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Francesco Antonio Arena
Francesco Antonio Arena (27 March 1889 – 28 January 1945) was an Italian general during World War II, most notable for having commanded the 132nd Armoured Division Ariete during the second battle of El Alamein. Biography He was born in Pizzoni, Calabria, on March 27, 1889, the son of Vincenzo Arena and Clementina Scandale. In 1909 he enlisted in the Royal Italian Army as a volunteer officer cadet in the 20th Infantry Regiment "Brescia", and in 1910 he was commissioned as infantry second lieutenant. In 1911 he fought in Cyrenaica with the 79th Infantry Regiment during the Italo-Turkish War, earning a Silver Medal of Military Valour for his behaviour during the Battle of the Two Palms in March 1912. In 1914, after promotion to lieutenant, he was stationed in Somalia, assigned to the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops, and in 1915 he was promoted to captain. In April 1916 he was repatriated and assigned to the 2nd Infantry Regiment, fighting on the Italian Front during World War ...
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Pizzoni
Pizzoni ( Calabrian: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vibo Valentia in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about southeast of Vibo Valentia. Pizzoni borders the following municipalities: Simbario, Sorianello, Soriano Calabro, Stefanaconi Stefanaconi () () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vibo Valentia in the Italy, Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about east of Vibo Valentia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,477 an ..., Vazzano. References Cities and towns in Calabria {{Calabria-geo-stub ...
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Battle Of Alam Halfa
The Battle of Alam el Halfa took place between 30 August and 5 September 1942 south of El Alamein during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. '' Panzerarmee Afrika'' (''Generalfeldmarschall'' Erwin Rommel), attempted an envelopment of the British Eighth Army (Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery). In (Operation Surf), the last big Axis offensive of the Western Desert Campaign, Rommel intended to defeat the Eighth Army before Allied reinforcements arrived. Montgomery knew of Axis intentions through Ultra signals intercepts and left a gap in the southern sector of the front, knowing that Rommel planned to attack there and deployed the bulk of his armour and artillery around Alam el Halfa Ridge, behind the front. Unlike in previous engagements, Montgomery ordered that the tanks were to be used as anti-tank guns, remaining in their defensive positions on the ridge. When Axis attacks on the ridge failed and short on supplies, Rommel ordered a withdrawal. The 2n ...
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Royal Corps Of Colonial Troops
The Royal Corps of Colonial Troops ( or RCTC) was a corps of the Royal Italian Army, in which all the Italian colonial troops were grouped until the end of World War II in North Africa campaign. History Many of the Askaris in Eritrea were drawn from local Nilotic populations, including Hamid Idris Awate, who reputedly had some Nara ancestry. Of these troops, the first Eritrean battalions were raised in 1888 from Muslim and Christian volunteers, replacing an earlier Bashi-bazouk corps of irregulars. The four ''Indigeni'' battalions in existence by 1891 were incorporated into the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops that year. Expanded to eight battalions, the Eritrean Ascaris fought with distinction at Serobeti, Agordat, Kassala, Coatit and Adwa and subsequently served in Libya and Ethiopia. These troops were deployed on all fronts in Africa from the First Italo-Ethiopian War, the Italian-Turkish war, and the conquest of Ethiopia, until World War II. The colonial soldiers always s ...
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Somalia
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, and the Indian Ocean to the east. Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland. Somalia has an estimated population of 18.1 million, of which 2.7 million live in the capital and largest city, Mogadishu. Around 85% of Somalia's residents are ethnic Somali people, Somalis. The official languages of the country are Somali language, Somali and Arabic, though Somali is the Languages of Somalia, primary language. Somalia has historic and religious ties to the Arab world. The people in Somalia are mainly Muslims, following the Sunni Islam, Sunni branch.. In antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial center. During the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including th ...
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Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services and police forces. The rank in armies and air forces is often subdivided into subcategories of seniority. In Comparative navy officer ranks of Anglophone countries, English-speaking navies, lieutenants are often equivalent to the army rank of Captain (armed forces), captain; in other navies, the lieutenants are usually equal to their army counterparts. ''Lieutenant'' may also appear as part of a title used in various other organisations with a codified command structure. It often designates someone who is "second-in-command", and as such, may precede the name of the rank directly above it. For example, a "lieutenant master" is likely to be second-in-command to the "master" in an organisation using both ranks. Political uses include lieu ...
