5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment "Pescara"

The 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment "Pescara" (5° Reggimento Artiglieria Controaerei "Pescara") is an inactive air defence regiment of the Italian Army, which was based in San Donà di Piave in Veneto. Originally a regiment of the Royal Italian Army, the unit was last active from 1947 to 2012. During the Cold War the regiment was equipped with MIM-23 Hawk air defence missile systems and formed, together with the 4th Anti-aircraft Missiles Artillery Regiment, the air defence belt of the Italian Army in the country's Northeast. 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 15 December 1926 the 9th Anti-aircraft Artillery Center was formed in Pescara, which incorporated the existing 9th Anti-aircraft Group. On 1 January 1927 the center consisted of a command, a mixed group with two trucked batteries with 75/27 C.K. anti-aircraft guns and a positional battery with 76/45 anti-aircraft guns, a photo-electricians unit, and a depot. The center's photo-electricians operated searchlights.

On 1 April 1930 the center received from the 6th Anti-aircraft Artillery Center a trucked group with 75/27 C.K. anti-aircraft guns and a photo-electricians unit. On 1 June of the same year the center changed its name to 5th 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 an acoustic locator squad. In 1933 the regiment moved from Pescara to Palmanova.

On 1 January 1934 the regiment changed its name to 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment. The same year the regiment moved from Palmanova to Padua. On 6 September 1935 the regiment was mobilized for the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The regiment was sent to Sicily, with its command and I Group were deployed to Gela, while the II Group was deployed to Comiso. During the war the regiment's depot in Padua formed the 1st Battery with 20/65 mod. 35 anti-aircraft guns, which was sent to Italian Eritrea, and the 258th and 259th positional batteries, which were deployed to Cyrenaica in Italian Libya. The regiment was demobilized on 12 July 1936.

World War II
At the outbreak of World War II the regiment consisted of a command, a command unit, and four groups (IV, VI, XIV, and XIX) equipped with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns. In 1940 the VI Group was sent to North Africa, where it participated in the Western Desert campaign. The IV and XIX groups were sent to occupied Albania, where they participated in the Greco-Italian War. In July 1941 the IV and XIX groups were assigned to the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia, which was Italy's contribution to the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In 1942 the two groups were assigned to the 4th Anti-aircraft Artillery Grouping, which also included the 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment's XXXVI Trucked Group. The grouping and its groups were destroyed in winter 1942/43 during Operation Little Saturn.

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


 * XXXVI Trucked Group with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns
 * LXXIV Trucked Group with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns
 * CVII Trucked Group with 75/46 mod. 34 anti-aircraft guns
 * DVI Trucked Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns on Breda 52 trucks
 * DXXIV Trucked Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns
 * DXXVI Trucked Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns
 * XXIII Positional Group with 7.5cm PL vz.37 anti-aircraft guns
 * XXIV Positional Group with 7.5 cm PL vz.37 anti-aircraft guns

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 March 1947 the 5th Light Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment was reformed in Pisa with the personnel and materiel of the VI Anti-aircraft Group of the 33rd Field Artillery Regiment. The VI Anti-aircraft Group had participated in the Italian campaign, first with the 184th Artillery Regiment "Nembo" of the 184th Paratroopers Division "Nembo" of the Italian Liberation Corps and then as part of the Artillery Regiment "Folgore" of the Combat Group "Folgore" of the Italian Co-belligerent Army. The 5th Light Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment was assigned to the Infantry Division "Folgore" and consisted of a command, a command unit, the I Group with 40/56 autocannons, and the II Group with 40/56 autocannons. At the end of 1947 the regiment moved from Pisa to Padua and in September 1949 to Mestre.

On 1 January 1950 the regiment took administrative and disciplinary control of the CII Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns of the V Territorial Military Command. On 1 January 1951 the Infantry Division "Folgore" included the following artillery regiments:


 * Infantry Division "Folgore", in Treviso
 * 33rd Field Artillery Regiment, in Padua
 * 41st Anti-tank Field Artillery Regiment, in Bassano del Grappa
 * 184th Field Artillery Regiment, in Treviso
 * 5th Light Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment, in Mestre

