Arditi was the name adopted by Italian Army elite assault troops of World War I. The name derives from the Italian verb Ardire ("to dare") and translates as "the braves". Jump to: navigation, search Ariete Tanks of the Italian Ariete Tank Brigade on exercise Three Bersaglieri ride in a Dardo The Italian Army has recently become a professional all-volunteer force of 112,000 active duty personnel. ... Jump to: navigation, search World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ...

Reparti d'assalto (Assault Units) were formed in the summer of 1917 by Colonel Bassi, and were assigned the tactical role of shock troops, breaching enemy defenses in order to prepare the way for a broad infantry advance. The Arditi were not infantry troops, but were considered a separate combat arm, and can be considered as among the modern world's first true Special Forces. Jump to: navigation, search 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search Special Forces are relatively small military units raised and trained for special operations missions such as Special Reconnaissance (SR), Unconventional Warfare (UW), Direct Action (DA), Counter-Terrorism (CT), and Foreign Internal Defense (FID). ...

The Reparti d'assalto were successful in bringing in a degree of movement to what had prevously been a war of entrenched positions. Their exploits on the battlefield were exemplary and they gained an illustrious place in Italian military history. They were demobilized by 1920.

The name Arditi was also used by the supporters (often war veterans) of Gabriele D'Annunzio, during his occupation of Fiume in 1919-20. Their use of a uniform with blackshirts was taken up by Benito Mussolini for his supporters, and the word Arditi then became a synonym for fascist activists. Gabriele DAnnunzio (12 March 1863 – 1 March 1938) was an Italian poet, writer, dramatist, daredevil and war hero, who went on to have a controversial role in politics as a precursor of the fascist movement. ... Rijeka (Fiume in Italian and Hungarian; Rijeka and Fiume both mean river) is the principal seaport of Croatia, located on the Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea. ... Jump to: navigation, search Benito Mussolini created a fascist state through the use of propaganda, total control of the media and disassembly of the working democratic government. ... Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ...

The name is sometimes misapplied as a general term for Italian special units such as Bersaglieri. The Bersaglieri are a corps of the Italian army created by General Alessandro Lamarmora in 1836. ...