Giovanni Marciani

Giovanni Marciani (Mercato San Severino, 22 May 1886 – 1964) was an Italian general during World War II. Biography Early life and career Giovanni Marciani was born in 1886 in Mercato San Severino, in the province of Salerno, into a bourgeois family. In 1905 he entered the Royal Military Academy of Artillery and Engineers of Turin, graduating with the rank of artillery second lieutenant on September 5, 1907, and attended the Branch Application School before being promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the 24th Field Artillery Regiment, in Naples. In 1911 he was part of the expeditionary force in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War, in the ranks of the 2nd Special Field Artillery Regiment, participating in the battle of the Two Palms (for which he was awarded a Bronze Medal of Military Valor) and remaining in Libya until October 1912, when he returned to the 24th Field Artillery Regiment in Naples, as deputy adjutant of the regimental commander. After being promoted to captain in December 1914, in February 1915 he assumed the position of commander of the 2nd Battery of the 22nd Field Artillery Regiment in Palermo and, for almost a year, of interim command of the 1st Artillery Group. He then left for the front during the First World War, earning a War Cross of Military Valor for an action on during the Fourth Battle of the Isonzo. In August 1917 he was promoted to major for war merit and took command of the 1st Group of the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment of Pesaro; in August 1918 he was given command of the 4th 102 mm battery group of the 23rd Heavy Field Artillery Regiment.