Italo Balbo

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Governor-General of Italian Libya
In office
1 January 1934 – 28 June 1940
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byRodolfo Graziani
Minister of Aeronautics
In office
12 September 1929 – 6 November 1933
Prime MinisterBenito Mussolini
Preceded byBenito Mussolini
Succeeded byBenito Mussolini
Quadrumvir in the
Grand Council of Fascism
In office
12 January 1923 – 28 June 1940
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
24 May 1924 – 2 March 1939
ConstituencyEmilia-Romagna
Personal details
Born(1896-06-06)6 June 1896
Italian Fasces of Combat
(1919–1921)
National Fascist Party

(1921–1940)
Height1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Spouse
Emanuela Florio
​
(m. 1924)​
Children3
Military service
Allegiance Kingdom of Italy
Branch/serviceMVSN
Regia Aeronautica
Years of service1915–1940
RankMaresciallo dell'Aria (Marshal of the Air Force)
Battles/warsWorld War I:
  • Italian Campaign

World War II:

  • North African Campaign

Italo Balbo (6 June 1896 – 28 June 1940) was an

Italian North Africa. Due to his young age, he was sometimes seen as a possible successor to dictator Benito Mussolini
.

After serving in

alliance with Nazi Germany.[2] Early in World War II, he was accidentally killed by friendly fire when his plane was shot down over Tobruk by Italian anti-aircraft guns who misidentified it.[3]

Early life

Italo Balbo (center) during World War I in 1918

In 1896, Balbo was born in Quartesana (part of Ferrara) in the Kingdom of Italy. Balbo was very politically active from an early age. At 14 years of age, he attempted to join in a revolt in Albania under Ricciotti Garibaldi, Giuseppe Garibaldi's son.[4]

As

Captain (Capitano) due to courage under fire.[2]

After the war, Balbo completed the studies he had begun in

Social Sciences. His final thesis was written on "the economic and social thought of Giuseppe Mazzini", and he researched under the supervision of the patriotic historian Niccolò Rodolico. Balbo was a Republican
, but he hated Socialists and the unions and cooperatives associated with them.

Balbo returned to his home town to work as a bank clerk. In 1920, Balbo was initiated in the regular Masonic Lodge "Giovanni Bovio", affiliated to the Gran Loggia d'Italia. Subsequently, he received the degree of Orator in the Masonic Lodge" Girolamo Savonarola" in Ferrara,[5] joined by various other party officials.[6] He left the lodge on 18 February 1923,[7] just three days before the vote of the Grand Council of Fascism which forbade fascists to be members of the Freemasonry.

Blackshirt leader

Balbo (left) and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini

In 1921, Balbo joined the newly created

Estense Castle in Ferrara. Italo Balbo had become one of the "Ras", adopted from an Ethiopian title somewhat equivalent to a duke, of the Fascist hierarchy by 1922, establishing his local leadership in the party. The "Ras" typically wished for a more decentralized Fascist Italian state to be formed, against Mussolini's wishes.[8]

At 26 years of age, Balbo was the youngest of the "

Argenta
. He fled to Rome and in 1924 became General Commander of the Fascist militia and undersecretary for National Economy in 1925.

Aviator

Poster for Italo Balbo's transatlantic flight to the Century of Progress in Chicago

On 6 November 1926, though he had only a little experience in aviation, Balbo was appointed Secretary of State for Air. He went through an intensive course of flying instruction and began building the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica Italiana). On 19 August 1928, he became General of the Air Force and on 12 September 1929 Minister of Aeronautics.

In Italy, this was a time of great interest in aviation. In 1925,

Italia
on a polar expedition.

Balbo himself led some transatlantic flights. The first was the 1930 flight of twelve Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats from Orbetello Seaplane Base, Italy to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 17 December 1930 and 15 January 1931.

Balbo featured on Time magazine, 26 June 1933

The

Ostia to the city of Chicago: the Balbo Monument. It can still be seen along the Lakefront Trail, a little south of Soldier Field. Chicago renamed the former 7th Street "Balbo Drive" and staged a great parade in his honour. The Newfoundland Post Office overprinted one of their 75-cent airmail stamps, that had been issued just two months previously, for the event:[13] General Balbo Flight, Labrador, The Land of Gold.[14]

From Chicago, they flew to New York City with an escort of 36 U.S. airplanes. New York gave a warm welcome to the pilots on Broadway. Millions of people watched the parade of dozens of cars escorted by police horses along the streets of Manhattan.[15] Balbo was featured on 26 June 1933 cover of Time.[16]

During Balbo's stay in the United States, President

Franklin Roosevelt invited him to lunch and presented him with the Distinguished Flying Cross.[17] He was awarded the 1931 Harmon Trophy. The Sioux even honorarily adopted Balbo as "Chief Flying Eagle".[18] Balbo received a warm welcome in the United States, especially from the large Italian-American populations in Chicago and New York City. To a cheering mass in Madison Square Garden, he said: "Be proud you are Italians. Mussolini has ended the era of humiliations."[19] The term "Balbo
" entered common usage to describe any large formation of aircraft.

