Italy Italian NCO Medal named.

[medalman90]

hello everyone, i just recived this Long In Command medal for Merit. it is named to a Colbertaldo Ruggero Vittorio, and has has a crowned Z halmark. would anyone know what rank this officer may have been when he recived this award? thanks for looking.

[Paul R]

What era is this medal?

[IrishGunner]

Bronze is for 10 years service. Looks like 1935 Kingdom type. Weren't these for both officers and NCOs? Probably a sergeant (or maybe a lieutenant if officer).

[medalman90]

Thanks IrishGunner! Wish there was an easy way to look this guy up. Sadly, all I know about this person is his name.

[claudio2574]

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 :

[medalman90]

I'm sorry for my delayed response Claudio. Thank you very much. That document is pretty awesome.

[Elmar Lang]

Hello,

a Colbertaldo Ruggero, with Royal Decree of April 29th, 1915 was appointed as 2nd Lieutenant, coming from the Military Institutes (Gazzetta Ufficiale del Regno d'Italia, nr. 128/Straordinario, May 24th 1915, page 3192).

It's interesting to note that Italy entered in the war against Austria, exactly on May 24th.

I think that we're talking of the same person: he could have survived the war and continued his career and reaching the qualification for the Long Command Medal in Bronze.

Best wishes,

E.L.

[medalman90]

Elmar Lang. Thank you so much! That is pretty cool that he was promoted the same day the war broke out. what book did you find this information in?

[claudio2574]

No book is needed. The project AuGUSto (Automation of Historical Official Gazette) makes the Gazettes available on the web: http://augusto.digitpa.gov.it/gazzette/index

1860 ("Mille" Expedition) to 1946 (born of Italian Republic) is the time covered by this project.

[medalman90]

thank you Claudio! question, was Colbertaldo part of this project? or is this a research page? both are great. im just learning how to navigate this website

[claudio2574]

The project deals with the Official Gazette. No relationship with the people, just the fact that the names are within the documents. They scan the pages (more than 600.000) in TIFF and PDF formats and gave the PDF pages to an OCR software, so that some kind of researches about names can be done simply on the web. There are of course several mistakes in the OCR, but anyway it works.

[medalman90]

I just had an interesting thought. Elmar, you said that Colbertaldo may have served long enough to eligible for the award. do you think its possible that he may have been sent to East Africa in the Late 30s'?

[medalman90]

For those that are curious, thought out the years I have continued to look into researching this man. With some help from fellow collectors and a bit of luck, here is what I have so far.

 

 

Ruggero V. Colbertaldo was born December 16th, 1891 in Palermo Sicily. He enrolled in the Infantry College in Modena in 1912. Ruggero served During the First World War on the front lines as a Lieutenant and by the wars end he would make Captain.

 

During the inter-war years, Captain Colbertaldo was a public administrator of a veterans group for officers, His service to the country and organization awarded him a Order of the Crown in 1933. 

 

When World War II broke out, the newly promoted Major Colbertaldo was assigned to the 13th R.E. (Kings) Division was on security duty. It was t until April of 1941 that the unit was to take part in the Invasion of Yugoslavia. After the Divisions lightning campaign, Ruggero and his unit are sent to Croatia and Slovenia for Anti-Partizan operations. Josip Tito's forces fought relentlessly against Ruggeros 13th Division in the early months of 1942; at Zuta, Lokva, and ultimately the battle of Netetva. In July of that same year, Major Ruggero Colbertaldo is given orders to make a major assault on the Yugoslav Partisans. They are required to burn down the villages of those who support the resistance, destroy all crops for harvest, and eliminate all who oppose them. From July 12th to August 7th, the division is responsible for the murders of 200 Innocent civilians and the internment of 2,500 people.

 

When Italy surrendered/Capitulated in 1943, Ruggero and his men are still in Bosnia. The Major manages to escape Nazi imprisonment and persecution from the Partizans and arrives to the Italian puppet state in Northern Italy.  Re assigned to the re constructed MVSN or the Republican National Guard (G.R.N.) "Mountian and Forrest Legion" Major Colbertaldo is stationed on the Slovenian border and continues to fight Tito and his army. In Giorgio Pisano's book: gli ultimi in grigioverde , Ruggero is listed as missing in action May 25th, 1945 near the town of Gorizia.