Admiral

On 24th April 1889 Angelo IACHINO was born in Sanremo from Giuseppe and Emilia Piccione.

The figure of Admiral Angelo Iachino stands out as one of the most illustrious and controversial Italian military personalities of the Second World War. He fought in the Italian-Turkish war and then in the First World War, at the end of which he distinguished himself as commander of a torpedo boat. From the 1920's he made a rapid career that led him to the rank of admiral in 1936. From December 1940, with the rank of squadron admiral, he was in command of the Italian fleet. Since then and for the following two years he was the protagonist of the Italian naval war in the Mediterranean. Iachino left the command of the squadron in April 1943, replaced by Admiral Carlo Bergamini.

After the war, he left active service and dedicated himself to writing a memoir about his period of command in the war.
The son of a middle school teacher, he entered the Naval Academy of Livorno at the age of just 15. In his early twenties, he took part in the Libyan campaign with the rank of ensign. At the outbreak of the First World War, Iachino already had the rank of lieutenant. During the conflict he embarked on the battleship Giulio Cesare and from July 1917 he was in command of the torpedo boat 66 PN, with which he distinguished himself in various actions including the towing, on the night between 31 October and 1 November, of Paolucci and Rossetti's "limpet mine".

For these actions in the Upper Adriatic he was awarded the silver medal. In the period between the two wars he took part in numerous missions abroad, commanding, among other things, the river gunboat Ermanno Carlotto located in Tientsin in China and the cruiser Armando Diaz on a propaganda cruise abroad. He rapidly rose in rank, becoming first commander of the Naval Academy of Livorno, then, in 1940, obtaining the command of the Second Naval Squadron formed by the heavy cruisers, with which he took part in the battle of Capo Teulada on 27 November 1940.
On 9 December he was appointed commander in chief of the fleet in place of Inigo Campioni, and in this capacity he was the antagonist of the English admirals Andrew Cunningham, Philip Vian (who commanded the English Mediterranean fleet during the Second World War) and James Somerville (commander of Force H based in Gibraltar), leading the Italian fleet in the battles of Cape Matapan, first and second battle of the Sirte, Battle of Mid-June.

On 1 April 1943, he was replaced by Carlo Bergamini. In 1954, having reached the rank of Admiral of the Army, he left active service. He published some works (which soon became famous) on the events of the Second World War. In 1974 he donated the monument to the sailor to Taranto.

He died in Rome on 3rd December 1976.

(text taken from Wikipedia)