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Italy reports it pioneered parachuting and the airborne soldier with the first combat jump during the First World War in 1918. By 1938 Italian paratroopers were trained at Castel Benito, which was the first Italian parachute school and was located near Tripoli. At the outbreak of the Second World Warin 1940, three paratrooper battalions were formed two of which had the task of training and raising a parachute division by 1942
The first paracadutisti to see action were battalions from mainland Italy and Libya during Operation Compass. They were tasked with blocking the British advance in Cyrenaica during the withdrawal of the 10th Army. The Italian paratroopers successfully accomplished this, mission blocking the British thrust into Tripolitania.
One of the most epic pages of military history, according to both British and German accounts, was written by the Folgore Division at El Alamein in North Africa. It is an interesting history of the Italian colonial paratroop battalions. It revealed, in the spring of 1941, military planners decided to conduct the first parachute operatoin, which would also be the last. The drop occurred in 1941, during the final offensive in Greece over the Greek island of Cefalonia.
Current examples of Italian airborne operations include the mission of the Tactical Group, "NIBBIO," with the 187th Parachute Regiment "Folgore and the two Folgore parachute companies of the Apini regiment conducting its mission during "Enduring Freedom." In Afghanistan tasked with neutralising and destroying pockets of terrorism still present along the border with Pakistan.
