Military photos

[brogie62]

I have two old family photos of people in the Italian military. One dates from around 1900-1910. The other I think is earlier. My family comes from Sicily. I was wondering if anyone can identify the military ranks, branches, or units for me.

Thanks,
Kevin

[brogie62]

Second photo

[AngelaGrace56]

So looking at the top picture - that sure is some helmet - it looks like he was probably a soldier in the Royal Cavalry during the reign of Vittorio Emanuele III. I can see the number 2 on his shoulder so possibly this means the 2nd Calvary? He looks very young so not sure it would be his ranking as such?

There's a pic of the helmet here: https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=reggi ... XYrvKGPERM:

Here's a pic of two young men wearing the same uniform and helmet: https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detail/ne ... d498874733

Hopefully someone else will be able to verify.

Angela

[lynnef]

Wonderful photos!

[mmogno]

I have two old family photos of people in the Italian military. One dates from around 1900-1910. The other I think is earlier. My family comes from Sicily. I was wondering if anyone can identify the military ranks, branches, or units for me.

Thanks,
Kevin

http://miles.forumcommunity.net/?t=58135480

http://miles.forumcommunity.net/?t=56066436

http://miles.forumcommunity.net/?t=57694799

[brogie62]

Thanks for the links. This has helped a lot.

[Rossonero3]

Here's good description of the helmet...
http://www.mymilitaria.it/liste_05/elmo ... pa.htm#eng

and this site also...
http://www.esercito.difesa.it/storia/Pa ... leria.aspx

[hallsandgrants]

I am just lurking / following out of military interest and this is just fascinating. Brogie62 you have some wonderful photos and the outstanding links provided by the others - with COLOR photos - really bring them to life. In that regard I had some old photos RESTORED and it was well worth the money. I see one of your photos was torn and that would be a prime candidate for restoration. You would be very surprised at what can be done by modern photographers with regard to restoration. Search one out in your area and get an estimate - it might cost you $100 US Dollars or more but I think it would be well worth the price. And as a thought: I don't have any experience with it but since you now have color photos of some of the uniforms and helmets I have to wonder if a modern photographer could scan your original photos and colorize them for you. After restoration, colorization (if possible), printing, and framing, they would be quite a family heirloom. Just a thought. Ciao!

[AngelaGrace56]

I am just lurking / following out of military interest and this is just fascinating. Brogie62 you have some wonderful photos and the outstanding links provided by the others - with COLOR photos - really bring them to life. In that regard I had some old photos RESTORED and it was well worth the money. I see one of your photos was torn and that would be a prime candidate for restoration. You would be very surprised at what can be done by modern photographers with regard to restoration. Search one out in your area and get an estimate - it might cost you $100 US Dollars or more but I think it would be well worth the price. And as a thought: I don't have any experience with it but since you now have color photos of some of the uniforms and helmets I have to wonder if a modern photographer could scan your original photos and colorize them for you. After restoration, colorization (if possible), printing, and framing, they would be quite a family heirloom. Just a thought. Ciao!

Great suggestions here, Eric. I had also thought the same thing when I saw the condition of the second photo.

I've been really interested in looking through the coloured photos and seeing all the detail that went into making these helmets. One thing that I've observed though is that while the helmets are all the same, the uniforms are not. The uniforms used in the links (except for the ones that I provided), are quite different from the first pic that brogie62 was wanting feedback on???? I query why that might be ..... rank, timeframe, military locality, etc???

Angela

[hallsandgrants]

I am no expert on Italian Uniforms but I do know WWI is at times referred to as "the first modern war." I mention that because I have a book at home and it truly is amazing how much the uniform color and styles varied within each country at the beginning of the war in 1914. Still a lot of individual unit and regional style influence; no country had uniform uniformity like most nations these days. The uniforms and helmets were heavily influenced by non-functional styles and colors. Much of that was with complete disregard to its disastrous results on the battlefield. There was still more focus on flare than function. For example, in 1914 the French army still had bright red trousers - holdovers from th 19th century. Many of the German army units in 1914 wore the pointed Pickelhaube helmets into battle (lots of different styles of them). The Scottish highlander units in the British army still wore Kilts into battle. Mounted cavalry was still prevalent on both sides - even after deadly machine guns were being used to mow them down. In fact, even after the Germans introduced poison gas, the French still not give up on cavalry: they just made gas masks for their horses! So to see Italian uniforms of this period with different styles, colors, etc. really is no surprise. For heaven's sake, the Italians STILL have not given up flashy ornaments on modern uniforms for some units of their Army (look at all photos in the web page link below; including the "modern day" one at the bottom)!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersaglieri

[AngelaGrace56]

I am no expert on Italian Uniforms but I do know WWI is at times referred to as "the first modern war." I mention that because I have a book at home and it truly is amazing how much the uniform color and styles varied within each country at the beginning of the war in 1914. Still a lot of individual unit and regional style influence; no country had uniform uniformity like most nations these days. The uniforms and helmets were heavily influenced by non-functional styles and colors. Much of that was with complete disregard to its disastrous results on the battlefield. There was still more focus on flare than function. For example, in 1914 the French army still had bright red trousers - holdovers from th 19th century. Many of the German army units in 1914 wore the pointed Pickelhaube helmets into battle (lots of different styles of them). The Scottish highlander units in the British army still wore Kilts into battle. Mounted cavalry was still prevalent on both sides - even after deadly machine guns were being used to mow them down. In fact, even after the Germans introduced poison gas, the French still not give up on cavalry: they just made gas masks for their horses! So to see Italian uniforms of this period with different styles, colors, etc. really is no surprise. For heaven's sake, the Italians STILL have not given up flashy ornaments on modern uniforms for some units of their Army (look at all photos in the web page link below; including the "modern day" one at the bottom)!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersaglieri

Thank you for your insight here - very interesting.

Angela

[brogie62]

Thanks again everyone.

That's a great suggestion on restoration hallsandgrants.

[gaspaol]

The uniform in the first photo is the "grigio-verde" model, so after 1908.
It could well be the 2nd "Piemonte Reale" cavalry regiment.
As far as I know for most of WWI they didn't use that helmet in combat though.
Anyway the best thing to do if you want to know more about their military service is to request a copy of their military documents from the State archive of the province where they resided.

[brogie62]

The uniform in the first photo is the "grigio-verde" model, so after 1908.
It could well be the 2nd "Piemonte Reale" cavalry regiment.
As far as I know for most of WWI they didn't use that helmet in combat though.
Anyway the best thing to do if you want to know more about their military service is to request a copy of their military documents from the State archive of the province where they resided.

Thanks gaspaol. Unfortunately, I do not know their names.

[gaspaol]

The second photo was taken in the 1880s/1890s and he should be in the 66th company of the Territorial Militia. If you are ok with that I can post these photos in a specialized forum (http://www.milistory.net). They should be able to tell us more