The return flight from New York stopped in

Newfoundland, on 26 July. A road overlooking the bay used by the flying boats was renamed Balbo Drive, a name it still carries today. On 12 August 1933, Balbo's formation departed Clarenville for the Azores, Lisbon, and Rome.[20]
Back home in Italy, he was promoted to the newly created rank of
Marshal of the Air Force
(Maresciallo dell'Aria).

Following his return to Italy, Balbo proposed his vision for a reorganised Italian army. Balbo advocated that the army be reduced to twenty divisions, of which there would be ten motorised, five Alpine and five armoured, all well-equipped, trained and prepared for amphibious warfare, while the navy would have three marine divisions. The idea was that the army would become an expeditionary force that could rapidly deploy by sea or train to Italy's borders (including Libya). However, such a proposal was financially impossible as it would require an unprecedented increase in the defence budget.[21]

Governor of Libya

Main articles:
Italian Colonial Empire and Tripoli Grand Prix
Balbo (in white military uniform) with Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas in the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 15 January 1931

On 7 November 1933, Balbo was appointed

British Cameroons. Mussolini pictured an Italian Cameroon and a territorial corridor connecting that territory to Libya. An Italian Cameroon would give Italy a port on the Atlantic Ocean, the mark of a world power. Ultimately, control of the Suez Canal and of Gibraltar would complete the picture.[22]

As of 1 January 1934,

Time Magazine, played with the conflict between Mussolini and Balbo. Balbo was still well known in the United States for his visit to the Century of Progress exhibition.[24] While Governor, Balbo ordered Jews who closed their businesses on the Sabbath to be whipped.[25][26] Balbo commissioned the Marble Arch
to mark the border between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. It was unveiled on 16 March 1937.

Abyssinia crisis

Balbo appeared in military uniform at the Targa Florio road race

In 1935, as the "

7th Blackshirt Division (Cirene) and 700 aircraft were immediately sent from Italy to Libya. Balbo may have received intelligence concerning the feasibility of advancing into Egypt and Sudan from the famous desert researcher László Almásy.[27]

By 1 September 1935, Balbo secretly deployed Italian forces along the border with Egypt without the British knowing anything about it. At the time, British intelligence concerning what was going on in Libya was woefully inadequate. In the end, Mussolini rejected Balbo's over-ambitious plan to attack Egypt and Sudan and London learned about his deployments in Libya from Rome.[28]

Munich crisis

The "

Munich Crisis", Balbo had his 10,000 troops back.[29]

At this time, Italian aircraft were making frequent overflights of Egypt and Sudan and Italian pilots were being familiarised with the routes and airfields. In 1938 and 1939, Balbo himself made a number of flights from Libya across the Sudan to

Colonel-General Ernst Udet.[29]

There were distinct signs of German military and diplomatic cooperation with the Italians. General Udet was accompanied by the Head of the German Mechanization Department, and the German military attache to Rome paid a long visit to Egypt. A German Military Mission was present in Benghazi and German pilots were engaged in navigational training flights.[29]

Balbo began road construction projects such as the

Via Balbia in an attempt to attract Italian immigrants to Libya. He also made efforts to draw Muslims into the Fascist cause. In 1938, Balbo was the only member of the Fascist regime who strongly opposed the new legislation against the Jews, the Italian "Racial Laws"
.

In 1939, after the German invasion of Poland, Balbo visited Rome to express his displeasure at Mussolini's support for German dictator Adolf Hitler. Balbo was the only Fascist of rank to publicly criticize this aspect of Mussolini's foreign policy. He argued that Italy should side with the United Kingdom, but he attracted little following to his argument. When informed of Italy's formal alliance with Nazi Germany, Balbo exclaimed: "You will all wind up shining the shoes of the Germans!"[2]

World War II

At the time of the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940, Balbo was the Governor-General of Libya and

Chief-of-Staff
in Rome, Balbo still planned to invade Egypt as early as 17 July 1940.

