Emilio Faldella

Emilio Faldella (born March 5, 1897 in Maggiora (Piedmont) , † September 9, 1975 in Turin ) was an Italian general .

Life

Faldella came from an old family of officers from Montferrat . In 1914 he began training at the officers' school in Modena and in May 1915 became a lieutenant in the Alpini , with whom he fought in the Eastern Alps in the First World War . a. on the Pasubio . He received several awards and at the age of 19 he was temporarily in command of the Exilles Alpine Battalion .

After the war he served first at the 3rd Alpini - Regiment . From 1923 to 1925 he completed a general staff course and then served with division staffs and with the army general staff . From 1928 to 1930 he commanded an Alpini battalion, then he took on a diplomatic post in Spain until 1935 . After briefly working for the SIM secret service in Italy , he was transferred back to Spain, now in the function of a liaison officer with the dictator Francisco Franco . During the Spanish Civil War , he was Chief of Staff at the command of the Italian fascist associations deployed there . In February 1937 he temporarily took over command for the wounded General Mario Roatta and conquered Málaga . After the setback in Guadalajara , he was involved in the capture of Bilbao in June 1937 as regimental commander . In the battle of Santander (August 14-25, 1937), he and his regiment broke through the opposing positions on the first day of the fight, for which he received a high medal . In December of the same year he returned to Italy and worked for the General Staff of the Italian Army until 1939 .

On September 1, 1939, he became commander of the 3rd Alpini Regiment, with which he was briefly deployed in the Western Alps in 1940 . From August 1941 to May 1943 he again served with the Army General Staff, where he was considered one of the most capable officers . In June 1943, as Brigadier General , he became Chief of Staff of the 6th Army in Sicily , but he was no longer able to stop its disintegration. After the armistice with the Allies came into force , he built an underground force on behalf of the legitimate Minister of War in northern Italy, which was occupied by the Wehrmacht . a. had the order to protect the north-east of Italy against an advance of Yugoslav partisan units . German soldiers arrested him on May 16, 1944 because of treason . He remained imprisoned in Milan and Verona until April 1945 , when he temporarily took over command of Milan and saved the city from total anarchy during the turmoil at the end of the war .

Emilio Faldella left active service at his own request in early 1946. In 1951 he was promoted to major general of the reserve , in 1969 he was promoted to lieutenant general on an honorary basis . Until his death, Faldella, who had published works of a military nature since 1926, worked primarily as a military historian and writer. He also gave lectures on behalf of NATO .

Works

• Dalla guerra dei Cavalieri alla Guerra dei Popoli (1926)
• Venti mesi di guerra in Spagna (1939)
• Lo sbarco e la difesa della Sicilia (1954)
• L'Italia e la seconda guerra mondiale (1959)
• Le guerre che nessuno vuole (1962)
• Le battaglie dell'Isonzo (1965)
• Da Caporetto al Piave (1966)
• Caporetto - Le vere cause di una tragedia (1967)
• Due guerre mondiali (1974)
• Storia degli eserciti italiani (posthumous 1976)
• Storia delle Truppe Alpine (new edition 1977)