Alberto Da Zara
| Alberto Da Zara | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 8 April 1889 Padua |
| Died |
4 June 1951 (aged 62) Foggia |
| Allegiance |
 Kingdom of Italy
|
| Service/branch |
 Regia Marina
|
| Years of service | 1907-1946 |
| Rank | Ammiraglio di squadra |
Alberto Da Zara (8 April 1889 – 4 June 1951) was an Italian admiral of the Regia Marina.
Born at Padua, he joined the navy in 1907 and participated in the Italo-Turkish War and the First World War; during the latter, he commanded the small force that occupied the island of Pelagosa in the Adriatic Sea, and although the occupation ceased after a month due to several difficulties, he was promoted to Lieutenant.
In the inter-war years he first commanded a gunboat in the Dodecanese, and then the river gunboat Ermanno Carlotto on the Yangtze in the Far East, from 1922 to 1925. In 1933, promoted to Captain, he was slated to be the first commander of the modern cruiser Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta, commissioned two years later; from april 1937 he transferred on the cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli, which was assigned to the Far East til november 1938. On 2 January 1939 he was promoted to Rear Admiral, and from April he became commander of the maritime command in newly-occupied Albania.
On Italy's declaration of war (10 June 1940), Da Zara was assigned to command two cruisers of the 4th Division (the da Giussano and the da Barbiano), and in such capacity he fought, albeit in a very minor role, in the Battle of Punta Stilo. Afterwards, he was assigned to some minor commands, such as commander of the La Spezia Naval Base. On 5 March 1942 he took command of the 7th Naval Division (replacing Raffaele de Courten), made of the four light cruisers of the Montecuccoli and D'Aosta classes; on 15 June 1942, his command fought the Battle of Pantelleria, often considered one of the few squadron-sized Italian successes on the sea during the war. His division sailed again to contrast Operation Pedestal, but its sortie was aborted and had to return to port.
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