Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo

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Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo
Born(1901-05-26)26 May 1901
Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Died24 March 1944(1944-03-24) (aged 42)
Rome, Italian Social Republic
Allegiance Kingdom of Italy
Service/branch Royal Italian Army
Years of service1918–1944
RankColonel
Commands held11th Armored Engineers Group
Clandestine Military Front
Battles/wars
Awards

Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo (26 May 1901 – 24 March 1944) was an Italian soldier and

Italian Resistance
member.

Biography

He was born in Rome into a family of the old

Risorgimento hero Giuseppe Dezza.[1][2]

At age seventeen, he fought in the final months of the

First World War as a volunteer in the 3rd Alpini Regiment, and at the end of the war he continued his career in the Engineering Corps of the Royal Italian Army; he then attended university and obtained a degree in civil engineering in 1923. In 1924 he returned to the Army, where he was promoted to captain in 1928, and was commissioned to teach at the Army Application School.[1][2]

In 1935 he was assigned to the General Staff and in 1937 he volunteered for the

Corps of Volunteer Troops, where he was initially given command of a communications battalion, and later he was appointed chief of staff of the Flechas Negras Mixed Brigade and promoted to lieutenant colonel for war merits.[1][2][3]

In 1940 he was again called to the General Staff, and assigned to the Supreme Command of the Army (Superesercito), with responsibility for the

North African theatre and later as head of the Operations Office. He was sent to North Africa and promoted to colonel in 1943. For his wartime service, he was awarded a Silver and Bronze Medal of Military Valor (the latter for action near Tobruk in April 1941), as well as the Iron Cross by the Germans.[1][2][4]

On 19 July 1943, Montezemolo participated in the meeting between

fall of the Fascist regime on 25 July 1943, the new head of the government, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, entrusted Montezemolo with the direction of his secretariat; he was also appointed commander of the 11th Armored Engineers Group. Following the announcement of the Armistice of Cassibile, while the king and the government fled from Rome, Montezemolo remained in the capital; he was part of the Italian delegation that negotiated with Field Marshal Albert Kesselring the conditions of the ceasefire in the capital on 10 September 1943, after which General Giorgio Calvi di Bergolo, appointed commander of the "Open City" of Rome, made him head of the Civil Affairs Office of the Open City Command. On 23 September, following the establishment of the Italian Social Republic, German troops surrounded the Ministry of War, where the command of the open city had established its seat, and arrested Calvi di Bergolo, while Montezemolo donned civilian clothes and was able to escape through the cellars of the Ministry.[1][2][5][4]

Montezemolo went into hiding under the

Communist Gruppi di Azione Patriottica (GAP). The Allies later gave him the task of establishing connections with the newly established CLNAI in Northern Italy on behalf of the 15th Army Group.[1][2][5][4]

In order to avoid

prisoners of war were organized and coordinated by Montezemolo throughout central Italy, such as the Raggruppamento Monte Amiata.[1][2][6][7][8][9]

Montezemolo worked hard to coordinate with the other elements of the Roman National Liberation Committee and in particular with Communist

Gustav Line.[1][2]

On 25 January 1944, at the end of a clandestine meeting with General Quirino Armellini, Montezemolo was arrested by the Nazis together with his friend Filippo De Grenet, also a member of the Resistance. Both were imprisoned in the SS prison in via Tasso, where Montezemolo was tortured and interrogated for 58 days, but did not reveal anything to his captors.[1][2][5][10]

Armellini sent a communication to Brindisi asking that Montezemolo be exchanged with some German prisoners of equal importance, but Badoglio did not follow up on the request. On 24 March 1944, after the

Fosse Ardeatine massacre, along with De Grenet and several prominent members of the Clandestine Military Front. He was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor.[1][2][11][5][12][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "MONTEZEMOLO, Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di in "Dizionario Biografico"". www.treccani.it.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Donne e Uomini della Resistenza: Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo". ANPI.
  3. ^ Mario Avagliano, Il partigiano Montezemolo, p. 65
  4. ^ a b c P. Maurizio, Via Rasella, cinquant'anni di menzogne, p. 30
  5. ^ a b c d "25 gennaio1944 Arrestato a Roma il colonnello Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo". www.ilmessaggero.it. 25 January 2018.
  6. ^ Alessandro Portelli, L'ordine è già stato eseguito, p. 167
  7. ^ Ugo Finetti La resistenza cancellata, p. 271
  8. ^ Giovanni Cerchia, Giorgio Amendola: un comunista nazionale, p. 398
  9. ^ Giorgio Bocca, Storia dell’Italia partigiana, p. 96
  10. ^ a b "Museo della Liberazione - Cella Montezemolo". www.museoliberazione.it.
  11. ^ "Le vittime".
  12. ^ "Chi era Costui - Scheda di Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo". www.chieracostui.com.
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