Enrico Pitassi Mannella

Enrico Pitassi Mannella (Cerignola, 31 May 1882 – Rome, 1948) was an Italian general during World War II. An artillery specialist, he was known among his colleagues as the "King of Artillerymen".

Biography

He was born in Cerignola, in the province of Foggia, in 1882, to Giuseppe Pitassi Mannella and Amalia Conti, the third of seventeen children. Also known as Errico, after primary school he attended classical studies in a Jesuit college in Mondragone, in the province of Caserta. At age nineteen, on 3 November 1901, he entered the Royal Military Academy of Artillery and Engineers in Turin, graduating with the rank of artillery second lieutenant, on 21 August 1904. He was promoted to lieutenant after attending the Application School in Turin, and was then assigned to the 24th Field Artillery Regiment; from 14 July 1910 he was assigned to the central artillery school in Nettuno.

He took part in the Italo-Turkish War, where he earned a Silver Medal of Military Valor. He participated in the First World War with the 1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, with the rank of captain and later major, being awarded three bronze medals of military valor for actions on Monte Cengio in May and September 1916 and on the heights near Monfalcone on 12 May 1917.

During the British offensive known as Operation Compass Mannella was given command of the defence of Tobruk; on 22 January 1941 he was captured in the British assault on the town, along with three other generals (Umberto Barberis, Vincenzo della Mura and Adolfo de Leone), Rear Admiral Massimiliano Vietina and over 20,000 of his men. He was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Yol, British India and remained in British captivity until after the war, being finally released in 1946. After returning to Italy, he was briefly president of the military court of Rome, and died in Rome in 1948.