Greetings, I want to share with you part of my family history concerning my grandfather thanks to some old pictures I’ve found recently, I didn’t have a chance to speak with him (he died soon bedore my birth) so I can’t tell the specific unit he belonged to, here’s what I know.
At the end of 1937 Italy has just conquered Ethiopia and Mussolini offered large incentives to whoever was willing to colonize it, among those there was my grandfather.
He enlisted as a military engineer, a crucial job in a place with rough terrain and poor communications, the old Italian name for Ethiopia was Abissinia (land of the ravines), a fitting title indeed.
My grandfather was posted in the city of Gondar and from there he sent several pictures, most of them had this written on the back “Alla mia cara mammina” (to my dear mommy).
My Grandfather (right), behind him the Castle of Gondar
Road construction
Marketplace
Gondar was the last city in Italian East Africa to capitulate, after a long siege the Italian garrison surrendered to the British in November 1941, most of the surviving soldiers (including my grandfather) were sent to prison camps in Kenya.
Despite the dull life in that place the convicts tried to lighten up the mood, a local theatre company was estabilished, they lacked female actors for obvious reasons, they had to make due with what they had.
My grandfather was repatriated after the war, he decided that he had enough adventures and settled down in Tuscany to become a peaceful family man, a few years later my father was born.