Dashing, daring, brave, handsome, intelligent, charming, charismatic, flamboyant. These are words that are routinely used to describe Italo Balbo, Maresciallio dell’Aria Italia. He was a true aviation pioneer, when aviation was in its infancy. Seventy years ago, this week, he was cut down, in the prime of his career.
    Italo Balbo was born on June 5, 1896, in Ferrara, Italy, into a middle class family.  When the Great War began in 1914, Italy refused to abide by its treaty with Germany and Austria-Hungary and declared its neutrality. Balbo agitated for, and led demonstrations advocating entry into the War on the side of the Allies. He once led a group of students who confronted the police and said, “Either you declare war or we’ll run you out of office.” Finally, on May 24, 1915, King Victor Emanuel, III signed a Declaration of War against Italy’s former Allies, the German Reich and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Six months later, Balbo was drafted into the Army and sent to Officer Candidate School. 
    On April 28, 1917, he was assigned to the 8th Alpine Regiment as a Reserve Second Lieutenant. In mid-October he requested and received a transfer to the infant Italian Air Force. He left just before the Austro-German onslaught at Caporetto.  The disastrous defeat of the Italian Army at that battle undid his transfer.  He served the remainder of the war with his original unit, earning two silver medals for valor, and for participating in the great Italian victory at Vittorio Veneto which helped to knock the Austro-Hungarian Empire out of the war.  He was not discharged from the army until May 1920. During this time he completed his university studies, met, and began courting, his future wife. 
    After his discharge from the army, he drifted into the ranks of the Fascist Party.  He soon became a leader. By 1922, Balbo was a force in the Fascist Party of northern Italy. He was one of the organizers and leaders of the march on Rome in October 1922, which brought Mussolini to power.  On January 12, 1923, Mussolini dissolved the Fascist armed squads and created the Voluntary Militia for National Security under the command of General Emilio De Bono with Italo Balbo as one of his deputies. He was also a member of the Fascist Grand Council.
    On November 6, 1926, Balbo was appointed Under-Secretary in the Air Ministry. He became one of the most fervent promoters of aviation in Italy, finally earning his pilot’s license in the spring of 1927.
    An aviation pioneer, General Giulio Douhet was Balbo’s mentor. Up to this time, aviation had been publicized with the feats of individual pilots, such as Charles Lindbergh and Wiley Post. But Balbo sought to change that by organizing mass flights.
    His first major aerial cruise commenced on May 26th, 1928, from the Italian city of Orbetello. From there, a fleet of 61 Italian flying boats headed for Sardinia, then to the Valeric Islands, Spain, France, and back to Orbetello on June 2nd.  It was a great show and a triumph for Balbo. He was promoted to the rank of Reserve General of the Air Force and then called to active duty. He was now a General.
    Having cruised to the Western Mediterranean, Balbo now set out to cruise the Eastern Mediterranean. This time 35 aircraft left from Orbetello, going first to Taranto in Italy, then to Athens, Greece; then to Istanbul, Turkey; Varna, Bulgaria; and Odessa, U.S.S.R., before retracing their steps  home. These cruises brought prestige to Italy, the Fascists, Balbo and Italian aviation.
    The same year, Balbo first visited the United States, delivering a lecture on civil aviation, in Washington. He also visited Chicago, met Orville Wright in Dayton, and Henry Ford in Detroit. He inspected the fleet Air Force on the West Coast. By 1929, he had been raised to the Minister of Aviation, but he was not through with aviation exploits. The best was yet to come. 
    On December 17, 1930, Balbo led a squadron of 14 seaplanes from Orbetello, Italy to Los Alcazares, Spain. From there, the squadron hopscotched down the coast of Africa until it got to Bolama, south of Dakar. From there, the squadron flew across the South Atlantic to Porto Natal, in South America. From Porto Natal, the squadron flew first to Bahía, and then on to Río de Janeiro, where the squadron arrived at precisely 4:30 P.M. on January 15th, 1931.  “The expedition touched down, taxied to the anchoring buoys, and shut off the engines. The crews climbed out onto the wings of the aircraft and stood at attention.” Balbo and his compatriots were inundated with celebrations, salutes, festivities and parties. More than 2,000 congratulatory telegrams from Italy flooded into Balbo’s hotel room, with many more from the rest of the world. It seemed as if the only person who did not send a telegram to Balbo, was Benito Mussolini. When he returned to Italy, there was more of the same. He, of course, received a tumultuous welcome and received the Nation’s Gold Medal for military valor. However, the honors that he most coveted, the Marshal’s Baton and Ennoblement, he did not receive.
