Italy's use of daredevil elite shock troops known as the "Arditi", beginning in 1917, was an important influence on the early Fascist movement. The "Arditi" were soldiers who were specifically trained for a life of violence and wore unique blackshirt uniforms and fezzes. The "Arditi" formed a national organization in November 1918, the "Associazione fra gli Arditi d'Italia", which by mid-1919 had about twenty thousand young men within it. Mussolini appealed to the "Arditi", and the Fascist "Squadristi" movement that developed after the war was based upon the "Arditi".