Remembering a Veteran: Lt. Giordano Ottolini, 71st Infantry Regiment, Italian Army

Memorial to Lt Ottolini in Milan
(By Enrico Saroldi, 1923)

Giordano Ottolini (1893–1916), born in Milan, was a second lieutenant in the 71st Infantry Regiment and fought along the Italian Front until 1916 when he gave his life during close quarters combat in the Austro-Hungarian lines near Mte Pasubio. In 1915, before Italy entered the war, he had suffered a serious case of typhus which would have disqualified him from the army. However, he volunteered for service when war was declared and was accepted for officer cadet training.  He was later wounded during the Fourth Battle of the Isonzo and near Mte. Pasubio. For  his leadership and refusing to abandon his men in the second action, he was awarded Italy's Silver Medal for Valor.

Lt. Ottolini

Twenty days later on Mte. Spil, he was back with his men defending the line held by the 71st Infantry.  While leading an attack to eliminate an Austrian machine gun, he found himself surrounded, with his rifle broken, and grabbed a pick axe.  He fought his way out, killing an officer and scattering the other defenders. However, when he returned to his own line, he discovered the enemy machine gun was still firing. Ottolini then bandaged his own wound and volunteered to lead another attack to knock out the machine gun. This time, however, he was hit in the forehead by a bullet and died immediately.

Depiction of the Pick Axe Episode

For his sacrifice, he received the Medaglia d’Oro (Gold Medal for Valor), the highest honor in the Italian military.  The award reads:

With few men he rushed to the assault of an enemy machine gun close to his position. Remaining isolated and surrounded, he courageously defended himself, inflicting heavy losses to the enemy. Having been ordered by an enemy officer to surrender, he killed him with a blow of a pickaxe. As the fight was rekindled more fiercely, with his pickaxe blows left and right, he managed to escape the attackers and returned to his lines, passing through the enemy’s. Wounded, he healed himself and then returned to fight, immediately afterward being shot dead.