He came from Verona, worked as a pharmacist on Lake Garda, and said he felt like «an adopted son» of Belluno. Egidio Piacentini was never a member of the Salce Group, but he was its friend to his last day, and beyond.
On the Tofane and at the Bainsizza
In the Great War Piacentini was an officer of the Belluno battalion. He fought on the Tofane and at the Bainsizza, where on 26 August 1917 he earned a bronze medal for military valour, like his sergeant Silvio Dell’Eva. After Caporetto he knew the humiliation of an Austrian prison camp.
Recalled in 1940, he was captured by the Germans after 8 September 1943: he had sacrificed himself so that all his soldiers could escape from a military convalescent home. For the second time in his life, he endured captivity.
A pharmacist with an Alpine heart
A graduate in pharmacy, he practised in Malcesine on Lake Garda, where he lived until his death and where he founded the local Alpini Group. The Col Maòr remembers him as brave and witty, sometimes sharp in his judgements, often in satirical verse, but always cheerful, intelligent and shrewd.
He never forgot the men from Belluno he had fought with, above all the NCOs Primo De Min, Silvio Dell’Eva and Angelo Schiocchet. He was also a generous supporter of the Col Maòr, the Salce Group’s newsletter.
With the “White Feathers” at Conegliano, 1972
On 3 September 1972 Conegliano celebrated the centenary of the Alpine troops with the Triveneto rally. It was raining, but thousands of Alpini marched all the same along via Garibaldi up to the cathedral. The Conegliano Section’s own paper, «Fiamme Verdi» of December 1972, tells the story.
Among them was the small group of “White Feathers”, the senior officers. The first one named is Lieutenant Colonel Egidio Piacentini of Malcesine, “formerly of the Belluno battalion”. Two other veterans of the same battalion marched with him: the medical colonel Emilio Sartorelli of Udine and Colonel Momola of Conegliano.
The letter of 1976
On 30 June 1976 he wrote to Mario Dell’Eva, «dem», a letter to be opened after his death. He felt his strength failing and wanted to settle his affairs «to my own taste». At the bottom, a postscript: «I enclose a cheque for the Salce Group».
Of course I cannot forget Belluno, of which I feel like an adopted son, because I love not only the Alpini of the Belluno, but the city and the large part of its province that I have been able to visit.
Egidio Piacentini to Mario Dell’Eva, 30 June 1976
He died in hospital in Negrar, aged 86, after a delicate operation. In 1980 the Col Maòr published his letter and said goodbye: «Thank you, Egidio, for the friendship with which you honoured me and for remembering the “Col Maor” and the Salce Group». At the funeral, with «dem», were Benciolini from Verona, Forcellini from Mantua and De Menech from Belluno, who had fought beside him, and Arrigoni from Padua.
Do you have a photograph of Egidio Piacentini?
We do not yet have a portrait of Egidio Piacentini or a photo of his meetings with the Salce Alpini. If you have one, or one of his letters, write to us: every piece of information is checked before it is added.
Source: Col Maòr, no. 2/1980, article signed «dem».
