Giovanni Messe

Italy state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces 1883–1968 ○ Died

Commander of the Italian 1st Army, the last Axis army in North Africa, and chief of staff of the Co-belligerent Army after the armistice

He fought in the Italian conquest of Libya and the First World War, where he helped build the Arditi assault troops, and was aide-de-camp to King Victor Emmanuel III from 1923 to 1927. In the Second World War he commanded the Special Army Corps on the Greek front and the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia (CSIR). In February 1943 he took over Rommel's former army as the Italian 1st Army, was defeated at the Mareth Line, and surrendered in Tunisia the day after his promotion to marshal on 12 May. A royalist, he became chief of staff of the Co-belligerent Army after the armistice; after the war he helped found an anti-communist paramilitary and sat in the Senate from 1953 to 1955.