    He now took his place beside Lindbergh and the other giants of aviation, when the International Federation of Aviators awarded him its Gold Medal for the finest aeronautical undertaking of the year. He immediately began planning his next achievement. \On July 1, 1933, Italy’s new hero, Italo Balbo, led an armada of 75 Savoia Marchetti SM 55 X seaplanes from Orbetello, Italy, over the Alps, westward to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam, the Italian Armada flew to Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, and then to Reykjavik in Iceland.  From there, the Italians crossed the north Atlantic to Newfoundland, and then on to Montreal. On Saturday, July 14th, at about 5:45 P.M., crowds lining Lake Michigan, in Chicago, went wild with joy, as the Italian seaplanes arrived. The Mayor proclaimed Balbo Day and Seventh Street was renamed Balbo Avenue, which remains its name to this day. He was even inducted into the Sioux Tribe as “Chief Flying Eagle.” Mussolini later sent an obelisk to Chicago, which now sits in Grant Park, to commemorate the Italian achievement.
    On July 19th, the Italian Armada flew to New York where they were greeted by millions as they flew over Manhattan before landing at the Coney Island Sea-Plane Base. The next day, General Balbo had lunch at the White House with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Wiley Post.
    But back home, Mussolini was getting more and more jealous. Hoping to cut the expedition short, and hasten Balbo’s return to Italy before he achieved any more fame, Mussolini hinted, in his congratulatory telegram, of the coveted Baton upon Balbo’s return. On July 25th, the Italians flew from New York to Nova Scotia and then to Newfoundland. From there, the Armada crossed the North Atlantic to the Azores. From the Azores, the Italians flew to Lisbon. On August 12th, the expedition returned to Rome, where he was embraced by Mussolini who accompanied him on a triumphant march under the Arch of Constantine, and a triumphant motorcade to the Piazza Venezia and Piazza Colonna.  During the celebration, huge posters adorned the city, displaying Mussolini in an aviator’s costume, beside a squadron of planes. One wag said it was difficult to tell whether it was Balbo or Mussolini that had flown the Atlantic!
    But Balbo had not only been grandstanding during these years. He had been building an air force - the Regia Aeronautica. Size increased steadily as Balbo lobbied to increase it even more.
    On August 13, 1933, Balbo became the first and only Maresciallo dell’Aria of Italy. His euphoria was short-lived, for in November of that year, he was appointed Governor-General of Libya. At first he thought of refusing. Finally, his friends convinced him that he had no choice.  Reluctantly he accepted his banishment.  Upon his arrival in Tripoli, on January 15, 1934 he sent Mussolini a telegram that read, “I begin my new work with the cry ‘Viva Il Duce!’” 
    The new Air Marshal faced immense problems in governing Libya. There was no communication, other than water, between the two provinces, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. Before his administration ended with his death on July 1, 1940, a road along the north coast of Libya had been built which was named Via Balbia, in his honor.  Telephone communications were opened between the two sections of the Colony, as well as with Rome. Air travel linked Libya with Egypt, Italian East Africa, and Rome. 
    When Mussolini came to visit in 1937, the Governor-General laid on a huge spectacle for Il Duce. Among them was Mussolini’s grand entry into Tripoli. He entered the city on a horse, leading 2,000 Libyan horseman. “Two Libyans bearing huge papier-mâché fasces preceded him like lictors.” Mussolini had proclaimed himself the “Protector of Islam.” So, on March 18th, he was presented with a gleaming “Sword of Islam,” as a symbol of his role as “Protector of Islam.” Ironically, the Sword was the work of Florentine craftsman!
