3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment "Firenze"

The 3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment "Firenze" (3° Reggimento Artiglieria Controaerei "Firenze") is an inactive air defence regiment of the Italian Army, which was based in Rovigo in Veneto. Originally an air defence regiment of the Royal Italian Army, the unit was last active from 1992 to 2001. The regimental anniversary falls, as for all Italian Army artillery regiments, on June 15, the beginning of the Second Battle of the Piave River in 1918.

History
On 25 November 1926 the 7th Anti-aircraft Artillery Center was formed in Florence, with elements of the disbanded 9th Heavy Artillery Regiment and 14th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment. On 1 January 1927 the center consisted of a command, a trucked group with 75/27 C.K. anti-aircraft guns, a photo-electricians unit, and a depot. The center's photo-electricians operated searchlights. On 6 May 1927 the regiments completed its organization with a positional group with 76/45 anti-aircraft guns.

On 1 April 1930 the positional group was transferred to the 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Center, while the 1st Anti-aircraft Artillery Center ceded its trucked group with 75/27 C.K. anti-aircraft guns and its photo-electricians unit to the 7th Anti-aircraft Artillery Center. On 1 June of the same year the center changed its name to 3rd Trucked Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment. In April 1931 the two photo-electricians units were disbanded and in each of the two trucked groups a photo-electricians section and a acoustic locator squad.

On 1 January 1934 the regiment changed its name to 3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment. In preparation for the Second Italo-Ethiopian War the regiment formed two special batteries equipped with 75/27 C.K. anti-aircraft guns, one of which was sent to Italian Eritrea on 25 June 1935, while the other was sent to Italian Somalia on 5 July 1935. On 4 September 1935 the regiment was mobilized and deployed to the city of Catania in Sicily. In 1936 the regiment formed the 254th and 255th positional batteries, which were transferred to Italian Libya, where they joined the 2nd Colonial Artillery Regiment. From January to September 1936 the 3rd Battery of the I Trucked Group was deployed to the Italian Islands of the Aegean. The regiment was demobilized on 7 July 1936.

World War II


At the outbreak of World War II the regiment consisted of a command, a command unit, and the V Positional Group with 75/27 C.K. anti-aircraft guns. Initially the V Group was in Lazio, before serving in occupied Albania from April to September 1941. In January 1943 the V Group was transferred to Corsica and in September of the same year to Sardinia.

During the war the regiment's depot in Florence mobilized the following units:


 * XXXV Trucked Group with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns
 * XL Trucked Group with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns
 * LXXVII Trucked Group with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns
 * DIII Trucked Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns on Lancia 3Ro trucks for the 133rd Armored Division "Littorio"
 * DVIII Trucked Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns on Breda 52 trucks
 * DXI Trucked Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns on Breda 52 trucks
 * XVIII Positional Group with 8.8cm Flak anti-aircraft guns
 * XXIX Positional Group with 8.8cm Flak anti-aircraft guns
 * XLV Positional Group with 75mm mod. 13-17 anti-aircraft guns
 * LXI Positional Group with 76/40 mod. 16 anti-aircraft guns
 * LI Positional Group with 20/70 autocannons
 * CLIII Positional Group with 20/70 autocannons
 * DII Positional Group with 20/70 autocannons, the group was used to protect naval transports
 * CXXIX Positional Group with 2cm Flak autocannons
 * CXXX Positional Group with 2cm Flak autocannons
 * CXXXI Positional Group with 2cm Flak autocannons

The depot also mobilized the command of the 3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Grouping, which incorporated the XXXV Trucked Group with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns and XL Trucked Group with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns, as well as the DIV Trucked Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns of the 1st Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment and the DV Trucked Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns of the 2nd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment. Initially the grouping was stationed in Sicily, but in January 1943 it was transferred with the XXXV and DIV groups to North Africa for the Tunisian campaign. The grouping was declared lost after Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered on 12 May 1943.

The DV Trucked Group remained in Sicily in the area of Porto Empedocle until it had to retreat to mainland Italy after the successful allied operation to take Sicily. The regiment and its depot were disbanded by invading German forces after the announcement of the Armistice of Cassibile on 8 September 1943.

Cold War
On 1 May 1947 the regiment was reformed as 3rd Light Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment in Meran with the personnel and materiel of the VI Anti-aircraft Group and VI/bis Anti-aircraft Group ceded by the 35th Field Artillery Regiment. The regiment was assigned to the Infantry Division "Friuli" and consisted of a command, a command unit, the I Group with 40/56 autocannons, and the II Group with 40/56 autocannons. The following year the regiment moved from Meran to Pisa.

On 1 January 1951 the Infantry Division "Friuli" included the following artillery regiments:


 * Infantry Division "Friuli", in Florence
 * 8th Field Artillery Regiment, in Livorno
 * 9th Anti-tank Field Artillery Regiment, in Lucca
 * 35th Field Artillery Regiment, in Rimini
 * 3rd Light Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment, in Pisa

On 1 July 1951 the regiment was reorganized as 3rd Heavy Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment and received the CV Group with 90/50 M1 anti-aircraft guns from the Anti-aircraft Artillery School. In January 1952 the regiment added a second group with 90/50 anti-aircraft guns. On 1 September 1961 the regiment was disbanded and its personnel used to reform the 3rd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment. Afterwards the flag of the 3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment was transferred to the Shrine of the Flags in the Vittoriano in Rome.

Recent times
On 13 September 1992 the 5th Anti-aircraft Missiles Artillery Regiment was disbanded and the next day the regiment was reformed in San Donà di Piave as 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment by reorganizing the regiment's 1st Missiles Group. The same day the 3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment was reformed in Rovigo by reorganizing 5th Anti-aircraft Missiles Artillery Regiment's 2nd Missiles Group. The missiles group operated MIM-23 Hawk air-defence systems. On 1 October 1997 the regiment was awarded the honorary title "Firenze" to commemorate the city of its founding.

On 31 October 2001 the missiles group of the 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment "Pescara" in San Donà di Piave was disbanded, while the flag of the 3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment was transferred from Rovigo to the Shrine of the Flags in the Vittoriano in Rome. The next day the flag of the 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment "Pescara" moved from San Donà di Piave to Rovigo, where the regiment assumed control of the missiles group there.