On 30 January 1951 the regiment ceded its I Group to the 33rd Field Artillery Regiment and its II Group to the 184th Field Artillery Regiment and the next day the regiment was reorganized as 5th Heavy Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment. The CII Group was now fully assigned to the regiment, which also received the CI Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns, which, like the CII, had been formed by the Anti-aircraft Artillery School. On 18 July 1951 the two groups were redesignated as I and II heavy anti-aircraft groups. On 1 April 1953 the III Heavy Anti-aircraft Group with 90/53 anti-aircraft guns and the V Group with 40/56 autocannons were formed. In April 1956 the 90/53 anti-aircraft guns were replaced by American 90/50 M1 anti-aircraft guns and the V Group was redesignated as IV Group. On 13 May 1957 the regiment received the V Light Anti-aircraft Group with 40/56 autocannons from the 3rd Mountain Artillery Regiment of the Alpine Brigade "Julia". At the end of the year the regiment consisted of the following units:


 * CoA mil ITA rgt artiglieria c a 005.png 5th Heavy Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment, in Mestre
 * Command Unit
 * I Heavy Anti-aircraft Group with 90/50 M1 anti-aircraft guns
 * II Heavy Anti-aircraft Group with 90/50 M1 anti-aircraft guns
 * III Heavy Anti-aircraft Group with 90/50 M1 anti-aircraft guns
 * IV Light Anti-aircraft Group with 40/56 autocannons
 * V Light Anti-aircraft Group with 40/56 autocannons

On 15 May 1960 the V Light Anti-aircraft Group was disbanded. On 1 August 1963 the regiment was assigned to the army's Anti-aircraft Artillery Command and on 31 August of the same year the IV Light Anti-aircraft Group was disbanded.

On 10 October 1963 the Anti-aircraft Artillery School formed the 8th Anti-aircraft Missiles Battery, with which the introduction of the MIM-23 Hawk air defence missile systems commenced. On 1 August 1964 the regiment was reorganized as missiles air defence regiment and renamed 5th Anti-aircraft Missiles Artillery Regiment. The regiment now consisted of the following units:


 * CoA mil ITA rgt artiglieria c a 005.png 5th Anti-aircraft Missiles Artillery Regiment, in Mestre
 * Command Unit
 * I Missiles Group
 * II Missiles Group
 * 25th Signal Company

On 28 September 1967 the I Missiles Group moved to San Donà di Piave and on 14 October the II Missiles Group moved to Rovigo. As part of the 1975 army reform the regiment's Command Unit was reorganized as Command and Services Battery. After the reform each of the two missiles groups fielded 957 men (50 officers, 304 non-commissioned officers, and 603 soldiers). The regiment's new organization was now as follows:


 * CoA mil ITA rgt artiglieria c a 005.png 5th Anti-aircraft Missiles Artillery Regiment, in Mestre
 * Command and Services Battery, in Mestre
 * 1st Missiles Group, in San Donà di Piave
 * Command and Services Battery, in San Donà di Piave
 * 1st Missiles Battery, in Plasencis (Site 1)
 * 2nd Missiles Battery, in Terzo d'Aquileia (Site 2)
 * 3rd Missiles Battery, in San Giorgio di Livenza (Site 3)
 * 4th Missiles Battery, in Fontanafredda (Site 4)
 * 2nd Missiles Group, in Rovigo
 * Command and Services Battery, in Rovigo
 * 5th Missiles Battery, in Peseggia (Site 5)
 * 6th Missiles Battery, in Conetta (Site 6)
 * 7th Missiles Battery, in Marzanata di Trecenta (Site 7)
 * 8th Missiles Battery, in San Rocco di Longare (Site 8)
 * 25th Signal Company, in Mestre

The 5th Anti-aircraft Missiles Artillery Regiment was the Italian Army's forward deployed air defence unit, which covered the area of operation of the 5th Army Corps. The regiment operated from eight fixed sites, which were numbered from 1 to 8.

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 1st Missiles Group. The same day the 3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment was reformed in Rovigo by reorganizing the 2nd Missiles Group. On 1 October 1997 the regiment was awarded the honorary title "Pescara" to commemorate the city of its founding.

On 31 October 2001 the missiles group in San Donà di Piave was disbanded and 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. On 1 January 2002 the regiment was assigned to the Anti-aircraft Artillery Brigade, which on 11 September 2009 was merged with the Anti-aircraft Artillery School to form the Anti-aircraft Artillery Command.

On 26 October 2012 the 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment "Pescara" was disbanded and the regiment's flag was transferred to the Shrine of the Flags in the Vittoriano in Rome.