Angelo Parona

Angelo Parona (23 April 1889 – 14 May 1977) was an Italian admiral during World War II.

Early life and career

Parona was born in Novara, Piedmont, on 23 April 1889, son of Emilio Parona and Elena Tarella. He entered the Naval Academy in Livorno in 1906 and graduated in 1910 with the rank of ensign. He participated in the Italo-Turkish War on board the armored cruiser Varese; when Italy entered World War I, Parona, by then a lieutenant, was assigned to the ironclad battleship . On 25 July 1940, after the fall of France, the Ministry of the Navy sanctioned the establishment of the Italian Atlantic Command and appointed Parona commander of the 21st Submarine Group, that would operate in the Atlantic. In August 1940 Parona, together with German Admiral Eberhard Weichold (the Kriegsmarine liaison officer in Italy), visited a number of ports on the Atlantic coast and chose Bordeaux as the basis for the Italian submarines. According to the official history of the Italian Navy, published in 1971, Parona instead had the list destroyed and, during the German occupation of Rome, co-operated with the Clandestine Military Front, a Resistance organization that included several high-ranking officers of the Italian armed forces.

After the liberation of Rome, Parona resumed active service and was appointed Commander of the Naval Department of the Ionian Sea (with headquarters in Taranto), a role that he held from 1944 to 1946. In 1945 he was promoted to admiral.

From 1948 to 1951 he was responsible for the permanent lighting of coasts and headlights. He was placed in the reserve in 1951. Parona died in Rome on 14 May 1977.

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