Italian Forces

A "Parfait Gentil Knight".

Prince Amedeo of Savoy-Aosta, third Duke of Aosta, Viceroy of Italian East Africa, 1937-1941. British-educated (Eton and Oxford), and a confirmed Anglophile, Prince Amedeo served with distinction in the Italian Army (artillery) in WW1 (Italy's "White War" - an often forgotten but terrible conflict) and, later, in the Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) in various Italian colonial wars). Succeeded Marshal Graziani as Viceroy of Italian East Africa in 1937. Genuinely regarded as a noble and moderate administrator and commander by friend and foe - including the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. In WW2, the Prince posed determined opposition to the British in East Africa, but was finally forced to surrender in May, 1941, when it became clear that his heavily outnumbered and undersupplied forces could not prevail against British and Ethiopian attack. The Prince died in POW captivity in Nairobi, Kenya, as a result of diseases contracted in the course of earlier visits to Africa, on 3 March, 1942, aged 43. Nobody had a bad word to say about him. The good die young, sometimes ... Best regards, JR.