Armando Diaz

Marshal of Italy Armando Diaz, 1st Duke of the Victory, OSSA, OSML, OMS, OCI (5 December 1861 – 28 February 1928) was an Italian General and a Marshal of Italy.

Biography

Born in Naples to a father of distant Spanish heritage, and an Italian mother (Irene Cecconi), Diaz began his military career as a student at the Military Academy of Turin, where he became an artillery officer. He was a colonel commanding the 93rd infantry during the Italo-Turkish War, and major general in 1914. On the outbreak of World War I, he was assigned to the high command as head of the unit's operations under General Luigi Cadorna. He was promoted to 2-star general in June, 1916, and assumed the command of the 49th division and then the 23rd army corps.

The Battle of Caporetto, in October 1917, was disastrous to the army, and on November 8, 1917, he was called to succeed Cadorna as chief of general staff. Having recovered what remained of the army, he organized the resistance in 1917 on the Monte Grappa massif and along the Piave River, which successfully halted the Austrian offensive. In summer of 1918 he oversaw the victory in the Battle of the Piave River and later that year led the Italian troops in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, which ended the war on the Italian front. With his famous Bollettino della Vittoria (Victory Address) he communicated the rout of the Austrian army and victory of the Italians in the war.