claudio2574

It is an order, so it goes first. About the book: the second edition is quite similar to the first, only a few changes. If you mind the differences, the 2003 version gives you both textes.

Some references (Italian only) to the three editions: http://www.valdinotomagazine.it/sito/?p=2466 http://www.valdinotomagazine.it/sito/?p=2509

Exactly. The latest edition is nov. 2003, I've a copy at home, Can't remember the editor. The words "e allora andiamo" (something like "so let's go now") are the words told by Muccini himself at the end of all his experience, when he discovers that the world around him has changed completely after the war and he's almost alone. He leaves his uniform, exits the army and tells himself the sentence.

He wrote a book about his war history. It has been published twice after WW1 and recently it has been republished by a group of WW1 history enthusiast. A friend of mine made the comparison between the two first versions: one a few years after the war and the second during the years of fascism. He wrote in a very realistic way, describing himself and his soldiers' true life. In a few words he was able to describe a full situation in all its hardness. The fascism forced him to hide some words (not so many, however). It should be read by any war fanatics.

Just to add some enthropy: in the previous table some medals are not mentioned, like the interallied. Here is a picture of the Capt Muccini's medals, who received at least one silver and one bronze medal for military bravery during WW1. The medals are described on the picture itself

Actually the unofficial medals should not be present in a medal bar, even if sometimes they actually are, for example the 3rd army cross which was considered a semi-official medal. The order of the medals changed several times during the years. The following pages come from the book " REGIO ESERCITO ITALIANO - UNIFORMI 1919 -1933 " by Ruggero Belogi.

A few words about the story of these crosses. Just after the end of the war, 1918, the Duke of Aosta, commander of the 3rd army, decided to give an (unofficial) cross to all the soldiers of his army; the cross was made by Fassino and later other factories copied it. Being it unofficial, there was no rule, so now we find slightly different shapes or colours. For example, the "standard" cross has all the arms white, but there is one with two arms white, one red and one green, to remember the colours of our flag. Later other crosses were created for the other armies, usually with the goal to collect money to be given to the widows or to the wounded. None of these were official, so you could expect, again, differences between the different factories, which have no special meaning. The general rule is that a flat back side means modern restrike.

This one should be a fake, or a modern restrike if you like. All the "official" crosses of 2nd army have some writing on the back side. In an Italian forum, some years ago, I got the news that the original dies of some crosses were sold to some maker, but the front side only. The backside simply did not exist any more. In this way the buyer had the chance to make almost perfect crosses.

Adriano Brambilla is one of the top sellers in Italy, his infos are quite accurate. He's brother of Alessandro Brambilla, the author of several top level books, like the one introduced in this topic.

According to Brambilla-Fossati, there are at least 9 main variants of the 3rd army cross, plus several more with so little differences that are not relevant to be described. I agree with rocketscientist: your cross is original. It is very similar to the type "E" described in the book, like mine. About 4th army cross: many variants for this cross also, 8 of them. In this case, however, the front picture of your cross raises some doubts: the mountains in the middle are almost flat, while in all the variants shown by Brambilla-Fossati they are much more 3D like. Here is mine, from Fassino:

This is a good book about the Italian cross-shaped medals. Now I'm not at home. As soon as possible I will post some infos about these crosses. I remember that several variants exist, but I'd rather not to believe too much to my memory.

