Orlando Lorenzini
Orlando Lorenzini | |
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Brigadier-General ) | |
Commands held |
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Battles/wars | Italo-Turkish War Pacification of Libya Second Italo-Ethiopian War World War II
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Awards |
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Orlando Lorenzini (3 May 1890 – 17 March 1941) was an Italian general during World War II. During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Lorenzini was responsible for the Zeret massacre, in which Italian colonial troops massacred hundreds of Ethiopians and their families, after luring them out of a cave with chemical weapons.
Biography
Early life and career
Lorenzini was born in
In the 1920s, Lorenzini fought for several years in
East Africa
In December 1931 Lorenzini was made an Officer of the Colonial Order of the Star of Italy, and in June 1933 he was made Commander of the same order. In September 1933 he received another War Merit Cross. In 1935 Lorenzini, by then commander of the 14th Eritrean Battalion, was sent on a secret mission to contact the
In 1939 Lorenzini was promoted to colonel for merit of war, following long campaigns in East Africa, and was awarded another War Merit Cross. Between August 1938 and May 1940, Lorenzini fought in six campaigns of counterguerrilla operations in Shewa. For the successes in these campaigns, he would receive a fifth Silver Medal of Military Valor in February 1941.
According to Frederic Wehrey, Lorenzini was responsible for a chemical attack with mustard gas on rebels that sheltered at Ametsegna Washa cave. After the rebels surrendered, Italian troops separated the men and adolescent boys of fighting age from the women and small children. Tying the males together at the shoulders in groups of two, they marched them away from the cave. About 800 Ethiopian men and boys were killed outside the cave, either by gunshot or by being pushed to their deaths into a deep canyon. "No rebel [has] escaped deserved punishment," Colonel Lorenzini cabled to his superiors.[1]
World War II
When
Lorenzini tried to strengthen the defences of Agordat; the
The
His abilities won the posthumous respect of his enemies; in the official Indian military history of the campaign in East Africa, Compton Mackenzie referred to Lorenzini as gallant and praised his leadership of colonial troops in the first days of the battle of Keren.[3]
Notes
- ^ Wehrey, Frederic. "In the Cave of the Rebel | Frederic Wehrey". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ Lorenzini Orlando
- ^ Compton Mackenzie, Eastern Epic: September 1939 - March 1943 Defence, p. 64 Chatto & Windus, 1951
Sources
- Gian Carlo Stella, Paola Lorenzini Doveri Trent'anni d'Affrica. Vita del generale medaglia d'oro Orlando Lorenzini,Bagnacavallo, Ravenna, 20 maggio 1996.
- Angelo Del Boca, Italiani in Africa Orientale: La caduta dell'Impero, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1986, ISBN 88-420-2810-X.