Giuseppe Lombardi

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Giuseppe Lombardi
Vice Admiral
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Commands held
Battles/wars
Awards

Giuseppe (11 May 1886 – 25 March 1978) was an Italian admiral during World War II.

Early life and career

Born in

Italo-Turkish war, distinguishing himself in Tripoli, where he fought in a landing company of the battleship Sicilia, receiving a Silver Medal of Military Valor.[1]

During

the crisis between Italy and Greece.[1] Later, having been promoted to commander, he was commanding officer of the destroyer Luca Tarigo and then, from 1932 to 1935, he served as naval attaché in Spain and Portugal.[1]

After promotion to captain, Lombardi became commander of the scout cruiser Quarto and of the Naval High Command Far East.[1] He then commanded the cruiser Bari in Red Sea and later, between 1935 and 1937, the heavy cruiser Bolzano and the light cruiser Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta.[1] In 1938 he was promoted to rear admiral and appointed commander of the La Spezia Naval Base; he then became commander of the naval forces in Dodecanese, with headquarters in Rhodes.[1]

World War II

Having been repatriated in 1940, Lombardi was promoted to

intelligence service of Regia Marina (Servizio Informazioni Segrete, SIS); he was then placed in command of the 8th Naval Division, participating in several combat missions in the Mediterranean.[1] In November 1941, his flagship, the light cruiser Luigi di Savoia Duca degli Abruzzi, was torpedoed and badly damaged by British torpedo bombers during an escort mission to Libya.[2]

In 1942, Lombardi was appointed Superior Naval Commander in Libya, with headquarters in Tobruk.[1] In this role, between 13 and 14 September 1942, he directed the Italian-German resistance to a British assault aimed at temporarily occupying Tobruk, known as Operation Agreement; the forces under his command repulsed all attacks by land and by sea, sealing the complete failure of "Agreement" and inflicting on the attackers almost 1,400 casualties at a cost of 66 killed and wounded.[3][1] For this feat, Lombardi was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Savoy.[1]

In August 1943 he was given command of the Western

POW camp in Schokken, in Poland.[5][1] He remained there until January 1945, when he was freed by the advancing Red Army, being then repatriated in 1946.[1][6]

Postwar

In 1946, Lombardi was placed in auxiliary; he would be promoted to full

Tucuman; he returned to Italy in 1957.[1] He died in Rome in 1978.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Dizionario Biografico Uomini della Marina.
  2. ^ Aldo Cocchia, La difesa del traffico con l'Africa Settentrionale dall'1.10.1941 al 30.9.1942, pp. 88 to 94.
  3. ^ L'operazione "Daffodil" nel piano "Agreement".
  4. ^ Giuseppe Fioravanzo, La Marina italiana dall'8 settembre 1943 alla fine del conflitto, p. 216-218.
  5. ^ Giuseppe Fioravanzo, La Marina italiana dall'8 settembre 1943 alla fine del conflitto, p. 218.
  6. ^ Giuseppe Fioravanzo, La Marina italiana dall'8 settembre 1943 alla fine del conflitto, p. 219
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