag of the 6th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment returned to the Shrine of the Flags in the Vittoriano in Rome.
The regimental anniversary falls, as for all Italian Army artillery regiments, on June 15 1918, the beginning of the Second Battle of the Piave River. This article is about the Royal Italian Army's 6th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, which was a support unit assigned to a corps-level command. This regiment is unrelated to the 6th Heavy Artillery Regiment, which was a support unit assigned to an army-level command, and unrelated to the 6th Field Artillery Regiment, which was a support unit assigned to a division-level command.
History Formation
In 1910, the Royal Italian Army decided to form a new artillery speciality, which would be equipped with heavier howitzers than the field artillery's 75/27 mod. 06 field guns and with more mobile howitzers than the fortress artillery's siege mortars and siege howitzers. In 1911, the army ordered 112 15 cm sFH 13 heavy field howitzers from the German arms manufacturer Krupp and acquired a license to produce the gun in Italy. In March 1912, Krupp delivered last of the 112 ordered howitzers and, on 1 April 1912, the Royal Italian Army formed two heavy field artillery regiments: the 1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment in Casale Monferrato and the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment in Modena. Both regiments consisted of a command, a depot, the I Howitzers Group, and the II Howitzers Group. Each group fielded two batteries, with four 15 cm sFH 13 howitzers per battery. Upon entering Italian service the howitzers received the designation 149/12 heavy field howitzer.
The personnel for the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment's command, two groups, and depot was drawn from the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment and 15th Field Artillery Regiment, while the army's 149/12 howitzers training battery at San Maurizio Canavese was divided between the two regiments. On 1 November 1912, both regiments added the III Howitzers Group with three batteries and two years later, on 15 November 1914, both regiments added the IV Howitzers Group with three batteries. Between 5 and 20 January 1915, both regiments added the V and VI groups with two batteries per group. Afterwards each regiment fielded six groups with a combined 14 batteries and 56 howitzers.
World War I On 24 May 1915, the day Italy entered World War I, the regiment's six groups were assigned to the following units:
I Group (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battery) — 3rd Army II Group (4th and 5th Battery) — VI Army Corps III Group (6th and 7th Battery) — 2nd Cavalry Division "Veneto", XI Army Corps IV Group (8th, 9th, and 10th Battery) — XII Army Corps V Group (11th and 12th Battery) — 4th Army VI Group (13th and 14th Battery) — 4th Army
During the war the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment acted as a training unit, while its groups fought as autonomous units on the Italian front. As the production of 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers turned out to be difficult and slow, the army decided to from cannon groups equipped with towed 105/28 cannons, respectively cannon groups equipped with 102/35 mod. 14 naval guns mounted on SPA 9000 trucks instead. In March 1916, the depots of field artillery regiments began with the formation of the first two howitzer groups equipped with 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers produced in Italy by Vickers-Terni and Ansaldo. However due to the complexity of the Krupp gun carriage and the need to replace more than 40 damaged gun carriages of units at the front, the 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers were delivered with a siege carriage, that lacked the desired mobility. In April 1916, the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment's six groups were renumbered as VII to XII group and the regiment's batteries were similarly renumbered as 15th to 28th battery. Consequently, the regiment's two new howitzer groups were numbered XIII and XIV, while the next two groups formed by the regiment in May 1916 were numbered XV and XVI. Afterwards the two heavy field artillery regiment's 16 howitzer groups fielded 40 batteries with a total of 160 149/12 howitzers. During the year 1916, the heavy field artillery's number of groups equipped with cannons grew to 20 cannon groups: 14 of which fielded 42 batteries with 105/28 cannons, while the remaining six groups fielded 16 batteries with 102/35 mod. 14 naval guns on SPA 9000 trucks.
