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Delfino Borroni | |
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Born | Turago Bordone, Pavia, Italy | 23 August 1898
Died | (aged 110 years, 64 days) Castano Primo, Milan, Italy | 26 October 2008
Allegiance | ![]() |
Service/ | Italian Army |
Years of service | January 1917 – May 1920 |
Unit | 6th Bersaglieri Regiment |
Battles/wars | World War I |
Other work | Tram driver |
Delfino Edmondo Borroni (23 August 1898 – 26 October 2008), Knight of Vittorio Veneto, was, at age 110, Italy's oldest man, and the eleventh-oldest verified man in the world.
He was the last veteran of the Alpine Front in the First World War, following the June 2008 death of the penultimate Italian Francesco Domenico Chiarello. The last Austro-Hungarian veteran, Franz Künstler, died in May 2008. At the time of his death, there two other trench veterans survived: Britons Harry Patch and Frenchman Fernand Goux, who fought on the Western Front.
Borroni, a mechanic, was born in Giussago, in the province of Pavia; he was called up in January 1917, and assigned to the 6th Bersaglieri Regiment in March. He first saw action in the Pasubio Alpine massif, where he fought against the Austro-Hungarian forces. He also fought in Valsugana and at Caporetto, where, after being shot in the heel while on a dangerous reconnaissance mission, he was captured as an Austrian prisoner of war and was forced to dig trenches until he managed to escape in the last days of the war.
He was seriously wounded as a civilian, a tram driver, in an Allied air raid during World War II.
His death was noted in the news. The Italian Government's Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa attended the funeral.
The Battle of Caporetto took place on the Italian front of World War I.
Henry William Allingham was an English supercentenarian. He is the longest-lived man ever recorded from the United Kingdom, a First World War veteran, and, for one month, the verified oldest living man in the world. He is also the second-oldest military veteran ever, and at the time of his death was the 12th-verified oldest man of all time.
The Second Battle of the Piave River, fought between 15 and 23 June 1918, was a decisive victory for the Italian Army against the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, as Italy was part of the Allied Forces, while Austria-Hungary was part of the Central Powers. Though the battle proved to be a decisive blow to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and by extension the Central Powers, its full significance was not initially appreciated in Italy. Yet Erich Ludendorff, on hearing the news, is reported to have said he 'had the sensation of defeat for the first time'. It would later become clear that the battle was in fact the beginning of the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Carlo Orelli was, at age 110, the last surviving Italian World War I veteran who joined the army at the onset of the war. Born in Perugia, although he lived in Rome for most of his life, Orelli came from a military family whose members had served in various Italian conflicts since 1849. A mechanic by trade, Orelli joined the Italian Army in May 1915 and engaged in combat operations in Italy. His recollections were marked by particularly brutal experiences of trench warfare, including the violent deaths of many of his friends. After receiving injuries to his leg, he was pulled from active duty and returned home.
Alfred Anderson was a Scottish joiner and veteran of the First World War. He was the last known holder of the 1914 Star, the last known combatant to participate in the 1914 World War I Christmas truce, Scotland's last known World War I veteran, and Scotland's oldest man for more than a year.
Henry John Patch, dubbed in his later years "the Last Fighting Tommy", was an English supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe, and the last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World War from any country. Patch was not the longest-surviving soldier of the First World War, but he was the fifth-longest-surviving veteran of any sort from the First World War, behind British veterans Claude Choules and Florence Green, Frank Buckles of the United States and John Babcock of Canada. At the time of his death, aged 111 years and 38 days, Patch was the third-oldest man in the world, behind Walter Breuning and Jiroemon Kimura.
Jerzy Kazimierz Pajączkowski-Dydyński was a Polish veteran of World War I living in the United Kingdom. In 1915, he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army, and he later fought for Poland, reaching the rank of colonel. Upon the German invasion of Poland that triggered World War II in 1939, he escaped with his family to Romania, then France and finally England after France capitulated to Germany in June 1940. In later life he worked as a gardener in Scotland before moving to Cumbria with his daughter. He died at a nursing home, aged 111 years and 140 days, and had been Britain's oldest living man.
Louis de Cazenave was, at the time of his death, the oldest surviving French veteran of World War I.
Lazare Ponticelli, Knight of Vittorio Veneto, was at 110, the last surviving officially recognized veteran of the First World War from France and the last poilu of its trenches to die.
Francesco Domenico Chiarello, Knight of Vittorio Veneto, was, together with Fernand Goux of France and seaman Claude Choules of England and later Australia, one of the last three soldiers to see action in both World Wars. Chiarello was also one of the last two surviving Italian and Alpine Front veterans of the First World War, along with fellow 110-year-old Delfino Borroni.
Italo Sarrocco was one of the last surviving veterans of the First World War, and one of the oldest people in Italy at the time of his death. He fought for Italy at the all important Battle of Vittorio Veneto in October–November 1918 in the final stage of the war, which ended the war for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and caused the German Empire to end the war as well.
Although a member of the Triple Alliance, Italy did not join the Central Powers – Germany and Austria-Hungary – when the war started with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia on 28 July 1914. In fact, the two Central Powers had taken the offensive while the Triple Alliance was supposed to be a defensive alliance. Moreover the Triple Alliance recognized that both Italy and Austria-Hungary were interested in the Balkans and required both to consult each other before changing the status quo and to provide compensation for whatever advantage in that area: Austria-Hungary did consult Germany but not Italy before issuing the ultimatum to Serbia, and refused any compensation before the end of the war.
Erich Kästner was the last documented World War I veteran who fought for the German Empire and the last who was born in Germany. Consequently he was the last Central Powers combatant of the Western Front. He was also the second oldest man in Germany. However, he was not the last veteran living in Germany. Franz Künstler was an ethnic German who was born in and fought for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, migrating to Germany in 1946 and subsequently becoming a German citizen.
Franz Künstler was, at age 107, the last known surviving veteran of the First World War who fought for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Following the death of 110-year-old Ottoman veteran Yakup Satar on 2 April 2008, he was also the last Central Powers veteran of any nationality. He was born in Sósd, in the Kingdom of Hungary, now Măureni, Romania.
This is an incomplete list of the last surviving European veterans of several wars. The last surviving veteran of any particular war, upon his death, marks the end of a historic era. Exactly who is the last surviving veteran is often an issue of contention, especially with records from wars which happened long ago. The "last man standing" was often very young at the time of enlistment and in many cases had lied about his age to gain entry into the service, which confuses matters further.
The military Order of Vittorio Veneto was an Italian order of chivalry that was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.
Charles Stanley Stair was a soldier in the British West Indies Regiment, who was at the time of his death the last surviving veteran from the Caribbean to have served in World War I. He enlisted into the labour corps in 1916, and was sent from Jamaica to France and Italy as one of more than 15,000 men who volunteered for "The Coloured Regiment". At the end of the war, he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He lived to be 107 years old.
The White War is the name given to the fighting in the high-altitude Alpine sector of the Italian front during the First World War, principally in the Dolomites, the Ortles-Cevedale Alps and the Adamello-Presanella Alps. More than two-thirds of this conflict zone lies at an altitude above 2,000m, rising to 3905m at Mount Ortler. In 1917 New York World correspondent E. Alexander Powell wrote: “On no front, not on the sun-scorched plains of Mesopotamia, nor in the frozen Mazurian marshes, nor in the blood-soaked mud of Flanders, does the fighting man lead so arduous an existence as up here on the roof of the world.”