The crew of an M4A2 "Sherman" tank, named "La Moscowa" ("Moscow River," in honor of the Battle of Borodino, which in France is known as the Battle of the Moscow River), belonging to the 2nd French Armored Division of General Philippe Leclerc. The tank was hit on November 1, 1944 by anti-tank gun fire, 2 crew members were killed, the others were seriously wounded.

Tank named La Moscowa

Born in Alexandria (Egypt) in 1907 and dead in Varese (Italy) in 2001. After his military service performed in Italy in 1929 , he continued his studies in law and became a lawyer.

Jewish, Camerini in 1938 emigrated to France to escape the Fascist racial laws , and in September 1939 , in Paris , with the outbreak of World War II , he enlisted in the Foreign Legion . On 1 March 1940 he was promoted to second lieutenant and posted to the 13th DB with which he fought in Norway. On June 18, in England he joined the Free French Forces under the pseudonym of Clarence . In September 1940 he participated in the expedition to Dakar.

Promoted to lieutenant in 1941 , he took part in the campaign and Eritrea , fighting against Italian troops , and he was wounded in the taking of Massawa on 8 April 1941. He fought in Syria , then in the Battles of Bir Hakeim and El Alamein and in Tunisia . During the Italian campaign was wounded on May 8, 1944 in Pontecorvo and later in Radicofani . Promoted captain, he was seconded to the French embassy in Rome, but October 12, 1945 , in Paris , was dismissed. On his return to Italy he became attorney of the Court of Appeal of Milan and the of the Court of Cassation. DVX


Eritrea 1941 command post of the Foreign Legion . Fourth from left Lieutenant Gustavo Camerini and fifth captain Dimitri Amilakhvari .
He was among the 1,038 personalities awarded with the prestigious honor of the Order of Liberation , established in 1940 by Charles de Gaulle in Brazzaville . It was also decorated Commander of the Legion of Honour , Companion of the Liberation War Cross 1939-1945 ( France ) , Colonial Medal , Wound Medal , Medal of the east , Order of Sant ' Olaf (Norway) and Croix de Guerre ( Norway).

Captain Camerini

Lt. General Charles de Gaulle, future President of France, reviews a party of Free French boy scouts in camp somewhere in Wales, September, 1940.

While De Gaulle was to become the embodiment of French Resistance, welcomed rapturously back to France during the Liberation, his early days in exile in Britain were difficult, and not just because of his difficult, friend-shedding personality.  He was as yet unknown back in France and, even in Britain, many French exiles were more than reluctant to accept him as leader of a liberation government-in-exile.  Even among French troops evacuated at Dunkirk there was a strong party demanding repatriation to France where, presumably, they envisaged serving the "legitimate" (actually far from legitimate) emerging "État Francais" under Pétain.  In these circumstances, I suppose that even inspecting Free French boy scouts (sons, presumably, of French parents in England who did reject the ÉF and Pétain) was a valuable photo opportunity.  That, of course, would change ... Best regards, JR.