By summer 1916, Ansaldo began production of a simpler gun carriage for the 149/12 howitzer. This new variant was designated 149/12 mod. 16. Consequently, the Italian War Ministry's Undersecretary for Arms and Ammunition ordered an additional 92 149/12 mod. 14 and 149/12 mod. 16 batteries, 84 of which would be assigned to 28 newly formed howitzer groups, while the remaining eight batteries would be used to bring the two heavy field artillery regiment's eight groups, which fielded just two batteries, to full strength. At the same time, the army decided to renumber the howitzer groups: groups equipped with German made 149/12 howitzers and 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers, would be numbered I to XXII, while the groups equipped with 149/12 mod. 16 would be numbered XXIII to XLIV. Likewise 149/12 and 149/12 mod. 14 batteries would be numbered 1st to 66th, while 149/12 mod. 16 batteries would be numbered 67th to 132nd. As the four groups formed in spring 1916 (XIII, XIV, XV, and XVI) were scheduled to replace the siege carriages of their 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers with the new Ansaldo gun carriage, they were renumbered as XXIII, XXIV, XXV, and XXVI groups.
Between November 1916 and February 1917, Vickers-Terni delivered enough 149/12 mod. 14 howitzers to form 18 batteries (37th to 54th), with which six new groups were formed (XIII to XVIII). In the same timeframe Ansaldo delivered enough 149/12 mod. 16 howitzers to form 24 batteries (79th to 102nd), with which eight new groups were formed (XXVII to XXXIV). Most of these howitzer groups were formed by the depots of field artillery regiments, while the two heavy field artillery regiments focused on forming cannon groups: the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment's depot formed only the command of the XXVIII Howitzer Group and four batteries with 149/12 mod. 16 howitzers. By the end of 1916, the number of cannon groups equipped with 105/28 cannons reached 22 groups with 66 batteries, while the number of groups with 102/35 mod. 14 naval guns on SPA 9000 trucks was capped at six. To command the heavy field artillery's groups at the front, the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, together with the 1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment and various field artillery regiments, formed the commands of 25 heavy field artillery groupings. Specifically, over the course of the war, the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment's depot in Modena formed the commands of the 2nd, 12th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th heavy field artillery groupings, as well as the command of the 2nd Mixed Artillery Grouping. Of the various cannon groups, the regiment's depot formed the commands of the III, IV, VII, X, XII, XV, XVII, XX, XXII, XXIV, XXVI, XXVIII, XXXII, XXXIV, XXXIX, XL, XLI, and XLIII cannon groups, as well as 54 cannon batteries for these groups. The regiment's depot also formed the 500th Siege Battery for the army's heavy artillery.
In November 1917, after the Italian 2nd Army had been defeated in the Battle of Caporetto, the remnants of the 2nd Army, as well as the Italian 3rd Army retreated to the Piave river. In the battle and the following retreat the Italian artillery lost 3,152 artillery pieces — 44,6% of all available guns. The heavy field artillery lost entire groups to the advancing Austro-Hungarian and Imperial German armies. Over the course of the next months the heavy field artillery was rebuilt. In June 1918, the Austro-Hungarian forces attempted to cross the Piave river in the Second Battle of the Piave River. During the battle the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment's VII Group and IX Group fought on the Montello hill, while the regiment's X Group fought on Monte Grappa.
Interwar years After the end of the war the Royal Italian Army began the process of downsizing its heavy field artillery. However, in November 1919, the army decided to assign a heavy field artillery regiment to each of its 14 army corps. Consequently, in summer 1920, the army formed an additional twelve heavy field artillery regiments, each of which consisted of two cannon groups and two howitzer groups. As part of this reorganization, the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment was assigned four groups, which had been formed by other regiments: the VIII Cannons Group, which had been formed by the depot of the 1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, the IX Cannons Group, which had been formed by the depot of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, the XLIV Howitzers Group, which had been formed by the depot of the 28th Field Artillery Regiment, and the XXVI Howitzers Group, which had been formed by the depot of the 11th Field Artillery Regiment. Upon entering the 2nd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, the VIII and IX cannon groups were redesignated I and II cannon groups with 105/28 cannons, while the XLIV and XXVI groups were redesignated III and IV howitzers groups with 149/12 howitzers. The regiment was assigned to the VI Army Corps in Bologna, which during the same year was renumbered IV Army Corps.