Melchiade Gabba ( Milan, 20 August 1874 – Rome, 17 November 1952) was an Italian general during the Fascist period, who served as commander of the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops of

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

and Chief of Staff of the East Africa High Command during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. From 27 July 1943 to 24 February 1944 he was Minister of Italian Africa of the Badoglio I Cabinet. He was also a

Senator of the Kingdom of Italy The Senate of the Kingdom of Italy () was the upper house of the bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of Italy, officially created on 4 March 1848, acting as an evolution of the original Subalpine Senate. It was replaced on 1 January 1948 by the ...

from 1939 to 1944.

Biography

He was born in Milan on 20 August 1874, the son of Alberto Gabba and Giulia Sozzani, both belonging to the Milanese nobility.Daniel Pommier Vincelli, Andrea Carteny, ''La Repubblica democratica dell'Azerbaigian: i documenti militari italiani (1919-1920)'', p. 32 On October 15, 1892 he entered the Military College of Milan and then the Royal Academy of Artillery and Engineers of Turin, where he enrolled on August 8, 1895, graduating as artillery

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

. In 1905 he entered the Army War School. From 1911 to December 1915 he was in

as a staff officer, and then commander of the artillery of the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops. Having returned to Italy in the middle of the First World War, starting from May 1916, with the rank of

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

, he served on the Julian front in command of an artillery group of the XVIII Army Corps and later of the XX Army Corps. He was then Chief of Staff of the 13th Division, of the 57th Division, and Head of the Operations and General Affairs Office of the Chief of Staff of the Royal Italian Army, General Luigi Cadorna. He later held the role of Chief of Staff of the XXIX Army Corps, of the XIV Corps and Chief of Staff of the territorial military division of Chieti. For his role in the battle of Asiago (where he was wounded in June 1916) and in the battle of Mount Ortigara he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Savoy, and for that in the First Battle of the Piave the Officer's Cross of the same order. After the war, in 1919, he became a member of the Italian Geographic Society, perfecting himself in military cartography. After promotion to colonel, he was head of a military mission in Transcaucasia, and then held the position of director of the Royal political agency of the Kingdom of Italy in the republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia from February 28, 1920 to March 16, 1922. Upon returning to Italy he was in succession Chief of Staff of the

III Corps 3rd Corps, Third Corps, III Corps, or 3rd Army Corps may refer to: France * 3rd Army Corps (France) * III Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * III Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of th ...

of Milan, Chief of Operations Office at the Army General Staff, and Secretary of the Council of the Army (1921). In September 1921 he returned to Eritrea as commander of the local Royal Corps of Colonial Troops. Promoted to brigadier general in May 1926, in 1927 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the designated army command of Florence. In January 1931 he was promoted to major general, and became Commander of the 20th Infantry Division "Curtatone and Montanara". He then served as aide-de-camp to the

Prince of Piedmont The lordship of Piedmont, later the principality of Piedmont ( it, Piemonte), was originally an appanage of the Savoyard county and as such its lords were members of the Achaea branch of the House of Savoy. The title was inherited by the elder bra ...

from November 17, 1932 to May 25, 1934. In 1934 he enrolled in the National Fascist Party, and in November of the same year he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. From March 1935 he took part in the war in Ethiopia as Chief of Staff of the East Africa High Command, headed by General Emilio De Bono. On 25 March 1939 he was appointed Senator of the Kingdom of Italy on the proposal of the Minister of War, and became a member of the Senatorial Commission for Italian African Affairs (and its president from 1941) and of the Commission for the judgment of the High Court of Justice. In May 1940 he was promoted to army general, and two months later he retired from active service due to reaching age limits. On 27 July 1943 he was appointed Minister of Italian Africa by Pietro Badoglio (even though Italy had lost all of its African colonies by the spring of 1943), a position he held until 24 February 1944 when this ministry was taken on ad interim by Badoglio himself. In October 1944 he was dismissed from his post as Senator by the High Court for Sanctions against Fascism. He retired to private life after the establishment of the Italian Republic, and died in Rome on November 17, 1952.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabba, Melchiade 1874 births 1952 deaths Italian generals Italian fascists Italian military personnel of World War I Italian military personnel of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War Italian military personnel of World War II Government ministers of Italy Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy it:Melchiade Gabba de:Melchiade Gabba sl:Melchiade Gabba