Ferrovieri Engineer Regiment

The Ferrovieri Engineer Regiment (Italian: Reggimento Genio Ferrovieri) is a military engineer regiment of the Italian Army based in Castel Maggiore in the Emilia Romagna. Today the regiment is assigned to the army's Engineer Command and is NATO's only unit capable of railway construction and operation. The term "Ferrovieri" comes from the Italian word for railway (Italian: Ferrovia) and is used to denote units of the engineer arm tasked with the construction, restoration, maintenance, and operation of railways. Enlisted personnel in such units are addressed by the singular form: "Ferroviere".

In 1873 the first Italian Ferrovieri companies were formed, which were tasked with the construction and repair of railways. In 1891 the first railway operations companies were formed. In 1910 the Ferrovieri units were formed into the 6th Engineer Regiment (Ferrovieri). During World War I the regiment's depots formed numerous small units, which built and operated railways on the Italian front. In 1919 the regiment was renamed Ferrovieri Engineer Regiment. In World War II the regiment formed ten railway and three bridging battalions, as well as three railway operation groups. One of the railway battalions served in the Western Desert Campaign and Tunisian Campaign, while two operated with the Italian Army in Russia during the Italian Campaign on the Eastern Front. After the announcement of the Armistice of Cassibile on 8 September 1943 the regiment was disbanded by invading German forces, while the Ferrovieri units in Southern Italy joined the Italian Co-Belligerent Army. These units repaired and operated railway lines that supported the advance of the allies armies during the Italian campaign. In 1957 the regiment was reformed with a railway and an operations battalion. In 2017 the two battalions were merged into one single unit. The regimental anniversary falls, as for all engineer units, on June 24, the end of the Second Battle of the Piave River in 1918.