Antonio Locatelli

Antonio Locatelli
Born(1895-04-19)19 April 1895
Bergamo, Italy
Died27 June 1936(1936-06-27) (aged 41)
Nekemte, Ethiopia
AllegianceKingdom of Italy
BranchRoyal Italian Army
Regia Aeronautica
RankMajor
ConflictsFirst World War
Second Italo-Ethiopian War
AwardsGold Medal of Military Valour (3)
Silver Medal of Military Valour (3)
Knight of the Military Order of Savoy
Locatelli's 1918 Ansaldo A.1 Balilla aircraft, at the Museo storico di Bergamo

Antonio Locatelli (19 April 1895 – 27 June 1936) was a pioneering Italian aviator and National Fascist Party legislator. He served in Gabriele d'Annunzio's air squadron during the war against Austria and was decorated. After the war, he became a deputy to Parliament. In 1924 he attempted a transatlantic flight but was forced down into the seas off Greenland, whence he was rescued. He was killed during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

Early life

Locatelli was the son of Samuel Locatelli and Anna Gelfi, a family of modest financial standing in Bergamo, Italy. From 1908 until his graduation in 1913, he attended the Bergamo Industrial Institute. He was a keen mountaineer in his youth, climbing the Adamello, Trentino, with his brother Carlo. He then became chief technician at the Ansaldo di Cornigliano Ligure.[1]

Aviator

Having joined a flying unit of the army, Locatelli was granted his pilot's licence in 1915. He went on to fly 523 sorties during World War I, starting out in reconnaissance and then flying fighters and bombers. He was particularly celebrated for performing solo reconnaissance over Zepellin yards in Friedrichshafen and flying over Vienna on 9 July 1918. He was subsequently downed and captured by the Austrians, spending some time at Sigmundsherberg POW camp. In recognition of his valour, he received gold and silver medals and was made a knight of the Military Order of Savoy.[1]

Attempted circumnavigation

Locatelli led Italy's attempt to achieve the first aerial circumnavigation during the 1924 scramble by six nations to achieve the feat. Flying a metal hulled Dornier Do J Wal flying boat, powered by two Rolls-Royce engines and with a crew of three (Lt. Tullio Crosio, copilot, Lts. Giovanni Branni and Bruno Farcinelli, engineers[2]: 266, 270 ), he left Pisa, Italy, on 25 July 1924, heading west. Locatelli's attempt came to an end on 21 August when heavy fog forced a landing 120 miles short of Greenland. Damage sustained to the plane's engine carriers precluded the resumption of the flight. Four days earlier, he had met up with the American team led by Lowell Smith, who were to be ultimately successful in setting the record, in Reykjavík, and had intended to accompany them on the circumnavigation.[2]: 270 [1][3] It was this chance meeting which ultimately saved their lives as the Americans raised the alarm when Locatelli failed to arrive in Greenland and the USS Richmond (CL-9) found them after a search by a flotilla of craft.[2]: 278–81 

Second Italo-Ethiopian War

With the declaration of war on Ethiopia, on 7 January 1936 Locatelli left as a volunteer for Mogadishu, assigned to the reconnaissance and bombing air force. In Ethiopia he made the first liaison flight between the Somali and Eritrean fronts, from Gorrahei to the Danakil Desert.[4]

In the letters he sent to his mother between March and May 1936, Locatelli described his war experience. Below are some excerpts from his diary:

"A huge job. We are in full offensive […] I have already flown 4 times over Harrar, 5 over Jiggiga, twice over Dire Dawa and I have dropped bombs with a precision that you can admire from my photographs taken with the Leica […]. The enemy is putting up resistance in the centre, but we are keeping them bombed so that they can no longer show themselves in the light of day, they will be routed, exterminated and if they want to resist they will run the risk of dying of hunger. Do you know that they cannot move a lorry without us knowing and bombing it? In short, it is unique fun in spite of our English friends who will have a stomach ache at all the news of our overwhelming actions, and especially at knowing that on Lake Tana they are already sculpting a gigantic figure of the Duce in granite. (Gorrahei 23 March)[5]

"Three mornings in a row, the 22nd, 23rd, and today the 24th, I bombed Jiggiga […] it is the most important city, from a military point of view, of the whole war on this chessboard of Somalia because it has a large entrenched camp around it and above all because the English pigs have sent all the war material to Jiggiga for our enemies, both the Somali and Eritrean fronts. When I saw the bombs hitting the houses, destroying (with flights of shrapnel, livestock and stones), setting fire to the town in many places at the same time, I who usually feel a little pity for the enemy, rejoiced above all because I thought I was indirectly hitting the English organisation [...]. (Gorrahei 24 March 1936)[6]

"He will tell you everything that is difficult to write, he will tell you about our life that he lived doing more than his duty with the heart and spirit of a Bergamo native. […] I am entrusting him with 11 small drawings, 23 large and 31 small photographs, so I am sure that everything will arrive regularly by hand […]. Those with the words 'Corriere della sera' written on them could be delivered by hand by Cesareni to Dr. Rizzini who is the editor-in-chief and acts as Director. […] The one about Harrar burning must not leave our house. (Gorrahei 28 April 1936, on the return of one of his flight companions)[7]

"I am happy to have once again been able to give my heart and soul to a great Italian cause. It seems like a dream, yet it is the path to the Empire that opens up for Italy." (Assab, May 7, 1936, after following the proclamation of the Empire live on the radio)[8]

Death

The Nekemte Massacre, illustration from Le Pèlerin, 26 July 1936

Despite the capture of Addis Ababa and the proclamation of the Empire, Italian troops were struggling due to the rainy season. Locatelli was tasked by General Rodolfo Graziani to fly to Nekemte, in the far west of the country, to receive the submission of a local Oromo leader and prepare a base for further airborne landings from which to proceed to Gore where the Emperor's provisional government was sheltering. Locatelli departed for Nekemte with Air Brigadier General Vincenzo Magliocco on June 26 with three aircraft. But the Oromo allies failed to show up, and during the night the crews camped around the aircraft were attacked by the Arbegnoch led by Keflè Nesibù and Belay Haileab. They set fire to the planes and killed all the Italians, except Father Borello who was able to witness the scene thanks to the fact that he had secluded himself in the woods a few dozen meters away. Borello later reported that "there was almost no resistance. Some [Italians] remained trapped in the burning planes. Others attempted a defence, but were immediately shot down. As for the Galla guards who were supposed to protect us, they fled at the first shots."[9]

Memorials

The following were dedicated to the memory of Antonio Locatelli:

References

  1. ^ a b c Crociani, Piero (2005). "Biographical Dictionary of Italians". Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Thomas, Lowell (1925). The First World Flight. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  3. ^ "The Locatelli Rescue". Historic Wings. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  4. ^ Vittorio Polli, Antonio Locatelli. Vita e documenti, Bolis, Bergamo, 1986, p. 151
  5. ^ "ISREC".
  6. ^ "ISREC".
  7. ^ "ISREC".
  8. ^ "ISREC".
  9. ^ A. Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa orientale, vol. III, pp. 30-32.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.