Ugo Sani

Ugo Sani (born September 21, 1865 in Ferrara , † January 7, 1945 in Rome ) was an Italian general and senator of the kingdom . From January to September 1919 he was commander in chief of the Italian occupation forces in Tyrol .

Life

Ugo Sani came from an old noble family from Ferrara with a long military tradition. After spending the first years of school in his hometown, he attended the Military Academy in Modena from 1883 to 1885 , from which he graduated with the degree of lieutenant of the cavalry . He was then assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment "Vittorio Emanuele".

Between 1889 and 1898 he first went to cavalry and then to war school. In 1894 he married the noblewoman Eugenia Morelli. The marriage resulted in two children, Maria Consolata and Emanuele. Meanwhile promoted to captain, Sani was assigned to the General Staff in 1902 and to the 1st Army Corps in 1903. Further promotions and various tasks followed by 1913. In February 1914, he was promoted to colonel, head of the cavalry inspectorate in the Italian army .

First World War

A few days before the Italian entry into the war , the inspectorate was renamed Cavalry Corps Command, to which four cavalry divisions were subordinate. When the war began, Sani got into the war zone. He later complained about the hesitant approach of the Italian army at the beginning of the war and that the cavalry units were withheld at a time when the enemy only had limited resources and units.

In May 1916 he was given command of the Pinerolo Infantry Brigade at his request for a transfer to the front , which was followed a month later by promotion to major general . With his brigade, he distinguished himself in several actions on the Karst and Isonzo fronts . This was the case with the occupation of Kote 70 near Doberdò , for which he received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Savoy , followed by two silver medals for bravery in the same year. During his time with the Pinerolo Brigade, he also stood up for his soldiers against his direct superior, the Duca d'Aosta and Commander-in-Chief of the 3rd Army.

In May 1917 he was slightly injured by shrapnel . A month later the command of the 9th Infantry Division took over, in September of the same year that of the XIII. Army Corps. The latter was in position on the lower reaches of the Piave after the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo . During the First Battle of the Piave , the troops commanded by Sani rejected all Austro-Hungarian attack attempts and were also able to conquer the Austro-Hungarian bridgeheads formed on the west bank of the Piave, so that the enemy had to retreat to the east bank of the Piave, for which he with the officer's cross of the Military Order of Savoy was awarded.

In the spring of 1918 he and his corps were transferred to the plateau of the Seven Municipalities , where the 11th Austro-Hungarian Army attempted attacks in Val Frenzela. In June 1918 he was finally promoted to lieutenant general and awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy .

post war period

In November 1918, at the end of the war, he was appointed military commander in his native Ferrara. As such, on behalf of the Italian High Command, he visited the assembly camps of the repatriated Italian prisoners of war and then complained about the hesitant repatriation and the poorly organized camps.

On January 5, 1919 he took over the leadership of the III. Army corps in Merano , which was transferred to Innsbruck on January 10th. With the transfer, Sani became commander-in-chief of the Italian occupation forces in North Tyrol, which marched into Innsbruck on November 23, 1918. In this function he replaced Annibale Roffi and was subordinate to the military governor in Trento Pecori Giraldi .

During his time as the commanding officer of the occupation forces, he complained about the hostile attitude of the local press and the lack of will of the local authorities to curb it. He thought it appropriate to take appropriate actions to underline the correctness of the crew, but this did not find the support of his superior Pecori Giraldi.

In September 1919 he was appointed commander of the III. Army Corps recalled and appointed Commander in Chief of the IV Army Corps in Bologna , which he led until 1926. In December 1919 he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Crown of Italy and the Commander's Cross of the Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus awarded. In 1922, as the highest military commander in Bologna, he opposed the fascist black shirts when occupying the institutions led by his troops, but afterwards justified himself to the new rulers that they had not behaved hostile to the fascist militias.

After further tasks, including in the War Ministry , he retired from active service in 1931. In the same year he was awarded the Grand Officer's Cross of the Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus, followed in 1932 by the Cross of the Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy and in 1938 by the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus. In the meantime, Sani had joined the fascist party in 1927 . In December 1933 he was appointed Senator of the Kingdom. In this role he was a member of various commissions and from May 1941 to August 1943 he chaired the Senate's Armed Forces Commission.

In August 1943 he was interrogated as a witness during the investigation of Ettore Muti , who had died under mysterious circumstances , as his property was adjacent to Muti's.

In August 1944, the Supreme Court, charged by the Bonomi government with the prosecution of fascist crimes ( Italian Alta corte di giustizia per le sanzioni contro il fascismo ), actively supported the fascist regime , promoted the Italian entry into the war in 1941, and passed laws to have that would have restricted the rights of freedom. Because of these allegations, he was dismissed as a senator in October 1944.

Ugo Sani died a few months later on January 7, 1945 in Rome.

Works

• Il soldato italiano attraverso la grande guerra. Tip. del Comando 8th divisione di fanteria, Bologna 1921.
• La condotta morale della truppa nella grande guerra: memorie di un generale di Corpo d'armata. SATE, Ferrara 1934.

literature

• Giulia Albanese: La marcia su Roma. Laterza, Bari 2008 ISBN 978-88-420-8814-1 .
• Andrea Di Michele: Here and beyond the Alps. Italian expansion plans in Tyrol (1918–1920). In: History and Region / Storia e regione . 19th year, 2010, issue 1 - anno XIX, 2010, n.1, Studienverlag, Innsbruck, Vienna, Bozen 2010.
• Andrea Di Michele: L'Italia in Austria: da Vienna a Trento. In: Raoul Pupo (ed.): La vittoria senza pace: Le occupazioni militari italiane alla fine della Grande Guerra. Laterza, Bari 2014 ISBN 978-88-581-1181-9 .
• Fabio Montella: 1918 Prigionieri italiani in Emilia. Il Fiorino, Modena 2008.
• Corrado Pasquali: 1918–1920 Dal Piave ad Innsbruck. L'occupazione dell'Esercito Italiano in Tirolo. Temi Editrice, Trient 2007 ISBN 978-88-97061-98-4 .
• Arrigo Petacco : Ammazzate quel fascista! Vita intrepida di Ettore Muti. Mondadori, Milan 2002 ISBN 978-88-04-50686-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Biography of Ugo Sani (Italian) accessed on November 27, 2017
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Senator Ugo Sani's personal file , accessed on November 27, 2017
3. ↑ Comando generale di Cavalleria p. 554 (Italian) (PDF; 1.6 MB), accessed on November 27, 2017
4. ↑ ^{a b} Presentation of the reprint of his war diary (Italian) , accessed on November 27, 2017
5. ^ Corrado Pasquali: 1918-1920 Dal Piave ad Innsbruck. L'occupazione dell'Esercito Italiano in Tirolo. P. 113
6. ^ Fabio Montella: 1918 Prigionieri italiani in Emilia. P. 58
7. ↑ Andrea Di Michele: This side and the other side of the Alps. Italian expansion plans in Tyrol (1918–1920). P. 151
8. ^ Andrea Di Michele: L'Italia in Austria: da Vienna a Trento. P. 64
9. ↑ Review of the book La Marcia su Roma on Reppublica online (Italian), accessed on November 27, 2017
10. ↑ Entry in the Senatori d'Italia database of the Italian Senate (Italian), accessed on November 27, 2017
11. ↑ Arrigo Petacchi: S. Ammazzate quel fascista! Vita intrepida di Ettore Muti . P. 190