La Disperata was the name given to the group of bodyguards who protected Gabriele D'Annunzio. It was taken up in turn by a number of later squadre and fascist military units in Italy between 1921 and 1945.
La Disperata was the name given to the group of bodyguards who protected Gabriele D'Annunzio. It was taken up in turn by a number of later squadre and fascist military units in Italy between 1921 and 1945.
The origins of the name go back to the Fiume expedition of 1919. The writer Gabriele D'Annunzio seized control of the city, planning to unify it with the Kingdom of Italy, and creating the short-lived Italian Regency of Carnaro. Guido Keller formed a military corps from volunteers who has made their way to Fiume from Italy and had camped out in the city's shipyards. Keller experimented with his ideas of a new military order, making them march bare-chested and singing through the streets of the city. [1] In the evenings they gathered at a restaurant called “La Torretta”, where they started hand grenade fights. [2] This corps took the name La Disperata meaning “(the guard) of desperate men”, and became famous among the arditi and fascists for their fearlessness and the charisma of its leaders.
The first squadra to take the name was formed in Florence on 14 March 1921. It had twenty-one members.
“So a squadra was launched at the head of which was placed an Arditi lieutenant, naturally one decorated for valour, with four former combatant officers, two Arditi sergeants, two others who had been at Fiume, three students, one employee and a commercial traveler, also was also a student in his spare time. We also thought about the name, and after much deliberation, we decided on “La Disperata”, in honour of D'Annunzio’s bodyguard. And the squadra, with its members and its team as a whole, with its members and its crazy name, was so popular that after a few days we could no longer hold back the press of people wanting to join and we had to let others in, choosing them one by one from among the daredevils. [3]
The name was then taken up by squadre in other cities including Bari, Brescia, Caltanissetta, Cosenza, Genoa, [4] Gorizia, Livorno, Lodi, [5] Modena, Padua, Parma, Portici, Turin, [6] Treviso and Venice. Foligno and Perugia adopted the variant La Disperatissima (“the most desperate”). [7] [1]
The name La Disperata was adopted by the 83rd Squadron and the 15th Caproni Bomber Squadron of the Regia Aeronautica. The Caproni squadron took part in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1936) under the command of Galeazzo Ciano. [8] [9]
General Gabriele D'Annunzio, Prince of Montenevoso, sometimes written d'Annunzio as he used to sign himself, was an Italian poet, playwright, orator, journalist, aristocrat, and Royal Italian Army officer during World War I. He occupied a prominent place in Italian literature from 1889 to 1910 and in its political life from 1914 to 1924. He was often referred to by the epithets il Vate and il Profeta.
The March on Rome was an organized mass demonstration in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned a march on the capital. On 28 October, the fascist demonstrators and Blackshirt paramilitaries approached Rome; Prime Minister Luigi Facta wished to declare a state of siege, but this was overruled by King Victor Emmanuel III, who, fearing bloodshed, persuaded Facta to resign by threatening to abdicate. On 30 October 1922, the King appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister, thereby transferring political power to the fascists without armed conflict. On 31 October the fascist Blackshirts paraded in Rome, while Mussolini formed his coalition government.
Arditi was the name adopted by a Royal Italian Army elite special force of World War I. They and the opposing German Stormtroopers were the first modern shock troops, and they have been called "the most feared corps by opposing armies".
After World War I, the city of Fiume was claimed by both the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Italy. While its status was unresolved, its postal system was operated by a variety of occupation forces and local governments.
The Free State of Fiume was an independent free state that existed between 1920 and 1924. Its territory of 28 km2 (11 sq mi) comprised the city of Fiume and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to the Kingdom of Italy.
Giovanni Giuriati was an Italian fascist politician.
Ettore Muti was an Italian aviator and Fascist politician. He was party secretary of the National Fascist Party from October 1939 until shortly after the entry of Italy into World War II on 10 June 1940.
Mario Carli was an Italian poet, novelist, essayist and journalist.
The Italian Regency of Carnaro was a self-proclaimed state in the city of Fiume led by Gabriele d'Annunzio between 1919 and 1920.
The Fasci Italiani di Combattimento was an Italian fascist organisation created by Benito Mussolini in 1919. It was the successor of the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria, being notably further right than its predecessor. The Fasci Italiani di Combattimento was reorganised into the National Fascist Party in 1921.
Squadrismo was the movement of squadre d'azione, the fascist militias that were organised outside the authority of the Italian state and led by local leaders called ras. The militia originally consisted of farmers and middle-class people, who created their own defence from revolutionary socialists. Squadrismo became an important asset for the rise of the National Fascist Party, led by Benito Mussolini, and systematically used violence to eliminate any political parties that were opposed to Italian Fascism.
The Arditi del Popolo was an Italian militant anti-fascist group founded at the end of June 1921 to resist the rise of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and the violence of the Blackshirts (squadristi) paramilitaries. It grouped revolutionary trade-unionists, socialists, communists, anarchists, republicans, anti-capitalists, as well as some former military officers, and was co-founded by Giuseppe Mingrino, Argo Secondari and Gino Lucetti – who tried to assassinate Mussolini on 11 September 1926 – the deputy Guido Picelli and others. The Arditi del Popolo were an offshoot of the Arditi elite troops, who had previously occupied Fiume in 1919 behind the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, who proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro. Those who split to form the Arditi del Popolo were close to the anarchist Argo Secondari and were supported by Mario Carli. The formazioni di difesa proletaria later merged with them. The Arditi del Popolo gathered approximately 20,000 members in summer 1921.
Reginaldo Giuliani, better known as Father Giuliani, was a Dominican friar, a soldier and Italian writer.
The Bloody Christmas of 1920 was a series of clashes in Fiume, which led to the conclusion of the Fiume campaign that was carried out by the Italian poet, adventurer, and proto-fascist Gabriele D'Annunzio in 1920.
Events from the year 1919 in Italy.
Leopoldo "Leo" Longanesi was an Italian journalist, publicist, screenplayer, playwright, writer, and publisher. Longanesi is mostly known in his country for his satirical works on Italian society and people. He also founded the eponymous publishing house in Milan in 1946 and was a mentor-like figure for Indro Montanelli.
Guido Keller was an Italian aviator and political activist who was closely associated with Gabriele D’Annunzio and played an important role in the seizure of Fiume in 1919.
Argo Secondari was an Italian anarchist and militant anti-fascist and one of the founders of the anti-fascist group Arditi del Popolo.
Riccardo Gigante was an Italian irredentist and Fascist politician, who played an important role in the history of Fiume during the interwar period and the Fascist era.
The Rome–Tokyo Raid was an Italian long-distance air expedition across Eurasia between 14 February and 31 May 1920. It was organised by Gabriele D'Annunzio and Harukichi Shimoi and completed by the aviators Guido Masiero and Arturo Ferrarin together with their respective engineers Roberto Maretto and Gino Capannini.