Enea Navarini ( Cesena 1 April 1885 - Merano 22 March 1977) was an Italian general who served during the Second World War from 1940 to 1943.

Biography

From 1939 to 1941 Enea Navarini was the general officer commanding the 56th Infantry Division Casale. On March 14, 1941, the division boarded ship for Albania, to participate in the ongoing Greco-Italian War. After the German invasion of Greece, Navarini was transferred to the

North African front North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

where he assumed command of the

XXI Army Corps 21 (twenty-one) is the natural number following 20 and preceding 22. The current century is the 21st century AD, under the Gregorian calendar. In mathematics 21 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 3 and 7, and a deficie ...

. In Africa, Navarini became one of the most trusted assistants to

Erwin Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...

and at some time also appointed as Chief of

DELEASE Delease (''Delegazione Africa Settentrionale'', North Africa Delegation) was a colonial body of the Supreme Command of the Italian Armed Forces, with headquarters in Tobruk and jurisdiction over North Africa, during the Second World War, which s ...

(Detachment of the Italian Supreme Command in North Africa) until his repatriation on 14 October 1942. He returned to North Africa, at Rommel's direct request, for the Second Battle of El Alamein, once again commanding the XXI Corps. After the defeat of the German-Italian Panzer Army he remained in command of the surviving units until February 1943 when, following the inevitable loss of the North African front in Tunisia, he was evacuated to Italy. Posted as commanding general of the XIX Army Corps in Campania, following the

Armistice of Cassibile The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brig ...

Navarini managed to escape and reach Northern Italy, where he joined the forces of the newborn army of the

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...

(RSI). Since 1944 he became Commander of the RSI Special Forces Training Unit. After the end of the war, in April 1945, he was subjected to an ''administrative'' process of political ''legal purge'' ("administrative trial") with the loss of his role and rank, but in the course of the same year such measures were revoked by ''legal decision'' of a superior Court of Justice ("judicial trial").

Sources

Bibliography

* ''The Trail of the Fox'' (1977), a biography of

, reissued 1999 in Wordsworth Military Library, * Greene, Jack & Massignani, Alessandro: ''Rommel's North Africa Campaign: September 1940-November 1942'', Da Capo Press, 2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Navarini, Enea 1885 births 1977 deaths Italian generals Italian military personnel of the Italo-Turkish War Italian military personnel of World War I Italian military personnel of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War Italian military personnel of World War II Italian Social Republic