Armando Diaz (5 December 1861 – 28 February 1928) was a Marshal of Italy who served in the Italo-Turkish War and World War I.
Biography[]
Armando Diaz was born on 5 December 1861 in Naples in southern Italy to a family of Spanish descent. Diaz joined the Military Academy of Turin, and he later assumed command of the Italian 93rd Infantry Regiment during the Italo-Turkish War of 1913 in Libya. Diaz commanded forces in northern Italy during World War I and replaced Italian commander Luigi Cadorna after the Italian defeat at the October 1917 Battle of Caporetto. Along the Piave River, Diaz was able to defeat an offensive by Austria-Hungary and won the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in the final days of the war in 1918. His decisive victory in Veneto forced the Austro-Hungarians to immediately sign an armistice. From 1922 to 1924, he served as War Minister in Prime Minister Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party government. Diaz died on 28 February 1928 in Rome, Italy at the age of 66, having been made a Marshal of Italy and made a duke.