Death

Original gravesite of Balbo in Libya

On 28 June 1940, Balbo was a passenger on a

Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 headed for the Libyan airfield of Tobruk
, arriving shortly after the airfield had been attacked by British aircraft. Italian anti-aircraft batteries defending the airfield misidentified the aircraft as British, opening fire upon it as it attempted a landing. It was downed and all on board perished.

Eyewitness General Felice Porro reported that the cruiser San Giorgio, serving as a floating anti-aircraft battery, began firing on Balbo's aircraft, followed by the airfield's anti-aircraft guns.[30] It remains unclear which of them ultimately led to his aircraft being downed.

Rumours that Balbo was assassinated on Mussolini's orders have been conclusively debunked.[31][32][33][34] Instead, it is generally accepted that Balbo's aircraft was simply misidentified as an enemy target,[2] as it was flying low and coming in against the sun, in addition to the fact of its arrival shortly after an aerial attack by British Bristol Blenheims.[35]

Upon hearing of the death of Balbo, the Commander-in-Chief of the RAF Middle East Command ordered an aircraft dispatched to fly over the Italian airfield to drop a wreath, with the following note of condolence:

The British Royal Air Force expresses its sympathy in the death of General Balbo – a great leader and gallant aviator, personally known to me, whom fate has placed on the other side. [signed] Arthur Longmore[36]

Balbo's remains were buried outside Tripoli on 4 July 1940. In 1970, Balbo's remains were brought back to Italy and buried in Orbetello by Balbo's family after Muammar Gaddafi threatened to disinter the Italian cemeteries in Tripoli.[citation needed]

Memorial

Balbo Column, Chicago

In 1933, Benito Mussolini presented the city of Chicago with a monument to Balbo. Balbo Drive is a well-known street in the heart of downtown. In 2017, a campaign was launched to rename it.[37][38] After encountering opposition, the city instead elected to rename another street, Congress Parkway, in honour of Ida B. Wells, a leading Chicago journalist, anti-lynching activist and suffragette.[39]

In post-fascist Italy, most monuments and streets named after Balbo during the Fascist Regime reverted to their pre-fascist names, such as in Palermo, liberated by the Allies in July 1943, where Piazza Italo Balbo reverted to its former name, Piazza Bologna, or were named after anti-fascist partisans, such as in Sanremo, where "Via Italo Balbo" was renamed after partisan Luigi Nuvoloni.[40]

Honors and awards

Italian

"
Quadrumvir, and faithful soldier of the Duce in the hour of vigilance, of combat, and of victory, unsurpassed flier acros continents and oceans, colonizer of masses and ruler of imperial lands with weapons, with laws, and with works of Roman greatness, in the sky over Tobruk, while he was preparing to hurl the valiant troops and the mighty flocks across the border, he concluded his heroic life with the supreme sacrifice, in the memory of the people eternalizing the deeds and glories of the race
."
—Sky over Tobruk, 28 June 1940[41]
"He participated in the Transatlantic Air Cruise as pilot and commander."
— Orbetello–Rio de Janeiro, 17 December 1930–15 January 1931
"Commander of a platoon of Arditi, charged with carrying out a special night reconnaissance service in an extremely treacherous period and terrain and against a particularly active enemy, proud of a good success achieved, he always demonstrated great personal courage and brilliant qualities as a soldier and commander. Often, to fulfill his mandate, he also engaged himself against an enemy of superior strength, attacking him with such vehemence that it was then necessary to intervene with our machine guns and even our artillery to disengage him. Especially commendable was the action he carried out on the night of 14 August, also reported in the war bulletin of the supreme command of the 15th."
— Dosso Casina, July–August 1918
"A young man animated by pure ideals, he gave continuous evidence of great contempt for danger and high enthusiasm. Commander of a unit of Arditi, he marked the bright path of duty for the units of his own battalion in the attack on an enemy position strenuously defended by numerous machine guns, managing first of all to set foot in the enemy trench. The admirable momentum of the successive waves stopped by the deadly fire of the enemy, he was left alone among the dead and wounded and, pretending to be mortally wounded, he later managed with the help of the darkness to reach our positions.»"
— Monte Valderoa, 27 October 1918
Commander of an assault platoon inflamed by pure and high ideals, he always demonstrated the greatest contempt for danger in carrying out the numerous and difficult tasks assigned to his unit. In the attack by a strong enemy rear guard, he faced his adversary with impetuous courage, shaking his resistance and capturing 40 enemies, 2 machine guns and a trench cannon."
— Monte Valderoa-Rasai (Val di Seren) 27–31 October 1918

Foreign

See also

Further reading

  • Michel Pratt [fr], Italo Balbo, la traversée de l'Atlantique. 24 hydravions de l'Italie fasciste en Amérique. Éditions Histoire Québec, collection Fédération Histoire Québec, 2014.