    The Governor-General pushed for Libya to be legally recognized as an extension of Italy. On January 9, 1939, the four coastal provinces, Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazi and Derna, were made a part of the Kingdom of Italy.  Balbo also wanted full citizenship to be extended to the Libyans. He was not as successful in this endeavor. They were only given qualified citizenship.
    Even though Balbo was in semi-exile in Libya, he still continued to infuriate Il Duce with his comments and attitude, and worry him with his popularity.  When, in 1939, Mussolini announced that he was going to support the German occupation of the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, Balbo publically accused him of, “...licking Germany’s boots.” And, Balbo openly defied Il Duce’s Aryan Manifesto which, although it did not go as far as the German racial laws, did make Jews second-class citizens in Italy. 
    Balbo had been one of the few Italian leaders to oppose the War in Ethiopia. He also opposed intervention in Spain. He knew that Italy was not prepared for war. In November of 1939, he predicted that the Germans would lose.  He said, “I’ll bet my head on it,” explaining, “You have to be an elementary school teacher and never have been to America not to understand these things.” 
    He didn’t just run his mouth in Libya. He confronted Mussolini directly.  He warned Il Duce that the soldiers didn’t have the stomach for it. They knew they were unprepared. He met with Il Duce again on May 31st,1940, and a final time on June 2nd. But, by now, all Mussolini could see was the Allies on the run and a German victory. He had already promised Hitler that Italy would come into the War on June 10, 1940, which it did. After these meetings with Mussolini, Balbo observed that, “The old man has gone crazy. I brought up the military cadres, materials that I need, and he tells me that he cannot delay his appointment with history!”  Balbo predicted that Italy would last six months. “As for the rest of you, there won’t be enough lamp posts in Piazza Venezia to hang you all.”  He described the military situation in Libya as “practically hopeless,” because it was caught between the British in Egypt and the French in Tunisia, “like a slice of ham in a sandwich.”
    Italy’s Air Marshal would not live to see his country in ruins, or its leaders hanging from the “...lamp posts in Piazza Venezia....”  Eighteen days after Mussolini took Italy into the War, its only Air Marshal took off from Derna, Libya, at 5:00 P.M., headed for Tobruk. The Tobruk air field was aware that he was en route.  However, the Naval Batteries in the harbor, were not. Coincidentally, at about 5:10 P.M., nine twin-engine Bristol Blenheims of the Royal Air Force attacked Tobruk. A few minutes after the end of the air raid, the Air Marshal appeared, coming in low.  Italian anti-aircraft gunners were convinced that the two planes were British Blenheims coming back for a second pass.  As the two planes descended, they ran into a hail of gunfire and land-based anti-aircraft batteries as well as naval batteries.  When Balbo’s plane crashed, a raucous cheer erupted from the anti-aircraft gunners. 
    Balbo’s remains lay in State at his office at the Governor’s Palace in Tripoli, for two days. On July 4th, he was buried outside Tripoli at the Monument of the Fallen. In 1970, after Omar Kadafi took power, the Libyan government threatened to disinter the Italian cemeteries in Tripoli.  Balbo’s family brought his remains back to Italy and he is now buried in Orbetello.
    The day after Balbo’s death, a lone British aircraft flew over Italian lines in Libya and dropped a box containing the following message, “The British Royal Air Force expresses its sympathy in the death of General Balbo - a leader and gallant aviator, personally known to me, whom fate has placed on the other side.  Signed, Arthur Longmore, Air Officer, Commander-In-Chief, British Royal Air Force, Middle East.”
    Marshal Rodolfo Graziani was appointed as Marshal Balbo’s successor. Marshal Graziani was unable to resist/ignore/disobey Mussolini’s exhortations/orders/pleas to attack the British in neighboring Egypt, even though Marshal Graziani knew, as did Marshal Balbo, that the soldiers were not properly equipped or trained to fight a modern war against a properly equipped force such as the British. If Marshal Balbo had lived, he might have had sufficient gravitas to resist the exhortations/orders/pleas of Il Duce and possibly avoid the disaster that followed.
    Recently, a movement has surfaced to rename Balbo Avenue, in Chicago, and to remove the obelisk from Grant Park.

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.