The Italian partisan brigades were armed formations involved in the Italian resistance during the World War II.
They were formed on voluntary base by irregular soldiers and sometimes were organized by former army members who served in the Italian occupied territories. Those formations had been active between the 8 September 1943 (with the Badoglio Proclamation) and the end of the war on 6 May 1945.
History
During the WWII, groups of partisans were formed after the Badoglio Proclamation by former members of the Royal Italian Army located in the north centre of Italy and in the territories occupied by the Kingdom like those of the Balkans. The former soldiers were then flanked by anti-fascists, exiles and expatriates.
In the autumn of 1943, the Direction of the Italian Communist Party suggested the formation of organized structures and promoted the creation of the Garibaldi battalions. These groups were conceived as assault brigades because they had to be immediately active but the organization would be formed during their activity.
Components
During the war, new formations were continuously created until April 1945, and an important event was the creation of the General Command of Corpo Volontari della Libertà (CVL, "Corps of Freedom Volunteers") on 9 June 1944 in Milan, where the headquarters of main partisan organizations were located. The CVL represented the partisan movement among Allies and the Italian government and it had the purpose of coordinate brigades and local National Liberation Committees.
According to the communist members, the brigade formation implied a military-like model of organization with a hierarchy formed by General Command, divisions, brigades, battalions, companies, squads and groups. It was also introduced the charge of the "political commissar" according to the experiences of the October Revolution and the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. This kind of organization would be realized only in summer 1944, when also the other parties adopted the military-political structure, with or without "commissars" representing the party of reference.
Brigades of army-men were formed mainly abroad by former soldiers and officers who did not accepted to be humiliated and imprisoned by the Nazis. After the Armistice of Cassibile, Allies allowed the Kingdom to reorganize the remaining army forces which were initially left without any order but most soldiers decided to join the resistance brigades already active.
According to the newspaper Avvenire, catholic formations were often in contrast with the other ones of different political sides, but during the liberation war there was still a collaboration from both the sides. Catholics who actively took part to the Resistance were 65,000 - 80,000 out of about 200,000 partisans.
During the Resistance various formations merged and subdivided according to the situations of the operative areas, with different criteria and sizes. For example, some Garibaldi groups had a pyramidal structure:
The Squad (Squadra), which was the lowest unit which was formed by 10-20 combatants Three Squads formed a Company (Compagnia) or Detachment (Distaccamento), with 30-60 combatants Three Companies or Detachment formed a Battalion (Battaglione) of 90-180 combatants Three Battalions formed a Brigade (Brigata) of 270-540 combatants Three Brigades formed a Division (Divisione) of 810-1620 combatants
Political affiliations
Within the Corpo volontari della libertà there were the following political affiliations: