1940 Death of Italo Balbo

July 5, 1940. Giornale Italie.Italo Balbo (5 June 1896 - 28 June 1940) was an Italian Blackshirt (Camicie Nere, or CCNN) leader, Marshal of the Air Force (Maresciallo dell'Aria), Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI), and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.At the time of the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940, Balbo was the Governor-General of Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI). He became responsible for planning an invasion of Egypt. After the surrender of France, Balbo was able to shift much of the men and material of the Italian Fifth Army on the Tunisian border to the Tenth Army on the Egyptian border. While he had expressed many legitimate concerns to Mussolini and to Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the Chief-of-Staff in Rome, Balbo still planned to invade Egypt in early July.On 28 June 1940, while landing on the Italian airfield of Tobruk a few minutes after a British air attack, Balbo was shot down by Italian gunners and killed. The cruiser San Giorgio started firing on his Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 airplane (bearing the civil registration "I-MANU" in honor of his wife, Donna Manu), followed by the airport's anti-air guns. It is still not clear which of them shot him down. The government in Rome maintained that the incident was an accident of friendly fire, but Balbo's closest friends and his family strongly believed that it was an assassination on Mussolini's orders. This idea was supported during Mussolini's next visit to Tobruk to review the Italian forces, during which he refused to visit Balbo's place of death. A 1997 interview with the gunner who shot him down claimed that Balbo's plane was simply identified as an enemy target, as Balbo was flying low and coming in against the sun after an attack by British Bristol Blenheims. But debate continues. Italo Balbo's remains were buried outside Tripoli on 4 July 1940.

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• Italo
• Balbo
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• Africa
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• 1940
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• Italy
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• Death

[nino71]

Italo Balbo was no faggot but a mervellous, modern, brave Italian respected by all. Surely one of the best Europeans of the XXth century.

[CaxiasFreguesia]

In 1930, Italo Balbo made his first transatlantic flight. He took off from Orbetello, Italy, on 17 December and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on January 15, 1931. Of the 14 aircraft Savoia-Marchetti S.55 eleven have completed the trip with three losses causing the death of its crew. The Brazilian government has acquired these aircraft in exchange for coffee. Balbo, a brave man, a pioneer and a hero.

[MastroCicio]

@finly42 you are a moron, please learn to read an stop watching the history channel :)

[caballero125h2o]

@finly42 Balbo was indeed a Fascist, no doubt on that, but everybody who has studied his life would NEVER say he was a racist. I suggest you to study, read books on this because what you are saying is completely wrong

bye

[LarryScottBB]

@toddgaines like your country in Vietnam

[finly42]

@finly42 most of italys forces respected him more at that time, which is why like stalin with trotsky, mussoline, 'susposedly' organised balbos beath with freindly fire. My point being, Mussolini demonstrated he was incapable as a military leader, was incapablke of leading anysort of an efficiant executive and a poor excuse if even to be considered a dictator, but more of an angry little man like good ol adolf, if balbo were in power i fear italtys pathetic role in the war could have posed a thr

[finly42]

@CaxiasFreguesia Ok i sort of see what your saying although balbo had no 'compromise' with fascism, he fully condoned the fundamentals of fascism and manifested it by force in italy by mustering the march on rome, he was heralded for mobalising the support and seizing executive power for mussolini. Much like trotsky and lenin. But like stalin and trotsky, mussoline susposedly positioned bilbo as an expoditionary marshall to eliminate the fear of him leading some sort of coup,

[CaxiasFreguesia]

@finly42 I do agree with you. Every public man has his "other side of the coin". It seems to me that you really imagine that I didn't have any idea of his compromise with Fascism, as Churchill commitments with high finance rappers, Roosevelt cumplicity with latin-american "coüps-d¨état and Kennedy with mafia ... Best regards.

[finly42]

@CaxiasFreguesia You mean "Balbo, a brave man, a pioneer but also a practicing fascist and outright racist" Well known for treating his north african hosts as 'inferior.'

[nellosaltutti]

@massimovolpe vero il quadriumvirato balbo grandi bottai ciano non voleva l'accordo con il porco teutonico con i baffetticontrari alle leggi razziali e altro sulla sua mortesicuramente ci fu un complotto magari organizzato da quell'uomo di m............ di starace io sono di destra, ma molto obbiettivo saluti

[evadidio]

His Excellence Italo balbo. Sua Eccellenza Italo Balbo.

[evadidio]

@nino71 Grazie.