Italian officers’ star

Italian badges and rank insignia are not the subject of this site. The “Italian officers’ star” is included here because we see it on many soldiers of the Monarchy in contemporary photos as a kind of battle trophy. It’s a bit strange to me how so many officer stars got on the caps of common soldiers? What I quickly found out was that the officer’s star was worn on the tunic collar. In addition, there were additional stars on the uniform as a rank insignia.

In any case, we only see the collar badge in the attached portrait picture. What is certain, however, is that quite a few copies were given as trophies by prisoners of war to Austro-Hungarian soldiers. Based on the pictures, the badge itself may have been silver-colored, or gold-plated for higher-ranking officers. At the back, the screw stem protruding from the body of the badge was fixed by a round, threaded counter nut.