Amedeo Guillet

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Baron Amedeo Guillet (born February 7, 1909 in Piacenza , † June 16, 2010 in Rome ) was an Italian officer and war hero.

Life

Early years

Guillet came from a Piedmontese noble family . His grandfather came from what is now French as Savoy and had participated in the Italian wars of unification . After finishing school, Amedeo attended the military academy in Modena and in 1930 became a cavalry officer . As a rider he already showed great talent at the cavalry school in Pinerolo . He was selected for the Olympic Games in Berlin (1936), but decided not to participate in order to volunteer for service in the Italian-Ethiopian War . With brief interruptions, he stayed in Italian East Africa until the outbreak of World War II .

Amedeo Guillet's "Private War"

Shortly before the outbreak of war, the Italian commander in East Africa, the Duke of Aosta , gave him command of a colonial force commonly known as the Amhara cavalry gang . It consisted of Eritreans , Ethiopians and Yemenis . Amedeo Guillet called them Cummundar-as-Sheitan , the "Devil Commander ".

When the British launched an attack on Italian East Africa with their Commonwealth troops in 1941, the Italian troops withdrew to the Ethiopian highlands. In Eritrea , Guillet and his troops covered Italian associations on their retreat. At Keru he attacked the British Gazelle Force with his riders and brought the motorized unit, accompanied by tanks, into great distress. It was the last major cavalry attack against British units.

After the Italian troops after the Battle of Keren and Eritrea had to give up Guillet began his so-called "private war" against the British. He promised the Eritrean tribal princes a future autonomous status within the Italian colonial empire because of the Ethiopian expansion wishes and thus received their support. For just under eight months he fought a guerrilla war with the Commonwealth troops. When his riding group gradually disbanded, Guillet went underground as a water seller under the name Ahmed Abdullah al Redai , where he was not noticed thanks to his very good knowledge of Arabic and locality. In an adventurous way he finally managed to escape to Yemen , where he was imprisoned for a short time. Imam Jahia granted him asylum and offered him a post as a military advisor and instructor in his guard . Guillet remained in Yemeni service for two years.

In Europe

Amedeo Guillet returned to Italy on September 2, 1943 . On September 8, 1943, an armistice with the Allies came into force, after which German troops occupied Italy. Until April 1945 Guillet fought as a soldier of the king against German and fascist Italian troops in the war of liberation. After the Italian people voted in a referendum on June 2, 1946 for the abolition of the monarchy , Guillet resigned from the army as a colonel at his own request. A few years later he entered the diplomatic service and worked as an ambassador mainly in Arab states, including Yemen , Jordan , Morocco and also in India . In 1975 he retired and then lived mostly in Ireland , where he devoted himself to horse breeding .

On November 4, 2000, the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi appointed him Grand Cross Knight of the Italian Military Order. He also received numerous foreign honors. In Eritrea he was received like a head of state after the war. A number of books about his East African adventures have appeared in Great Britain in recent years.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life on Ilcornodafrica.it
personal data
SURNAME Guillet, Amedeo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian officer and war hero
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Piacenza
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 2010
Place of death Rome