claudio2574

Thanks Hugh. Yes, I was in the Navy, mmmmmany years ago. The blue arms comes from the Association of Italian Sailors, the rank is self explanatory. The brown back of the rank stands for Naval Weapons, which is my specialization (it has a little to do with weapons, however; mainly with electrical power and distribution).

Italy-Turkey war had three bars: 1911, 1911-1912, 1912 For the Libya campaign there are as many as 35 possible official bars: 1912, 1912-13, 1913, Fezzan/913, 1913-14, Fezzan/913-914, 1914, Fezzan/914, 1914-15, 1915, Tripolitania/1915, 1915-16, 1916, 1916-17, 1917, 1917-18, 1918, 1918-19, 1919, 1919-20, 1920, 1920-21, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, Tripolitania 1927-1928, 1928, 1929, Tripolitania 1929-1930, 1930, 1931 In the 1932-1940 other bars were used, but they are unofficial. About the ribbon bars: if it is quite common to see pictures of people wearing unofficial medals or badly exposed medals, special for African soldiers, to see a wrong ribbon bar is not so common.

Hello everybody. I'm a new member of this forum. I come from Italy and I wish to introduce one of my favourite topics: the born of modern Italy. Traditionally, the "Risorgimento" is placed in the years 1815-1870, between the Wien congress and the "breccia di Porta Pia", when Rome became part of Italy. We started with 7 different states, 7 currencies, 7 units of measure, at least 6 boundaries to go from Naples to Milan; not a good situation, regardless of political matters. (I feel that unifying Europe has some in common with unifying Italy, including the difficulties...) Much of this history crosses the French one, the Austrian one and the ones of other main countries of Europe. Well, now some documents and medals. In 1848 there was the first independance war, which was completely unsuccessful. A few medals from that year and the following. Romani alla difesa di Vicenza (1848) Pope Pius IX sent some troops to Vicenza, but recall them soon. Some volunteers remained in Vicenza and were defeated by the Austrian army. During the Rome Republic, the temporary government gave this medal to the volunteers, but when Pius IX returned to Rome the medal was canceled. Liberazione di Venezia - Vessillo di vittoria (1848) Venice was freed in 1848, but a few months later the Austrian army defeated it. Sicily Campaign (1849) A rebellion happened in Sicily in 1849 and King Ferdinando II defeated it. This rare medal rarely has the flag pins (here missing) and the ribbon. Hope this topic can be of any interest. If it is the case, I will continue to post.

Hello, many infos about this medal can be found in a Spanish forum : http://mundomilitaria.es/foro/index.php Here I copy a table with the 7 main variants and subvariants: From my collection, I post the diploma awarded to CTV Italian soldiers for this medal, which is identical for all Franco's combatants, whatever the country and the medal was; only exception: the Navy (Armada) had a minor difference. If it is of any interest, I can post it also.

Hello. I agree that it could be strange but possible. But much too strange! Whoever received an order should know exactly how to place its ribbon. The all-red ribbon should be for volunteers. Basically the same medal (and ribbon) was used for WW1, Ethiopia, Spain and WW2. The all red was used for WW1 and WW2, but there are no other ribbons for these wars, which looks VERY strange. The AOI (Africa Orientale Italiana) and Spain volunteers medal/ribbons are as follows:

Hello, I also believe that your badge is good. Not having it into my hand, the only way to give an opinion is to watch at the details of the back. They are quite similar to the ones of good items, while the fakes usually have some suspected bubbles. The position of the clip (vertical or cross) is not relevant, neither the blue paint applied out of its space. There is no official diploma for this badge, only a generic one with the speech of General Messe, without the name of the recipient: A quite similar badge is STILL in the list of the official badges for the Italian Army. The only difference is in the size, which is smaller. Here is the link to the official web site of the Italian Army: http://www.esercito.difesa.it/Equipaggiamenti/Militaria/Distintivi/IDistintivi/DistintiviRicordo/Pagine/default.aspx

Hello, this medal was used both for officers and for NCOs. No way to know it from the medal only. The crowned Z stands for the Royal mint, so it is the official model. As IrishGunner wrote, it was established in 1935, so there is only one type for the kingdom era. This is the diploma: With the republic era, the medal was changed using the Republic arms instead of the face of V.E.III :

Hello, this is my first post from Italy. There are many generic "al merito" (to the merit) medals out there, used for whatever reason, with the picture of the three kings of Italy (Vittorio Emanuele II 1861-1878, Umberto I 1878-1900, Vittorio Emanuele III 1900-1946). For example, this one comes from the Vittorio Emanuele II era. Silver, 26mm, probably made immediately after the joining of Rome to Italy (1870). Von Heyden describes it as one of the first civil medals of Italy, 1861, but the design of back side and the shape of the suspension recalls the Rome mint (thus it could not be done before 1870). The ribbon should be green-white-red. This other comes from Umberto I. Bronze, 44 mm. According to von Heyden, it was used for "relevant merit in exhibitions, for school merit" and so on.