Italy's Last World War One Veteran Dies at 110

Reuters ^ | January 25, 2005

[BroncosFan]

Italy's Last World War One Veteran Dies at 110

Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:55 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - Italy lost its last veteran from World War One this week when Carlo Orelli, popularly known as "the last infantryman," died at the age of 110, the government said Tuesday.

Orelli fought as a foot-soldier in the trenches around Trieste which is now part of north-eastern Italy.

As Italy's oldest survivor of the 1914-1918 war, he was a minor celebrity and a book based on his wartime diaries was published last year.

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi paid tribute to a soldier he said was "living and precious testimony to the sacrifice of the boys who fought ... to make our country great, free and united." Italy joined the war in May 1915 on the side of Britain, France and Russia against Germany and Austria-Hungary with which it had been allied until earlier that year in the so-called Triple Alliance.

[BroncosFan]

RIP. Anyone who knows anything about the Isonzo Front knows this guy has already done his time in hell. Mark Helprin's "A Soldier of the Great War" is a fictionalized account of the fighting there. Those battles made the Somme look like a walk in the park.

[x1stcav]

Its hard to remember that Mussolini, like Hitler, was a very highly decorated soldier.

What is this apropos of? Nothing.

[jocon307]

RIP for this old man. I guess he saw a lot more than he planned to in his life, but good for him for his long life.

I'm going to a wake tomorrow for hubby's cousin, clean liver and dead of cancer at 34.

So you gotta know, it's God's will and nothing more that keeps us here or there.

[tet68]

As a C&R collector, I have several rifles from this period.
Here is a site you might like.
http://berg.heim.at/almwiesen/410100/

[BroncosFan]

Very cool site. Thanks.

[tet68]

Most people know of the mines dug under the german lines
by the British, but the Italians and Austrians were prolific
miners also and some times whole peaks were blown up under their defenders. Great pix at that site of moving heavy guns up the side of mountains etc.

[GreenHornet]

President Bush spoke at an event a while back (2003?) in which he stated that there were still approximately 200 surviving American WWI veterans. I imagine that number has since dwindled to a precious few.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Italy's willingness to be prostituted away from her solemn treaty obligations by false promises of grandeur and booty by the french and brits, all lies ,never fulfilled , led to the first Fascist regime.

[BluH2o]

Upon learning that Mussolini's Italy had allied themselves with Germany in the early years of WWII it was passed off as no big deal by the Allies. It was said, at the time ... 'We (Allies) had Italy in WWI you can have them in this war'. So many Italians were surrendering in North Africa it overwhelmed the British and American forces. They simply couldn't allocate manpower to deal with the problem ... it wasn't unusual for a half dozen Allied soldiers to escort a column of a thousand or more Italians back to a holding area in the rear.

[Strategerist]

Higher level Italian leadership was execrable in WWII.

However their troops were not nearly as bad as their reputation. Many fought hard and well under Rommel.

But then as the war wore on the Italians really lost enthusiasm for the war and for fighting the Allies.

[Wilhelm Tell]

If I were being used as cannon fodder for Hitler and that doofus Mussolini, I would be quick to surrender to the Allies, too.

[Charlespg]

"If I were being used as cannon fodder for Hitler and that doofus Mussolini, I would be quick to surrender to the Allies, too."

BINGO

lol

[BluH2o]

The Italian military also got their butts kicked out of Ethiopia by Emperor Hali Salasi ... this just prior to WWII.
The Italian military, unless you go back to the Romans, doesn't exactly exemplify the term stout-hearted warrior.