Notes

  1. ISBN 9781929631018
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e Di Scala, Italy: From Revolution to Republic, 1700 to the Present, p. 234.
  3. ^ Taylor, Blaine, Fascist Eagle: Italy's Air Marshal Italo Balbo
  4. ^ Smith, Italy: A Modern History, p. 273.
  5. ^ Rosario F. Esposito, La massoneria e l'Italia. Dal 1800 ai nostri giorni, Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1979, p. 362.
  6. ^ Vittorio Gnocchini, L'Italia dei Liberi Muratori. Brevi biografie di Massoni famosi, Rome-Milan: Erasmo Edizioni-Mimesis, 2005, p. 22.
  7. ^ Rosario F. Esposito, La massoneria e l'Italia. Dal 1800 ai nostri giorni, Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1979, p. 372.
    OCLC 979542254
  8. ^ Di Scala, Italy: From Revolution to Republic, 1700 to the Present, p. 234; Smith, Italy: A Modern History, p. 365.
  9. ^ Di Scala, Italy: From Revolution to Republic, 1700 to the Present, p. 234; Smith, Italy: A Modern History, p. 365.
  10. ^ "Italian Air Armada Hops 800 Miles (July 14, 1933)". Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  11. ^ "Balbo Pillar Recalls Flight (July 22, 1965)". Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  12. ^ "Balbo Here This Afternoon (July 15, 1933)". Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  13. ^ Harmer, C.H.C. (1984). Newfoundland Air Mails. Cinnaminson, NJ: American Air Mail Society. p. 159.
  14. ^ "Canadian Postal Archives Database". data4.collectionscanada.ca. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  15. ^ "Great Italian armada is acclaimed by millions as it wings over the city". New York Times. 20 July 1933.
  16. ^ "TIME Magazine – U.S. Edition – June 26, 1933 Vol. XXI No. 26". Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  17. ^ Italo Balbo comandosupremo.com
  18. ^ Taylor, Fascist Eagle: Italy's Air Marshal Italo Balbo, p. 63.
  19. ^ Time Life Books, World War II: Italy at War
  20. ^ "General Italo Balbo, Unofficial Clarenville Webpage – Clarenville, Newfoundland". clarenville.newfoundland.ws.[permanent dead link]
  21. ^ Segrè, Claudio G. Italo Balbo: a fascist life. Univ of California Press, 1990, p.280
  22. ^ Kelly, Saul, The Lost Oasis, p. 102
  23. ^ Gunther, John (1940). Inside Europe. Harper & Brothers. pp. 259–260.
  24. ^ Time Magazine Benito in Balboland
  25. OCLC 62324746
    .
  26. OCLC 44960352
    .
  27. ^ Kelly, Saul, The Lost Oasis, p. 121
  28. ^ Kelly, Saul, The Lost Oasis, p. 122
  29. ^ a b c Kelly, Saul, The Lost Oasis, p. 130
  30. ^ General Felice Porro, "Come fu abbattuto l'aereo di Balbo", in Rivista Aeronautica, May 1948.
  31. ^ Franco Pagliano, "La morte di Balbo", in La storia illustrata nº 6, Year IX, June 1965, p. 779.
  32. ^ Giorgio Rochat (1986). Italo Balbo, Edizioni Utet, p. 301.
  33. ^ Giordano Bruno Guerri, Italo Balbo, Mondadori, 1998
  34. ^ Folco Quilici, Tobruk 1940. Dubbi e verità sulla fine di Italo Balbo, Mondadori, 2006.
  35. ^ Taylor, Fascist Eagle: Italy's Air Marshal Italo Balbo, p. 124.
  36. ISBN 9780806155968
    .
  37. ^ Trip, Gabriel (25 August 2017), "Far From Dixie, Outcry Grows Over a Wider Array of Monuments", Washington Post, retrieved 5 December 2017
  38. ^ Greenfield, John. "Monument to fascist Balbo likely to remain, but aldermen could still rename street". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  39. ^ Ida B. Wells Campaign, 31 May 2018, archived from the original on 22 January 2019, retrieved 22 January 2019
  40. S2CID 165043240
  41. ^ "Medaglia d'oro al valor militare BALBO Italo". Quirinale. Retrieved 17 May 2013.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Italo Balbo.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Cover of Time Magazine
26 June 1933 		Succeeded by
Military offices
Preceded by
Governor-General of Italian Libya

1 January 1934 to 28 June 1940 		Succeeded by
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