There are 7 variants of the medal, all having a different mark on the bottom (under the neck or close to the rim) Type 1 : Lorioli e Castelli Type 2 : Nelli, with wrong ribbon. Type 3 : Sacchini, which was introduced at the beginning of the topic Type 4 : S.I.M. Type 5 : S.I.M. Roma Type 6 : Johnson, already introduced for the railway staff Type 7 : anonymous, several subtypes

In 1923 another decree defined a medal for the navy people: ribbon with 6 blue lines and 5 white, again with the same medal. The ribbon (from wiki) There are several bars with the year of campaign: 1915-1916-1917-1918-Albania 1919-Albania 1920 The bars "Albania 1916", "Albania 1917" and "Albania 1918" are unofficial. The diploma. This item has the "stamp" for the medal of unification of Italy

In 1920 by royal decree the elements of the medal were defined. In this decree was stated that the medal would have been made using the bronze of the enemy gunnery, thus the medal has been called "bronzo nemico". It is interesting to note that at least two times the Austrian Empire marked its medals with the same words: the first time in the 1814, after a war against France, and in 1864, after the Schleswig-Holstein war. Both these medals were awarded to Italian people also. The Kanonenkreutz The Schleswig-Holstein medal (austrian variant, with the words AUS EROBERTEM GESCHUETZ)

It is probably the most common Italian medal, and probably one of the first in every Italian collection. (Type 3 as follows. This medal was awarded to general Enrico Broglia) In 1916, one year after the declaration of war from Italy to the Austrian Empire, a badge for the "fatiche di guerra" (war effort) was created: a ribbon with the green-white-red colours repeated six times and a star for each year. The ribbon (from wiki) Here is the diploma: In 1918 a badge for the railway staff was created (ribbon: red with two white lines). Even if no medal was ever associated to this ribbon, since 1920 it has been always weared with this medal. (Medal type 6)

I don't know if there is anyone around still reading this topic... anyway... Now I introduce a different set of medals: omens of victory. The first one came from the Vatican, more precisely from the font. It's a small medal made in 1915 In 1917 some "committees" from Rome and Turin created this diploma and a medal based on a Roman Empire coin, to be given to the officers of the 4th army. The medal was struck by the Royal mint, it is a repro of the coin created by the Roman emperor Tiberio to celebrate the victory of his commander Germanico against Arminio

Yes they are, at least for WW1.

As far as I know, the WW1 medal has at least 7 variants: G.PRIMI / JOHNSON G.PRIMI / S.J. G.PRIMI / FML SACCHINI MILANO G.PRIMI MOD. / <nothing> <nothing> / JOHNSON <nothing> / PRIMI <nothing> / <nothing>

In Italy there is a set of honors officially awarded for sport reasons, since 1930, more or less. They are weared also by military people, since they are coming from an official law of the State. In brief, today they are: - Collare d'oro al merito sportivo, the highest level - Medaglia al valore atletico (gold, silver, bronze), for athletes - Stella al merito sportivo (gold, silver, bronze), for managers and clubs - Palma al merito tecnico (gold, silver, bronze), for coaches Here a link to Wikipedia (italian) about this http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onorificenze_sportive_italiane Here a star for sport merit, silver grade, in the variant used until 2003:

An example of machine-guns medals, in silver. This one was for the FIAT machine-guns, having the white-over-red ribbon. The Breda machine-guns had a white-over-blue ribbon. The white/red ribbon remained during WW2 also, regardless of the type.

Good set indeed. Take care specially of the star.

Right Hendrik. The ribbon over the medal seems to me much too purple, but it can be an effect of the picture.

As many many regimental medals during all the wars (WW1, Spain, Colonial, Albania, WW2), this medal also was created by initiative of the unit: battalion, regiment, division, army corp or, as in this case, the army itself. They were tolerated even if they were not official. There are lot of pictures showing these medals weared by the soldiers.

These medals were unofficial, so bronze/silver was simply a matter of money for the buyer. OLTRE LA META means BEYOND THE SCOPE

Two more medals: the commemorative medal for the Africa campaigns, which remained unchanged with tha face of king Umberto I during the time and had a lot of bars for identifying the single campaign: and the valour medal for indigenous troops, with the face of king Vittorio Emanuele III: For reference: the action house Von Morenberg (http://www.vonmorenberg.com) in its auction no. 66 put some AOI medals. The catalog is still online. In the past they presented a big collection of badges (and some medals too), but the catalog in no more online. I should have it in some place...