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| Carlo De Simone | |
|---|---|
| Name | Carlo De Simone |
| Birth date | 28 December 1885 |
| Birth place | Savona, Kingdom of Italy |
| Death date | 6 March 1961 |
| Death place | Rome, Italy |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Serviceyears | 1906–1943 |
| Battles | Italo-Turkish War; World War I; Second Italo-Ethiopian War; World War II |
Carlo De Simone was an Italian career officer and colonial administrator who served as a senior commander in the Royal Italian Army and as Governor of Eritrea during the late 1930s. He participated in Italian campaigns in North Africa and East Africa and later held commands during World War II. De Simone's tenure intersected with major figures and events of Fascist Italy's expansionist era and the subsequent Allied campaigns in the Mediterranean and African theaters.
Born in Savona in the Kingdom of Italy, De Simone attended military schools that prepared officers for service in the Regio Esercito and colonial assignments. He graduated from an Italian military academy alongside contemporaries from the Accademia Militare di Modena, the Scuola di Guerra and officers who later served under Benito Mussolini and within the Ministero della Guerra. His formative years placed him among peers who would command in the Italo-Turkish War veterans' generation, the cadre shaped by the legacy of the Triple Alliance era and the pre‑First World War Italian officer corps.
De Simone's early service included postings related to the Italo-Turkish War aftermath and frontline command during World War I when the Italian Front engaged forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Between wars he advanced through the ranks of the Regio Esercito and held staff positions tied to corps and army commands that interacted with institutions such as the Comando Supremo, the Ministero della Guerra, and colonial forces like the Milizia Coloniale. In the 1930s he served in commands connected to operations in Libya, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland, cooperating with officers who later became notable in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and in the Italian North African Campaign. By the mid-1930s he had attained the rank of general and was entrusted with divisions that reported to army groups under commanders associated with the Army Group West and the High Command of Italy.
Appointed Governor of Eritrea during the consolidation of Italian East Africa, De Simone succeeded predecessors who had overseen administration in the colony after its incorporation into Africa Orientale Italiana. His governorship involved coordination with the Commissariato and with metropolitan ministries such as the Ministero per l'Africa Italiana and the Ministero delle Colonie, as well as interaction with civil institutions in Asmara and port authorities in Massawa. De Simone's administration had to manage relations with local authorities, Italian settler organizations, and units of the Regio Esercito and the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale that maintained security and infrastructure projects that paralleled initiatives by contemporaneous colonial governors in Somalia and Libia.
During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, De Simone played a role coordinating operations that linked southern fronts and logistical lines between Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, and the main theater in Abyssinia. He worked in concert with field commanders and political leaders associated with the war effort, including figures in the Fascist Party and the Regia Aeronautica, and his units operated alongside divisions that advanced from areas near the Tigray Region toward objectives that included strategic towns and supply hubs. The campaign itself involved engagements with forces of the Ethiopian Empire and its imperial leadership, including the Arbegnoch resistance elements and the emperor Haile Selassie. De Simone's responsibilities encompassed coordination of troop movements, supply lines, and occupation duties comparable to contemporaries who managed garrisoning and pacification in occupied territories across Africa Orientale Italiana.
After Italy's defeat in World War II and the dissolution of the Fascist regime, De Simone retired from active service and returned to civilian life in Italy, residing in Rome until his death in 1961. His career is noted in studies of Italian colonial policy and military operations alongside other commanders from the interwar and wartime periods such as those who served in the North African Campaign, the East African Campaign, and the postwar Italian military debates within institutions like the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and historical commissions that examined the legacy of the Regio Esercito. De Simone's record remains a subject for researchers tracing connections among Italian colonial administration, military command structures, and the broader geopolitical shifts involving Britain, France, Ethiopia, and the United States in mid‑20th century African and Mediterranean history.
Category:1885 births Category:1961 deaths Category:Italian generals Category:Italian colonial governors