Gherardo Pantano
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Gherardo Pantano (1868 – 17 August 1937) was an Italian military officer and writer. He spent decades in Italy's African colonies and also fought on the Italian front during World War I.
Pantano was born in Oderzo in 1868. He studied at the Military Academy of Modena before being sent to Eritrea in September 1894.[1] During the First Italo-Ethiopian War, he commanded the VIII Battaglione indigeni of the Royal Corps of Eritrean Colonial Troops (ascari) as a sub-lieutenant.[2] He fought in the battles of Coatit, Senafe, Debra Ailà, Mai Merèt and Adwa, being captured in the last. In 1898, he explored the Danakil Depression.[1] He lived in Merca from 1905 to 1907 and was posted to Somaliland again in 1909–1910.[2] In 1913, during the Italo-Turkish War, he led a battalion of ascari in Libya. After the war, he served as commissioner of Jebel Akhdar and Yafran. When the tribes rebelled against Italian rule, he counselled a withdrawal to the coast.[1] In a memorandum to the Colonial Ministry dated 29 July 1915, he blamed Italian failure on hostility towards Arabs and the use of reprisals.[3]
After Libya, Pantano returned to Eritrea.[1] During the First World War, he was promoted to lieutenant-general and given command of an infantry division.[4] He took part in the battles of Monte Cucco and Bainsizza in 1917.[1] After the war, he was sent to Libya in command of the XIV Brigata "Chieti".[1][2] In 1921, with Armando Maugini, he was sent on a mission to the territory of the Niassa Company in Portuguese Mozambique.[1][5] In 1926, he was promoted to the rank of army corps general. He died in Montecatini Terme on 17 August 1937.[1] His widow, Eugenia Dal Bo, donated his papers to the Archivio della Guerra in the Palazzo Moriggia in Milan.[6]