Agenore Frangipani

Agenore Frangipani
Born	(1876-12-04)4 December 1876 Benevento, Italy
Died	6 April 1941(1941-04-06) (aged 64) Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
Allegiance	Kingdom of Italy
Service/branch	Royal Italian Army
Commands held	General Officer of Italian Army; Governor of Scioa/Addis Abeba
Battles/wars	World War I;Second Italo-Abyssinian War;Italian invasion of Albania;World War II

Agenore Frangipani (Benevento; 4 December 1876 – Addis Abeba; 6 April 1941) was an Italian general during World War II, and for three days was Governor of Addis Abeba in April 1941. Because he was ordered to surrender Addis Abeba without a fight, he committed suicide. Hhistorians -like Antonicelli and Tripodi- consider him to be the first high ranking Axis military official to commit suicide because of surrender (being followed by many others, mainly in 1945 surrender of Germany & Japan).

Biography

Arms of Frangipani

Agenore Frangipani was born in 1876 to a noble family of ancient lineage: the Marquis of Mileta, linked to the Frangipani (noble family of medieval Rome). He was the second son of the Marquis of Mileta and by secular tradition he was destined to a military career. He started in the Italian Navy, studying for some time at the Naval Academy of Livorno, but soon he preferred to pursue a career as an officer in the Italian Army. So, he went to study at the Military Academy "Nunziatella" of Napoli, from which he became in 1899 lieutenant of the "Corazzieri".

Frangipani when young took virtually no part in the military life from 1899 until 1905, having to deal with the death of his parents and older brother and taking control of the administration of his own lands at Benevento and in Molise; nevertheless he was promoted to captain of Cuirassiers in 1906 and in 1908 left the cavalry and the Cuirassiers for the "Artillery".

In 1907 Frangipani married Countess Cristina Agazzi (1891–1953), member of a noble Lombard family.

In 1911 Frangipani took part in the Italo-Turkish War in Libya (Tripolitania and Cyrenaica) and was particularly interested in the Turkish air defense: after the Italian capture of Tripoli he discovered some of the anti-aircraft defenses, proposing to the Italian Ministry of War to create similar defenses in Italian shores and in the colonial outposts in Libya.

During World War I Frangipani distinguished himself as a relentless interventionist in favor of the "Entente" and participated personally in the early fighting on the Carso. Unlike other officers of aristocratic family, he did not want to enter the Military Command headquarters but continued the war fighting in the trenches, being promoted to Major in 1917 and Colonel a year after the war ended.

Frangipani was not hostile to fascism, because he believed it was a form of rebirth of Italian military power and he joined the Fascist Party already in 1923. Senior official at the Ministry of War, Frangipani was military attaché in Berlin and Paris until 1930.

He also participated in the Spanish Civil War alongside the Franco troops as commander of the Italian contingent. Before fighting in Spain, he had distinguished himself during the War of Ethiopia and was promoted to Major General in 1936.

Agenore Frangipani also actively participated in the Italian invasion and conquest of Albania in 1939.

As an Officer commanding an Italian Army in Ethiopia, he succeeded his parent Giuseppe Daodice as governor of Addis Ababa in the last three days of the Italian Government.

With the main Italian army pinned down in the north around Keren, Cunningham's troops were able to advance rapidly, and by the end of March were close to Addis Ababa.Meanwhile, the Ethiopian resistance rose up in arms against their Italian overlords.Abebe Aregai, who had been chief of police in Addis Ababa before the Italian conquest and then became a leader of a guerrilla band known as the Arbegnoch ('Patriots'), assembled a large force of irregular troops outside the city.The Italian viceroy of East Africa, the Duke of Aosta, was worried that the Ethiopian resistance might seek revenge for the conquest of their country back in 1936 by massacring the European settlers in Addis Ababa. He therefore ordered the newly-appointed military governor of the city (General Agenore Frangipani) to surrender to the British without a fight, so that they would be responsible for keeping order in the city and restraining their allies.Accordingly, a British Empire force of infantry and armoured cars from the South African and 11th African divisions entered Addis Ababa peacefully on 6 April 1941: the first national capital to be liberated from Axis control. Ashamed of not being allowed by his superior to fight to the death in the old style, the Italian governor, General Agenore Frangipani, killed himself with poison soon afterwards.Stephen Tempest (Oxford University)

General Agenore Frangipani found himself having to counter the Allied advance without any hope: he was forced to give the Ethiopia's capital to the British on 6 April 1941. Indeed, the Italian Viceroy Amedeo d'Aosta ordered him (who was the Italian governor of Addis Abeba), to surrender the city to the British commanders without any fight, in order to forestall the massacre of Italian civilians that happened a few days before in Dire Dawa.^[1] Frangipani-who was prepared for a defensive battle- accepted reluctantly the order to surrender.

But having on him the responsibility and the dishonor of surrender, during the retreat from the city committed suicide with poison. His family honored his old-aristocracy feelings about not accepting surrender without combat.

List of Italian Governors of Addis Ababa

Awards

Some of the Awards (and Medals) received by Agenore Frangipani were:

Grand'Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia

Grand'Ufficiale dell'Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro

Commendatore dell'Ordine militare di Savoia

Commendatore dell'Ordine coloniale della stella d'Italia

Medaglia d'oro al valor militare

Medaglia commemorativa della guerra italo-turca 1911–1912

Medaglia Commemorativa della Guerra di Spagna (1936–1939)

Medaglia commemorativa della Spedizione in Albania

Works

Agenore Frangipani was also a writer who created some books, appreciated also by historians like Angelo Del Boca^[2]

• L'evoluzione del concetto di espropriazione per pubblica utilità nel diritto civile italiano ^[3]
• L'equivoco abissino ^[4]
• La soluzione italiana dell'ultimo problema africano ^[5] (published after his death)

Notes

Bibliography

• Beltrami, Vanni. Italia d'oltremare. Storie dei territori italiani dalla conquista alla caduta. Edizioni Nuova Cultura. Roma, 2013 ISBN 978-88-6134-702-1
• Del Boca, Angelo. La nostra Africa. Neri Pozza Editore. Vicenza, 2003 ISBN 8854509892
• Goffredo Orlandi Contucci, A.O.I.- AFRICA ORIENTALE ITALIANA – La conquista dell'Impero nel ricordo del tenente Goffredo Orlandi Contucci – Edizioni MyLife, Monte Colombo/Coriano, 2009 ISBN 978-88-6285-100-8

See also

• East African Campaign (World War II)
• Scioa Governorate