What remains of the old military signage?

(To Gianluca Celentano)
02/02/21

The vast theme of vehicular signage has its roots in history and really risks misleading us from the central military theme. However, it remains an interesting and complex evolution, today partially replaced by a digital navigator that suggests the way, but it is good to remember that professional drivers, a bit like the military, prefer old paper maps that never seem to betray you. and maybe there will be a reason.

The practice of engineering and the regulations in force during the Roman Empire as well as being appreciated have been handed down in various fields including that of the viability of horse carriers and travelers as well as the military one. However, it was the 900th century in which the useful “Roman milestones” were accompanied by the necessary indications for the nascent and complex private traffic.

The first Italian regulations originated during the Savoy kingdom with the Ricasoli law of 1865 - law for the administrative unification of the Kingdom of Italy - which was followed during the twenty years by another optimization of the circulation that introduced legislation also for number plates. Instead, it bears the date of 1959 on "Consolidated Law on Road Traffic", the reform that allowed millions of Italians to license during the economic boom until the issue of the new Highway Code in April 1992, DL 285. Here, in addition to regulations and rules, several points related to safety and cataloging were added of road users as well as a classification at European level. Although every year there are changes in the rules on the code, the implementation of the '92 regulations took place gradually and with significant investments, increasingly updating the signs with the common rules of the EU.

Military legislation

Many of you will remember a yellow disc bearing a number placed in front of heavy vehicles, rotated or tracked ready and aligned perhaps before a column start for a field. This is a first detail relating to a sporadic special signage that remained alive in the memories of the soldier, together with the characteristic yellow rectangle placed outside the barracks and represented by a soldier armed with a rifle and the inscription “Impassable limit military zone”. A memory perhaps linked to the many guards you mounted during the draft ...?

I think it is only right to objectively acknowledge the diligence with which the secretariat of the undersecretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport responded to our newspaper in one day, providing us with some anecdotes which we will illustrate.

In fact, although almost extinct today, there are special road signs for military use that since 2010 are governed by the Military Code, Legislative Decree 66 of 2010 art 237. A regulation that was actually contained in art. 38 paragraph 11 of the Highway Code of 1992, a decade in some ways traumatic for our Armed Forces which represented a substantial and necessary reform of the organizational / structural method, as well as operational and with a precise target also on the means and their functions .

Military signage

The massive use of prescriptions and signals, was used during the two world wars, when our military vehicles moved within the Italian territory for other targeting by the enemy, including bridges. Although the text is complex and written in bureaucratese, it is not clear that there has been a cancellation of these symbols but they certainly have faded reaching the end of the Cold War. Currently, the legislation on "military roads" basically deals with state-owned and legal concepts even if there is still the possibility of militarizing roads even if they are not owned by the Defense.

Could it be the costs?

In the fundamental points of article 237 reported in DL 66, it is also written that the list of military roads is not public and the owner body is the military region to which it belongs.

In addition to the roads reserved exclusively for military traffic, there are those open to the public where maintenance is the responsibility of the Defense and the municipalities interested in the passage. It comes to think in a period that is certainly not prosperous for defense funds, where geopolitics has also changed, that these spaces (including cartels of course) have been partly entrusted by the military to the civilian state property, but this too has certainly not taken much well locally.

Perhaps without necessarily having to enter a barracks, or in clearly military areas such as La Maddalena, we could find ourselves in a military area without even knowing it?

Segnali and bridge class

The CdS of '92 to which every vehicle (including military) must comply, is already complete with 120 signs of prescription, prohibition and obligation and another 266 including various indications and information and, despite the possible changes, it is more than enough to regulate modern military traffic which, for its own exercise, can in any case take advantage of exemptions.

However, also for the military there are still three road categories, namely: a) class signs of bridges; b) signs of danger, prescription and normal indications; c) temporary field signals. On the Ponte Fener that connects the Belluno and Treviso banks of the Piave, it seems there are still some old indications representing a "bridge class", albeit corroded by rust, but they will certainly not be the only ones given the quantity of rivers in Italy, but what did they represent?

At the international level, conventional symbols developed between NATO armies and road owners, such as that yellow disc placed on vehicles.

The black number inside the disc represented the PTT (fully laden mass) of the vehicle which had to be less than or equal to that placed at the beginning of the bridge and, in some cases, based on the characteristics, the transit could take place simultaneously on the two sides of the bridge or one-way.

Other types of rhomboid and blue signs represented the permitted directions, still others with a red cross, the routes to follow for the evacuation of the wounded. Other signs reported the areas in Blackout, the areas mined, gassed or not accessible due to the bacteriological presence. In any case, several signs were similar to those used in the civil field, such as some turn restrictions or the stop sign.

Reinforced military vehicles

We have always emphasized that military vehicles, even if in some cases derived from a civilian namesake, are reinforced. Greater thicknesses of the frames and increased suspensions are just some of the devices that exist without us noticing when we observe them captured by their operational mass.

The handling of a vehicle is often linked to its short dimensions, the steering angle etc, and in many cases it means more versatility if it is even predisposed to a load higher than civilian standards. Jeep J8, VM90, Astra, MUV 70/20, are structured vehicles to exceed a lot of the civil segment directives and the same military driving qualifications, for example the Mod. 3, have a mass range well above the equivalent driving license B civil.

By optimizing the loads with these military construction rules, the mass will be more concentrated, so the choice of the route becomes a factor not to be underestimated. However, if the bridges collapse it is not the fault of the armed forces, let us underline it well, if anything, by those who do not carry out maintenance, see the Morandi Bridge or the collapse of the Albiano Magra bridge in Aulla during the lockdown of April.

Among the heaviest transports carried out by the Army there is certainly the handling of tanks entrusted to IVECO ASTRA 88.50 TIM 8x8, which on the whole tractor semitrailer has ten axles. It is good to report once again that the Army has already implemented a policy of optimization of the means, few platforms and a substantial multipurpose since the end of the last century. Therefore, every handling activity carried out by the various regimental commands can count on the most appropriate means and constant training of personnel, as happens in the steps proposed by the Weapon of Transport and Materials, a little-named reality but a backbone of the Army System .

Images: web