18th Bersaglieri Regiment

On 20 July of the same year the III Bersaglieri Brigade was transferred to the Isonzo front in the area of Kostanjevica na Krasu.

On 25 August the III Bersaglieri Brigade was taken out of the line, after having lost 23 officers and 403 troops in the preceding three days.

On 16 November the Austro-Hungarians crossed the Piave at Fagaré and the 18th Bersaglieri Regiment's LXVIII and LXIX battalions were tasked to drive the enemy back over the river.

By evening of the next day the Bersaglieri reached the riverbank and the Austro-Hungarian beachhead was successfully cleared.

In December 1917 the 18th Bersaglieri Regiment held the front at Cavazuccherina, at the Northern edge of the lagoon of Venice.

On 20 June the brigade, together with Arditi and Royal Italian Navy Battalion "Grado", attacked and drove the Austro-Hungarians back.

For defeating the Austrian crossing at Fagaré in November 1917 and the operations around Cavazuccherina in June and July 1918 the 18th Bersaglieri Regiment was awarded a Gold Medal of Military Valor, while the 17th Bersaglieri Regiment was awarded a Silver Medal of Military Valor.

In December 1942 the LXVII Armored Bersaglieri Battalion was destroyed during the Soviet Operation Little Saturn.

On 3 January 1943 the regiment was assigned to the 4th Army, which was on occupation duty in the Italian occupied area of France.

In early September 1943 the regiment was recalled to Italy as the divisional reconnaissance unit of the 136th Armored Legionary Division "Centauro", which was part of the forces defending Rome.

The 4th Motorcyclists Company, which was still on the way from Southern France to Rome, fought German forces on the Futa Pass before laying down its arms.

The battalion was named for the village of Fagaré on the Piave river, where the 18th Bersaglieri Regiment had distinguished itself in November 1917.

[8] On 12 November 1976 the President of the Italian Republic Giovanni Leone assigned with decree 846 the flag and traditions of the 18th Bersaglieri Regiment to the battalion.

The full regiment arrived soon after and together with the other units of the Bersaglieri Brigade "Garibaldi" prepared for a planned ground invasion.

Taking up garrison and peacekeeping duties in the city the regiment found itself soon embroiled in the Iraqi insurgency.