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Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, also known as ''Pentapolis'' ("Five Cities") in antiquity, was part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica, later divided into ''Libya Pentapolis'' and ''Libya Sicca''. During the Islamic period, the area came to be known as ''Barqa'', after the city of Barca. Cyrenaica became an Italian colony in 1911. After the 1934 formation of Italian Libya, the Cyrenaica province was designated as one of the three primary provinces of the country. During World War II, it fell under British military and civil administration from 1943 until 1951, and finally in the Kingdom of Libya from 1951 until 1963. The region that used to be Cyrenaica officially until 1963 has formed several shabiyat, the administrative divisions of Libya, since 1995. ...
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Royal Italian Army
The Royal Italian Army () (RE) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfredo Fanti signed a decree creating the Army of the Two Sicilies. This newly created army's first task was to defend its territorial gains against Legitimists in southern Italy, who remained loyal to Francis II of the Two Sicilies. The Army of the Two Sicilies also waged what many modern historians now consider a civil war against outlaws and Bourbonist guerrillas, such as the famous Michelina Di Cesare, and against other Italian states' armies during the continuing wars of unification. After the monarchy ended in 1946, the army changed its name to become the modern Italian Army (). Within the Royal Italian Army were the elite mountain military corporals, the Alpini. The Alpini, which remain in existence today, are the oldest active mountain infantry in the w ...
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Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It has 1,832,147 residents as of 2025 across a total area of . Catanzaro is the region's capital. Calabria is the birthplace of the name of Italy, given to it by the Ancient Greeks who settled in this land starting from the 8th century BC. They established the first cities, mainly on the coast, as Greek colonisation, Greek colonies. During this period Calabria was the heart of Magna Graecia, home of key figures in history such as Pythagoras, Herodotus and Milo of Croton, Milo. In Roman times, it was part of the ''Regio III Lucania et Bruttii'', a region of Roman Italy, Augustan Italy. After the Gothic War (535–554), Gothic War, it became and remained for five centuries a Byzantine empire, Byzantine dominion, fully recove ...
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Second Battle Of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian Railway station, railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa had prevented the Axis powers, Axis from advancing further into Egypt. In October 1942 Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, commander of Eighth Army (United Kingdom), Eighth Army, opened his offensive against the Axis forces. In a 13-day battle the Axis ''Panzerarmee Afrika'' was crushed and forced to retreat from Egypt and Libya to the borders of Tunisia. The Allied victory at El Alamein was the beginning of the end of the Western Desert Campaign. The battle ended the Axis threat to the Middle East and Iran and revived the morale of the western Allies, being their first big success against the Axis since Operation Crusader in late 1941. The end of the battle coincided with the Allied invasion of F ...
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Colonial Order Of The Star Of Italy
The Colonial Order of the Star of Italy ( ) was founded as a colonial order of chivalry on 18 June 1914 by Italian King Victor Emmanuel III, to reward soldiers deployed to the colony of Libya. The order had fallen into abeyance by 1943, when Allied forces conquered the colonies of Italian North Africa.Mendola, Louis A.M''Contemporary Knighthood in Italy'' originally published in the Journal of the Orders and Medals Research Society, London: 1989 and 1993 The various degrees of the order, with limits to their number, were as follows: See also *List of Italian orders of knighthood The Italian honours system is a means to reward achievements or service to the Italy, Italian Republic, formerly the Kingdom of Italy, including the Italian Social Republic. Orders of chivalry Italian Republic There are five orders of kni ... * Order of the Roman Eagle References {{Authority control 1914 establishments in Italy Star of Italy, Colonial Order of the Star of Italy, Co ...
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Order Of The Crown Of Italy
The Order of the Crown of Italy ( or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate Italian unification, the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for civilian and military merit. Today the Order of the Crown has been replaced by the Order of Merit of Savoy and is still conferred on new knights by the current head of the house of Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice. The order has been suppressed by law since the birth of the Italian Republic, foundation of the Republic in 1946. However, Umberto II of Italy, Umberto II did not abdicate his position as ''fons honorum'' and it remained under his Grand Mastership as a dynastic order. While the continued use of those decorations conferred prior to 1951 is permitted in Italy, the crowns on the ribbons issued before 1946 must be substituted for as many five pointed stars on military uniforms. Grades The various degrees of the order, with c ...
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